Let’s try to lift the mood a little.
My most inspired panic buy? Whisky? Mint sauce*? Yeah, I know, not very impressive. But how about this - our friend Anne has just panic bought a pair of scissors. What? Why? Simple - in case her husband has to cut her hair.
Now that is inspired panic buying. Made me laugh too.
What have you got?
j
Who doesn’t already own a pair of scissors? Unless she needed a dedicated pair for hair.
For me, I just bought a decent amount of bulk food items (rice, flour, sugar, oil and margarine). There was still tons of it left on the shelf, so I wan’t taking it away from other people
When this is all over, if I don’t need it I’m just going to donate much of it to the food pantry. I don’t do a lot of cooking with flour and when I eat rice, there is a special kind I like (instead I just bought big bags of the cheapest long white rice I could find). This is more of a survival thing than buying the kinds of rice I really enjoy.
A month worth of survival food for $35. Can’t beat that.
I have become a hoarder.
The grocery store parking lot in my small town (pop 5,000) was overflowing and I was nearly out of coffee. I went the nearby CVS and they only had two jars of my favored Folgers Crystals. I bought both jars, then went to three more stores in neighboring towns and bought the last two jars in each of them.
Poppers and Lube.
That’s the stuff!
Quick reminder: Keyword - Inspired; Key phrase - Lift the mood.
Er, what are poppers and lube?
j
Nothin’. I’m already a hoarder, who buys tons of stuff in bulk to save money, and when this transpired, I happened to be at the peak of a buying arc on most things, so BWAHAHAHAHA! to those of you who laughed at my ways, or scoffed at my ability to make my own bagels! I have frozen fruit and vegetables, canned beans, bags of flour, and can stay holed up for weeks. I even have water, because I bought it for the RO fish tank, but heck, that tank can stay dirty. I’m going to cut changes in half, and save the water.
I have not even been in a retail store since this started, albeit, I had fruit, and the soda my son likes delivered.
I got coffee. I got powdered milk. I got cans of soup (I hate cooking soup). I got potatoes. I got boxes of cereal. I got OTC meds in big bottles. I got dogfood and catfood and fishfood. I got dried pasta, olive oil, dried spices, and frozen tomatoes. I can make pasta for days and days. I got soy hot dogs in the freezer. I got a full cheese drawer in the fridge. I got enough toilet paper for six weeks. Got extra soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes. You wouldn’t believe what I’ve got!
But Shhhhhh! don’t tell my neighbors!
I’m not a good panic shopper. I can’t figure out what to buy and I end up buying weird stuff. Yesterday I bought like 2 pounds of sausage and 6 tubes of refrigerated biscuit dough. Because I like sausage biscuits, I guess. And ramen lots of ramen. Even though I haven’t actually eaten ramen for years.
And rice, because it was the last big bag. Even though we have a ton and hardly ever eat rice. So I got home yesterday at around dinnertime and my brother had cooked a BIG pot of rice. Nothing else. In fairness, we had lots of leftovers that paired well with rice. But I still think it was a comment on my panic shopping.
Local chain store has a sale, 30% off booze. And free delivery. The pantry is stocked.
Almost bought a watch from a guy in China on Facebook - $3K for a watch worth about $5K - in the end I couldn’t do it. I offered to just send him a few bucks to help out but never heard back.
Thirty new books, 6 boxes of good chocolate, and 18 bottles of my favorite inexpensive wine. Oh, wait! there is a virus pandemic happening! maybe I should stock up.
Think San Francisco bathhouse scene 1982.
Damn, I forgot the poppers and lube. On the right side, I already had whiskey and mint sauce. I just ordered two books (a new complete Gaudi photobook and When You Are Engulfed in Flames), though this is an indulgence. If I go to the store, I’ll get ginger and jalapenos.
I’ve never liked you more. 
Also, I only just now remembered the whole “handshake/rape” thing with you. (I have a shitty memory, y’all. Umkay took up my last brain cell.) Anyway, you must be laughing your tail off at that aspect of the pandemic. Who knew, you were just ahead of your time!
Oh, uh, I’m not panic buying. Well, okay, I may get 2 cartridges instead of 1 next dispensary run. Whoo boy, crazy lady here.
I’ve never liked you more. 
Also, I only just now remembered the whole “handshake/rape” thing with you. (I have a shitty memory, y’all. Umkay took up my last brain cell.) Anyway, you must be laughing your tail off at that aspect of the pandemic. Who knew, you were just ahead of your time!
Oh, uh, I’m not panic buying. Well, okay, I may get 2 cartridges instead of 1 next dispensary run. Whoo boy, crazy lady here.
My favorite Yehuda Original Gefilte Fish was on sale at the grocery store for less than I can get it for by the case on Amazon, so I stocked up (the same amount as I’d get from Amazon - I left plenty for other fortune hunters). Oddly, I was the only one buying! Seems like good apocalypse/post-apocalypse food.
Oh. So that’s like a loofah and shampoo - right?
j
Not exactly a panic buy…
But I did head out on the weekend and bought a whole lot of veggie starter plants - probably more than I would have usually bought. Will be digging the beds this weekend, and putting in peas, broad beans, argula, spinach, mustard greens, and planting seeds for bok choy. Too early for carrots or beets or potatoes, but have the seeds for the first two ready to go.
I did the same this morning, since several of our garden centers are outdoors. Still wound up having to pay for seeds inside. The organics place had a big shipment of broccoli starts in this morning, opened at 10:00, and was out of broccoli by the time I got there at 11:30.
I haven’t for this pandemic. I’m already a hoarder of sorts, so we have a lot of stuff “on habd” already.
BUT…in 2006? when the world was a’quiver over bird flu, I started researching silver. I did actually buy some silver water, and I ALMOST bought a silver generator.
I might still buy a silver generator…
~VOW
I bought a trampoline. It’s a little one, but for adults–not one of the ones for toddlers, with a handle. It’s like 2 feet across. I ordered it from Amazon on Saturday when my 8-year old started methodically jumping from couch to chair to couch to coffee table to couch and I realized that I was not gonna survive this. It was $100 I hadn’t planned to spend, but that’s cheaper than a new couch.
He’s been jumping on it all afternoon, and just a minute ago he tried to jump on the couch and found it limp and unsatisfying. So, mission accomplished.