Right let’s set this straight - the difference between prepping and panic buying

[BanKittenHeels]

I’m getting really bored of preppers being “called out” for causing shortages in response to the covid-19 pandemic, because we are exactly the opposite to those who are causing issues with supply lines.

I’m a general prepper, I prep for most eventualities that might take my family off the normal course of events. Be that snow, flooding, ill health, isolation, pandemic (this was my particular passion project because of my job), political upheaval, economic troubles, terrorist attack and natural disasters. My family have endured three of these and prepping helped us so incredibly much. I was in a natural disaster in America, whilst pregnant with my first DC and things turned really, really nasty, really, really quickly and I made a promise to myself to avoid a similar situation as best I could.

In general, when I do my weekly food shopping I buy 1-3 things extra that my family won’t consume that week. Sometimes if there is a special offer on multi packs of tuna, I’ll buy 4 (and I get not everyone can do that and when I had a lower income I bought one thing extra a week which cost 25p max) but we would probably use two that week. And thus, over many, many years I have built stores of useful items.

Buying this way means shops can adapt to my spending habits and buy in more to replace, easily.
This also takes me out of the scrum when something bad happens. Meaning I am out of line up for something people might desperately need. When there is snow, I don’t join the mad panic to clear the shelves of bread and milk.
I haven’t bought loo roll this year but I have donated some of my stocks to a food bank this week.

There is a huge difference between prepping slowly with thought and consideration to your forward needs and frenzied panic buying we have seen recently.

Prepping is about considered purchases in the long term but also gaining skills, gardening, making contacts, learning crafts and much more. It is NOT about running down to Tesco and buying 24 loo rolls because Jean at work said Asda had run out.

I truly wish everyone of you the best if faced with this virus but if there is something you can’t find on shelves, it is not the fault of preppers.

I think one thing we need , especially on here, is a thick skin.

I’m sick of being called “disgusting” for suggesting people write down their essential phone numbers on their fridge. FFS.

Agreed. Those who have stocked up slowly since Brexit started have probably eased the current panic buying. Is that a Brexit positive??

I don’t consider myself a prepper but we live very rurally therefore we always have stocks of most things in. We could easily survive for 6 weeks or so with what we have in the house at the moment. The current panic buying is awful.

How do you prep for a terror attack? Genuine question.

Being called fucking mental was a particular highlight.

The only useful corona thread I've seen so far

I prepped for Brexit (and now have about 6 weeks worth of stuff in the cupboards, probably up to 3 months of some stuff). It took me 6 months to build it up in 2018, then ate it down, then built it up again last year over months.

Opposite to being 'fucking mental' for doing it, I was LESS 'mental' for doing it. It was a proper win for my mental health. Felt much calmer.

@PrettyLittleLiar20 grab bag with vital paperwork in it. Water avability, easy food grab.
Paper maps in the car. Rough idea of which border we could head to (not UK based at this point) depending on what/where things were happening.
DH rarely drove with less than half a tank of petrol.

I dont have any of this in the UK. At the start of the summer, my cupboard were bare. Our prep level is low, as we have had approx 8 months to start from absolutely nothing.

How do you prep for a terror attack?

Now when I say a terror attack I don’t necessarily mean being caught up directly in the middle of something horrific myself.
But what I mean is being caught in London on the likes of 7/7 and needing to get the hell out of there without transport. So I always have spare change and essentials that I will need if I’m walking a considerable distance. I will also have some medical supplies (dressings, gloves, mask, CPR face shield, analgesics, scissors, tweezers etc.) for myself and also to tend to others (HCP), plus a list of my emergency contacts, my medications, medical conditions and allergies.

The people panic-buying around my area are definitely the people that go around saying 'Im not worried about this virus, the flu kills more people' to anyone who'll listen. Yet, over the past week, I have caught a few familiar faces red handed in Aldi and Tesco. Up until today, one of them was still considering traveling to an affected region in Italy. Very interesting behaviour.

I prepped for a no deal Brexit and still have plenty

Note: I don't blame older people for wanting to buy enough to stay at home for an extended period. It's a shame that many who have cleared the aisles are not likely to get a severe illness from the virus.