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What’s your food situation?

276 replies

GreyishDays · 06/04/2020 09:42

Just wondering how everyone is doing.

We had a good start with a Brexit stash. Have had a couple of click and collects and one normal supermarket shop. DH has been checking regularly for stock though. Our supermarket has been up and down in terms of stock.
We have most stuff, couldn’t get cornflakes last week and can’t get tinned tomatoes. Trying to cook with potatoes as much as we can as pasta is sometimes not available. Loo roll arrived as normal last week in the clock and collect.

I think we’ve been quite lucky and fortunate to be able to stock up in advance.

How’s everyone else doing? Missing major stuff and having to eat odd combinations or fairly complete now.

OP posts:
ClientQueen · 06/04/2020 11:02

Shielding and no delivery slots. I have one booked ages ago for the 19th April but after that I have no idea
Out of bread and not much milk left

AvocadosBeforeMortgages · 06/04/2020 11:02

I'm fine for personal use - I've had a Brexit stash that I'm munching my way into.

However, I also run a food business - getting sufficient stocks of sometimes quite specific products has been a headache!

Bluesheep8 · 06/04/2020 11:05

Thankfully my cupboards and freezer were well stocked up for Brexit.

Why? Not being deliberately obtuse, it's a genuine question. Have I missed something? Had people stockpiled for Brexit?Confused
Anyway, all ok and as normal here - just no passata or tinned tomatoes for some reason, as a pp said.

Bluesheep8 · 06/04/2020 11:06

I've had a Brexit stash that I'm munching my way into.

It must just be me!

CeibaTree · 06/04/2020 11:06

We are fine at the moment as we usually do a big Aldi shop at the beginning of each month for tinned/dried things and had been building up these supplies since January when we had an idea that things would get bad. We were hoping we were wrong, but there you have it. We bulk buy things like toilet roll, long-life milk and peanut butter from Amazon anyway, and get a fruit, eggs and veg box delivered every two weeks and a meat/fish box every six weeks which is due this week. So we are in a very fortunate position. My DH went to our local M&S (only as it's our nearest grocery shop as he didn't want to have to get the bus/drive somewhere) to get some supplies for our friends who are self isolating and picked us up some fresh milk, snacks and cream - but these are things we could have done without and he wouldn't have made a special trip for these.

BringMeSunshineInMyLife · 06/04/2020 11:08

Good. Have had weekly supermarket deliveries but cant at the moment get the next one for around 26th April.

Gone from 21ish meals a week at home to 96 which is interesting.

Shops are well stocked. Little or no queues particularly pm. I haven't been shopping but have had to go out to the supermarket a few times for prescriptions. Boots had hand sanitiser yesterday!

Only thing we cant get from anywhere is Cravendale blue milk- I suspect Arla have cut production to focus on other lines.

Took a whole load to the local food project yesterday- they are struggling as all of their food is donated daily by businesses which are closed. Added lots for them to the next online delivery.

We have also been taking food weekly to a family household but they have finally got online slots as vulnerable.

wendz86 · 06/04/2020 11:08

Running quite low at the moment but got an order coming tomorrow. I am a single parent and don't want to take my kids to shop unless i have to. Have a few people who have offered to get me stuff if stuck though.

Baaaahhhhh · 06/04/2020 11:09

Personally I have just been eating fresh. I did "stock" up on a couple of packets of dried pasta, an extra packet of rice, and some vegan milk, but haven't yet eaten any of it. We don't normally eat from the cupboard anyway, so for me it has been situation normal. Very, very, few things I haven't been able to get, only the elusive tins of tomatoes, which we eat loads of, but I had got in 8 tins of those, so, so far, so good. Down to my last two.

Random18 · 06/04/2020 11:16

My Brexit stash was for too reasons.

I was concerned about availability if we had a no deal Brexit.

I was also concerned about price rises so tried to insulate us against this for a while.

Tinned tomatoes tend to be imported so it's one thing i bought.

spiderlight · 06/04/2020 11:16

Really well stocked. We had a Brexit box, did a decent shop at the supermarket last week and they had everything in stock (got the last pack of pasta), and a veg box arrived on Saturday so we have plenty in for a good week or so. Will only need to go out for bread and to collect my prescription.

JellyfishandShells · 06/04/2020 11:21

SW London - within easy walk of two supermarkets, others also within reach plus bakers and good quality butchers. No problem in getting what we want - just the two of us. Got some salmon and green beans for tonight. Always tend to have a well stocked pantry ie tins, flour etc and oat milk ( am non dairy through intolerance, sadly ) but didn’t stockpile or have a silly’ Brexit stash ‘

Bluesheep8 · 06/04/2020 11:23

Thank you for explaining random18 I must live under a rock most of the time as I hadn't consciously heard of anyone doing that.

MrsFrankDrebin · 06/04/2020 11:26

Where we are we're lucky to have two small shops (mini versions of larger brands, including the 'well-known freezer food shop'!) within a 2 minute walk of the house, and an extensive farm shop-type shop a 5 minute drive away.

We do have 'large' supermarkets, but no one here does delivery or click-and-collect normally (not on the mainland) so people have had no choice but to go to the shops themselves, or get someone to go for them. But the 'large' supermarkets are usually the ones with the queues to get in, so we've been making do with the ones we can walk to/drive to easily from our house.

And, to be honest, we're doing ok with those. We produce our own milk* (don't import from the UK), so no shortages of that, and we have our own local bakeries (although if you're after something more 'niche' or have a restricted diet in terms of bread, as one of us in the house does, that's more tricky). We also have a reasonable supply of locally-grown veg (especially if you like potatoes, carrots, onions and cauliflowers!)

