Prepping for Brexit thread

Living_proof

I was talking to a friend tonight (last night?) about the possible delays to port situation. I live quite close to Immingham so that is something of a relief, but of course most produce will be shipped to central distribution warehouses throughout the country.

He brought up an interesting point that there would be priority given at the ports and holding centres to livestock and fresh produce, with more shelf stable items taking a back seat. It would make sense to me in that not only are these items the most perishable but we'd need them the most. So it could be all the small useful items we are used to getting through Amazon and Ebay etc. which might be the ones held up the longest. If the pound tanks due to the uncertainty the products from the States and China will almost certainly go up in price. My washing machine is having odd turns and may be on its last legs, so perhaps now would be a good time to replace it before April?

fuddle

It is because of my food preps that we were able to relocate back home when redundancy hit. We used up our food stores to save our grocery budget for a rental deposit. We had two months until D day and that extra money saw we had the funds needed when we needed.

Food stores, in my opinion, are a flexible and handy tool to have for scenarios that a person might not have even thought about.

The practise is just sensible with or without the word Brexit thrown in.

Nargleblast

Jil you have reminded me of the tinned pilchard pate I made years ago, must try it with the sardines.

Kah22 good point - even if we experience no issues with food supplies as we leave the EU (which may turn out to be the case), there will always be some retailers who will grab any excuse to put their prices up. ("HOW MUCH???" " Well, it's Brexit, innit?")

[Deleted User]

We must each do as our intuition drives us, some of us like to have stocks of various items because it makes us feel safer and some of us prefer not to because it seems alarmist to worry about possibles rather than definites. Neither side of that thinking is right or wrong so on an individual basis it might be far less irritating to just make what preparations seem sensible or do nothing and wait to see what actually happens after Brexit . The end of March is not far away so we don't have long to wait to see the outcome of all our ponderings and find what it is we have do live with for the future.


I'll carry on as I always have and stock my little extra cupboard knowing that if we have an unexpected bill come in or we need to replace some equipment (the washing machine is pretty ancient) we'll be able on our pension to still feed ourselves adequately, we really only like simple food anyway, by using things from the store to top up what we can afford to buy fresh. It's a very old fashioned attitude I do realise that but it's been formed by a lifetime of experience.

lessonlearned

I couldn't agree more. Having a well stocked cupboard just makes sense....Brexit or no Brexit. I tend to do this as a matter of course every winter.

This last few days I haven't been too well, the last thing I felt like doing was having to face the crowds bagging the sales bargains to go out and do some food shopping. I was able to shop from my stores, and stay home warm and cosy whilst I got better.

Now that twelfth night has been and gone and day to day life gets back to normal I shall start replenishing my stocks today, just in case we do get another BEast From the East. Whilst I'm at it I'll add a few extras for Brexit, again just in case.

dreaming

crafty_witch wrote: »

Last year during the infamous beast from the east our village was completely cut off for 2 days. We are not particularly small and are less than 5 miles from one of the major cities in the region, so we're hardly rural. I was genuinely amazed by the number of people who posted on our local fb group page asking for basics such as milk and bread. I suppose because keeping full cupboards has always been second nature to me I genuinely didn't realise how close to the seat of their pants some people fly with stocks of essentials. At least 2 people posted asking if anyone had spare infant formula! This was a forecasted snowfall and we were warned it was going to be bad in our part of the world so it beggars belief that you wouldn't at least keep a couple of tins of formula in! I lost count of the number of people asking for spare nappies for their little ones because they had or were about to run out!
Maybe this is something that the majority of us on here don't need to think about, but its certainly worth mentioning to any families with infants that it might be good idea to get a few spare tins in, just until we know what the lie of the land is.

I have been thinking about those people who are on very low wages/benefits, who may not have the spare cash to stock up ahead of time. My eldest child and her partner are in this position (partner is disabled and eldest is carer) so their finances are quite precarious at the best of times. Their organisational skills are also not the best (both have ASD) so they do tend to live "on the edhe" sp to speak. Although I do try to advise them, they are not particularly receptive to advice so I have been getting together a small stock of things for them in the case of an emergency - whatever it might be. It did make me realise that although keping a good stock cupboard is second nature to me it may not be to others - either through lack of knowledge or lack of resources. Of course there are those who just choose not to bother, as is their right, but I wonder if foodbanks are preparing? I mus find out about my local one.

lessonlearned

I realised I had quite a lot of nectar points so today I have spent them on some extra bits and pieces. All stuff I would normally buy anyway, taking advantage of some of offers they had on.

One thing I did notice is that their own label paracetamol had disappeared. The shelf was empty.

fuddle

New Zealand were dealing with a paracetamol shortage towards the end of the year. Restrictions were in place for consumers. They may still be in a shortage period now the year has turned for all we know.

I doubt Sainsbury's running low is connected but it shows me that whether high demand or a fire at a manufacturing plant can put a spanner in the works. My paracetamol stocks are high at the beginning of the season as anything can go wrong, I can't take NSAIDs and if I'm ill I can't be shopping, travelling, being out in bad weather.

Just me being sensible again.

betterlife

I popped into Asd* today to change some school trousers that didn’t fit my son, I thought I’d have a look around at there grocery’s as I normally do an online Tes*o shop so thought I’d compare a few prices whilst in there. I was quite surprised at how many empty spaces there was on a late Monday morning (as I would of thought shelves would of been stocked already) there was no tinned potatoes of any kind, no ground black pepper, loads of empty spaces on herbs & spices shelf, lots empty spaces on rice and pasta, cheap tins of veg was very sparse. The cheaper brands of flour only a couple packs left. Also I remember someone commenting (here or prepping thread) about supermarkets being low or running out of milk, my local coop has had barely any milk for 3 days (having deliveries not sure if not getting much in or selling out fast!) Sainsbug has apparently had same issue and asd* had no green top today? Not quite sure what’s going on there?
Back to the tinned and dried goods, I’m wondering if more people are actually stocking up than we think? Or perhaps less is getting to supermarkets and being stored in prep?

Primrose

Yes, I too have always kept a well stocked storecupboard. I suppose I picked up on my mother's anxiety about food stocks during the last war when I was a child and how eager she was always to have a few things on a top shelf somewhere when she could produce some kind of meal for nothing when her food ration coupons were running low.


My parents retired to a delightfully hilly place which occasionally got cut off by snow for several days in winter so whenever I visited I always tried to take some "useful supplies" in for them. Strangely the one essential which people seem to forget about is toilet rolls. The body continues to function regardless of outside influences so always worth having an emergency supply when bad weather threatens.