What will you do to prepare for any future lockdown?

[AwkwardAsAllGetout]

I’m assuming that even when this one is eased, we’ll be locked down again at some point in the next year. I’m wondering what I can do to make that easier and avoid the inevitable second round of panic buying. I was well prepared for this one as I’ve been a long time reader of the prepper threads and could see what was coming, so I had plenty of nappies, toiletries, loo roll and groceries long before we needed them. What I hadn’t anticipated was how much I’d long for some decent outside play equipment for the dc, which seems sold out everywhere. I’d thought ahead to my 2 dcs birthdays in April, and had all presents bought and wrapped, and made sure I had enough for their birthday cakes and party teas. Can’t say the same for the two I’ve got coming up in summer! Will you be preparing early for Christmas? What things are you likely to keep in stock now? I totally underestimated how much my dc would eat with us all being at home all day, so while I have plenty of staples like pasta and flour, my teen could eat super noodles for every meal and the amount of biscuits they’ve eaten is unreal. I think I’m going to keep up our local veg delivery as I’ve been really impressed by that. I think the thing I’m struggling with is how to plan to keep them all occupied over a possible winter lockdown, the weather is gorgeous at the minute which has made the whole thing a lot easier.

I also had my booked car service take place a couple of weeks ago (booked mid March for mid April) although I cancelled the MOT bit as it has been extended by 6 months. I did consider the implications for this in discussion with the garage. They were a lot quieter than normal, and probably glad of the work.

Our local skip people are still doing skips.

Thread, elastic and fabric for my DTDs to sew (currently making face masks for our community)
Hair conditioner for my curly girls
Sweeteners- forgot to get any!
Printer ink
Tinned fruit and veg- we all like it and eat it regularly unlike everyone else prepping!
Cheese and butter
Quorn- can’t find for love nor money

been lucky so far in that the only thing that has broken is the clasp on a bracelet - it is still possible to buy and get delivered things like ovens, fridges, freezers etc if they go.

To be honest, haven't been too hard hit - I tend to be fairly stocked up as we live a few miles from town, have a big freezer and petrol isn't free (although it's a lot cheaper now!) so dont do frequent shop runs. But just lucky in that chimney sweep and boiler service aren't due for a couple of months; I always get the chimney swept in mid summer, the sweep says that's a great time for him as he's usually twiddling his thumbs then.

clothing/shoe purchase is once a year or so anyway as I find it so dull, and work from home so only need one smart outfit on standby. Like most people I really have plenty of clothes and I wear them to destruction. No kids to outgrow stuff.

thank goodness for the internet, that's what I say - endless supply of e-library books, family tree research, communication, banking etc etc!

Placemarking until I get a chance to read later!

I shall definitely stock up loo rolls. My husband has Crohn’s disease which affects his bowels and some days he can go to the loo six or seven times just in the morning. We usually keep about a dozen rolls in the house but I had to go round begging from neighbours thanks to the twats who’d emptied the shelves.

Defrost the freezer, get bits of household maintenance stuff in (decking stain, fence stain, compost), thinking ahead to winter, order my logs EARLY (I leave it until the last minute) and probably fill both log stores rather than one and see how it goes, make sure we've all been to the dentist and had eye tests, make sure son has pyjamas that fit him (it's all he's wearing really right now, they don't fit and have many holes in, but ordering more online feels like a needless burden on delivery drivers).

I tend to run a bit of a siege-mentality store cupboard over winter anyway, but the only staple I've struggled to get this time has been chopped toms, so I might get me a bit of a tommy pile going on. Everything else, we've been ok.

Campaign fervently against it. This period now is going to take FIFTY years to repay. I’ll be dead before that happens. I am fundamentally opposed to the log down as it contravenes civil liberty. Plus many top scientists disagree it is essential.

Interesting debate on this evening for and against.

The flour amused me the most. About a week after the lockdown, posts started to appear on local FB groups asking "So, how do I make bread then" by people who had stockpiled kilos of the stuff, with no idea what to do. Same with drinking water. Did they expect the water company to close down ? If they did, then bottled water would be the least of your concerns...

I will make sure I have more bread flour, plain flour, compost, seeds, birthday cards and set up more online accounts.

I will stay with the local businesses I’m relying on now, including the milkman.

I bet ppl are now regretting making their homes so open plan when ppl need their own space to do wfh, school, exercise etc 😆

I’m going to carry on supporting smaller local stores including milk delivery and my veg box delivery. (And local wine merchants, hehem)

We are going to save more money more regularly.

Thanks to the fantastic Brexit prep threads I had a decent size store cupboard but who knew my family would eat a massive jar of black olives in under a week?!?

Toiletries and medicines: I will definitely ensure I build up replacements for the ones we have used.

And I shall be shopping in charity shops for a while: there is going to be so much stuff!

I also used to go to the shops nearly every day as I drive past a couple of biggies. I've wasted a lot of money. I am now going to try and keep my shop to once a week with a possible mini top up. Restricting myself to once a week has also made me less wasteful and a better meal planner.

My daughter used to show people my store cupboard and laugh that Mum's prepared for Armageddon, because I've always bought a few extra non perishable goods each week and had a full larder, just in case of what I don't know, but just in case !! Now she can see the logic in it. We've bought a few fresh things but have not gone short of anything because I always had my store cupboard supplies !

