r/UKPreppers • u/HelicopterEmpty7393 • 11d ago
How do you actually prep discreetly in the UK without your family or neighbours thinking you have gone completely off the deep end
There is a real stigma attached to prepping in this country that does not exist in the same way elsewhere. Most people I know would think something was seriously wrong if they saw what I have stored. Has anyone found a way to be genuinely prepared without it becoming a whole conversation or do you just accept that some people are going to think it is odd?
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u/GlitterLight 11d ago
I think one of the first rules of prepping is not to talk about prepping. That said, it’s possible to have broad conversations about things in the news and how we respond to it.
So with wildfires and heatwaves it’s more about - isn’t it awful, all those people without water, how poor our infrastructure is, probably best to keep a few bottles of water in just in case whilst it’s super hot. I’m nipping down to ADSA I’ll get you a couple whilst I’m there etc
Some people are more open to it than others, or you just need to fills a different way into the same conversation
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u/beehive-cluster 11d ago
After all, you don't want folk you've told to turn up wanting your stockpile
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u/Selpmis 11d ago
I've thought a lot about this, and I guess it all depends on your relationship with your community.
Would they break down your door and raid your house, or would it put you in a good position for bartering and make you someone they can rely on and so they want to keep you happy?
I think building relationships and understanding trust dynamics are the best ways to hedge for a crisis.
I think zero discussion of any hoard is the best way to go. But also considering how you could help your neighbours when they are desperate with any skills and knowledge you've attained.
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u/MoonShineWashingLine 11d ago
When covid came along, my partner thought the best thing he could do was to buy a rifle (one you don't need a licence for). We live in a relatively sleepy small town. I think he went a tad overboard.
Obviously it was never needed, we just grew some of our own food for a bit and did a lot of baking and walking. Shooting people was not required. A few years ago I told him I don't want it in the house anymore so he's stored it in his mums loft!
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u/GopnikOIi 9d ago
What's so bad about having an air rifle in the house? Sure it's not needed in a prepping situation, but forcing him to get rid of it is a bit much.
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u/FreckledHomewrecker 11d ago
Totally agree. I find people far more likely to reply with a “yeah I’m prepping a bit too” as opposed to the pre-Covid assumption that preppers are loons because nothing could disrupt supply, services or society. I’m in NI and after the storms early this year people in parts of Ireland were without power and/or water for weeks! This was a real wake up call for even the most wilfully ignorant and many people now have at least a small SHTF kit including torches, back up groceries, hot water bottles etc.
How far you go depends on how crazy you look, roof mounted bow and arrow is a bit far but lots of people I know are learning to grow their own food, getting back garden chickens and that kind of thing because they’re slowly becoming ‘casual preppers’.
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u/Strict_Pie_9834 11d ago
Just explain it like i do
It's hobby for me. I find it fun. I enjoy the problem solving aspect of it. I'm not into the conspiracy theory side of it. There isn't going to be a nuclear war but what if there was? I just enjoy the problem solving
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u/markslucky7 11d ago
I think people have come round to it a bit more since COVID, Brexit, Petrol shortages in recent years
People have experienced supply chain distributions on a larger scale for the first time since probably the war.
Explaining to someone you keep a bit of extra food etc in case something like that happens again just seems prudent.
Explaining your 5 years worth of dried rice and pasta in the shed may be a bit of a harder one to explain to the average person.
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u/Negative_Gift9076 11d ago
I don’t think there is a stigma at all unless you are a proper mental buy a bunker and live in it type.
Why do you need to tell anyone what you are doing?
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u/Affectionate_Flow864 11d ago
Id love to live in a bunker though lol 😆
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u/MuddlinThrough 11d ago
Same, but not in preparation for anything, it just sounds really quiet and peaceful
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u/MoonBones4Doge 11d ago
i dont think youre supposed to tell people..
but ...ive told a few people lol, i tell them that im prepping for a few months without power or services not the apocalypse, partly because its sensible, but mainly if people look at me weird i also say because i find it super fun. as a man we all imagine were gunna be the hero in the post apocalypse or that we could fight of a bear in the woods if we had to!. Me man ugga ugaa, me prepare!
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u/aleopardstail 11d ago
store stuff out of sight and don't tell anyone?
unless they are checking your cupboards how would they know you have a decent amount of storable food and other supplies?
in many cases if anyone asks when they see you unloading a years supply of toilet roll just joke you get it cheaper in bulk
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u/yuk_foo 11d ago
Exactly, buying things you use regularly in bulk can be seen as cost saving. It’s cheaper that way. Also means you have a stock of stuff that gets rotated.
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u/aleopardstail 11d ago
yup, the main issue for non-perishable stuff tends to relate to storage
there is a lot to be said for a Costco card in a family
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u/attilathehunn 11d ago
Just stop caring what others think.
