Buying in bulk / stockpiling ....is it really worth it?

luxor4t

You've persuaded me - I'd let the tin cupboard run down so it isn't double stacked, I'll sort it this weekend.
It gives me a nice warn glow to see it fuller!

lostinrates

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Evidently you have never been unfortunate enough to have lost your job at any time lostinrates or you would understand why I, like many others keep a good stock of goods. It is a scary thing to find out that you don't have enough food in the cupboards to feed your family in times of hardship. Both my DH and I have been made redundant 8 times in 15 years and I now find myself disabled and can't find work, and the way this government is going I could lose my DLA as well. So forgive me if I would rather be prudent, and at least if the SHTF we won't have to fight everyone in the shops, we will be ready.

I am not sure why your reply seems so hostile? I am not saying peoe should not keep food in the house, and be prudent infact, i say you should, but i do think buying livestock is an overreaction. How do you feed them when you are on your uppers? (fwiw i keep chickens and other livestock)

I too, btw, have been too ill to work and only now after some years not able to work, and still not fit for employment, have become part tume self employed with a small business. I have been made redundant only once in my life, and i appreciate it feels daunting. Luckily i found work again, though it was very hard....its harder to get jobs when you have a disability, i know that too. I never applied for any support...i was lucky enough to have a partner to pay for me...though at the time he was a full time student, and we felt it was wrong when we could provide for ourselves, a position many people cannot choose. However, that does not mean it was financially easy. It was not, and being totally self provident is an added stress, one perhaps in retrospect we were foolish rather than honourable to take.

Perhaps you would re read the first post i made where i say it is wise to store stuff, but not to live in fear and desperation, yet. You and i are in agreement it is sensible to be prudent, but i do not think it is productive or healthy to live in constant anticipation of world disaster.....the paranoia could be as bad for the health of children if everything is ok as the food shortage in case of things not being is.

LavenderBees

dandy-candy wrote: »

This is what worries me. When there was that petrol scare a month or so back, all the petrol stations in the north of London sold out within 2 days. I fortunately didn't need any, but it took 4 days more before they got a delivery in. Petrol I can live without, food is different!
I'm sure if there was a food/water shortage it would go straight on Twitter and everywhere would sell out overnight - that happened with salt a couple of icy winters back. People really do panic here (don't know about other areas) and if you don't run with the crowd you get left behind - very scary!

Hiya

In my view, there's a big difference between panic buying and gently stockpiling to help you out in times of need ...as we all saw, the panic buying of fuel led to shortages (and there wasn''t even any need, for gawd's sake! :mad:).

Thinking in advance of what you feel you need to keep the anxiety at bay, and feed yourself/family should you not have access to money for any reason for a while, is a totally different thing.

Many of us in the countryside, I'm sure, stockpile throughout the year anyway, in case of bad weather catching us out ...I personally don't feel my job is secure, so put aside as much as I can to offset potentially losing my job...

As I say, I personally don't think there is any need for panic. As Lostinrates says in an earlier post, the world is no different today than yesterday. I think I only realised a couple of years ago, just how shaky a foundation we'd all been building our lives on. The shaky foundation has always been there, it's just we're all so much more aware of it now

Anyway, my advice would be to think through what would cause you hardship in the short term, and plan how you can avoid that. Then get acting on the plan, to make you feel less anxious.

The sky isn't falling in, but dark storm clouds are up there

LB xx

DundeeDoll

I dont have the news on anymore. You may think this rather ostrich behaviour but i find them such windup merchants about things i can do nothing about. My FIL became a slave to radio news, hoarded, was miserable. However as many of you have already said prudency is good. So i have over the years kept my skill set up to date, gained new skills and qualifications. When interest rates went through the roof in the 80s we had no savings. Since then i have very slowly built up savings to cover 6 months unemployment. Indeed it was when i realised i was eating into these savings monthly that i became serious about OS. We now live within our means again. I am much more savvy on my food storage to ensure rotation. I still have areas i'd like to improve on and it does worry me sometimes we work at the same place on shortish contracts (OH 3years, my income guaranteed till jan 2013) But know for me worrying is destructive so i need to put in actions, investing in my future employability on the one hand and further cutting mycloth on the other.

Butterfly_Brain

Sorry if my post came over as hostile lostinrates, it wasn't meant as a personal attack .
We have been thinking about getting chickens for over a year and I have been reading up on their husbandry, just to make sure I know what is involved before I get them.
But when you have had it hard, you try not to get into the situation that you once found yourself in. Stock for 3 months is a good idea for anyone, because if you have to apply for benefits, it takes a while before the money filters through and if you are lucky enough to find another job you have to work for at least a month and sometimes six weeks before you get paid. So I would advise putting away enough money to pay the mortgage or rent and 3 months worth of food and sundries, that should be enough to see you through the worst. We choose to try to have enough for six months at least because there are very few jobs out there especially for those over 50 and as we have 10 years before we retire, we want a little security blanket. Luckily DH is working and we have nearly paid off the mortgage so we are a lot luckier than some.

lostinrates

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Sorry if my post came over as hostile lostinrates, it wasn't meant as a personal attack .
We have been thinking about getting chickens for over a year and I have been reading up on their husbandry, just to make sure I know what is involved before I get them.
But when you have had it hard, you try not to get into the situation that you once found yourself in. Stock for 3 months is a good idea for anyone, because if you have to apply for benefits, it takes a while before the money filters through and if you are lucky enough to find another job you have to work for at least a month and sometimes six weeks before you get paid. So I would advise putting away enough money to pay the mortgage or rent and 3 months worth of food and sundries, that should be enough to see you through the worst. We choose to try to have enough for six months at least because there are very few jobs out there especially for those over 50 and as we have 10 years before we retire, we want a little security blanket. Luckily DH is working and we have nearly paid off the mortgage so we are a lot luckier than some.

