A question for the preppers

[Curious78]

A question for the preppers who have been on the ball - In light of the shortages on the shelf, are you continuing to prep ? At what point is 'enough is enough' ?

Toilet paper is an easy prep. It doesn't go out of date. You don't need to rotate it. It doesn't need storing carefully, so can just be shoved in the loft and forgotten about till needed. Buying in large packs is cheaper especially when you buy on offer. Anyone who preps, preps toilet paper.

Living in the back of beyond for many years I still am prepped even though now back in civilization. So do have plenty of stuff. I am not the cause of the shortages, never use hand gel just soap and water. I do however have lots of gloves so wear and wash when I go shopping.

Buying fresh now, normal shop and batch cooking for the freezer.
I just keep an eye on dates and switch around if necessary. I have dipped into my loo roll stash and sanitiser, but I bought them back in October.
I completely agree that preppers aren’t the panic-buyers, that’s one of the reasons I prep.

I hadn't prepped but have been building up reserves of items over the last two weeks. However, some things are totally sold out in all local shops.
I'm trying to have food for 2 weeks in, which I now have.
But I am in a situation where a friend with an immune disorder could get stuck for basics if things continue like this. And have elderly ILs who in turn are currently helping even more elderly (and immunosuppressed) relatives - so if none of them can get out we will hit some problems.
I do need cleaning products and toilet rolls but there are none. I have been to 6 shops to find the same scenario. Can't get any paracetamol either and wanted to slowly build up stock in case my friend runs out.

Not doing it now. This is when you use it and buy fresh. If things reappear on the shelves, I will restock. But while other people are struggling now we use.

Because contrary to popular opinion, prepping isn't selfish. I prep partly so that those that can't are helped when there is a crisis. I'd find it embarrassing to be in the food queue with people like the low income elderly.

I'm just doing a normal weekly shop now, although not buying any tins of anything

Except asdas own tinned meatball. But I have a small child with asd and it's one of the only things he will eat

RedRaccoons

Because if people can’t get to the shops for a while then their going to run out of loo roll, it’s not rocket science.

I see.

I suppose they're likely to.

I suppose I'd thought that if anyone couldn't get to the shops at all, food would be more of a necessity. And I could cut up and boil towels - in a truly survivalist scenario - for actual cleaning.

We are light preppers. We have two weeks’ worth of full meals for four (meat, carbs, veg, snacks, chocolate, milk, eggs etc), plus extra essentials (loo roll, sanitary products, soap, shampoo, deodorant, cleaning supplies etc). Beyond that we have at least one week’s worth, probably more like two if carefully rationed, of long life meals such as tinned soups, meats, beans, veg, pasta and sauces, part baked bread, cured meats, pancake mix, uht milk etc etc.

We are just maintaining by doing our usual weekly shop now, so not buying extra.

Yes, and you could cook rat-on-a-stick over a fire made from chopped up spare furniture whilst your family forages.
That scenario is another reason to prep. Including toilet rolls.

FourTeaFallOut

Toilet paper is an easy prep. It doesn't go out of date. You don't need to rotate it. It doesn't need storing carefully, so can just be shoved in the loft and forgotten about till needed. Buying in large packs is cheaper especially when you buy on offer. Anyone who preps, preps toilet paper.

This ^^ makes sense to me.

People take the piss out of preppers but we're now not the ones causing shortages so people should be thanking us!

Thank you.

People should be thanking us "preppers" Imagine if we hadnt prepared and were now joining the tons of folk "panic buying" pasta, toilet roll etc. I make it a point to always have amonths worth of everything on hand because you never know what life will throw at you and i dont want to rely on others to look after me. If that makes me crazy then im pretty sure i dont want to be sane any time soon.

AllPointsNorth

Yes, and you could cook rat-on-a-stick over a fire made from chopped up spare furniture whilst your family forages.
That scenario is another reason to prep. Including toilet rolls.

Fair enough.

I guess I felt ratty at being told something's "not rocket science" when I was asking in good faith.

If there really was to be a scenario when someone couldn't get out or somehow obtain goods from the shops, I'd have thought food was more necessary.

I wondered if there was a reason that toilet paper would be any harder to obtain than, say, rice. Even if one had to queue.

That's all.

I like my comforts. So I have food, toilet roll, toothpaste, shampoo and soap. I can cope with boring food (I survived the 70s as a vegetarian), but I like clean teeth, hair and bum.
One of the points of prepping is you actively think about what you choose to store, rather than randomly grabbing as much as you can.
So we know what we have and why.

I started prepping for Brexit last January and have continued. Very little has been bought that we don't normally eat. I'd been holding on to buy meat to freeze - did that this morning. We probably have at least 2 months food to not really notice the loss of anything apart from fresh vegetables or chocolate and the cats have about 4 months - priorities!

I will continue to purchase on rotation for as long as possible. Since my last shop, coincidentally, I've finished or am about to finish 3 bottles of handwash which I can replenish and would normally buy replacements but that's on hold till some stock comes back in. We use soap in the shower so we could probably survive for some months with the toiletries stashed.

As it happens, I think we may well end up bailing out DP's son and father who haven't prepped anything.

We are in the use it up phase.

Just thinking about prepping by planting on the windowsill.

Time to get the pots out and get started.

I've got lots of long live food & toiletries etc but have been buying a few packs of longer life bread products like wraps with a 2 month date, brioche rolls & crackers etc.

Also keeping my cat & dog food topped up.

My daughters are self isolating as my daughter is in the vulnerable group. Thankfully one of them can work from home and the other doesn’t have a huge income so not working won’t make too much of dent. They have enough food and essentials at theirs to last for two weeks so they will not need to leave their flat at all. My DH and I will have to keep our distance from them for the foreseeable future as he has been at work with someone who is now showing symptoms. So our light prepping was the right call to make at the time. It allows us a bit of a buffer. We will bring them supplies once in a while and hand over without contact.

you continuing to prep

No, it's the using stage and avoid shops as much as possible for those who need it.

I did do a grand tour for a single mum friend of mine who has a young baby and is struggling for formula, but I don't need.to buy for myself.

When things return to normality I'll restart stocking up again. Yanno, when the shops can cope.

I bought some fresh stuff last week. We have chickens for fresh eggs. We also have a large vegetable garden and fruit bushes/trees. We then have enough food and other supplies to last us a few months and so will not be joining the masses scrambling to buy what they need.

I have a LOT of loo roll because I do a large household products shop twice a year.

Just fresh stuff for us too. Leaving pasta/tp/tins to the panic buyers.
Started for brexit. The reason for toilet paper: it's always one of the first things to go when there is snow related panic buying. Currently, we're still getting supplies to the shops but imagine the same level of panic added to hold ups at ports etc. That's why we were doing it originally - and the looming coronavirus situation was clear to anyone of a preppers mindset I think.

gamerchick we will continue steady stockpiling when things settle down too.

I hope more people do now rather than go back to taking the piss out of people who do. I'm sure there might be with a bit luck.