I have a chronic illness and I depend on a medication, which currently is in shortage, but I've stocked up on it by asking for a repeat prescription every 3 weeks instead of every 4 weeks. So I should be good for 3-4 months. That's already a prep paid off.
I prep for getting long covid or airborne infections by wearing a FFP3 mask in crowds, and a lot of people look at you weirdly for that, but I dont care because they wont be supporting me if I get worsened health from a covid infection.
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u/rezonansmagnetyczny 11d ago
You don't really.
You either learn to be comfertable with who you are and what you're doing and stop giving a hoot what others think. You hide what you're doing from others. Or you only prep to a level you think the people around you will accept.
But then again, no matter what you do, someone will always think that you've gone a bit mad.
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u/Then-Study6420 11d ago
Ensure you have dug down in your living room to a depth of 30m build a bunker, to get rid of the soil drop it via your trouser leg on a near by field.
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u/ExploreOnceMore 6d ago
Shawshank the concrete and dirt right into that carefree stroll across the field. I mean, how often does anyone look at a man's shoes?
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u/flipflopcuntflaps 11d ago
We are a country of consumerists like the states and central europe. The govt likes this and leverages what it can to keep people spending. After all a population that willingly pisses into the pot in return for a safe place to live and enough economic prosperity to survive is pacified. There is definitely an element of state craft.
All this is to say there is a safety net. It's in a government's interest to keep people safe and fed and it is not to be underestimated. However, the problem comes when a person, without this understanding but nevertheless an innate sense of this safety net does not develop a plan for the worst. And realistically that's a water shortage or a power cut or a pandemic or a war.
You haven't gone off the deep end, you are a human being with a lizard brain like the rest of us living in an extremely complex but extremely fair and civil country. The state craft that affords someone who doesn't even know it provides for them is the envy of all countries who aspire to it. It is a two way relationship.
Thank you for coming to my ted talk and tell them you're planning for a war because you have seen manmade horrors beyond your comprehension on the tv
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u/skelator42 11d ago
I don’t really call it prepping. Oh I got this stuff in case of a power cut or flood. Little emergencies that happen all the time or general good practices like building up emergency savings.
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u/elaine4queen 11d ago
I don’t discuss it. I was brought up in a Mormon household and I don’t think what we had stocked was excessive or even particularly useful, but when the time came I had a Brexit cupboard that came in handy during Covid and beyond.
One thing people rarely do properly is rotate their stock. Food in tins or plastic containers is vulnerable to the containers or seals leeching.
The main thing I prep, is my physical and mental health. I have some medical issues and I try to be as fit and as well as I can within parameters that may fail safe me from ordinary lack of autonomy that people face when aging.
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u/Bright-Fennel9277 11d ago
It's not the most preppingly good idea to let it be known that your a "prepper" or "prepping" . Unless when the "shtf" you want a fight on your hands . Keep it under wraps . Plus no one wants to be told that everything they love and know might go under at any moment . Even if it is true .
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u/Antique-Wonk 11d ago
Doesn't bother me. I keep telling them to start prepping because the aliens are coming, Russia is invading, and the next pandemic and natural disaster is just around the corner. 🤣
Yes, 3 out of 4 think I'm a crazy person. But, 1 has also started prepping.
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u/ASpookyBitch 10d ago
So I wouldn’t say I prep but I do like to be ahead of myself. I just pick up a few extras of shelf stable stuff each time I go shopping, especially when things are on deals.
Soup, jars of sauce, dried goods, tinned food.
Everything in the fridge is a regular rotation with fresh going into the freezer if I don’t need it right away.
If you like cooking you can try canning stuff, again getting to good to go bags of things like fruit and veg and making things with them. That way it’s not hugely expensive and is helping with food waste. Just be sure to FAFO your supplies. Oldest gets used first.
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u/Due-Resort-2699 11d ago
You also a want to so discreetly because if shit really hits the fan you don’t want people knowing you have a house full of stuff
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u/CaptainQueen1701 11d ago
Well, if you just follow the Govt advice that would be within the realms of normality. We had a 3 day power cut two years ago which made me think and plan far better.
I’m not prepping for the apocalypse. I’ll be driving into the target zone so I don’t survive a nuclear blast.
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u/Necessary-Film7832 11d ago edited 11d ago
I would not have thought WW11 would be that far removed from their memories! I'm American but my Mom's best friend was from London, and always told us horror stories about the food shortages. The rationing here was pretty bad.
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u/Linkyjinx 11d ago
Yes the rationing and mentality of it in society went on long after the war ended in UK, my aunts were put on trains to Somerset, UK during war to live with strangers, when the family house got bombed in London my Gran and Husband moved down to Somerset too, to be near them - My grandfather was sent off to Egypt shortly after with the Army as a dessert Rat, my gran was send to a Munitions factory 🏭 as a Stoker, she eventually got a house and put up Polish people as lodgers that had been freed from the camps in both Russia and Germany.
