Are we actually stockpiling food following govt announcement??

[Mumoftwo8519]

DH and I have a 4 year old, 2 year old and a 9 month old baby. I feel like this govt announcement to stockpile food is just media scaremongering and I’ve ignored it up until now, but tonight after I put our children to bed and turned out their lights out and the house was pitch black I did think to myself, god what if this was actually it and we were put into a blackout.

Im worried about having food to feed my children, and the thought of them going hungry is starting to worry me, but I also cannot bring myself to believe something will actually happen??

is anyone else stockpiling? What kind of things are you getting? Are we actually going to eat cold beans from a tin?

my husband and I were talking about it tonight, and wondering what the govt are hiding?

On BBC News they reported increased sales of tinned goods and bottled water. Not that you ought to be stockpiling or reasons for doing so. Nothing is being "pushed".

We always have enough food in for a couple of weeks. Wouldn't be balanced meals eventually but we wouldn't starve. I'm not going to buy bottled water but plan to fill some from the tap (and refill every Sunday). Might plan to buy dog food and fill repeat prescriptions a bit earlier than usual but not going to have months' worth.

We've had a discussion about what what we already have, camping stove, gas bbq, log burner, so making sure We've got gas bottles and logs, which we would restock anyway, just usually once they've run out!

Reckon food wise ok, tins, bags of pasta, the usual cupboard stuff. Water is something we've never bought so getting some in.

So basically trying to cover ourselves but not out panic buying Guess it's always sensible to have these in, also torches, candles and battery lights.

Rather than scrambling about for this type of stuff, better to have it all kept somewhere. Common sense anyway for blackouts and now we've been advised, what's the harm of having a fee things ready?

It will be the usual ones who don't take the possibility of a situation seriously and they won't be able to post on SM to say help, why is this happening, someone else dig us out.

I think Im just a shopaholic tbh.

My fridge, freezers and cupboards are brimming - always.

Ive not done anything I dont already do.

I did spend the £2k cash I took out last year when this advice first kicked off though, so I need to replenish that....

It struck me the other day that it's all very well having a stocked freezer and tins etc but a lot of that isn't much use unless you have a back-up plan for cooking things. Whilst we have a gas hob that would work in a power cut assuming you have matches for the pilot light, if that doesn't work we'd be stumped. Then I remembered the BBQ so I have checked we have charcoal in stock. Not ideal but useful in a real emergency.
And I hadn't considered the car radio so thanks for that tip.

It must be horrible for those who only have the next meal in the cupboard. We always buy toilet paper every six months in bulk and it’s stored under the bed in the spare bedroom. Ditto bottled water. Always have 20 or so 2l bottles in the garage. Buy more as we use it. As for food, always have a few tins of tuns, corned beef, spam in cupboard. Ditto custard and some tinned fruit. We wouldn’t starve. Have a camping stove to make drinks or heat our beans.

Nope! And if I did need to just eat what we have for 3 days, we’d have chips and cereal. I could probably make a pasta sauce with what I have. I do probably need a few bits for just incase. A torch is something I don’t have. My husband has a head torch, I think. My daughter has a couple of small kid ones. I’d be more sad if my kindle ran out of charge.

I was not worried but TBH I can feel the worry creeping up. I always have water, candles, matches, batteries, torches, medication, loo rolls anyway. I have a couple of charging packs already but in a moment of panic bought a battery radio with torch ! Ashamed to say. For health reasons can’t eat pulses and beans but also thinking , if a power cut drags on - how do I cook / heat up etc.

@JayJayj How are you going to heat up chips in a power cut?

I'm in central London and we have bought some bottled water and I dug out the camping torch and batteries - so not really stockpiling but I thought if I know where the torch is - that's a good start!

Think of it this way, if there’s a storm like we had at the weekend and the power went off for a couple of days, would you have a way to keep your children warm and fed?

What would you eat if all the local takeaways and shops also had power cuts?

What would you do if there was a burst water main and you had no water until it was repaired. It could take a few days.

These are things that have happened in my area over the last 5 years.

Torch, batteries, bottled water, stock the first aid kit.

With dc your age OP I'd get in plenty of baby formula - ideally premade. It lasts and is full of supplements so it would keep them pretty nourished for a time. That and tinned peaches for some fibre and vitamin c! Milk and peaches isn't the worst diet.

We always have surplus food in the house. Would easily last a week or more. I refuse to buy out of fear.

It’s normal for us with 8-10 power cuts a year and similar number of water outages that go on for entire days sometimes. It’s annoying but you get used to it and it isn’t that scary (obviously depends on the reason behind the cut though and how vulnerable you are).
To keep the house warm a wood burning stove or fire is the key.

Most people don’t have wood burning stoves or fires in their house. We rely on central heating and I can’t see the government encouraging installing wood burners.

Rural locations, we rely on an archaic local pumping station which regularly fails. Water goes off several times a year and can take a day to get fixed. It’s annoying and a price of living in beautiful countryside.

I’m assuming they’re crisps not chips.

True, I wonder if more might consider it now though. It’s a must if you rely on delivered oil or gas.

🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼 you get a job really soon, it's a very, very tough market out there! Don't lose hope, just keep applying for everything, you'll beat the odds! 💐

Absolutely this!

We had a power cut in my area at the weekend and there was no mobile signal at all. No landline either as it’s Digital Voice so completely cut off.

We had to walk a mile up the road to get a signal to report the power cut and to check the power cut map to see what was happening.

If there was an emergency situation goodness knows what would happen.

Oh FFS!!!! 🙄

Most of the mobile network - just some key sites - doesn’t have back up power which is a disgrace but it will take another major outage for the government to pressure the comms companies to sort that out

Why would it be ‘media scaremongering’ when they’re just printing verbatim what the government have said? The government who is aware of far more private or secret information than us?

No need to panic, just follow the instructions. We’ve spent years decrying the government for being unprepared. Now they’re trying to do it everyone is crying ‘scaremongering’. They can’t win.

We’ve slowly collected a few torches, spare batteries, about 15L drinking water, a power bank, surgical dettol and dressings, painkillers, hand gel, medications, tinned food and we will be keeping some cash in as well.

I don't think it's impossible than we may face some times when we'd be grateful for a cold tin of beans to eat. Tins last a long time. If you can afford to set some self-stable foods and other necessities aside for an emergency, where's the harm? You may never need it and it won't be enough for every possible scenario, but at least you'll know you tried to be prepared. I sleep better at night when I know I've done what I can.

I've bought extra cat food and water. I don't think anyone should panic but it is sensible to have stuff just in case. No one is saying buy so much yore sitting on tins in the bath. I've got no hot water or heating for a week. That's kind of bothering me more atm.