Has anyone here stocked up on extra food just incase?

[scarymary33]

I haven't gone crazy and just bought things we might need (a lady is in intensive care only a few mins away from our house)
3 packets of pasta
Pasta sauces
Beans /spaghetti
Tinned tuna
Noodles
Mug shots (desperate times )
Rice
Rice pudding
Soup
Long life milk
Anything else I could get ?
What have you bought ?

I can't bear UHT milk, have I left it too late to get myself a cow?

Yes I’ve added extra bits in my last 3 weeks’ shops. I normally strictly meal plan and buy just what we need so there’s never much ‘spare’ if that makes sense. But recently where I’ve bought pasta, I’ve added an extra bag, same with lentils, rice, tins etc. I have also filled up space in the freezer with frozen veg and made sure we have some basic staples (cheap porridge oats and UHT milk). I don’t feel like I’ve gone overboard, but I now have extra in the cupboards if we can’t go out and if we don’t need it in the short term then we’ll work our way through it anyway, it won’t go to waste. I’ve picked up an extra couple of packs of paracetamol and an extra bottle of calpol/brufen. When I shop this weekend I expect to do a normal shop with no extras because I think we have enough now.

I have an emergency store in the garage which is always topped up when we have to dig in or rotate along with a chest freezer full of frozen veg and odds and ends.
Always have things like UHT milk, flour, salt, yeast, powdered milk, tins of all varieties including some horrible tinned curry and tinned meals.
I've been left in a situation with no food before so perhaps I'm over prepared. Have built up my 'store' for months thought

Yes we have not ott tho.we have 5 kids and a baby to think about ,but i started few weeks ago before it got so crazy. Still lots of food in stores ive been in.

I live on my own - separate from dp. I kind of thought ‘what if I am unwell either with cv or suspected cv and can’t get out to shops or have dp delivery to door step etc for two weeks’. I’ve got enough food to see me through that. a few batch cooking sessions (fruit compotes to help porridge) plus tins and coffee, pasta, spices bottled lemon juice etc plus some toiletries and meds. All set aside - ie not being eaten day to day.

Again shops likely to be able to restock but our ability to get to them might be limited as might deliveries to homes.

I’ve checked our cupboards, and we’ve got enough non-perishables to last us for a fortnight provided that I replace things as we use them.

So at Tesco today - as far as non-perishables go - I bought 1 pack of pasta, pasta sauce, tinned fruit, crackers, crisps, biscuits and 1 soap to replace what we’d used up since the last shop.

Tesco now has signs up in certain areas saying customers could only buy 5 of these items each. I noticed signs around soaps, toilet paper, pasta, tinned veg and long life milks, there may have been some more that I didn’t see.

Incidentally, not really the point I know, but all the fresh food aisles looked to have normal amounts of food on them.

I’ve also offered help to three elderly slightly isolated neighbours. At the moment they’ve said they are fine. If they suddenly require stuff that’s in short supply I can see my own supply being dipped into also.

We stocked up end of Jan, when 6 of DH’s colleagues went into isolation after returning from China. Seeing how difficult it was for them to organise a rota for food deliveries, and knowing we don’t have a huge support network here, made us stock up the freezer and get a couple of extra packs of biscuits/sweets so that it’s not all beans and rice.

We’ve not touched that and have just been shopping normally since then.

Yeah, funny how there is all this fresh food available and people are stocking up on tinned ready meals when actually they could just as easily be cooking from scratch.

Most foods will last for a week or so in the fridge and months in the freezer. Other than ingredients needed for cooking there really is no need for all these tinned foods which people often don’t eat anyway and are full of preservatives and other shite.

It’s unlikely that most people will be stuck at home for so long that they can’t eat properly or that supermarkets are going to run out of fresher produce.

I always have tins of e.g. tomatoes and purée in the cupboard with pasta rice etc. But I imagine the fresh food that is going to go to waste because people are so busy buying up pot noodles is going to be astronomical.

@NurseJaques you can freeze semi skimmed milk apparently

I always freeze milk, do it all the time.

I’m having to take toilet rolls to work for my colleagues who (for some reason) didn’t plan ahead. I ordered hand sanitizer on line at the end of January when the news started filtering out. I don’t know why they didn’t think ahead of the supply issues perhaps because they didn’t anticipate that selfish arseholes would buy up all the stocks. It has nothing to do with supply issues and *everything to do with selfishness on the part of other people.

