Prepping on the Down Low

For all intents and purposes only you and members of your household should know you are stockpiling food and other supplies.  First and foremost do not talk about your stocks and stress to other members of your household to do the same.  That means your neighbours should not be seeing you bring in 50 bags of groceries.  Your pantry stocks should be kept away from the eyes of anyone visiting your home including friends, extended family, utility servicemen and repairmen.  

I personally prefer to call it staying under the wire.  Don't draw attention to yourself.  Don't draw attention to what you are doing.  

Yesterday, I went to the grocery store specifically for a few items for the pantry and yet no one would have suspected that.  I spent $67.  Items were: miso broth, a bag of dried beans, bag of arborio rice, bag of sticky rice, can of sliced olive, 2 cans flaked turkey, baking powder, rice paper, 2 pk spaghetti, sm tub flavoured cream cheese, sm block of cheese, bag of apples, 1 zucchini, 1 tomato, pk mini cucumbers, romaine lettuce, radishes, and cilantro.  Rather than using credit card (normal for points), I used cash something I've been doing a lot more of.  Nothing was glaring obvious.  That's the way it should be.  The neighbours would have seen me bring in 2 bags of presumably groceries but really could be anything since the purchase was in reusable cloth bags.  Most times I pull into our attached garage, close the garage door then unload so no one sees anything other than me going into the garage.  This time I didn't.

Ordering online is very convenient especially for items we would otherwise have to drive to a larger community for.  One thing that is a concern is ordering online because neighbours and passerbys can see how many deliveries you have.  Amazon has taken to splitting orders which doesn't help.  If I order flour, seafood, cheeses etc directly from the company and have an Amazon order on the way, it is quite possible that there two delivery trucks in a day.  Not every day, but still noticeable.  The other concern is the cardboard boxes.  We don't want them at the curb for recycle pickup to draw further attention.  Instead, we crush the boxes and hubby takes them to the waste transfer station.

Speaking of recycling.  We no longer put our recycle bins out on a regular basis due to our extensive waste reduction attempts.  At best our bins go to the curb twice a year and usually about 15 minutes before the scheduled pickup.  While this is not normal for our neighbourhood, folks likely just figure that we don't recyle.  We generate a kitchen catcher of waste that goes out weekly on schedule except during the winter months.  Technically it takes us over a month to fill a regular garbage bag.  Now while this seems to not fit in with our neighbourhood, it has been our normal pattern for over 10 years so by now, the neighbours or passerbys wouldn't think anything of it.

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