Anyone Stockpiling?

I think it is a proven fact-the economy will get worse before it gets better. Usually happens after every presidential election.

Having said that I have chosen a few items and bought enough to last 6 months or more (it is just my husband & I at home now). I am lucky in that I have 2 spare bedrooms so I have utilized one of the closets to store things in.

Some examples are

toothpaste-bought it on sale and bought like 10 tubes of it so I can go probably 6 months without buying again

Q-tips-bought them on sales-bought 5 of the 300 boxes

deodorant-bought like 4 of mine and my husbands kind

soap-my hubby uses bars, I use body wash-both both on sale

laundry detergent-both on sale and have 10 bottles-will last the whole year probably

potty paper-bought on sale

paper towels-bought on sale

water-I always keep 2 cases of water at my house-this is more in case there is a tornado

batteries-bought them when they were on sale and stocked up on all sizes-different flashlights/cameras/games take different ones

vitamins-my husband takes a diabetic vitamin pack and a vision vitamin-so when those were on sale I bought them but remember to check the expiration date and use the oldest first.

dishwasher/washing detergent-bought on sale-can go probably 6 months without buying anymore

I am sure there are other items that I cannot think of right now.

remember it is easier to stock up on non perishable items. I started by choosing one item a week and buying that watching the sale items

As the economy worsens, more people will be laid off from their jobs, meaning it will take more man power to produce/deliver the goods we need which will drive the price up. But if we all act smart we will come out of the turmoil even stonger.

Ok off the soap box now!

I am not and haven't heard of anyone else doing it, but I'm very curious to hear responses. I do believe it is going to get pretty bad, but I'm not sure how bad.

Be careful not to get sucked into people's anxieties. The media feeds on our fears! Don't bury your head in the sand, but protect yourself by tuning out too much negativity.

That said, I would suggest you not go crazy but have a bit of extra water on hand and foods that don't need refrigeration. I keep a few things in a cabinet and change them out every 6 months to a year. I do it more for if there was a flood or tornado or something. Just to have something on hand. I don't think the world is coming to an end, but it could take a few days for emergency help to get to us if something big happened weather wise, etc...

One more thing. When you have young children the responsibility of protecting them is huge. I think young mom's worry more about these things because of that constant protection feeling being in gear. Just be smart. Keep enough in the house to help you relieve some of your anxiety, but don't go over board as my feeling is that the work involved to keep your "stockpile" up will only feed into your anxiety.

My husband and I always like to be prepared for minor issues. For example, during the big storms we had about a year or so ago, we went without power for 3 days. We went to stay with a relative until the power was back on, but had we been stuck at home (say, because of a bad ice storm), we would have had plenty of shelf-stable food to eat. We have a gas stove, but if, for whatever reason, the gas wasn't working, we have sterno camping burners to use. We keep lots of spare batteries of various sizes and we always know where a flashlight is if the power goes out. We each have an emergency kit backpack in a car, including emergency blanket, bottle of water, a power bar, basic first-aid stuff, coins for payphone, extra pair of walking shoes, a disposable camera (in case we're in an accident and want to take pictures at the scene), etc.

With that being said, we're not doing anything different than we already had been doing for years. We aren't "stockpiling" supplies. We just make sure we have a minimum amount of certain foods in the pantry at all times and we rotate through them and replenish as needed.

I haven't really heard of anyone who is stockpiling and I don't really see what the need for that is.