@mylifestory no not at all. Makes me feel less hemmed in. We retreat to our bedrooms when we need solitary time.

Yawn at all the idiots who think preppers are panic buyers

🥱 yawn at all the panic buyers who call the,selves preppers

me too.l I buy a truckload when i see an offer or run out of something like toilet roll so that i dont have to buy everything every week. who's laughing now?!

I will consider taking time off work as it hasnt not been worth the risk to mine or my familys health or the abuse and threats I have received from the public because they do not understand the meaning of a) lockdown b) shopping for essentials c) social distancing or d) that we are still working to keep customers safe, control supply of stock so everyone can still eat, the public are quite content to put everyone's health at risk and then get arsey when they are told to follow the rules, Think the whole of the emergency services have been amazing and so have the retail colleagues who risk their health for verbal abuse, threats and haven't recieved a single thank you, would be interesting to see what would happen if all the supermarkets shut

I had prepped slowly throughout the end of 2019 for Brexit, so had a buffer of long-life food that we'd eat anyway. But I bought 'sensible' food, rather than anything fancy and underestimated how much I'd crave alcohol and biscuits as being nice comfort things to have in!

Sod the food & loo roll, I am moving my boyfriend in!

We never stockpiled and never ran out of stuff even though we were down to the last loo roll before we got some. I say go with the flow and it will be fine. FYI family of 4 (2 smallies) in a city.

I did a big shop near the end of february that meant I managed to avoid the whole empty shops and panic buying for the most part. I know in future I will always keep a multipack of loo roll unopened as it was almost non existent here for most of march and start of April.

If limits get removed from stores I will restock my freezer which is running low on meat. Meat will I suspect continue to be in short supply over here (USA) for a considerable time as meat processing plants are closed right now. I would like ideally to have 3 large packs of mince, . Of chicken, 6 of bacon and some pork loins frozen as my boys are practically carnivorous.

Right now frozen veg is limited to 4 per person per shopping trip which is ridiculous as we almost entirely rely on frozen veg, prepping fresh brocolli etc hurts my arthritis a lot. I am the only one shopping for a family of 5 and as 4 of us have asthma and 3 have no health insurance, I am trying to limit shopping to rvery 10 days minimum. So I guess if limits lift I will need to buy a lot of frozen peas and broccoli etc.

I haven't actually used any of the pasta or rice I bought in Feb yet. But I would buy more pasta sauces. My ideal situation is to have 1 month's worth of easy, nice meals and 1 month's worth of basic emergency type meals for if we run out and are quarantined. Right now I could probably only feed us 3 weeks on what is in the house. I would also make sure my prescriptions are all filled a few months ahead and probably get 4 bottles of spray cleaner as we are running low and it is hard to find. Oh, and drinks. Water is only just becoming available again in stores here. Americans are obsessed with bottled water and we rarely bother, but I've seen a few articles about the gasses required for waste water processing and fizzy drinks being low on stock, so I would get a few cases of water for in case our water supply did become unavailable.

I would restock medicine cabinet with a few more plasters, benadryl etc. Luckily paracetamol and ibuprofen sells in huge bottles over here so I have about 500 of those.

Drawing supplies, and some acrylic paints and brushes. I would like to paint a rock every day.

I am going to invent children (joking).

My work is very good and understanding to people struggling to juggle work and childcare, and very aware of who doesn’t have this additional burden and can therefore pick up the extra work. I do the 8am conference calls, and the 6pm conference calls.

I am exhausted and would love to watch frozen 2 some afternoon (this is totally tongue in cheek, I understand how tough it must be to juggle kids and work).

I think supermarkets could have limited the number of items people bought much sooner instead of just blaming customers for emptying the shelves they knew people were panic buying.
Buying for people who can't do there own shopping has been harder so I will keep family and my workplace stocked up.
I won't buy any extra pasta - it was my favourite food pre lockdown but now I can't face it. So I've took it to the food bank.
I'm going to cut back on shopping frequently like I did pre lockdown and with the money I save buy more for food banks .
I did buy some compost and a new garden bench before lockdown and extra art supplies for the grandkids.
I will keep on top of everything and not let it slip.
Also I do believe I had Covid-19 before Easter and i found PEPPERMINT TEA invaluable! I had never had it before but had been reading that caffeine is not good when you have any coronavirus or hayfever etc. I already swear by raspberry and echinacea tea for a cold so I had been buying these since january. But the peppermint tea was such a relief on my dry cough both breathing it in and drinking it.
One night I was particularly bad I drank 2 before bed and the relief it gave me from coughing was better than any cough medicine I've ever tried. I do get hayfever in june and july with asthma so I will be using it then too.
Also the vitamin effervescent drinks really pepped me up so will keep them stocked up.
I'm not saying these are miracle workers but they really worked for me. I'm never going to be without peppermint tea now.
I also bought a portal which has made me feel much less self conscious for video calls and you can have it on the side and sit and chat.
I think if we are on lockdown I would have a very low key Christmas and wait till we were out to have the festivities and exchange presents.
I think the last way I'm going to prepare is to cut back on spending every day keep shopping less so it remains a way of life then I won't have to get used to it again.

Extra laptop for homeschooling. Printer. I find it so much easier to read and highlight real pages on important or detailed documents. Some kind of exercise machine... Developing coronavirus belly. Hair cut before lockdown. Birthday cards and gifts for up and coming parties. Hug my mum and dad. That's it.