More people starting to prep

[aimee309]

Hi. Do you feel more people are starting to become aware and think about prepping? Ty

The people I know who even mention it say:

i) Government won't let it happen;

ii) I live in London/Liverpool/Manchester etc. and they'd never let major cities go short

Most people I know think the very notion of it is crazy. However there seems to be more talk on wider social media. Plus prepping threads here have the word “sensible” used much more than before when we were all “crazy” and “scared of zombies”.

I think they are. Just a bit. Hope so, anyway.
I don't discuss it with any in real life.

Most people I know think I'm bonkers for even suggesting supply chains might take a while to sort out. I lived in a country far far away once where it happened, supermarket shelves were empty and people queued for hours to get a loaf of bread. Worst thing was there were suddenly no matches because the phosphorus supplis dried up. That reminds me actually- must add multi pack of matches to next order.

I've done a couple of large online Tesco shops recently. They're doing a free one month delivery pass and its far easier for large orders and heavy items. Delivery drivers seem to think lots of people are starting to stock up.

Me and my husband were discussing this last night and he said him and his colleagues had been discussing it. So yes in our circle we are prepping.

Just posted this on one of the other threads but the BBC website is saying that a new website advising consumers and businesses what to do in the event of a no deal brexit is due to go live on Tuesday. I suspect at that point the rush to stock up will start...

Is that going live today cloudtree? Do you have a link please?

Next Tuesday I think.

Ah thanks cloud tree.

I thought the govt were supposed to be doing a leaflet for households as not everyone is online

Woman on the check out in Waitrose today looked at me incredulously when I mentioned problems with the supply chain and said if it happens she'd "deal with it." My mum's (racist) friend said it's rubbish and there won't be any issues. Thanks to mumsnet and me my elderly mum is listening and getting extra supplies in. She's cut off in bad weather so makes sense for her to have extra in at this time of year anyway.

I’m sure it won’t only be online. But the bbc article said Tuesday was the go live day for the website

DH is noticed things as he has suddenly realized that "prepping" is a thing, and that I do it!

(I've being doing it for almost a decade, in a somewhat thoughtful way, rather than just having food in cupboards - I just don't advertise it! ).

We shouldn't have serious disruption, I think, but we may have short term impacts as our supply chains may get disrupted. I have sufficient meds for myself (I need to get DD's again - but can't stockpile those).

But I have well stocked food cupboards at this time of year anyway.

I have my camping gas single ring at home (not in storage unit with the rest of my camping gear) and gas cannisters - again, always at this time of year.

In the big freeze of 2009/10 and 2010/11, we had major problems with water systems, serious pipe bursts and leakages, and water turned off by the local authority to deal with it. So I have a couple of bottles of Tesco Basics water since then (renewed periodically by dates), and also acquired both my own 10l water barrel for camping and have access to Scout barrels (there are something like 38 x 20l barrels in the Den, I would only take 1).

I keep the wood stores reasonably stocked in winter too. Access to candles, decent torches and spare batteries, battery operated radio, .....those kinds of preps.

But they are more for events of a natural type. Like floods, snow, power outages etc. And having some thinking done on what we would do if a, b or c happened.

Well, I've started now and I wasn't before.

That's the thing @BiddyPop . It's just a buzzword like "upcycle" or "hack" for something people do to a greater or lesser extent anyway.
However there's more material available for people to think about adding "preps" that maybe they didn't do before. Hopefully they do a mini cost benefit analysis or, should I say, ask themselves if it's worth it to do X Y or Z.
Hard not to get carried away by anxiety and "what ifs" but hopefully common sense comes into play.

I'm not normally a prepper.
But in the last big snow (2011) our local supermarkets ran out of milk, bread, flour, and other basics.
Police were called to a fight over milk in the local Tesco. (You know the store where you see at least 5 people you know every time you go in there, and know all the cashiers)

With that in mind, I thought there was no harm in getting in some basics early, because I can see there are likely to be short term brexit JIT problems.

If there are long term problems, we are probably screwed anyway. So I'm not bothering to prep for that.

I live in a part of the country where it's sensible to do this during the winter months anyway and as such I'm always prepared for at least a week of being cut off from civilisation in case of snow/ice etc. It happens nearly every year at some point so it's a normal pattern of shopping for me.

My stores are slightly larger this year (beans, tinned tomatoes, frozen veg and fish/meat, frozen milk, frozen butter) on the basis that I wanted to be ahead of everyone else panic buying and the prices going up.

I don't think it's a good habit we have got into relying on just in time deliveries. If anything good is to come out of Brexit I hope it's more respect from the public for food and food production as it's a resource we have been in the 'privileged' position of being able to abuse and waste for too long without dire consequences.

Post from a Facebook group I'm in

"Just had a sainsburys delivery...
Interesting Comment from the delivery driver ....
“it’s strange, people seem to be buying way more than usual at the moment, especially our bulk buys, big bags of pasta, and tins in particular”.....
He said it was a striking difference. He’s also an old school super polite previously retired gent... not the type to be nosy or say something out of turn, so I was surprised he mentioned it at all. Suggests to me that he’s REALLY noticed a change..."

I think more people are stocking up than will admit to it.

I think more people are stocking up than will admit to it.

Lets hope so. The more people who act responsibly like this the better it will be for everyone.

Don't think I've seen this on any of the recent threads - is there any wisdom in having extra cash at home? I absolutely hate having cash in the house (stems back to having my piggy bank smashed in a burglary when I was little!). I tend to do everything on card or online other than the cash we use to pay for sports clubs weekly. But I can foresee a scenario where everybody panics, draws all their savings out and then you can't get anything out of the cash machine, and there aren't that many in my small town. Or one where everyone tries to pay by card and the system goes into meltdown - my DH works in retail IT and frequently has to deal with system overloads during xmas and sale times.

So is it worth having a bit extra on hand, much as it sets my teeth on edge? Or should I just invest in vodka?

It's a tricky one. I'm also reluctant to hold much cash but think it's prudent to have a small amount in case the power goes out and you still need to buy something

I have cash. I have by no means withdrawn everything but we will have a few hundred or so in cash in readiness for B-Day.

I asked DH before Christmas if we should get a “few extra bits” just in case and he assured me it was all scaremongering. As a result of his scepticism Ive just started a secret stash in the upstairs cupboard. I’m now reading these threads to see what I need to get. We are on a tight budget so I’m restricted but got some money at Christmas so will use that.

I keep wondering about petrol. I haven’t actually heard anyone suggest that it will be in short supply but that causes absolute chaos almost immediately. We have refineries here but presumably a fair bit of the oil they’re refining is imported? (That last bit could be utter rubbish but I can’t help wondering).