To ask if you're stockpiling for Brexit...

[Arkos]

Genuinely curious question....
If you are stockpiling for Brexit are you a) making sure you've a free bottle of your favourite wine in just in case it's tricky to obtain and there might be some inconvenience or b) stockpiling enough essentials for months as you are really afraid people will starve.

And if it's b.... what measures have you taken/will take to protect your stash.

Yes. My daughter has a rare disorder and needs prescription medicine and foods.

It's going to be a total mess

I'm getting a few extra bits with my shopping each fortnight and have been for the past couple of months. I've been getting extra tins so far but will start getting frozen fruit and veg now.
It's partly because I'm concerned about shortages but mainly because of price increases, especially on things like fruit which are imported.
In my mind, it just makes sense to stash a few tins of pineapple etc away now in case the price sky rockets after Brexit. If there are no shortages or price hikes them no harm done - it'll all get used eventually.

I haven’t stockpiled for Brexit.

However I keep a well stocked pantry at all times. I am on a low income so I try to buy plenty when things are on offer. If we get bad weather or I am ill then I know I have supplies to keep me going.

If I lose my job then my stock would feed me while I look for another job.

FayFortune, about frozen food, think I read on other Brexit threads that power cuts could happen (I myself am not saying they will or they won't, can't really say). But maybe make sure you have non-frozen items too.

I'm also thinking about Calpol and other OTC medications. Not too crazy, but looking at expiry dates for what I have, and maybe make sure we have a relatively full bottle in date.

Some have also gone toward buying next size up winter coats for their kids, wellies, for the following winter. Again, things that will be used.

No

I'm taking a four part approach, and assuming we are not going to get a Withdrawal Agreement signed so there will be no two year transition period, which seems the most likely outcome at present.

1. Goods from the EU which I enjoy and which will go up in price with the imposition of tariffs. So Italian tinned tomatoes, olive oil, chorizo, a couple of bottles of favourite wine, Parmesan. Could live without all of these but they are nice to have and shelf stable, so if I see them on offer I buy them.

2. Things which are not going to survive sitting in refrigerated lorries for a week at Dover, and which there will be shortages of. The big issue will be fresh fruit and vegetables compounded by a lack of domestic produce caused by the time of year, the poor weather conditions last year and the lack of labour to harvest it. I have a mixture of frozen, dried and tinned substitutes - all things which I eat anyway and enough for a couple of months. I'm not convinced things will all be fine by Summer, but if there are ongoing serious shortages I expect political upheaval and short term responses like cutting back on customs checks.

I don't think expecting shortages on these goods is unrealistic. I've have a fair amount of contact with Defra advisers over the last few years, and they have been universally worried.

3. Things that there should be enough of but which people always panic buy. Stuff like bread, milk, teabags, cheese.

4. Things which shouldn't be directly affected but which it would be a pain in the arse to run out of. So for me: deodorant, toothpaste, soap, washing powder, toilet rolls, bin bags, OTC painkillers, sanpro, light bulbs. I don't think the country is going to run out of those things, but on any given day if you need them, then you need them. If there's big queues at supermarkets, or if perishable goods are prioritised in supermarket deliveries, then it's possible they might not be easily available.

With all these things, I think it's a case of capacity. People who have time, money, access to transport and no specialist dietary requirements will be okay. My mum is retired, on a good pension, has a car. If she needs to, she can drive to different shops until she finds what she needs. It might be more expensive, it might not be her usual brand but she'll be able to find something. I don't have that freedom, so I am putting a contingency plan in place.

Prepper here. Always boring people on these threads with my "prep for three days and take it from there if you want " suggestions.
Plenty of sensible budget friendly advice on Preppers topic.
You don't need to Become a Prepper to build a buffer into your food supply for Brexit. Or bad weather or, in my case, both.

To protect my stash? I'm not telling people in RL that I have it.
If some twat wants to break down my door there is not much I can do about it although my stash isn't all in one place in the house.
I have, as a prepper, bug out bags if we get turfed out. I don't see it coming to that. I have my in-laws house or, at worst, a tent and camping skills if it does. Also have Irish citizenship. I am more of a "run away from trouble" kind of person.

I've bought tinned fruit and veg, raisins and frozen fruit and veg. I think produce will be an issue if delivery and dairy if people panic buy (milk is always the first to go).

The trouble is I don't really want to buy UHT milk as we won't use it unless there actually is a problem, so it might be wasted. DD (2) still breastfeeds so she should be OK but I will need to find some sort of calcium suppliment for me!

