s/o Covid prepping

[Violet Crown]

My Lenten resolution to stay off the internet has already fallen victim to the Coronavirus, so here goes.

In the Coronavirus Megathread, there's some talk about supplies. So, what supplies should one get? Not get? What's already out of stock or rationed in your area? Has the CDC said anything specific? 

The Crown family caved and made a prepper shopping trip: dried beans, rice, pasta, powdered milk, canned fruit & vegs, peanut butter and mixed nuts, salt, sugar, flour, oil, potatoes, onions & apples, chili powder & comino (essential). These are all things we eat anyway, the Crowns being mostly vegetarian (I got some cans of tuna for myself).  Multivitamins and iron supplements.

Extra canned and dry cat food we got last week when it looked like there might be shortages because of panic buying: the rest of us are able to eat unfamiliar foods without throwing up on the carpet.

Toilet paper, paper towels, kleenex, tampons, batteries, liquid hand soap and detergent, dishwasher tabs, laundry tabs. Not in hoarder amounts, just extras of things it would be annoying to run out of.

Illness supplies: extra strength Tylenol, Immodium, Pedialyte, cough syrup, Sudafed (actually store brands for all of these). These are things we should have had on hand already but didn't.

We ordered a fingertip pulse oximeter on the advice of an actual prepper, as one of the Crowns has a history of fighting for breath when she gets a respiratory virus (she's the reason everyone gets a flu shot the first week they come out).

We didn't get water, alcohol, or wipes, though I see those are now all rationed at our HEB. I honestly couldn't think of a great reason to get them when we have bleach solution and cloths and paper towels; and I couldn't think of a scenario requiring water hoarding. When our city went nuts last year in the Great Water Panic, we just boiled our water for a week.

Now please tell me why this was all misguided. :) 

[madteaparty]

I’m stocking things I normally use: citrus, garlic, bones for broth. I have half a beef in the freezer and pantry full of beans just as part of life. I don’t normally use Clorox but caved and bought a 3 pack yesterday... that’s the most drastic change in my behavior 😂

[MEmama]

Looks nearly identical to my recent prepper shopping trips. Nothing unusual for us (except a single bottle of isopropyl alcohol I can’t imagine having a use for), just extras of what we already eat and use and, as you said, items that would be annoying to run out of when it’s inconvenient. 
 

So I say Prepping Well Done! 🙂

[madteaparty]

Eta that I have a year old packet of dried elderberries. Worth making into syrup or?

 

[maize]

Mostly just buying more of what we regularly use; I also got a pulse oximeter as a much better way than temperature to gauge whether medical care is needed or not where respiratory illness is concerned.

[cjzimmer1]

I didn't buy much in the way of meds because we seldom use them.  I do have a bottle of ibuprophen around but that's about all we use.  I did focus on my "sick" foods.  I bough an extra case of ginger ale (we prefer Schwepps which only comes in 12 packs so I have 24 - well 23 now, I have a kid with the stomach flu).  Extra freezie pops (they can be stored in the closet until needed), extra popcicles, lots of apple juice.  I have tons of buillion cubs since Costco doesn't carry them in bulk I stocked up before my Sam's membership expired last month.  I also have a few boxes of the instant soup mix that we use when I'm sick or too time crunched to make homemade soup. I can my own applesauce so we are good there.  I'll probably grab an extra box of soda crackers. And strawberry jello. 

I didn't buy water either.  I did buy wipes but that's because of the kid with stomach flu.  I started the younger kids on Vit D and Vit C (the adult child living here refused to take them) and have a good supply of other vitamins on hand.  I topped up my other household supplies but not much more than normal (but normal for me is buying 2 of the giant Costco packages of TP at a time  or 6 tubes of toothpaste so some might few mine as extreme).

Edited March 4, 2020 by cjzimmer1

[Violet Crown]

11 minutes ago, MEmama said:

a single bottle of isopropyl alcohol I can’t imagine having a use for

Actually I should totally buy some extra alcohol because Middle Girl uses it all for her art projects. Though I'm still not clear what it's for in the Coronacrisis.

