"Stocking up" vs "Hoarding"?

I have been stocking up all summer. Our supplies had dwindled, when DH was in a accident at work in 2002, we wouldn't have been eating if it hadn't been for our supplies. So I see how important it is to prepare. No freezer for me. I can everything I can get my hands on. I stock up on other foods and items (including my cat food). I try to follow Jackie Clay's examples of planning in advance of some major setback. She says to have at the very least 2-3 years of food & supplies stored. I am replenishing our supplies.

I don't consider it hoarding. If you go to the store when a storm is about to happen, and buy every package of batteries, water, or whatever so nobody else can have any, then I would say that is hoarding. But what I store, is usually well stocked in the store.


katlupe

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Reflections of katlupe

It was people in the cities who were hoarding stuff like that.

I heard tell MRE's from the army surplus stores were selling like gangbusters for months before Y2K. I wonder what people did with those?

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I, personally, feel that if you've got enough food to get you through the winter, that would be stocking up. If you've got enough to get you through the next couple of years...well, that may be hoarding. Me? I've already said I've only got enough for a few days. Probably more, really, but certainly not able to stay away from the grocery for over a week.

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"It's called a lance...hellooo!"

The psychiatrists (and so other Docs) define abnormal (sickness) bejhavior as that which continues even thjough it is interfering with your work, health, family life and happiness. So the 'drunk' who doesn't (yet) have liver/stomach disease whose family and boss (and staff) accept such a level of alcohol use and who never drives drunk and had never found out he could not give up alcohol if he tried is not an alcoholic. Dunno, if he has DECIDED to stop driving because of it rather than being MADE to stop driving where I would put that.... after all many of us choose one night every few days or weeks or months to drink alcohol rather than drive, why would it be abnormal to choose that 24/7/365?

SO, if the amount of food/stuff you possess is making you late for work or otherwise making you at risk of losing your livelihood, making your spouse or kids or parents (who live with you that is) mad at you but you won't change enough to make them happy, jeopardising your health (and fire hazard or severe risk of tripping would count), or making you miserable otherwise then you have an illness.

Beyond that if you waste money through your 'stocking up' in excess of what you gloat about having saved through your stocking up, well, then you're foolish/careless but no law against that and those who shop at the corner store for twice the price or drive out every day to shop having NO stores are just as or more so foolish.

Me I had a big hoard in ENgland where shopping was every few weeks and they were often out of things when I did shop. When I moved I gave away perhaps $100 worth of canned bagged and boxed (cake mixes etc) food goods, not to mention $150 worth of liquor (most of it presents we just never got to- drinking is much more important/frequent to most Brits than to us) Having an adjustment here as I realise I can go any day and get what I need, and do go every week (no more milk man sigh!). Small amount of convenient storage space has helped me in that. Also I can no longer eat whole grain so no more 50# bags of organic whole wheat. My Retsel isn't for sale yet tho!

It is my understanding from Amish, Morman and Menonite friends that a practical plan for food storage consists of the following.

1. Enough to feed the family plus expected guests from harvest to harvest.

2. 1/4 to 1/2 the quanity of item #1 for reserve in the event of poor harvest the following year as someone here has already mentioned.

3. Sell or trade surplusses in excess of what is needed to fulfill items 1. & 2. for items that are needed to fulfill the requirements of item 1. & 2.

4. Packaging, Package in quanities that will be used for 1[one] possibility 2 [two] meals. 1/2 pts, pts, qts, 1/2 gal, gal. Reduces leftovers and waste.
All packaging clearly marked with date of canning/storage. FIFO first in first out. Shelves arranged with front and rear access.

This sounds like a very logical plan to me. The Mormans also recomend up to 7yrs of dry items [Biblical Famine]that can be cooked or reconstituted with water. [dehydrated foods].

Ron

Hoarding is what the government will accuse you of when they want to take away your carefully planned and stored goods to give to those who chose not to prepare. Here is an interesting link regarding Executive Orders and hoarding.

http://members.aol.com/poesgirl/storing.html

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Every survival kit should include a sense of humor

Sounds like you are asking an unanswerable question. I think for as many respondents you get, you'll get that many different answers. Why do you want to know? Feeling mentally ill or on the verge??? ;-)

My goodness I sure hope they did not eat them I cant stand those things use to eat them as I had to on occasion and then we went to training in germany for a month before Kosovo and I had the worst food imaginable at the chow hall there it was undescribable even I am at a loss for words anyway we were expected to eat Mres for atleast one meal a day and after that I have never been able to bring myself to eat them, by the way I am skinny but I lost 5 lbs in just that short time in Germany and luckily I got to get out to the commissary and buy some real food and it was cold enough to keep on my window sill in DEC where we were in Germany you better believe it! Well I have since been on a 3 day mission once where we were expected to eat just Mre's LOL I asked the chow hall to give me a huge bag of bananas before I left and I lived on those and raw peanuts. The new Mres are way better than the old ones probably better food and maybe more MSG to make the flavor come out.

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marching to the beat of a different drummer

I totally agree with A.T. Hagan. If I stock up while food is plentiful I am hurting no one. If you choose not to stock up that is your choice but don't complain about those of us who took out a little insurance against economic downturns or possible other things that would require us to take care of ourselves.

If I tended to hoard I would know better than to advertise it on a public website that the government/states/anyone is reading. everyone needs to read the link provided in the post by 1 gunner see excerpt below
It is not just Americans who may be under the gun for seizure activities by the government. Right here, right now in Ballarat, three things have come to light recently:

"quote )1. If rain becomes scarce again, there is legislation waiting to be signed which will put usage taps on private water bores on private property. Again this is pending legislation since rain has not become critical in Ballarat - yet. Legislators are hesitant to pass this bill as it will be met with much resistance from the farming community, but it's in the wings.

