When do I dig in to my stash??

[NickMyLipple]

Genuinely?

So for example, we can't get pasta easily. It is a staple in our house. I have several kg in my garage safely stored for an emergency.

My thoughts are that this will blow over and we can have potato/rice/other for a while instead of delving into the emergency food.

DP thinks that this is exactly why we have emergency food and we should just use it...

Who is right?!

(I have been a prepper for a long time, I'm not a panic-buyer and I think that actually if I drove round all the shops, I would actually find some pasta even if it was a branded one which was a bit more £)

I’m saving my stash (not several kg worth) for when we get ill. I’ve prepped meals and frozen them though. So we can eat a good diet even if too ill to cook. I don’t think food will run out.

I’d personally wait until you actually needed it if you had to self isolate

We’ve got a bit more pasta than normal etc and I’m not going to use it unless the shops literally run out everywhere or we have to self isolate

We are using ours and replacing when we can. For example, if youve run out of toilet paper, it’s silly going without if you have100 rolls in your garage. Use it, but use it wisely.

Don’t you dig in and replace ASAP?

Billywilliam
Perhaps you cannot read. Op is a prepper. She’s had this stash for months, maybe years. Or did shelves get emptied months or years ago?? She’s actually the organised one unlike panic buyers.

DP thinks that this is exactly why we have emergency food and we should just use it...

You don't have an emergency yet, so you shouldn't use it. Having built up an emergency store you should carry on doing your normal shopping until you can't, or can't substitute (i.e. the shelves are empty). Then you may be in an emergency situation.

Surely this is the very reason you’re stockpiling it for? The shelves are empty and you have several kg in your garage. Why run around shops buying more when you could use your stock and leave whatever’s left for people who can’t stockpile?

On all the preppers threads I’ve seen people saying that buying in bulk before panic starts means that they’re not adding to the panic buying. If you go out now and buy whatever’s left in the shops you can find then you’re adding to the problem.

@BillywilliamV I'm just going to ignore your comment, thanks though 😂

@Mummyoflittledragon we have always dug in and replaced, but I'm now curious as to what if we can't replace and I feel like we have dug in completely unnecessarily?

@filka - I'm with you here! No emergency yet, so we just carry on as normal and get what we can in the shops.

@mynameisjune I definitely don't want to add to the problem. By being as prepared as I am, it has meant so far I've just carried on as normal and I didn't need to buy toilet roll this week anyway as I buy every so often from Costco so even without our 'emergency' loo roll, we usually have a surplus in the airing cupboard.

The stash is the stash.
We went into pre-stash last Monday, which meant that we adjust our lives to visit a supermarket every day to buy food for that day/next couple of days. Which means we aren't buying stuff that other people may be needing for their stash. People without the freezer capacity will not be buying fresh pasta. Those cook in the bag roast chickens cannot be frozen, so will be useless for prepping. And my method allows you to maximise a healthy diet by buying whatever fruit and veg needs buying that day.
We take precautions before entering/leaving the shop and visit at non-peak times.
We won't use stash until our movements are restricted, for example if we are limited to one visit to the supermarket every 3 days and not all stuff is available for a decent meal. Or we have to self isolate totally.

@NickMyLipple we usually buy loo roll from Costco too, in fact we bulk buy lots of things from there anyway so consequently have loads of hand wash in as well. We’ve got enough stuff to last a month if we need it, at the minute I’m just carrying on shopping as normal but as we mainly only buy fresh stuff from the supermarket and make our own bread I don’t feel like we are adding to the problem because we aren’t buying any basics, we already have loads. We have enough to last 2-4 weeks if we had to isolate completely and more than enough if we were on lockdown and could only go out once every other day or something. Although I think the likelihood of that being instigated is low.

Actually had a practice run at this thought process. Once we went to Brexit transition rather than no deal For Now, we started dipping into our stash more and slowly adding to it based on our experience of what went well. Once the news out of China started, we picked up the pace of restock a it but , again, not panicking because the base of stuff was there.
For example, I hadn't bought cat food or litter for ages. We'd used up some tinned tomatoes. And, of course, bog roll. But I built it back up starting Dec/January because a) it's now my instinct and b) starting to get news about China's awful experience.
Funny you should mention pasta - we actually had a run on eating that from the stash.

Just start some thinking around what gets relied upon a lot in your stash and what alternatives you can work out from your stash to keep its use even.

@bellinisurge it is so interesting isn't it - I've been a prepper for years now, and I regularly rotate stuff etc so it doesn't go out of date and remains useful but I've never actually properly considered the logistics of dipping into our stash!

Difficult isn't it?

I think I would mostly cook other stuff if you can and maybe use a little bit. For me though that depends on the meltdown happening combined with my level of fatigue.

I think I would eat alternatives for the moment - there’s plenty of fresh food in the shops so fresh pasta, lots of veg etc so that if/when things get really dire in a few weeks you will still have a full stash to see you through

I also agree @BrieAndChilli . Keep boosting your immune system with fresh stuff but we all have a fall back to deploy at an hour's notice.

Chillimayo I like that idea- buying the fresh stuff that others don't want to buy at the moment, therefore keeping in reserve the stash.
I keep dipping into mine & having to top up.

I don't really feel like I am ever dipping into my stash so much as just stock rotating. I do known I have enough rice (which is the thing I burn though) to last us for a month or 2 though which helps.
In your case, I think I would tone down my use of pasta, maybe 3 times a week rather 5 say. But I wouldn't stop altogether because what I'd the point of having spare otherwise. If you can get replacement packs when you go to a shop then great, if not, oh well that's why we prep! Also, for the future, spaghetti takes up less room for the weight/number of meals than regular pasta if you want to expand your pasta stash going forward.