[Rachel]

Normally I tend to only buy exactly what I need from the grocery store. If I’m having a soup that requires beans and there are already beans in the pantry, I don’t buy more. I don’t tend to buy cleaning supplies or toilet paper until we are getting near the end. We do have a freezer full of beef, a couple turkeys, and some venison. 
 

This week I went ahead and bought everything I needed whether we had it already or not. I bought some extra frozen vegetables just in case trucks are limited to our area and we can’t get produce. I also bought extra flour, sugar, and yeast. That comes from many years ago working in a grocery store during a blizzard when the interstate was shut down for 3 days. The shelves were bare and we didn’t even have supplies to sell so people could make bread themselves. Not that my family eats tons of bread, but the ingredients are versatile.  For now I will probably adjust my shopping habits slightly just so we can handle a couple weeks without trucks arriving at our grocery store. 
 

I didn’t see anything completely gone on the shelves yesterday other than the big jugs of Tide. I heard the nearby town was limiting quantities of certain cleaning supplies but didn’t see it personally. 
 

I will also probably be refilling meds as soon I am able instead of a day or two before I run out. My husband really does need his blood pressure meds, he can miss a couple days without feeling bad but not much more than that. 

[prairiewindmomma]

We are using isopropyl alcohol to clean our cell phones and the laptop dh has to bring home from work. (And, given that we live somewhere with community spread, a couple of dh's coworkers are already in quarantine, etc. we are pretty sure he is having some degree of exposure somewhere.)

I also cannot call a virus that is killing 10x-20x (depending on the country statistics you are looking at) more people than influenza "not really that much more dangerous".  If you have the privilege of being young and in good health, God bless and keep you, but for some of us this is a pretty dang serious thing.  In any event, pray you don't have any sort of "normal" emergency when this all hits the ER, because......let's assume that only 30% of the population gets this (low estimate) and of that 30% only 10% need hospital care (again, ridiculously low estimate).....figure that out for your local population and compare that to the number of open hospital beds and realize that this is a big problem. I am not an anxious or panicky person, but if I can sit down with what math I have and chart out when this is likely to hit locally and what that may look like.....the math is not good.

I don't think we're going to lose water or electricity. I think we may have 20% of the working force out of commission at peak influenza, and I think we are already experiencing some supply chain disruption (which we will continue to have as India and other producers shut down some of their exports to maintain local supply of antibiotics, generics, etc.). 

Skip the water, buy the alcohol, and get either extra paper towels or disinfecting wipes is my advice, fwiw. Plan to be sick and get whatever supplies you'll need to get through a few weeks of not feeling like you want to get out to the store.  I won't lay odds on local quarantines--which I think will be voluntary--but I do think we'll see people encouraged to work from home and some rolling school closures.

[marbel]

This sounds like our list. My husband is at Costco right now, and I wish I had gone because I'm spending so much time texting back and forth. We don't generally use disinfectant wipes but he was going to buy some, because if we get sick they are just  much quicker to use than rags and cleaning solutions.

He also bought extra coffee and bacon. In case we are stuck home sick and feeling sorry for ourselves. I keep a fair supply of canned beans and tomato products, chicken and vegetable broth, frozen vegetables around anyway.  Oh he bought a 25# bag of King Arthur flour 'cause we do a lot of baking.

[Violet Crown]

3 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:

Well, I am not going to tell you it's misguided if for no other reason than prepping isn't a negative.

I will say, I tend to be a stockpile person anyway.  I mentioned in one of the other threads, when I was at Costco, I stocked up on chicken nuggets and wipies.  Not because of corona virus, but because that's what I would have done anyway....stock up when the price is low.  (in fact, I just saw the March Costco ad....I probably won't stock up on much at all.)  In general, it's a good idea to have a stock pile of supplies.  There are a million different things that might require extra supplies at home.  I mentioned in one other thread the water situation in the Dayton area last year.  And shortly after the water issue, we had tornadoes (much like what's happening in Nashville right now.)  In both situations, stores went out of water SO FAST.  At the same time, in our house, we were ok.  We actually didn't even need a supply of water.....I just started boiling water in the tea kettle lol. 

Sometimes, as I watch news coverage, or read about stores out of stock of things, I am reminded of a line from Men In Black

A person is smart.  People are dumb panicky dangerous animals.

