Preparation for COVID resurgence anyone?

What’s the difference between stocking up and stockpiling? It seems to be that stocking up is for sensible people like us and stockpiling is what ‘fools’ do. Are we possibly a tad censorious, Gransnetters?

Living in the North of England, I have enjoyed the diversity of buying different foods, and can buy big bags of rice, lentils, chick peas, kidney beans, butter beans etc , and I used to buy onions by the sack, as I used so many. The spices which last can make delicious meals, and home made hummus and salad sandwiches are my go to snack. My point is that dried high protein foods like beans and pulses can be stored - remember our mothers during WW2 ?

For people without freezers, I have seen some prepared meals advertised which are vacuum packed and don't need freezer. Cant remember name, but I expect someone can give them a thumbs up or thumbs down.

Last winter we decided to buy a second freezer to avoid heavy weekly shops, so we were fortunate that we had stocked it up before the virus. We now have supermarket deliveries. I have noticed that we have not really missed some items that we thought essential previously, which are not stocked by the supermarket we normally order from.
We have managed very well and have no plans for buying anything extra, though it looks if the second peak is inevitable.

Posts like this one worry me. I never gave it a thought to stock up on anything, but after reading some of the posts i will be doing so in case we do have an issue further down the line. Is this the way stock piling begins????

Haha yes my family used to laugh at me 'buying in' for winter, but i had last laugh when loo rolls went out of stock (secretly i think my older AC do follow suit, as when i asked them back then they all reported having "enough for now" in loo rolls!) Sadly i cant stand taste of UHT or 'long- life' or powdered milk.

nothing .and no should you stock up .look what happened at beginning of virus .a lot of elderly and vunerable people were left with nothing.maybe a few more tins of food.. but dont go over the top.

We had been planning to go down to our caravan in March and had therefore made the usual assembly of tinned, dried and longlife items I take down at the start of the year to leave as the basics there. Lockdown happened before we got away so I left that stash as fallback supplies in case we had to self isolate, and I do the 1 out, 1 in method of buying anyway. However, now off down to the caravan next weekend as they're allowed to open, and taking my set aside store with me, so my fallback supply will need replacing! I should check the use by dates on it anyway as some probably needs using up soon.

Not if you're just sensible Travelsafar, its sensible to buy in what you'd normally use in say, over the winter, but NOT stock up so much you could open a shop!

Im going to stock up on canned pop as its (mostly) all my 17 year old drinks and his favourite foods/snacks..i had a lot in freezer(foods) but it broke down recently so i'd to throw it all out!New freezer so will get him a few faves in before xmas.Also easier to make xmas food as sons ended up trying to make it when i was very ill.Bless them.They didnt do too badly.?

It is the many unavailable items that is concerning me. At the moment I think we are buying what was produced before the lockdown. When that stock is used up there must be a wait before newly produced stock arrives in the shops, if it ever does. My DGS has coeliac disease and has to have gluten free and dairy free food. His life will be even more difficult if there is another bout of panic buying. Perhaps now we’ve experienced panic buying then it won’t happen again.

Well im still going to make sure ive got what we will need if i cant get out just not excessively so- as i remember how bad i was last xmas, &all over new year, and we struggled a bit so ill just add a couple of things to every usual shop.

Yes a few in our family are dairy& soya free, and im lactose intolerant.its hard to get them sometimes.

I've just warned my eldest son to make sure they've enough baby milk in for my brand new GD as i believe it was scarce in lockdown due to folk putting it in their tea?

I'm adding extra on shopping each week . Keeping the freezer well stocked and buying more non perishables . I'm not going to be caught out and I don't intend to get caught up in the panic buying like before .

No, I shall wait and see.

If we do start hearing of a resurgance I will buy cat food, coffee and olive oil, plus aspirin all of which are far cheaper on the German side of the border than they are here.

So glad to hear all these sensible comments gransnetters. I have a small stock of yeast, powdered milk and bleach. Carrying on otherwise just replenishing when needed.

Excellent idea Bluebellewould - once the Brexit shortages start kicking in next year they will come in handy for that too

It just occurred to me that as we have now begun to ditch the "Just In Time (JIT)" idea from the supply chain, maybe we, as Joe Public should do what companies and industry used to do until the 1980s. Most businesses had stores, manned and managed by storekeepers - I think it will make a come back - certainly after Brexit.

I have been bulk buying toilet rolls for years on the internet and replenished my supply just before lockdown. It's the one thing I cannot abide in my shopping trolley, mainly because of the room they take up. After lockdown was announced I'm so glad I did. The price shot up soon after.
Otherwise, I will just shop normally and take my chance with the rest of them.

What’s hard to understand about buying a few items extra each week to keep a good basic stock in and dashing off to the supermarkets and filling a trolley to overflowing in a panic.

Duh!

Yes Bluebellwould, no harm in gathering a safe store of essential medications and painkillers. Our crash out, no deal BREXIT will hit home in the middle of winter, and already there are pharma companies worried about supplies, and about having to negotiate the as yet undefined complexities of export/import restrictions.

No. I would not stockpile even if I thought we were about to get another wave & I don't.
I much prefer to stay positive than fret about oethingbthat may not happen.

Sorry 'something'.

I had taken to ordering toilet rolls on line well before Covid19, and had just taken a new consignment just before lockdown. I got some more just this week.