When SHTF, a lot of folks here may be stocked to the hilt with canned foods, buckets of dried foods, rice, etc. when shit really begins to hit the fan there are a few major reasons why you should steer clear of your stockpile for as long as possible:
# 1
If it gets to the point where do you feel compelled to start consuming your prep, then that means things are likely not gonna be getting better for a very long time, which means that you should be out there in the streets/stores groveling for whatever remaining supplies you can get, and continuing to stockpile excess while reducing your consumption to subsistence levels.
By the time that available supply runs out, everybody who has no prep will perish (this is not a good thing - don't celebrate the demise of others, just because they were too ignorant to prepare). After this period of time passes, there will be a lot fewer remaining people to consume whatever resources remain, which means that you may not have to dip into your stockpile to survive. If things continue downwards from this point (think of a worst case scenario like a nuclear winter), you will still have whatever number of months of supplies that you started with to survive the real SHTF that ensues.
Reason # 1 could be summed up as "shit can always get much worse".
# 2
The next reason is that you may think shit has hit the fan, and so you begin to consume your stockpile, and then suddenly things turn around and start getting better, and now you have consumed your stock pile and you are no longer prepared for whatever comes next, while the likelihood of another SHTF scenario probably increases exponentially after this point in time (due to all the systems that will have failed as a result of the first SHTF).
# 3
If your neighbors and everybody around you have been going to the store/other resource pool, and you have just been comfortably hiding out in your house (to avoid chaos, etc.), then the likelihood of somebody nearby realizing that you are stocked up goes up increases.
The first point stands on its own and should be reason enough to follow this advice.
BONUS
Whatever food preps you have, add 100 pounds of rice AND 1 water filter (life straw or Sawyer Mini) per person to that. It's cheap AF, you can buy cheap mylar bags from Amazon and oxygen absorbers to put in those bags and the race will last for many years. And then you will have about six months extra runway when SHTF.
Here are the mylar bags:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MDWBMY4/
Here are the oxygen absorbers:
I don't want to sound like a moron, but I'm not prepped at all. I was going to use being a nomad to avoid any bad situations, but now the entire world seems screwed with lockdowns and supply chain issues.
I hear you; in the long run the nomadic lifestyle might help you avoid chaos, but in the short run and in the long run you're gonna need food and water, so make sure you are very prepared. Spend a few hundred dollars minimum to buy bags of rice and mylar bags to store it in. Even the Bible has much to say about being prepared:
https://offgridsurvival.com/bibleteachespreparedness/
Here are the mylar bags:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MDWBMY4/
Here are the oxygen absorbers:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q4XTJKY/
Just put a few oxygen absorbers in each one with rice and then use your iron to seal them (takes about one second to seal each one with your iron on medium high). Make sure you don't open your oxygen absorbers and expose them to the air until you're ready to use them and keep their bag sealed after you take each few out, to limit oxygen exposure to the remaining absorbers.
This whole process should take you no longer than an hour, and shouldn't cost you more than $80, including bags, etc., for about three months prep. 20 pounds of rice is enough food for one person for a month.
Yeah I'm looking to start settling in to one place. I actually don't even like to be nomadic, I just kept finding places that I didn't think were good enough. I tried staying in a central American country and found out the president was a commie who was totally onboard the WEF agenda.
I'm just keeping my head down and putting in work on some skills that hopefully will help me get through whatever comes. And when I pray about where I should be, I feel the Lord is telling me I should be where I am. But yeah it seems wise to at least start buying a few months backup food. Thanks for the info.