I think that most of the panic is overblown.  I think this virus really isn't much more dangerous that the flu. I mean yes, this might actually have a higher death rate than the flu (but not THAT much higher) and it's pretty contagious.  But I can't see this thing reducing the world population by like half or any sort of apocalyptic sort of numbers.   I don't think this is going to bring about some sort of world apocalypse which I feel like the media is trying to create.

Because of that....I think general emergency supplies are a good idea.  I think that anything beyond general is.........well, beyond lol.  At the same time, as I think about what happened in Nashville, and relate it to what happened in Dayton last year....some preps may be "beyond"  for Covid.................they might not be "beyond" for other situation.  Safety, outages, water issues, and more are probably more likely in a weather situation than due to Covid, and prepping for that sort of thing isn't a bad thing.   I wonder how many people in Nashville bought water because of crazy Covid prep and then, woke up yesterday realizing that they didn't need that water because of that, but they NEEDED that water right immediately then, just to drink, because they woke up to a destroyed home.  

That's reassuring, thanks. I would be a stockpile person by personality, but we live in a house without a lot of storage possibilities: no garage, 18 cubic foot fridge, food pantry smaller than that, tiny closets that barely hold the clothes. The grocery store is nearby so we pick things up as we run out of them, and generally have three or four days' worth of food at most. Living in the middle of the city is nice but Costco buying is not a thing we do.

I agree with you about the water, on reflection. But where to put it....

[Violet Crown]

I notice a lot of people are getting frozen supplies. After 40+ years living here, I have a lot of confidence in our city keeping the water flowing (if not necessarily clean) if they're understaffed, but zero confidence in their ability to keep the electric grid up, so I haven't bothered buying frozen. Though the rice and beans and flour are in the freezer because there's no room for them in the tiny pantry (and because of meal moths). We can light our stove with a match if necessary. What are people's thoughts about electricity availability? Has it been a problem anywhere hit by Covid?

Edited March 4, 2020 by Violet Crown

[AbcdeDooDah]

The only thing I bought was oregano oil capsules. I did buy a 2-pack. I was out anyway  and I like to have it on hand during flu season Taken at the first sign of anything, it wipes it out. Some if my family members won't take my elderberry tincture. 

[Violet Crown]

1 minute ago, happysmileylady said:

In terms of general stock pile, I tried to fine all the out of the way spots in our old rental.  Under the sink (since we didn't store things like make up, lotions, etc there) for TP, under beds, on top of the fridge, etc etc.  

Dh says, I could get rid of some of the books. 

[marbel]

3 minutes ago, Violet Crown said:

I notice a lot of people are getting frozen supplies. After 40+ years living here, I have a lot of confidence in our city keeping the water flowing (if not necessarily clean) if they're understaffed, but zero confidence in their ability to keep the electric grid up, so I haven't bothered buying frozen. Though the rice and beans are in the freezer because there's no room for them in the tiny pantry. We can light our stove with a match if necessary. What are people's thoughts about electricity availability?

From reading other threads on this topic, I think this varies widely. Where I live, doesn't go out too often, and I think only have have we been out over 36 hours (Hurricane Sandy). We keep extra ice in a standalone freezer and try to keep it pretty full so it will stay cold if we keep it shut. But of course if we are keeping it shut, we are not consuming the food.  So we keep weekly supplies in the freezer attached to the fridge.  But others have very different experiences with power being out for many days.  We just do the best planning we can based on our experiences where we live. We did finally get smart and buy a butane stove (single burner) and some cartridges of fuel, and we have a gas grill with a burner, so if we keep the propane supply up, we can cook if no electricity.  (All electric kitchen here)

[ScoutTN]

7 minutes ago, Violet Crown said:

Dh says, I could get rid of some of the books. 

😱

[AnotherE]

I'm in the middle of the epicenter of the epidemic (I posted about this before, but removed for too much info), here are the things that have been useful to have/do:

A lot of us have prepared for "The Big One" earthquake due to a lot of awareness here, so having a 2-3 week food supply (some of it Mountain House freeze-dried packs from Costco so there doesn't have to be as much of a rotation) is great peace of mind. We do have quite a few grocery stores with curb-side service, so that is useful for limiting time in crowded spaces. We already had bottled water (I'm not sure if that will be needed for this, but is nice to have again for peace of mind reasons).

