To ask if you have prepped for the second wave

[Oldbagface]

Have you been buying a few extras with each shop in anticipation?

I notice many items are already out of stock online.

What sort of things have you been putting away.

We have bought the odd extras with each shop e.g. tinned tomatoes, pasta, loo roll and baking powder.

We have loads of flour anyway as buy in bulk for our bread maker.

Oh, and chocolates for Christmas.

Oh yes, people phoning the police when Kfc ran out of chicken.

[quote Bercows]@JamieLeeCurtains that's another cupboard I need to sort through and make sure I'm using things in the right date order. I rely on several medications to keep me with a decent quality of life, able to breathe and not be in unmanageable pain. I think those without chronic conditions will never understand what it's like to have to rely on medication to have a life worth living where we are able to function for our dc. You've just reminded me it's time to order my repeat medication, thank you [/quote]
@Bercows, at the risk of sounding like a complete bore, I write on my packs and boxes on meds now with a marker pen, and keep them in transparent storage boxes.

E.g. 'OPEN, exp 12/20'. 'Exp 03/21'. Etc. In very big letters and numbers.

Then I order them in sub-sections in date order. Such fun

@JingsMahBucket and @Shitfuckoh - How many cheeses count as panic buying?

[quote MRex]**@JingsMahBucket* and @Shitfuckoh* - How many cheeses count as panic buying?[/quote]
Depends on how many you can eat without throwing any away
The black pepper is under the 5 signature barrels offer.
So 10 of those = 50. Is 50 panic buying? Surely not!

I would like to point out though, if I can't get any next time I need to place my order, I shall not be responsible for my actions.
Coffee & cheese is my life important to me!

Haha. I panic bought some, just in case, just the 5.

I learnt on MN Preppers that you can freeze cheese.

You can freeze butter too with no change to taste or texture. Cheese goes crumbly apparently so best to grate it first. I keep a few bags of grated in the freezer for pizzas and pastas. Would work for cheese toasties/cheese on toast too I guess.

We went to Costco last Saturday (planning to go anyway), and bought some toilet rolls, antibacterial spray etc. We would have brought it anyway, but perhaps because of the ‘rule of six’, purchased it slightly earlier than we would have done.

Yes and I use frozen cheese now for cheese sauce using long-life milk. I have grown the usual vast crop of courgettes so I make a kind of lasagne thing.

I don't freeze cheese but the last two packs I bought expire in December, 10 weeks away, so I could have half a dozen packs in the fridge without them going out of date.

Just back from Tesco. There’s no Heinz beans in the big tins, some sampler tins and a few BBQ ones and reduced sugar ones ... started already.

You can grate and freeze mozzarella too - great for pizza.

Try Iceland. Packs of Heinz beans £2.50 for four. They also had the Heinz 'meal' tins (beans & sausages and the likes) half price for single tins. Not seen them half price since before lockdown.

Nope, but we always have loads of tins and packets of pulses the house and I did an "Ocado bring me heavy/bulky non-perishable stuff" shop a fortnight ago. I also did a £30 flour mill order mid-lockdown so I have a good mix of bread flours for pizza/baguettes/loaves/cakes.

We had a "good for supplies" lockdown once the initial panic passed. Our touristy/Uni city emptied so I think I queued twice for our nearest supermarket. Our neighbour/whatsapp group is also good at loaning/sharing key ingredients/tools/jigsaws etc.

I don't envy those of you stood in trolley queue for hours because all the small shops closed down years ago when the hypermarket came to town.

I have fibromyalgia and need to keep supplies of painkillers so have been buying an additional packet of paracetamol and ibuprofen whenever I go shopping. Also bought a yoghurt maker and also now make my own soda bread, both new skills since last lockdown. We can live on yoghurt and bread! I dont have room to stockpile but have a few extra basics in what the kids call " the Apocalypse cupboard": pasta, rice, lentils, tins, tea, coffee, long life milk etc. Also matches, nightlights, LED lanterns, washing up liquid, first aid stuff.

@dementedma

I have fibromyalgia and need to keep supplies of painkillers so have been buying an additional packet of paracetamol and ibuprofen whenever I go shopping. Also bought a yoghurt maker and also now make my own soda bread, both new skills since last lockdown. We can live on yoghurt and bread! I dont have room to stockpile but have a few extra basics in what the kids call " the Apocalypse cupboard": pasta, rice, lentils, tins, tea, coffee, long life milk etc. Also matches, nightlights, LED lanterns, washing up liquid, first aid stuff.

Do you not have anything stronger prescribed, @dementedma?

I have strong ibuprofen, naproxen, celebrex, zapain. Don't go without proper pain relief. Especially not now, as we head into the unknown iykwim.

Only just diagnosed and awaiting referral to the pain clinic. Trying to get my head round it all and what it means for me and the future

Don’t mean to hijack but Dd has just been diagnosed with fibro. Is it worth asking the gp for a referral to pain clinic? Should she take pain killers every day or only when the pain is bad/not coping?

Just to say as someone with severe fibromyalgia. You need to be firm with your GP and explain how bad your pain is. Luckily or not I am on a few morphine based meds. It helps with the pain but doesn't remove it totally and doesn't help my poor mobility and other issues.

@JacobReesMogadishu

Don’t mean to hijack but Dd has just been diagnosed with fibro. Is it worth asking the gp for a referral to pain clinic? Should she take pain killers every day or only when the pain is bad/not coping?

You're not hijacking at all, these are vital things to prep for.

There are a number of routes into a pain clinic or chronic pain service, depending on where you live in the UK. The key thing is to keep asking for it.

Your GP can and should start the referral process. There can be long waits, so get on that train platform.

My referral was bonkers. It went GP > Rheumatologist > Physio > Sorry we're closed because covid.

Meanwhile I'd contacted Adult Social Care and it was an instant referral to Physio (who weren't closed) and a very helpful set of home visits.

Go figure.

Pesto pasta is one of my go-to weeknight meals. Pesto from a jar and I usually Chuck in some spinach, broccoli, peas and maybe mushrooms. I also have pasta salad for lunch sometimes, or put pasta in soup (like minestrone). Sausage pasta, pasta arrabiata, chilli and parsley linguine with salmon for DP (I am vegan so usually add meat/cheese for him to a vegan base), pasta amatriciana are also in my rotation. Spaghetti aglio olio e Peperoncino is a store cupboard meal which is also a legit Italian dish. The other day I quickly threw together spaghetti with sundried tomatoes, spinach, pine nuts and olives in about 15 minutes when I’d finished work late - mostly store cupboard stuff too. Or pasta puttanesca for which I would leave out the anchovies personally but you could add them if you like them.

That was a reply to @Bbq1 sorry!

@WinifredSanderson

No because I couldn't afford to first time round and I can't afford to now. Unfortunately when people do stockpile it tends to mean only the most expensive items are left, so many like myself on a tight budget have to decide what we can manage without.

Ah, this made me sad.

I definitely won't be stockpiling off the back of comments like this. It's so true and so unfair... I wish people would calm down

Thing is there's no prizes for being the morally superior shopper who doesn't buy any additional toilet paper and is left with a dirty backside

We didn’t really see the shortages that others seem to experience.
We seemed to time it right.
No crowds, no queues and no shortages.

Will do the same again. Certainly won’t be running out and stocking up on pasta and rice.

I presume that food shops will be open if there is a lockdown and I doubt we will be going into another 3 month stint.