I have bought big quantities of rice, pasta, tinned tomatoes, tuna, cereal etc. We will use it eventually anyway and they have really long dates.

@EmUnintitled it's really not that bad, especially if you are using it in cooking etc. Certainly better than nothing, anyway. Powdered milk is another option which has a long shelf life; it also takes up less space.

If you don't need to use it you can / should donate it to a food bank when it's nearing expiry instead of throwing it away.

when the sky doesn't fall in after March

I am hoping that common sense will prevail, but not taking it for granted.

Regardless of food availability it would be a miracle if there were no rises in prices so on that basis alone preppers are not totally bats

Yes, absolutely. I am generally stocked up anyway but am double stocked on stuff that doesn't go out of date - toothbrushes, toilet paper, soap, shampoo, washing power, cleaning fluids etc - and am slowly just adding a few tins and packets each week and making sure the freezer is full. I expect I will manage at least a month with food and longer with the other stuff.

There are going to be problems, I don't doubt it for a moment. I hope it won't get really difficult.

So the sensible and responsible thing to do is to stock up now if you can afford to.

I haven't RTWT, but those who are being switched to universal credit around the same time as Brexit are really going to suffer I think.

I've been tucking a few bits away, but don't have the storage space for very much. I am worried about the possibility of medicine shortages, not only would I become ill without the various ones I am on, the side effects of coming off them suddenly would be awful. That worries me.

I was at Tesco yesterday, and the checkout lady was laughing about a man who had told her that Brexit will push the prices of things up. She was totally dismissing it as scaremongering. Said it was good that we will be able to 'buy and produce British goods once again'. Surprise in store for her before long I think....Shite state of affairs, all of it.

Yes I am.

There’s absolutely no harm in us buying a few extra tins every week. I’m not filling the freezers or anything like that.

Nope 👎

it just makes sense to stash a few tins of pineapple

They come in to the UK from Kenya

@OlderThanAverageforMN . I think you missed "and there will be a special non-clogged up lane for stuff coming in from outside the EU even though we'll have to make a new separate trade deal with Kenya because our current one is made via our EU membership"

I have always felt that as a country, the need to eat in a more seasonal way has become a thing of the past.
I cook from scratch and go local/seasonal if at all possible.
A lack of herbs and spices will be the thing to do me in if anything

I can see the point of stockpiling life-dependant regular meds for chronic conditions though as there isn’t much of a work around their and many people are brand/formulation dependant so it won’t always be a case of going for a different supplier

As someone with a large kitchen garden I can confirm that there is not a lot of seasonal produce ready to eat in March April...

I agree @cloudtree . Pretty foolish to do this in the hungry months and expect home grown produce to magically appear.

I live in Paris.

3 times in recent years I have seen problems with medicine supplies - as in, totally run out, problems producing more, nothing left in pharmacies.

Once it was a calpol equivalent - I went to over 10 different pharmacies before finding one bottle. My 1 year old had a raging temperature and really needed it.

Once it was a prescription medicine for my 3 year old, which he was taking as a daily treatment. I lost count of the number of pharmacies I went to (and I'm in Paris where there is a pharmacy every 100m). No-one had any at all and no-one could order it because there was a problem at the manufacturers. I finally got hold of a dusty box.

The final time was for an obligatory vaccination (here you have to get a prescription and get the vaccination yourself from the pharmacy). Again, I tried lots of different pharmacies and in the end DC had to wait many weeks before being vaccinated.

My point is, we are so used to everything being available when and where we want it. Since running out of calpol, I've always kept a large stock just in case. It all gets used up eventually.

it just makes sense to stash a few tins of pineapple

They come in to the UK from Kenya

But my kids eat canned pineapple by choice.
They won't eat old/mouldy/slightly past it's best fresh fruit. They have a very short list of fruit they will eat. Most of it is not British!
Equally they are very good fresh veg eaters, but not so good at tinned or frozen veg.

So if there is a shortage of fruit and veg in the shops for a couple of weeks, a few cans of pineapple will get vitamins into my kids and they will see it as a treat, not a hardship!

Even if it wasn’t March/April your local producers probably aren’t producing enough of any given fruit or veg to support your entire local population eating only seasonal locally produced stuff.

You get the choice to eat locally/seasonally now because virtually everyone else is getting their fruit and veg elsewhere. It’ll be a whole different experience if you’re having to fight for the last of the tomatoes.

Nope, no room to keep anything.