When we do go to the store, some things haven't been available- lentils in all forms, spaghetti sauce in certain brands, certain produce items (can't remember which ones, sorry), and there is now a limit on how many cold and flu items you are allowed to purchase- the limit is 5, but some things are out of stock anyway. We were already stocked up on TP (again, earthquake!), so I'm not sure what is going on with that.

We had nitrile gloves in the house for cooking purposes (chopping lots of things, protecting from hot peppers), and these have been handy at gas stations for pumping gas. Even if I use hand sanitizer afterward, I still don't feel "protected" until I get home and use soap and water. There are too many possibly infected people in my area to feel good about handling common items with bare hands.

Other than that, the ability to prepare for life disruption is good. Where will your kids go (if they are in public school) if the schools close down? For older kids, is there the ability to do schoolwork at home is things are switched to online learning? For adults that work, is there an option to work from home? Is there a usable set-up to make that happen? Businesses around here are trying to keep people at home to work to help stop the spread of the virus. Schools have been closed for cleaning. Buses are finally being cleaned in common areas daily- I still don' t let my son ride the bus around here. Do you know where to go if you are sick (a lot of doctor offices ask that people don't come in unless it is very serious, same with hospitals).

I'm sure there is more, but this is off the top of my head right now.

Edit to add: Our insurance company (and others) are allowing people to get 90 day supplies of maintenance medications w/o need for approval first. The only difficulty we ran into with this is the prescribing doctor has to put in the request for the 90 day prescription to the pharmacy (you can't just take a 30 day prescription and turn it into a 90 day with the pharmacy).

Edited March 4, 2020 by AnotherE

[alisoncooks]

I haven't prepped a whole lot. I bought rice, beans, canned veg, applesauce, peanut butter, pasta and jar sauce, oatmeal. Some shelf stable milk and protein drinks. Cough med, restocked my sambucol, lots of herbal tea, hand soap. Toilet paper and laundry detergent. 

That's pretty much it. All things we normally use, in the sizes I usually buy. Might grab a few more things here and there. 

Finding a place to stash it was interesting! We're currently in the middle of recarpeting the whole house and shifting things from room to room as they get done. I stacked everything in my master bathroom closet for the moment. 

[Lecka]

I bought a carton of wipes.   And I wiped down our doorknobs and faucets.  
 

We are planning to move over the summer, so really don’t want to stock up too much.  

I looked at recommendations and I think wipes are a good choice for us.  
 

 

[Melissa in Australia]

We already have 3 plus weeks supply of food in the house at all times. It was the way I grew up, part of living in a rural town. We have our own water as we collect rain into large tanks

We also have just planted our very large autumn and winter veggie garden 

What I bought in prep of being very ill or stuck at home was an extra 5 kg rice, 10 kg potatoes, extra panadol, a bottle of bleach, I bag toilet paper and a box of tissues. We only use tissues if someone has a bad cold, we all have hankys and use them. 

I don't use any other disinfectant apart from bleach, I don't use wipes, mostly I lean with water and a cloth.

We couldn't even source masks when we had the bushfire smoke so didn't even bother looking now. 

I am old enough to remember being in quarantine and being very ill at the same time. I had all of those illnesses that children so rarely get nowadays (measles, mumps, rebella, chicken pox) as immunisation was given at a much older age. I have also had the flue quite a few times. When you are that ill you don't eat much, mostly soups

[Melissa in Australia]

Adding I am away from home this week, farm sitti g for my brother. DH is at home. Apparently he decided we haven't enough and has bought 3 months of rolled oats and enough rice to last us for the rest of our life. Adding when he does the cooking (which is only when I am away) he only ever cooks rice. 

I personally don't eat rice as I don't seem to be able to digest it very well. The weavels will enjoy it I guess.... Can always be used as chook food.... 

[happi duck]

Now I understand why my grocery store was out of black beans I needed for a recipe.  The cashier said a guy came in and bought all the dry beans but I didn't know the connection.

