DH and his Brexit cupboard

[Anymom]

Dh has converted two of our kitchen units into his Brexit cupboard! He has filled them up with all sorts of tinned delacacies including different beans, chilli and dogs (hot!)
He's also stockpiled toilet rolls, medicines, cleaning products etc. It's all stashed away in his new Brexit cupboard, that we have been warned not to touch! I darent tell him that the dc have already been in there hunting for chocolate. They were disappointed to find numerous bags of rice and pasta but alas no chocolate. Seems he has got his priorities mixed up! 😁
AIBU to think this is unnecessary and over the top? I need help to convince him as he talking about stockpiling and filling up the freezer and I'm dreading what concoctions I will find in there! All joking aside, it is just Dh panicking isn't it? We don't really need to be stockpiling food in one of the richest countries of the world, do we?

Lucky you, @PerfectlyPetty . I have a couple of fussy ones in my house. Also, meal fatigue is a real thing and having an increasingly antsy household saying "not bloody dry pasta again" is not something I relish. If things get tricky, having a half decent home cooked meal can be something to look forward to and make a difficult day go better. Why not make sensible plans for that now rather than "hoping for the best" for some ideological reason.
And plenty of people struggle to feed their family now. A bit of planning and a SMALL investment in stuff now can hurt no one.

I suspect if you do actually like plain pasta and rice and would be happy to subsist on that for a bit, that's probably the reason why you don't understand people stocking up on dried herbs.

Food in a big freezer can last quit a few hours without power, if the freezer is full. BUT I am banking on there being electricity, I must admit. Ditto for petrol.

If we get to the point where those things are gone then it is a whole new situation and our society will start to break down. Losing your freezer supplies will be the tip of a very big iceberg. Any sustained loss of power will basically destroy society in short order (no internet, will demolish provision of healthcare, schools, all levels of government, law enforcement, national security etc etc). Despite the f*wits running our country I really really don't believe that is going to happen.

I am banking on there being electricity too. I'm not getting to the stage where I'm investigating buying a generator! But considering everything is still so up in the air with only 6 weeks to go, frankly people scoffing at sensible types having a few weeks food supplies to hand are the ones to be mocked. I suspect though they're the pro Brexit brigade who think planning for anything other than sunlit upland scenario is unpatriotic.

In fairness we didn't buy a generator for this (this thread has actually sparked the discussion of stocking up with DP!), we already have one. And i hope we don't need it!

Meal fatigue hits hard in this house when money is tight. It causes a lot of crankiness!

II m a Brit in the EU and have a non-Brexit related stockpile here, we were advised to have a certain amount in by our government 18 months ago.

As well as the non perishable foods, we have batteries, candles, first aid kit etc.

I also have a number of small bottles of vodka/brandy, which I can drink, use as a disinfectant or to barter with.

Also, we were advised to keep some cash available too, just in case the banking systems go down.

The first sign of trouble and I’d be out to stock up on booze and fags (we don’t smoke) but figure they’d be good as a ready currency.

So what is going to happen straight after Brexit - all the supermarkets will suddenly run out of everything? I’m confused - Like when in a zombie apocalypse, people are rushing to the supermarkets and stripping the shelves bare? Is this really what is going to happen?? Has someone reported this or something - have I missed something?

It’s far from impossible.

No-one scoffs at me having life insurance when I am not actually planning or expecting to die any time soon. No-one scoffs at me for having car insurance even though I am not planning or expecting to involved in a crash any time soon. But these things could happen and if they do, the insurance is there. No-one makes rude remarks about insurance or calls you bonkers for having it.

So why scoff at those of us who want to insure being able to continue to provide healthy diets to our children, even if the absence of the food from the shelves is not necessarily expected? It COULD plausibly happen. And in fact it is much more effective and sensible than life insurance, for example. If I don't die this month the money I spent to insure my life this month is simply wasted. I don't get it back. But if there are no food supply problems come April the money I spent on my pantry is not wasted at all. I still have all the food I bought.

@cobblers. I laughed at loud at your comment. At those prices for loo rolls, I'll be using leaves, thanks.

@NCjustforthisthread it is likely that food distribution systems will be badly affected by no deal and so in tbe immediate run up to and just after Brexit, this will badly affect stock levels . Given how freaked out people get over

• low stock at KFC
• supermarkets when it snows
• supermarkets during the petrol strikes (if you are old enough to remember)

-Black Friday sales

.. do you really want to be in any part of that? Do recent events fill you with reassurance that everyone will be orderly and calm? Really?

