Panic Buying during a "Stay-at-home" Order


The schools have been closed for two weeks now. But it will remain closed for another month. Or more. In fact, there's no guarantee the school will even reopen for the remaining part of the year. And that would be super, super sad.

I have spent the past couple of months working on planning our school Fun Run and now everything is on hold. Should I continue working on it and assume it will be postponed? With the coronavirus growing exponentially in the USA every day, it's feeling more and more like school and everything along with it will be canceled this year. It's my son's last year in elementary and he may not have a graduation. It's my last year chairing the Fun Run and I wanted it to be the best one yet. I've been super organized and now, it may not even matter. My Fun Run souvenirs were purchased awhile ago and have arrived and I don't even know what to do with them.

Everyone in every part of the world has been negatively impacted by this COVID-19 pandemic. For us, it means no more swimming classes and no more preschool for my daughter, no Spring soccer for my son, canceled races, no more PTSA work for me until further notice, and no more visitors or play dates. My husband is now working from home and it's definitely more stressful for me to try and keep the kids away from the office. Because they think it's so much fun bugging him! It's an adjustment but we are lucky in so many ways. Pretty much everything is closed, except for grocery stores and essential businesses but thanks to me, we can all safely stay at home. I can help homeschool and care for my kids while my husband works hard at his job. Because we definitely need him to keep his job.


The "stay-at-home" order is easier for us than other families because we tend to stay at home a lot anyway. We typically only eat out maybe once or twice a month so it wasn't a problem for us to adjust to eating at home every day. We still go out for walks in the neighborhood and we run on the trail as a family three times a week. We just make sure we're a safe social distance from other people. The kids are doing more homeschooling and whatever distance education is provided by their teachers. But we don't always stay on schedule. We definitely slack off a lot.

Shelves at Trader Joe's from panic buyers.
I regularly stock up on goods when they go on sale so I didn't start panic buying until a week ago. The things I was buying was more out of the concern there would be a supply chain disruption rather than essentials we needed right now. For instance, I bought extra bottles of my favorite shampoo/conditioner from Trader Joe's and stocked up on Nespresso capsules. A lot of our products are imported after all.

We have at least a month supply of the following foods:
  • Brown Rice
  • White Rice
  • Sugar
  • Flour
  • Canned corn
  • Canned chickpeas & dry chickpeas
  • Dry mushroom
  • Canned diced tomatos
  • Canned sardines
  • Can clams
  • Chicken, veggie & seafood bouillon
  • Soy sauce & oyster sauce
  • Salt/pepper
  • Dry herbs
  • Maple syrup, agave syrup, honey
  • Peanut butter
  • Cooking oil
  • Coconut oil & popcorn kernel
  • Butter
  • Soy milk
  • Peanuts & other assorted nuts
  • Assorted dry fruit
  • Savory snacks like seaweed crackers, chips
  • Wine
We have at least a two week supply of these:
  • Dry pasta
  • Dry noodles
  • Can tomato paste
  • Instant noodles
  • Coffee
  • Chocolate (of course!)
  • Tofu
  • Kombucha
  • Frozen salmon & shrimp
  • Frozen fruit & vegetables
We also have maybe a month and a half supply of toilet paper. And two weeks supply of shampoo and conditioner. And a month supply of cleaning supplies, as well as baking soda/vinegar, which I also use for cleaning our sinks. The kids have a lot of activities and toys and none of us are in need of things like clothes and shoes since we already purchased a lot of this back in November and December. When they were on sale. Lol.

I'm embarrass to admit that we're natural hoarders but because of this, we didn't have to panic buy as much. We're good for a month for most things and we could even stretch that to a couple of months if we needed to. In fact, if we run out of pasta or can't buy bread one day, I can make my own from scratch using my stock pile of flour. Lol. I am so fortunate to be able to take care of my family in this way.

This is a stressful time for all of us and it helps to remind ourselves about all the things we are grateful for. None of us are sick right now. None of our family in Canada and France are sick with the coronavirus either. We have some financial security. We have Internet and multiple devices. We have Amazon Prime. We can easily go outside and exercise and enjoy the fresh air, unlike some other countries. I feel tremendous sadness for those who are sick in the world and the families of those who have died. I also feel bad for those who are healthy but will struggle to survive because of our troubled economy. Let us all do our part in social distancing and stay at home so this nightmare will end. Please don't be a "covidiot."

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