Well, yeah, no fucking shit!
I wonder if Im going to go back to work in August (if i can afford $20 a gallon gas) and hear a single fucking “wow, you were absolutely right about how totally turbo fucked everything is about to be and we were all wrong to look at you like you were crazy when you asked if we’re stockpiling rice or anything the moment trump invaded iran”
Or…we can get busy figuring out how to
lastlay foundations for a better world for everyone.
I’ve been warning people about this possibility for months. Ofc no one listens. Oh well, I have a dry stock of food for about three months and am growing it slowly. I am also slowly stocking up on gasoline when i can afford to drop 20 bucks on a 5-gallon container and 25 on gas. Unfortunately, networking is all but impossible because I live in hog country.
The worst part: It is impossible to stop now.
The Strait has been closed for almost two and a half months now. If inventories continue to decline at this 10 million barrel a day pace June, the world will be at operational stress levels, by September refineries and pipelines will reach operational floor and start shutting down. This is assuming a demand destruction of 5.6 barrels a day by June due to prices.
And most people still don’t understand just how bad it’s going to get.
I know the tidal wave of hell is on the way, but I would really like to know what we should stockpile to weather it as best we can? I don’t know what in particular is going to hurt the worst when it runs out or is rationed or is otherwise unaffordable. We already stocked up a bit on toilet paper, though we need less of it now because we also buy re-usable wipe stuff for most things. I can’t really think of what is going to be affected by this in the short to medium-term.
I also don’t know if it would behoove us to get a solar panel + battery for charging small devices and things. I always wanted one and if that could somehow help before it becomes impossible to buy one later on then I’d rather do that now while we can.
Assuming you’re in the US, I imagine most places aren’t going to have long-term power outages, at least not yet. So I don’t think a small solar panel is worth the investment in this context. Small devices just don’t use much energy compared to heating, cooling, and cooking. They’re fun little gadgets though.
It’s primarily gonna be rising costs across the board, and secondarily supply line issues due to that, with compounding effects for some commodities. Obviously anything that’s imported (almost everything in the US) is gonna get hit harder, anything with complex manufacturing that has to be shipped to multiple places during assembly, etc.
A bidet is an easy choice, you can get one for like $20 and hook it up yourself.
Getting anything necessary to cook cheaper food might be worth the investment. A pressure cooker, rice cooker, and/or crockpot. There’s some pretty cool solar cookers out there too. Doesn’t hurt to have a month or more of dry goods like (imported) rice and beans. They’re still cheap and last forever.
Trying to figure out a heating/cooling plan might be worth it. Temperature change is energy intensive so if electricity/gas costs spike during seasonal extremes a lot of people are gonna be seeing four figure utility bills out of nowhere. Find the report of your monthly usage during the hottest/coldest months and extrapolate to higher unit costs. In some cases it’s more efficient to climate control a single room than a whole house/apartment (but don’t let your pipes freeze in winter). I got a window heat pump for this.
Uncommon necessities like medications are worth stocking up on to whatever degree possible, since supply lines are unpredictable and random shit can become difficult to obtain. This includes a weaning plan as a backup, if that’s relevant.
Most important is networking in your community.
Solar and batteries are incredibly cheap right now. But you’re still looking at like $1500 minimum as far as mitigating energy cost spikes. If you install everything yourself, panels are like $0.50/watt new, $0.30/watt used. Plus $500-1500 for an inverter. If you need to run at night or during bad weather then batteries will ~double that cost.
When I was planning it out I figured ~$2,500 might be enough batteries/solar to run like a small heat pump to control a single room or RV/van.
If you grid tie or (legally and safely) use wall-plug or plan for primarily using electricity during the day, you can get by without batteries. In places with hourly or peak electric rates (utility company charges lower rates at night than during the day), that can be viable.
I have batteries of all types wrapped in foil and in the freezer, hand crank charger/radios, thermal blankets, but the best thing that I’ve been stocking up on for a long time is pounds of dry beans and rice in airtight containers because those will last a long long time
It’s hard to say what’s actually going to start running out cause supply chains are so complex, and it’s often things you don’t even think about normally. Having necessities stocked up now for at least a few months is probably a good idea if you can. And yeah, stuff like solar panels and batteries could esily explode in price as the demand grows.
Feels like energy and utility costs are becoming a bigger issue everywhere lately. A lot of people are already struggling with higher bills and extra fees, so if oil prices keep rising this could easily make things even worse for regular consumers
I personally dislike the word “consumers”, reduces people to money-spending agents. What do you think about this?
Summer vacation is CANCELED