To be honest, either than having to consider lunches for everyone, and planning ahead a bit more than usual, we've pretty much been eating what we'd normally eat anyway, other than things like pasta and the odd tinned food stuffs. There was a bit of 'storage buying' (rather than 'panic buying') at first, but that settled down very quickly.

I know that's luckier than many right now. I can't even begin to imagine the stress people on the mainland have been through (especially when essential workers/NHS staff were faced with nothing but bare shelves) when it comes to just feeding themselves. And as for the pictures of all the uneaten food in bins... those people should be ashamed of depriving others of perfectly good food just because they had the time and money to over-buy, but were never going to eat. Angry

  • Re the milk shortages in the UK - boy, have I learned a lot about cows' milk! In terms of cow's milk, we have 'yellow' full fat milk (the creamy, sweet kind of fresh milk you make rice puddings out of!), 'green' whole milk (3.8/4% fat), 'blue' semi-skimmed (1% fat) 'orange' skimmed (0.1% fat) and 'red' milk, which is lactose-free. Whereas some of the colours seem to be reversed in the UK, your semi-skimmed has a higher % of fat, and you have 'orange' milk which is also called '1% milk'! And that's without all the 'BOB' milks (I had to google that!) and other treated cow's milk products! Who knew milk could be so confusing! Confused
Inertia · 06/04/2020 11:28

We're doing OK here, but appreciate that we're very fortunate in that none of us have been ill, and we have a car. Usually we have a weekly Ocado delivery, but haven't been attempting to book deliveries when others have a greater need.

We had a brexit box (DH has now apologised for mocking what I'd put in it!), so we've been able to use that. If anything, recent weeks have shown that we'd underestimated what we'll need when the brexit shortages hit.

We've frozen some leftovers like chilli, bolognaise, soup etc, so we're trying not to run our food down before we shop in case we do need to isolate at some point. We're definitely eating a lot more at home- children used to have school lunches, and DH worked away for several days a week so would eat at least half his weekly meals out of the house.

We're using local shops more now we aren't using Ocado, and will try to carry on doing this once this is over.

bellinisurge · 06/04/2020 11:28

I'm fine. General prepper so was buying chopped tomatoes months ago. Tin by tin if money was tight.
It's just coming to the end of "the hungry gap" for growing your own but I anticipate loads of homegrown tomatoes shown my stocks run low and I can't replace them.
Still planning to get fresh meat from the supermarket but have alternatives if that's not possible.

T0tallyFuckedUpFamily · 06/04/2020 11:30

Why? Not being deliberately obtuse, it's a genuine question.

I take it you’re relatively new to Mumsnet? We even have a preppers section, over on the Brexit pages.

My reasons were a concern for less choices (we’ve already been told that there will be less choice in NI and experience has taught me that if there’s a shortage the UK will get first pick and we get what’s left), prices will rise (even the politicians acknowledge that) and I was also concerned that if we have the ‘perfect storm’ of a dry summer, followed by bad winter, many of the foreign farm workers leaving and some panic buying, then I didn’t want to be caught up in that.

This was not the storm that I was expecting. ☹️

TheStuffedPenguin · 06/04/2020 11:31

Digging into the bottom of the freezer and using up all those Xmas leftovers which have been ignored. As we are not going out we rely on deliveries - the problem with these are that they have taken multi packs off ( are they available in store? ) and there is the overall total item limit . I have 2 in the pipeline currently 2 weeks apart as difficult to get . It's the "fresh" stuff we miss eg sour cream, guacamole , yogurt etc . It's making me rethink what I order .

Inertia · 06/04/2020 11:32

We didn't have a 'silly brexit stash' either. Ours was pretty sensible, as it turned out - we'd included tinned tomatoes, pasta, passata, olive oil/ vegetable oil, longlife milk, and loo roll.

Hoggleludo · 06/04/2020 11:35

I was worrying massively! I'm under the extremely vulnerable. My dr told me that no one in my household was to leave for 12 weeks. I couldn't get my life sustaining medication. I couldn't get any food! Oh. It's been a nightmare

However. I finally got priority shopping! I've finally got a food shop. Oh. I sent a thank you email to the company. It was a truly heart lifting moment. We haven't been out in near on 4 weeks due to illness. Then this.

sassbott · 06/04/2020 11:35

didnt have a silly brexit stash

Well be grateful (not judgemental) that others did. Because when people were clearing supermarket shelves as if we were midst a zombie apocalypse, the preppers were sat at home not lending to the chaos and leaving more for everyone else.

I went to my local supermarket this morning (first time In about a fortnight) for fresh items (bread, milk, fruit etc). Everything in stock, including eggs. Straight in and out no problems.

EerieSilence · 06/04/2020 11:36

Shops are well stocked, we have a full freezer and full fridge. Pantry is well stocked up too.
Only problem is cooking every day, don't do it now as we work from home and it's mad busy right now.
Once a week we also order for delivery, to support local businesses.

Inertia · 06/04/2020 11:36

We've still got a Christmas pudding in the cupboard @TheStuffedPenguin , and there's a jar of unused homemade mincemeat in the fridge. DD wants to bake, so might need to make some mince pies this week.

oldwhyno · 06/04/2020 11:36

food situation is fine, I'm just eating too much of it

userxx · 06/04/2020 11:37

Absolutely fine now the panic buyers have been told to ration.

wonkylegs · 06/04/2020 11:38

We're fine, I grew up in a home with very little in the cupboards and often random stuff so I'm an expert at making things from a weird collection of food but I also always have a well stocked larder cupboard as I'm determined my kids never have to be like we were when growing up
My DH used to take the piss about it but it's really paid dividends in the past few weeks especially as we had to SI for the first 14 days so only needed some fresh milk & eggs dropped off by a friendly neighbour