I'm not stocking up because I didn't even know it was a thing.  Ugh.  My anxiety means I walk a fine line in terms of being informed and being overwhelmed.

[May]

Carrying on as usual, if I need it, I buy it.

[regentrude]

2 hours ago, Violet Crown said:

Actually I should totally buy some extra alcohol because Middle Girl uses it all for her art projects. Though I'm still not clear what it's for in the Coronacrisis.

I had to pause and read this a couple of times because I was trying to envision the art projects- until I realized you are talking rubbing alcohol. I was thinking what art requires booze? Might not be a bad idea to stock up on some wine, too.

[BusyMom5]

We have a big family and live very rural, so I always have a pretty big stock of most foods we eat.  That said, I did buy a few things I dont normally. 

Lysol spray

Alcohol x2

Clorox wipes- plan to use in the car

Canned fruit and applesauce 

 

We had the flu a few weeks ago and I was low on meds, so tried to stock up.   They didnt have the exact one I wanted, so I'm still planning to keep looking.  There was no germs, so still looking for that, too.

Now I'm thinking I need to go ahead and stock up a little more on the TP!!!  We buy a big Sam's club size case about 1x per month.  

[Melissa in Australia]

2 hours ago, happi duck said:

Now I understand why my grocery store was out of black beans I needed for a recipe.  The cashier said a guy came in and bought all the dry beans but I didn't know the connection.

I'm not stocking up because I didn't even know it was a thing.  Ugh.  My anxiety means I walk a fine line in terms of being informed and being overwhelmed.

a few weeks back the Australian government asked for everyone to get a little extra food, so over a week they would have in their house a stockpile if 2 weeks food. Just in case of transport disruptions 

[mumto2]

I can’t remember VC’s list .......the food I think is individual.  I stocked up on things we eat normally and plan to replace more frequently than normal.  I have more items that everyone can cook in case mom goes down than normal.  Also have some soups etc.  We don’t drink tap water so I bought our normal water supply for a couple of weeks.  I consider myself essentially ready for hurricane season and could pull a generator out if the power goes out which I consider super unlikely.  If we have to we can drink the water.......
 

Have to say get the gloves because they are just plain handy to have irl. We started keeping them in stock for putting petrol in a car and now everyone in our house grabs them for messy jobs in order to keep their hands clean.  Cleaning bathrooms, bike repair, gardening if it’s quick, the list goes on.......

.Rubbing alcohol is another thing that has a lot of uses......cleaning glasses , computer screens, stains, sticky stuff on your counter, but most importantly wounds.  My paranoia kicked in after I used more than half a bottle on Dd the other day after a spectacular bike fall in a rain storm on the corner where every dog in the neighborhood lifts their leg etc. If it gets bad going to the hospital for minor things won’t be something I want to do.  Btw......when Ds hit the stinky age I started keeping a small spray bottle of rubbing alcohol in the bathroom for under his arms. I love my spray bottle of alcohol and use it most days to clean something.  Also useful for fevers,  giving an alcohol rub can bring a high fever down quickly.   
 

 I have shared some of my stash with neighbors.  I also bought extra Purell intentionally and Dh gave a bottle to some of our neighbors..

Bleach....I haven’t really stockpiled tp because we were almost out.  I try to have maybe a month supply normally........I fear running out.  Worst case thanks to bleach I can set up sort of a diaper pail situation for cloths......I refuse to use catalogs!  I have lots of fabric........also I use maybe a gallon and a half a month.  I wash whites with bleach and use it for toilets......so I have bleach normally.

I also have some Lysol concentrate (old brown bottle ) because I like it for laundry when we have germs in the house.  Occasionally  when I start adding it early not everyone gets sick!  Also good for sweaty stinky clothing, cleaning floors, all purpose.  I did buy wipes and spray Lysol which were on sale and will be used eventually.

Edited March 5, 2020 by mumto2

[Wheres Toto]

We bought some canned foods that we will eat but don't normally buy - soups, raviolis, extra peanut butter, cleaning wipes, advil, Dayquil (Nyquil keeps me awake and doesn't help, Dayquil works for me), Benedryl, dd and I both just got our inhalers renewed, tissues.  