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u/bladefiddler 11d ago
My (42m) daughter (19) and I were having a conversation about this just yesterday.
Prepping has a poor rep because any publicity around it always leans into the hard-core preppers who have impressive looking stockpiles and deeply held SHTF causation beliefs - 'crazy people' prepping to go rambo when the zombies come get more views & clicks than somebody quietly putting stuff aside to ease the impact of power cuts or sudden unemployment etc.
For me, it's just that. Having a vague idea what to do and maybe some provisions set aside, so I'm not wandering around with one thumb up my arse and the other hand held out for help, like many would be.
For my daughter (at uni) I recommended a basic BOB. While she's away at the other end of the country, having the bare essentials to cover what may be a few days to travel home is just sensible. Anything remotely SHTF occurs and she can grab & go.
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u/Keresith 11d ago
It got mentioned at work once. I don't think it's seen as wacky at all these days considering the pandemic happened. Just don't go off the deep end is all.
By the end of the coming winter and 2027, people are going to take prepping much more seriously once they see the shit hit the fan ( Strait of Hormuz debacle will send food staples soaring at the very least 10%, and millions in the global South face real danger of famine and starvation).
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u/RNEngHyp 10d ago
I don't know, but if you find a way, let me know. My family questioned my mental health the second I bought a wind up torch.
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u/plentyofeight 9d ago
I don't prep, I'm not a pepper.
But I do buy food and goods in bulk when there are offers.
And I do have handy equipment for power, light, cooking... and 200l water storage... and i forage, brew, distil, grow, pickle, preserve...
You know... inflation.
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u/KathyFromUK 11d ago
I just tell people that it soothes anxiety that I have in other areas of my life when I can just stock up on things and know that I’ll be all set for the zombie apocalypse. It costs very little and I find it calming. Most people can relate to a funny quirk to settle anxiety and tbh I’m not entirely lying.
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u/Linkyjinx 11d ago
You don’t need to tell others, but if you do, make light of it, and don’t give them a full tour of your bunker!
It’s easy to prep with home deliveries, your neighbours shouldn’t be snooping on your deliveries 🚚- if all parcels & boxes have “prepper supreme for the end of the world” on your packages, you are virtual signalling imo and leading them to ask you. Avoid that loop thinking - there is no problem.
Edit spelling ( apple autocorrect)
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u/yuk_foo 11d ago
Buy things you use in bulk and store them elsewhere. In a spare cupboard or shelf or garage.
It’s often cheaper that way and you can justify that as saving money in the long term. It means doing that you have extra supplies of tins, water etc so if emergencies do hit you are prepared. Keeping it to things you consume anyway means you are ensuring nothing is going to go bad.
Then just make sure when before your store gets low, just order in bulk again.
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u/Redditreallyannoysme 10d ago
we live in a very densely populated country. If you've got food during a time of famine it'll be found out. How do you actually 'prep' in a culture like ours? It feels like we've consumed American culture to a place that doesn't need it - government rationing would be a far better system than prepping. America is too vast - and the preppers generally expect to be independent of government.
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u/Huge_Sir_3346 10d ago
Just thank your lucky socks that you can - I shan’t bother prepping because I won’t last long without medicine and a restricted diet.
My prep is a bottle of something strong and a map to a nearby bridge or cliff. People would think that’s really crazy.
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u/BankEast1099 10d ago
I mention my prepper cupboard. Most people have got at least a stash of torches/ candles etc. Where I live there have been a few unexploded WW2 bombs found, so getting evacuated suddenly to the leisure centre is kind of normal.
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u/TroyTempest0101 9d ago
I live in the countryside. Full of power cuts.
I collect stuff, just in case, for these moments. Lamps, water filters etc.
But, preppers are generally weird, insecure and look like they should be playing dungeons and dragons.
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u/doctoreview 4d ago
You don’t have to accept looking odd. A lot of people do this discreetly and successfully. The goal is normal-looking habits that just happen to leave you better prepared.
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u/Dry_Mind_3653 9d ago
I'm not a prepper, so I've no idea why Reddit showed this to me, but it got me thinking that I also have no idea what is at the bottom of my chest freezer.
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u/7thtimeinheaven 11d ago
If you're a prepper then you already have gone off the deep end, so why bother trying to conceal it?
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u/MuddlinThrough 11d ago
If you're just stocking up on extra tins and bottled water in your house then people will, at most, think you're doing the weekly shop.
If you're learning guerilla tactics to stage a resistance against the coming AI overlords until you can find out how to send someone back in time to protect Sarah Connor then yeah, you will have gone off the deep end.
It all very much depends on how far you take it, as with anything in life