Chickens are fun to have, but unless having to small scale farm or as pets then at the current state of play i believe it is more cost effective to find someone to gate purchase eggs from. I sell for a pound a half dozen, and have anything from a couple of dozen to sixtyish birds at a time ( i breed some rare breed birds and some hybrids and take ex batts). If i were breeding this year ( i am not as we are building and i expect electricity problems) we would go over a hundred for a while. These sorts of numbers can sometimes generate a profit...more on bird sales than eggs. When we had half a dozen it was rare to 'profit'

[Deleted User]

I have probably enough food in my cupboards and f/freezer to live fairly well for around three months at least and frugally for about 6 months but then I was brought up to always have a storecupboard.Tomorrow I shall shop for the first time in 7 days as I have been fiscal fasting for a week and its great when you decide that going to the shops daily is a habit not a nesessity. I shall probably spend just under £20.00 which should more than take me to the end of the month before I have to go again. Its mostly bread/fresh milk and vegatables that I need to buy, plus a few odds and ends to help me use up what I have.I am a pensioner so my pension is paid into my bank every four weeks Fingers crossed that there isn't a run on the banks I find it unlikely to be honest but any cash I do have is spread over several banks and building societys anyway.I only keep in cash what I have in my food purse for the month and at the moment its just over £52 so its more than enough to buy what I need.I know people are worried about the state of the economy but I am hoping that common sense will prevail and there will be no panicking in the market place

Pink.

Hi dandy-candy,

As your thread has now dropped down the board I've added it to our existing stockpiling thread.

Pink

Popperwell

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Evidently you have never been unfortunate enough to have lost your job at any time lostinrates or you would understand why I, like many others keep a good stock of goods. It is a scary thing to find out that you don't have enough food in the cupboards to feed your family in times of hardship. Both my DH and I have been made redundant 8 times in 15 years and I now find myself disabled and can't find work, and the way this government is going I could lose my DLA as well. So forgive me if I would rather be prudent, and at least if the SHTF we won't have to fight everyone in the shops, we will be ready.

I find myself in this situation as said elsewhere, Mum passed away four weeks ago. We pooled our money so we survived but now I am already £150 a week worse off. After funeral costs if/when I come into Mum's money from her estate(I could lose what I am entitled to)because it has to go to probate.

The worry is that I will be paying full rent, most of my community charge, utility bills and having to buy food. When that happens I save to save bills to prove what I am spending it on(its not going to last long)

And under the new changes coming in, there is no guarantee that I will be entitled to state help again when the money reduces. The criteria they judge you by will become harder.

If I delay probate I will continue to receive help for the foreseeable future and I understand that can be done on the grounds that you are waiting to see if anyone unknown makes a claim on Mum's estate.

If I do it myself it might cost me approx £200 and I have more of Mum's savings which will have to be used for all of the above.

If the Solicitor takes out what he is quoting approx £3,000 that may just take me under the threshold and I may still be entitled to some help. Not much but some...But already some the advice I have been given is questionable so I will take that up with the CAB on Tuesday...

But even without all of the above I worry that my DLA may be taken away so with the really small amount of money of my own and before it is added to Mum's savings, I too have purchased some essential things that I hope will last me years into the future and I too have filled my cupboards with as much food(and household goods)as possible(and the same with the fridge freezer)

I hope that I can stay within the dates on the food and just top up as and when needed. I am looking for every bargain I can find and trying to eat on a budget. I portion food so it makes more than one meal and am trying to avoid putting the oven on to save on energy or try cook a few things at once or eat a lot of cold meals, cereals and milk, sandwiches etc...Use microwave and halogen ovens that cook quicker and hopefully use less power.

I even fill flasks with hot water to avoid boiling the kettle all the time for hot drinks and switch off everything I can. I am wearing thermal underwear, jumpers(from a charity shop where all garments are 99p)pyjama's, lounge wear trousers, a dressing gown, thermal socks. Use hot water bottles...

Its a horrible way to live...having to try and grieve for a loved one but having to face all this uncertainty and worry on top of everything else. I still get DLA for now but it is always hanging over your head that it will stop.

So I can understand you making a food storehouse(I have 15 litres of UHT semi skimmed milk)in the house already not counting canned items like baked beans, soup etc....

To avoid waste and it is just like fresh milk when opened as I never know if I can use all the fresh milk when I buy it. Having a food store helps avoid some extra trips to the supermarket though I still probably have to buy bread.

In my case with mobility being bad I have to use a taxi especially when trying to carry what I have purchased home or sometimes I can save money that is then used towards the shopping or gives me a little extra in case of emergencies. Or may allow me to leave the heating on a little longer.

Popperwell

gailey wrote: »

I want to start stockpiling but dont have as much room in kitchen as I need as it it really struggle.
I do have large freezedr which I like to fill with reduced bargains.
been looking on ebay for pantry type cubboard that would fit in hall.

need to fix printer and get couponing.

thinking if was ruthless with airing cupboard could clear shelf for non foods.

love the stockpiles on extreme couponing they like mini shops.

I would advise peoiple to stockpile lomhg life value items as they keep rising by 10p a week!

That's my problem but as I no longer use the dinning room and I had to put a fridge freezer in there(wish my freezer was larger)the tumble drier is in there too its become a kind of utility room.

So I am going to organise it better and use it as a store room for food and household goods...and try and get some proper storage boxes. I will have my cupboards in the kitchen full of canned stuff, meat, soup, baked beans etc...and keep an eye on sell by dates.

I will look for bargains and value goods for the fridge and when we have the new Aldi trading(it will take 18 months for it to be in business)I'll try and save money buying in there.