2. Water bores on private property must be registered with the shire and aerial photos are taken of all bores and dam reservoirs.

3. This last piece of interesting news was shared by our neighbor who has lived in Ballarat for decades. It should be the least popular measure so far. If another drought came to this area, private water tanks will be metered and taxed for usage! It's a good thing it wasn't fly season as hearing this made my jaw hit the pavement. The alternate plan, equally unpalatable, is to assess current rainfall levels and tax the owner by the size his tank(s)!


What I think of this is not printable on the Net. Here we've purchased the property, the tanks themselves and paid for installation of same and filled them with FREE rainwater for which we may be taxed for our prudence. This is truly amazing since as I write this section, we're gazing at moss growing on our trees and brick sidewalks. So what really is being set up?

Before you think America has gone to hell with rights' forfeitures, remember your friends across the ocean. America is no more ridiculous than this, if you discount Zippergate. Holly Deyo, E-mail: hollyd@netconnect.com.au Home Page: Noah's Ark http://members.aol.com/poesgirl/storing.html

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marching to the beat of a different drummer

I stock up on particular things...such as gallons of honey or olive oil. The way I see it, honey is only going to get more expensive year after year, because the bees aren't doing too well, and it will never, ever spoil as long as the integrity of the jar is OK. I also buy a LOT of rice.

I think that with me, part of it is that I have been extremely poor, to the point that we were eating tins of crackers found in a landfill...military crackers that were some 20 years old. We were so short on food that we were delighted to have them. In the back of my mind, I'm always a bit afraid of running out of food or other staples.

OMG! Are you saying that they want to tax you for RAIN? Whats next, having to pay for the AIR you breathe?

Food Storage is being prudent. Hoarding is taking more than you need.

Storing is what "you" do.
Hoarding is what "somebody else" does.

Kind of like that Carlin bit..

Anyone who drives slower than you is an idiot. Anyone who drives faster than you is a maniac.

If it brings no harm to you or your family, then it can only bring benefit.

I still don't understand who someone would pay $4000.00 for a tv. But they do, and it is not my place to tell someone else how to spend their money. So please give me the same courtesy.

Plus your kids can play "fort" in the TP and towel rolls. !!

Clean butt and occupied kids.. ah the pleasures of life.

Hmmm...we have 3 freezers full of food. We process all our own meats and we have one freezer just for meat, and another freezer just for veggies and fruits. Then our 3rd freezer is full of breads, butter, freezer jams, cheeses, freezer slaw, and other misc. items. It's not hard to keep it updated and organized at all. It's all about rotation. We do the same with our dry and canned goods storage.

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Stocking up is having a two year supply of food and other essential items on hand. With garden truck you always have that chance of a crop failure some years. I always like to have plenty on hand to carry over the lean year. I also like to "hoard" hundred dollar bills just in case I need to purchase things I dont grow or produce myself. Nothing at all wrong with having more cash on hand than you can spend in your lifetime. It doesnt rot and the kids can always give it away when ya die if they dont want it.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

This has got to be the longest rambling sentence in the history of writing!

I see hoarding as gathering and storing things that you don't need and most likely won't use, but you save them anyway cause you MIGHT find a use for them someday. It is wasting things that others could use or might even need.

Stocking up is buying things you use, but buying in bulk instead of as needed.

Hoarding is bad, stocking up is good.

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I think it would be called hoarding if you plan to not share with those who did not prepare for the time when 'tshtf'.

What if you have 3,000 days of food for you and another (I know a guy with 10,000 MREs stored in his barn and yes he has machine gun nests around his place, paranoid? Nah)

1,000 starving people find out and come over, all might eat for a few days.

Naw, that one isnt bad at all, as a matter of fact I have written some here in ht that were much worse until one day as I was reading one of my more lengthy posts I realized that I hadnt broken it into paragraphs or sentences at all like my high school grammer teacher had taught me to so many years ago in high school where I had studied the tree tops out the window while that wrinkled up ol prune of a grammar teacher did her very best to teach me better than to write long rambling sentences but since I caught myself that time I am now very careful not do that anymore because ya just never know when some gramatically correct type may be reading what it is that yer writing and begin to criticize yer work and the next thing thing ya know they will be getting after you about yer spelling too which is never a good thing so now i am very careful about that sorta thing but I am still not sure what ramblin sentences have to do with the topic being discussed in this particular thread.

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

When I think of hoarding, I think of my late maternal grandmother. She was born in 1918, and so lived through the depression and several wars. She had a pantry like most people did, and a couple freezers later on when they became more affordable. I never thought her food storage was extreme in any way, just prudent.

But she saved everything. And when I say everything, picture the foam trays that ground beef comes on. Egg cartons. Any plastic container that food or cleaning supplies came in. Papers, magazines, catalogs. Junk mail. She had 20 years worth of the national enquirer, the globe, and some other wierd gossip/speculation rag. She never threw away a magazine.

When my grandparents moved from California to Missouri, there were more junk items than necessary items such as furniture, clothing, and such. They rented an extra truck to haul her things because she refused to part with them! After they moved, her spare closets started filling up with more things she considered to be collectible, such as Avon products.

Eventually their home ended up with small trails they walked through, and every surface was covered with something, and stacked as high as grandma could reach. When my grandma died, there were balls of foil in the freezer with a few tablespoons of food inside each one...leftovers from her dinners at the senior center. And a house that took weeks to clean out because of the stacks and piles of stuff.

This is an example of hoarding. I think hoarding is a pathalogical obsession/compulsion that is linked to deeply held fears of being poor or having to go without. In some cases it can even be a severe mental illness. But I don't think anyone would have trouble in seeing the difference between a hoarder and someone who was simply stocking up.

Unless they were a hoarder. :P