As for hand sanitiser, you do know that anything other than hospital grade is useless don’t you? And if you’ve been stock piling that then it is people like you who mean that my friend and others with genuine reasons to need hand sanitiser e.g. having to go to hospital regularly for dialysis etc either can’t get any or have to pay £150 for two bottles on amazon.

But hey, it’s all the fault of those who should have thought of being prepared eh? No responsibility on your part then? .

Nido full cream powdered milk. Off Amazon. They're a Nestle company, I think. If that matters to you at this point.

I have been prepared for months as I had a stock left from Brexit, so I haven't had to panic buy anything this week. If you're properly stockpiling I would say to buy stuff you actually like - will you be happy with tuna pasta bake every night for a week? Also I would get some treat items - jelly, chocolate, biscuits etc.

You can make porridge with water if need be, as long as you’re mixing e.g sugar or syrup with it it’s really not that bad.

Yes. We’re always pretty well stocked but I bought some extras like crackers, cheese, pittas, breakfast bars, part baked rolls etc plus I made a couple of different soups for the freezer on Saturday. Things that require little or no prep if one of us is ill. I’ve also got extra chocolate, crisps and biscuits hidden away as I figure if we do have to self isolate and get fed up, some treats might help everyone feel more cheerful!

Dh has promised to pick up a few bottles of wine this evening too. Just to be safe .

@AlternativePerspective it was obvious that demand would outstrip supply, as it does for any predicted snow, storm, Christmas etc. It’s just human nature in times of stress.

I ordered hand sanitizer and Clinell cleaning spray from a medical supply company 6 weeks ago. Again, it seemed like an obvious precaution seeing the news out of the Far East. Anyone could done the same.

The Boots near me has a delivery of hand sanitizer every morning at 7am. It’s sold out by 8:30am each day. It’s worth getting to know the staff and they’ll tell you. Again, I did this for my colleague, who despite knowing I’d ordered ages ago, yesterday got upset she couldn’t find any to buy. I got her 2 bottles this morning

Yeah like @bellinisurge I also already had a stash. People on mumsnet make out that we are weirdos but I'm a very normal 33year old woman who has a sensible stash of a weeks worth of food plus loo roll/shower gel etc above my kitchen cupboards. I did it over a few months in the run up to brexit and just left it there (after checking the use by dates). My family thought it was hilarious but then I received messages telling me they were having to stock up because people were panic buying...They asked if I still had my brexit stash! I'm pleased to say I do!

It’s not that I’m worried about shops being closed but if you are quarantined you won’t be able to go shopping. I was housebound with the flu during the ‘beast from the east’ and couldn’t even get shopping or takeaways delivered because of the snow so ever since then I’ve kept a stock of food just in case. I topped up a bit during the run up to Brexit and now have enough to keep me and DD well fed for about 4 weeks if needed. I’ve also got enough paracetamol and ibuprofen to take it regularly for 2 weeks just in case we do become ill

The time for prepping has gone, and those who were able and have done so responsibly are to be commended (and I'm not one of them, I haven't had the spare money for the last few months). Everyone else now needs to spare a thought for the elderly who can only carry a few items home on the bus, for those with dietary requirements such as allergies that need access to certain food products, for those in poverty who scrape by shopping for a meal or two at a time, for those with health conditions who can only get to the supermarket occasionally.

I absolutely agree with you. I noticed that only the expensive brands or expensive huge packs of loo roll were left and it did make me think how will people in poverty afford it? Sadly it won't happen. Panic buying by it's very nature is selfish and once people start they force other people into doing it too.

I have bought my son’s items which basically keep him alive. He has Aspergers and is adamant about what he will and will not eat. Beyond that, no.

Just to be clear, prepping is never about splashing loads of cash. It's about, if necessary, one extra and cheap tin of own brand veg or whatever at a time when you shop at Asda or Aldi or Lidl. Over a long period. Or having a look in the Indian foods section of a supermarket where they often have dried pulses. Or 3 for £1 on tinned pulses. Or cheap white rice - which is the best for long term storage. Again, over a long period of time.

I've bought extra but things we normally have in, some of the things I would have maybe bought next week or the week after but have got them just in case. Things like soup, tinned spaghetti, and sweetcorn. We have a fair bit of stuff in anyway as I had extra because of Brexit. I did have to buy 4kg of pasta (fusill) today when I only wanted a normal size bag but neither of the shops I went in had any.

The supermarket was very busy today though. It's my normal shopping day and I see pretty much the same people every week. There were lots of other people today, as well as the normal people I see.