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?

We aren’t really worried (always been a bit of a whatever happens will happen type of people) however the government announcement has actually made me think it’s probably very sensible to have a back up of non-perishable food generally & baby formula. Just in case of blackouts or even financial emergencies so I’m going to gradually build up a stock of things that would last a week or so. We also have a child with a medical condition so planning to make sure r we have a good supply of his medication ect.

The plan is those that can help themselves do, so that those that can't can get the support they need as the authorities won't be looking after everyone.

Grew up during the 70's - strikes, blackouts, layoffs. Have always stockpiled. Especially toilet rolls 😁👍

Not stockpiling because definitely have three days food, more like three months if you count those tins that no one really wants to eat lingering at the back of the cupboard. I am going to check if the torches need new batteries though. Would be seriously miffed if I smugly pulled them out of the cupboard only to find they didn't work.

Yes most insurance policies cover freezer content loss the exact amount varies policy to policy it's generally between £300-£500 total though. Your best checking your policies 🙂

As long as you don't open the freezer in power cuts then most freezers will keep food still frozen for 48 hours without effecting it. Any longer and you have a big bbq party!

'Foreign invasion' happening every day on the South coast - government doesn't care, Russia/Iran is not going to 'invade', former doesn't want to, latter already doing so via 'small boats' and mosques, 'natural disaster', caused by crazy net zero policies, 'disruption' to food supply chains, likewise caused by ridiculous policies. OP just buy stuff your family eats that's on special offer, we also have chacoal in garage and a barbeque so in essence everything can be 'cooked' heated up. I think the government is just really taking the p and is enjoying scaring everyone, especially with the 'war in a 1,000 days' if that's true, f it, just enjoy the next 3 years to the best of your ability, sorry OP, our current government is cruel as well as inept.

Thanks for the information

No I have 3 almost the same ages as you but we’re generally okay equipped as
we go camping so we already have a gas stove/torches etc in the garage. Also we have a log burner so if it came to it we could cook food/boil kettles with that and sleep in the room that’s in. We definitely have enough food in the cupboards/freezer to last a lot more than 3 days as long as we can cook most of it. I have a lot of candles.

I think the only thing we could do with is bottled water and maybe a radio! We have a water butt outside but the two eldest have figured out how to open it so I don’t think there’s much water left in it 🤣

Stockpiling tin foil for a supply of hats?

The government have suggested you have 3 days worth of tinned goods that you can eat cold

I have got camping stove in the attic and will move this to the garage. As this gives me a way of heating up tinned food. I shall, over the weeks buy a tin or two of meals you can heat up easily and put aside. I shall make sure I have enough food for my ndn as he is 93 and lives alone. 6 tins of ready to heat meals a couple of tins of sardines and pilchards - which I generally keeping anyway and some cat litter and nappy bags ( no water means no flushing) I have plenty of bike lights - a camping light, candles and some battery operated fairy lights

stick in a box a few essentials like the lights and camping stove and tins will be in the cupboards anyway leave to one side in garage.

its likely that weather will get worse and preparation isn't going to hurt for power cuts

water butt will be great for flushing the loo

Many insurance policies do not cover acts of war or weather

War maybe but weather nope this depends on the policy and company.

Storm Arwen our home insurance covered the freezer contents and the damage to the house caused by the storms.

You do realise that the water that comes out of your tap travels through plastic pipes.

I do prep a fair bit. I started when Brexit was looming and it was helpful when Covid hit for various reasons.

I have a couple of large plastic boxes in the garage with battery operated lights, batteries, candles, lighters and matches, baby wipes, hand gel in one, and the other a camping stove, gas bottles, battery operated radio. I've got about 35 litres of bottled water out there and then in the cupboard under the stairs I have a stash of tinned and dried foods - probably about a weeks worth.

I also have an Amazon wishlist of things I'd like to add to my stash.

I'm not fixated or particularly pessimistic but I like to be prepared and I have an elderly parent round the carer who may need help so it's worth it for peace of mind.

I always try and have food for a few weeks ideally 3 months . Makes me feel less anxious to know if some thing was to happen I don’t have to worry . This can be anything from being ill to loose a job etc . So I have a massive pantry full pasta rice , pulses , canned fruit , tuna , long life milk
, cereals wtc plus a full freezer or meat and fish . We have chickens so eggs all year .
We also have camping cookers , a generator and flashlight power banks etc .
Im not doomsday preper by any means but with 4 kids I like to be prepared

This is exactly it. Extremely intelligent analysis. What can we do about it?

I have two teenagers, and a 20 year old. There is always enough food in this house to feed an army. No wind up radio though. I think we'll cope.

Hello Nige is that you?

we had no water for 4-5 days last winter and had to do daily trips to get bottled water. Luckily we had water butts and being winter they were full so we could flush the toilet etc.

so yes, I will and have been stockpiling water and extra food. Our infrastructure has been sold off, it isn’t owned by the government, so we are at a higher risk if things go wrong.

This is exactly how people should be approaching it. We're just not entirely as we can see even from this thread. Lots of people just won't be bothered to make sure they can be self-sufficient for a few days. & expect others to be there for them when they end up within the next extended Powercut or loss of water

I've got 48 litres of water (on rotation because our water comes direct from the local swimming pool), 6 boxes of uht milk, 2 boxes cornflakes, about 20 tins of baked beans, 6 tins rice pudding, 6 tins custard, 6 tins coconut milk, about 15 bars of cheap chocolate, about 6kg oats, loads of rice, loads of pasta, 4 packets corn cakes, 4 packets rice noodles, a few tins of tuna and chicken, 2 weeks worth of mackerel for our dog. 100 AA batteries and I'm using them in fairy lights, which I plan to get more of so they're dual purpose because I want them anyway.

I don't usually eat that many carbs but they're cheap and I don't suppose I'll be bothered in the event of a nuclear apocalypse:)

Big estate in Bishop’s Stortford (Herts) was without running water for a long time during summer heatwave, and water company was only supplying bottled water to those listed as vulnerable. Wider area affected intermittently too. We've had water cut off several times in the last few years and when something like this happens local supermarkets etc quickly run low on bottled water - I always keep a few bottles in the house now in case! https://www.bishopsstortfordindependent.co.uk/news/a-plaster-over-a-gaping-wound-stortford-fields-residents-9473768/

Most of that was doable because you had electricity tho?

So if you have no water supply, what do you plan to do? Dig a well?

Anyone like you who gets the analysis isn’t the problem. I have no idea how we fight against the influence of social media and the way masses of people will latch on to ludicrously stupid right wing beliefs as they do in Trump’s America.

Adversaries used to “think outside the box” by killing the pilot who knew how to fly the plane rather than just destroying the plane itself.
it now seems like they’re doing the same sort of thing on a wider scale….. i.e. let’s weaken the thing a country most needs in wartime: a population of people who are willing to work together with all citizens, and listen to instructions for the good of the country.

i honestly have no idea. The PM could denounce all the right-wing nonsense and try to educate the population but many are so far right and so stupid that they won’t understand and they will refuse to listen simply because it’s a left leaning party in power . I am not sure if that the message would be taken the right way.

perhaps the only way is for all leaders to send the same message. But Farage et al will manipulate it. He will quite happily receive money to promote anything thats bad for the country (Brexit). He can’t be trusted to deliver the message for the right reasons.