Which is why making sensible additions to your pantry now and also thinking of reasonable alternatives to fresh produce you like is a good idea.
I'm not willing to take chances with feeding my family in a reasonable way. Are you?

Sky news (Faisal Islam was the journalist) were leaked some presentation slides from border officers saying for the 3-6months after brexit, if we have a no deal, then freight across the channel is expected to drop by 75-87%. On top of this, only 1200 UK lorry drivers now have permits to drive in the EU when 40,000 were needed.
So yes, stock up and do it quick and plan for a long time. Everything in the shops is at risk of being in very short supply if no deal happens. Even if a deal does happen, we're still knackered though hopefully not to the same extent. I would recommend following Faisal in Twitter. @faisalislam

Do we get to add "zombie apocalypse" to Brexit bingo along with "millenium bug" and "we will run out of the finite stock of tins bought in 1987 if you buy two now" @TheElementsSong ?

NCjust You don't need a zombie apocalypse. Ever seen footage of Black Friday sales? And that is for the chance of a cheap TV, not food for your child.

If you had ever lived in places where the shops can and do run out of food, you would understand. FWIW I don't think will happen at all. Just possibly shortages of certain items (and I don't want to take the chance of those being the items that my child will eat). Medicine does worry me a bit, not for myself, no-one here is on any essential medication (although I don't fancy running out of my HRT!), but with regard to the healthcare setting where I work.

It's really pretty normal to have in a small buffer stock. Quite a lot of.governments or government agencies in different countries including developed 1st world do advise their citizens to do this in case of disruption due to whatever cause. And in a bunch of other not so developed countries you run a big pantry because supplies are erratic and if you don't get tuna when it's in the shop you might not see it for another 2 months. I fail to see what suddenly makes this (a personal supplies buffer) a ludicrous concept on this island.

Most people in Britain is used to society functioning as it has for the last 70 years. They can't envisage things not functioning along the same lines as they are now. Hence the OTT reactions when there are minor blips such as KFC running out of chicken for a few days, a spell of heavy snow, or O2 having a 24hr loss of service. People run around like headless chickens. That's why it makes perfect sense to plan in advance just in case. Like the mention upthread of life insurance even though you don't envisage dying. It's just a sensible thing to do.

'are used to'

I think the people who are scoffing at prepers probably fall into a few different camps:

1. Uninformed or incompletely informed (have reasons why they have not been able to follow/understand the news eg cognitive or mental health issues, or simply live in a family or section of society where they cannot or do not interact much with current affairs). I feel sorry for them.
2. Incorrectly informed (have put their faith in false prophets). I feel sorry for them but not as much.
3. Informed but don't care as they don't believe they will be affected themselves (eg very wealthy, already have resources to rise above any problems, can just leave the country etc). I don't feel sorry for them.
4. Informed and well aware of the dangers but are happy as they are making something out of this chaos (eg a certain Mr Rees-Mogg). I feel something very different from sorry for them...

should have read preppers

falcon5 exactly. When I was growing up we had a chest freezer and the meat would be bought for a few months at a time, and topped up when there were special offers, someone had killed an antelope, my father was given a whole lamb as a present by a client etc etc. Nothing odd a out having a few months' worth of supplies.

Ive just had a quick stocktake. I think we'll be OK with the food, as I have a massive 10kg tub of red lentils and another of yellow split peas, flour and yeast and a lot of tins of tomatoes and tinned fish. I may buy a big bag of pasta and rice. Im thinking I might hide them away in the garage for a while. I may keep extra packs of toilet rolls and paracetomol/ Ibruprofen as well as tinned fruit, and Im good to go!

we’ll be able to live off homemade bread, brownies, cornbread and chocolate chip cookies for quite a long time
Would you care to trade for toilet rolls or baked beans when the time comes?? I could quite happily live off your homemade stash

Cheese and butter
Do not bother to freeze them.
Salted butter last for MONTHS
and Cheese is often months old by the time you purchase it.

@bellimisurge Yep, I think we need to refresh our Bingo cards

Oddly also, I seem to have missed the floods of enthusiastic pledges to NOT prepare.

even people that are being sarky about it and taking the piss and possibly tucking something away but keeping quiet about it when truth be known. they see themselves like 'alice' from 'resident evil' types, all macheted up against the zombies .