I have alcohol, multiple jugs of vinegar, nitrile gloves, loop face masks, bottled water for the water cooler and a bunch of other stuff at my classroom.  We have a well at home but the classroom has city water, and odds are very unlikely power will go out both places at the same time unless it's a hurricane Sandy type situation.  We have a full size fridge/freezer there as well.   We have a gas stove at home and electric hot plates at the classroom, plus alcohol burners.  

I find it interesting that pumping gas keeps coming up.  I wouldn't even have thought of that but we don't pump our own gas here.  I guess that's a plus. 

[Violet Crown]

7 hours ago, happysmileylady said:

This is where I really feel the "not much more dangerous than the flu" sort of thing.  I think that in China and some other places, this has been a thing, but I think that in the US, we have SO MANY back ups, our country is so large that it can utilize assistance from other parts of the country fairly easily, etc etc....that I genuinely don't think electricity availability will be a thing.  Mainland US, even in MAJOR weather disasters, where actual physical power lines are down, major repairs have to happen, electricity isn't out for months at a time.  A week or two, sure.  That's happened in the past, and will probably continue to happen.  I think it's more likely to happen due to a tornado or an earthquake or a wildfire or a hurricane or PG &E idiocy than anything Covid related.  

When the power grid has gone down here, it's because of a temperature spike when lots of people are home and everyone runs their AC at once. So I think, what happens when all the big tech companies here tell all their employees to stay home and telecommute, and the ISD cancels classes so all the kids and their parents are home, and Big State U. cancels classes and all 50,000 students are stuffed in their dorms, and we have one of those crazy humid spring days when the temperature spikes up to the 90s? 

[Shoeless]

I'm a couponer, so I already have a "stockpile" of cleaning supplies and various things.  I bought a bottle of rubbing alcohol and peroxide, because I thought we only had a splash left in the bottle for each, and then found 2 bottles shoved way in the back of the closet. (Oops). I'll hold on to them in case a neighbor or Gr. Grandpa and his wife need them. 

I did go through the medicine supply and pick up some small bottles of cold meds.  We don't use a lot of that sort of stuff, so what we had was expired. Bought an extra bottle of Zicam and a can of Lysol because kiddo has a cold this week, and DH also started a new job this week. Starting a new job while sick during a possible pandemic is...less than ideal.  We've both been popping Zicam and Lysoling everything, and knock wood! DH has not caught the cold. 

I have to admit, I felt kind of paranoid buying cold meds, Kleenex, Zicam, and Lysol at the store. I also have not brought kiddo out in public at all because a) knowingly blasting others with germs is rude and b) I'm half expecting a panicky mob to chase us with pitchforks. 

[MEmama]

7 hours ago, Where's Toto? said:

.  

I find it interesting that pumping gas keeps coming up.  I wouldn't even have thought of that...

I would never think of it either, and I can’t figure out how a gas pump would be more dirty than anything else out in public? If anything, I would think fewer people would touch a pump than the average item at the grocery or a Target, where a bazillion walk by and run their hands over an incredible amount of items in any given trip. The gas pump is presumably only handled by a single driver at a time.

I guess we all do things that make us feel safer and in control, even if they aren’t necessarily rational. 

[DawnM]

Our local Costco said they have had the highest sales EVER (for groceries) this past week.

You can't find bottled water, TP, shelf stable milk, etc....right now.

It is a bit nuts.

Or maybe there are Zombies coming and I haven't been told yet.

[prairiewindmomma]

4 hours ago, DawnM said:

 

Or maybe there are Zombies coming and I haven't been told yet.

Ds14 asked if this virus meant that we would now relent and let him buy a hatchet. You know, for the zombies. 😂

[mumto2]

6 hours ago, MEmama said:

I would never think of it either, and I can’t figure out how a gas pump would be more dirty than anything else out in public? If anything, I would think fewer people would touch a pump than the average item at the grocery or a Target, where a bazillion walk by and run their hands over an incredible amount of items in any given trip. The gas pump is presumably only handled by a single driver at a time.

I guess we all do things that make us feel safer and in control, even if they aren’t necessarily rational. 

In the U.K. most petrol stations provide gloves and we got used to it.   So we now use the gloves to pump petrol because every so often you end up smelling like petrol after,  it isn’t/wasn’t really for human germs but because of the petrol smell.

😂I am being really careful to take my items from the back of the shelf these days!

[athena1277]

I’m mostly going with the be prepared for a flu-like virus thinking.  I bought chicken noodle soup, cleaning wipes, and a few extra non-perishable foods.  I did buy bleach to clean water if needed, but I was almost out anyway.  We went to Costco and stocked up on TP a few weeks ago, so we are good there. We buy the OTC meds we want in bulk, so we have tons of that also.  As long as we don’t lose electricity and running water we will be fine.  
 

The worst thing at my house will be listening to 17yo dd whine all day because she has cabin fever.  She’s too used to going places all the time.

[Arcadia]

2 hours ago, mumto2 said:

 

😂I am being really careful to take my items from the back of the shelf these days!

 

We do that because the stores put the ones expiring first in front. So the ones at the back of the shelf have a later expiry. 

Also the front stuff tend to be the ones that might have dropped onto the floor, so higher possibility of dented cans and broken biscuits/crackers.

[May]

DH and I have done nothing. We do plan on doing grocery shopping this weekend. We’ll buy what we need.

[Pen]

On 3/4/2020 at 11:02 AM, Violet Crown said:

My Lenten resolution to stay off the internet has already fallen victim to the Coronavirus, so here goes.

In the Coronavirus Megathread, there's some talk about supplies. So, what supplies should one get? Not get? What's already out of stock or rationed in your area? Has the CDC said anything specific? 

The Crown family caved and made a prepper shopping trip: dried beans, rice, pasta, powdered milk, canned fruit & vegs, peanut butter and mixed nuts, salt, sugar, flour, oil, potatoes, onions & apples, chili powder & comino (essential). These are all things we eat anyway, the Crowns being mostly vegetarian (I got some cans of tuna for myself).  Multivitamins and iron supplements.

Sounds good!  I think you have the basics covered. 

A little extra coffee if you use that?

chocolate bar or some similar feel good indulgence?

On 3/4/2020 at 11:02 AM, Violet Crown said:

Extra canned and dry cat food we got last week when it looked like there might be shortages because of panic buying: the rest of us are able to eat unfamiliar foods without throwing up on the carpet.

 

🙃

 

On 3/4/2020 at 11:02 AM, Violet Crown said:

We didn't get water, alcohol, or wipes, though I see those are now all rationed at our HEB. I honestly couldn't think of a great reason to get them when we have bleach solution and cloths and paper towels; and I couldn't think of a scenario requiring water hoarding. When our city went nuts last year in the Great Water Panic, we just boiled our water for a week.

Now please tell me why this was all misguided. :) 

 

I think you did good.

I didn’t get wipes etc either , then when in city doing things I came to understand how they could help, but all the Fragrance Free Purell Apparently was gone. (I can’t use fragranced anything, and it was probably gone too).  I got some hydrogen peroxide wipes which were still available. 

 

We need water back up because on well, but I mostly just fill my own bottles from my own tap for drinking water back up, and big garbage cans for washing and toilet flushing etc back up.  I don’t see a need to specially buy it.  

If our taps had toxic water than I would buy some. 

[Melissa in Australia]

One of my ds has bought some food he normally doesn't have foodin his house. He said he will try and get some cold and flue tablets today

He said he is not going to get any extra toilet paper. His words "not worth getting into a fight for something that has been only widely available for less than 100 years" He said he has lots of rags. 

He also said that some universities are stopping interstate travel within Australia for research and projects. 

[Arcadia]

8 hours ago, Pen said:

I didn’t get wipes etc either , then when in city doing things I came to understand how they could help, but all the Fragrance Free Purell Apparently was gone. (I can’t use fragranced anything, and it was probably gone too).  I got some hydrogen peroxide wipes which were still available. 

For frangance free wipes, I sometimes go to the Baby aisles. I find products for babies generally safer for my sensitive skin.

7 hours ago, Melissa in Australia said:

He said he is not going to get any extra toilet paper. His words "not worth getting into a fight for something that has been only widely available for less than 100 years" He said he has lots of rags. 

“The townsfolk of an Australian toilet paper manufacturing hub fear being caught short themselves, despite living metres away from the mill that makes the stuff.” https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-05/coronavirus-where-to-buy-toilet-paper-millicent/12026116

[Melissa in Australia]

Spoke to other 2 ds

They are still actively working on fires. And are exhausted. They both have been exposed to significant amounts of smoke over the last 4 months. 

One told me he would love 14 days of quarantine. I think I convinced him to at least get a packet of panadol. 

The other, a keen hunter told me he has well over 200kg of frozen meat.. And has never been fond of veggies anyway. 

[Scarlett]

I haven't read this entire thread so please forgive me if this has been addressed.  My boss asked me to get some hand sanitizer.....at first we couldn't find any in town, so we bought some aloe vera juice and alcohol....I want to make up some sanitizer....but I am having trouble finding a reputable recipe....I find one for the aloe vera gel, but not just the juice. For the gel it is 2/3 alcohol, 1/3 gel.....does anyone know the ratio if it is aloe juice?

[prairiewindmomma]

9 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

I haven't read this entire thread so please forgive me if this has been addressed.  My boss asked me to get some hand sanitizer.....at first we couldn't find any in town, so we bought some aloe vera juice and alcohol....I want to make up some sanitizer....but I am having trouble finding a reputable recipe....I find one for the aloe vera gel, but not just the juice. For the gel it is 2/3 alcohol, 1/3 gel.....does anyone know the ratio if it is aloe juice?

It appears to be the same ratio, on my quick google....

Note that if your boss has a latex allergy, aloe vera has latex.  We learned this lesson earlier.  Low likelihood that he has one, statistically, but it was a bad, bad reaction and our allergist had not informed us.

[Scarlett]

2 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

It appears to be the same ratio, on my quick google....

Note that if your boss has a latex allergy, aloe vera has latex.  We learned this lesson earlier.  Low likelihood that he has one, statistically, but it was a bad, bad reaction and our allergist had not informed us.

Ok, ty.  We were able to find about 15 bottles of hand sanitizer at the dollar store after we purchased the ingredients to make our own.  We think we will need spray bottles instead of pump soap bottles since this mix will be so thin.  

[Violet Crown]

I mentioned this on the other thread, but since it's relevant to prepping .... I was at our HEB this morning and they had seized opportunity by the forelock and put together a big display of Coronavirus products: paper towels, toilet paper, jugs of water, hand sanitizer, wipes, and tortilla chips.

[Sk8ermaiden]

Oh my gosh, that's funny. 

You can't get hand sanitizer here to save your life. I'm hoping everyone is well stocked now and I can grab one in a few weeks when things get restocked. We'll see.

[mumto2]

We went shopping today, a normal non prepping shop. 😉 For the most part the carts looked pretty normal......everyone had bottled water but reasonable quantities that are probably normal.  I never had to think of it before.  

We did check and Hand Sanitizer was out at both stops.......Sam’s and Target.  Staff at both said it is arriving with their shipments and being sold quickly.  Eventually demand will go down.....we did find sanitizer last week at Staples but it is fragranced and we prefer scent free products. Not complaining but would love to find some that won’t bother my nose.

[brehon]

3 hours ago, Violet Crown said:

I mentioned this on the other thread, but since it's relevant to prepping .... I was at our HEB this morning and they had seized opportunity by the forelock and put together a big display of Coronavirus products: paper towels, toilet paper, jugs of water, hand sanitizer, wipes, and tortilla chips.

WHAT?!?!?! No guac and salsa?! What kind of doomsday prep is this?

[Lang Syne Boardie]

Someone at my local neighborhood market meant well, but got a little confused -- there were four shelves of Lysol, eight shelves of TP, and 12 shelves of Windex on a display near the front door.

Windex? 

I'm picturing Gus from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Windex could be right; I don't know everything...

[Terabith]

26 minutes ago, Lang Syne Boardie said:

Someone at my local neighborhood market meant well, but got a little confused -- there were four shelves of Lysol, eight shelves of TP, and 12 shelves of Windex on a display near the front door.

Windex? 

I'm picturing Gus from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Windex could be right; I don't know everything...

Windex is the bomb on itchy mosquito bites.  (Love that movie.)