To ask if anyone is considering stockpiling

[Ninoo25]

Just that really, given that the government asking industry to stockpile food and medicines has been all over the news in the past week, I was wondering how many people are planning on stockpiling themselves and if so what are you going to stockpile and how much?
TBH my main concern is long term medication that I’m on, but as it’s only available on prescription and Dr wouldn’t let me order more than I need, so there’s nothing I can do about that anyway!

I don't think many people are in a state of panic. Most are just thinking about sensible precautions in the same way that they would plan for power cuts, disruptions to the water supply (we've had a total of about 7 days with no water at all this year) or heavy snow.

I actually thought that everybody kept emergency supplies at home for power cuts etc, but that may be because I live in one of the more remote areas of Scotland and you'd be an idiot not to.

However, I'm trying to work Brexit into my argument for buying two milking cows, it may help convince my husband (we are actual farmers, with proper dairy experience, I'm not planning to keep them in the garden shed!).

Yeah, there's no point in me trying to stock wine in this house...

eyes at DH who has just opened my fancy gin that I bought from abroad and was planning on saving as a treat...

I have a ton of brewing equipment in the attic.

"Seriously have those panicking ever had a major serious issue to deal with in your real lives?"

Not panicking. I've had experience of rationing, martial law and food shortages in other countries so that is why I don't see the signs we are going that way here. But ready as I can be if we are.

Meanwhile, I get on with enjoying my life and my family.

Seasawride

Seriously have those panicking ever had a major serious issue to deal with in your real lives?

I lived through the troubles in NI, losing friends and a cousin, along the way. Had a poverty ridden childhood. I’m now a widow with two adult children with disabilities, one of them will never live independently. Probably a bigger grip on how life can turn to shit, than you’ll ever have. I’d rather you think I don’t have a grip, than be proven right, so therefore I’ll keep my ladder well stocked, thanks.

No.

Drinking water can be affected if electricity supply is disrupted.
Here’s a Daily Telegraph link (so not remoany)
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/06/16/british-reliance-french-energy-increases-quarter/

Ooh, i hadn’t thought of taking the side off the bath! Good hiding place for my wine stash!

I have no doubt that there will be a series of temporary shortages of a wide range of goods. Just the sheer logistics.

But we don’t know what, when or for how long. I guess meat prices will rise. Is it good for me to stick up on Tesco tins of stewed steak to last 3 months, and then revert to root veg stew for the next 5 years, or should I just get used to veg stew as a new way of life from the off?

Apart from coffee, I am honestly prepared to vary our family diet to what is available. Be it pouches of Quinoa or Fray Bentos pies followed by homemade rice pudding made with diluted evaporated milk.

most now agree with the governor of the Bank of England that the predictions of a post Brexit vote bringing economic chaos just havnt materialised have they

We're not post-Brexit yet. We're after the vote yes, but not Brexit itself. I'd wait until after that before confidently announcing it's all fine.

To those ridiculing preparing for the worst... do you have house insurance ? Car insurance ? Critical illness insurance ? Life insurance ?

This is the same mentality. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

I really can't understand why people get annoyed that other people are buying some non perishable essentials just in case. It doesn't affect you one bit. And if there are shortages, well that will be X fewer people fighting over the last tin in the supermarket.

I don’t understand why people are ridiculing those who are prepping.

Why do you care, it doesn’t affect you.

Secondly, if it does all go to crap it’s going to be shit being you!

Toilet paper.
I’m not going to let that run low.
We’ll have enough shit to deal with, post-Brexit.

I have started putting extra bits on n my trolley each week, not just non perishables but also shampoo, toothpaste, toilet rolls and washing powder. All the food is stuff we would normally eat so want get wasted, nearer the time I will be getting some uht milk and bottles of water, just nowhere to store them at the moment. I'd rather be prepared, not really bothered about myself just wouldn't want dc to ever go hungry.

I hate the idea of stockpiling. DH can testify. However, I am planning to have about one month of supplies in the house (fortunately, we have a loft and a garage so we can store things) , but only stuff which we use or which could replace the stuff we generally use ( UHT/long life milk). I have already started buying, not much, but regularly. For example, last week I picked up two extra jars and pesto and one big bag of pasta ( = two or three evening meals for the family of 2 adults and 2 children), this week I bought 2 jars of pickles from Tesco (£1.69 for one or 2 for £2, one went in the cupboard to be used and one in the "stash") and a bottle of oil. A few pounds here, a few pounds there every week. I am lucky I can afford to spend it, I know a lot of people don't have this possibility.

If it proves that nothing will happen and stockpiling has not been necessary, so much the better, I will still use the stuff, it won't go to waste. Also I really really hope that in the circumstances of a no-deal the disruptions will not be "that bad" as it's been predicted. And that after a few days or mostly weeks of confusion things will get back more or less to normal and "there will be stuff in the shops". Maybe not everything we have got used to, most probably at different prices (fortunately, again, I am one of the lucky ones that can afford prices going up; might need to buy less, might have to change our usual meals, but we'll manage. I am very aware we are lucky, a lot of people can't afford to do this). Anyway, in the situation of people panicking and emptying the shelves in the shops, or in the situation of supermarkets not being able to refill the shelves in time, or in the situation of people panicking and fighting for the last ... whatever, I would rather be in the position of staying in the house with my family and eat through our supplies and "ride the crazy weeks" until things calm down a bit. So, I am stockpiling a bit: jars, tins, pasta, rice, pulses, frozen veg, tea and coffee, UHT milk, squash and bottled water (THIS is something not on my regular shopping list, we are usually happy with the water from the tap, but... just in case), some basic medicine (painkillers like paracetamol and 'brufen, calpol, fortunately we don't need anything else), cat food and litter, basic toiletries, loo roll, detergent, stuff like that. We are on a good mortgage deal until 2022, one thing less to worry.

Olive oil.
That will be under threat, won’t it?

I don't know if "under threat" is the right term.

Like any import, the process for bringing it in has not yet been decided (two years is not long enough for an incompetent government to decide what it wants to do. Neither is it long enough for Buffoon Johnson and Jacob Rice-Pudd to put together a proposal themselves).

So you can reasonably expect imports to be delayed to some extent; and more difficult, therefore they will be more expensive, to some extent; and in shorter supply, to some extent.

Until a process has been decided, then discussed and perhaps one day agreed, nobody knows what the cost and delay will be, or how to mitigate them. If I was in the olive-oil importing or distribution business, I might be thinking of closing down and retiring, and letting someone else find a solution to a problem that has not yet been defined.

This is not such a serious problem with olive oil as it is with trade in manufactured goods and financial services, on which our economy depends.

Brewery piss-up organise couldn't in a politicians a.

Anything which is made outside of the UK, or made from ingredients produced outside the UK, is potentially under threat.

I don't know of any UK olive farms, but there are UK made alternatives such as rapeseed oil (made from all those lovely bright yellow fields you get at certain times of summer and sometimes sold under the umbrella term of vegetable oil). On the other hand, I've no idea if we grow enough rapeseed to supply all the UK cooking oil needs, so we may still have shortages.

At the very least I expect choice to be restricted - instead of writing extra virgin olive oil on your shopping list it will be a case of taking whatever oil is available, be it olive, sunflower, rapeseed, vegetable or something else.

I feel for the people on low income, already on subsistence hand to mouth, having to worry about adding extra to their already stretched weekly budget. How are they going to manage? If the end of the world will happen in March 2019, their Christmas is going to be miserable, if they have to spend money in advance on household goods rather than buying gradually

PigletJohn I'm interested in your prediction that financial services will suffer as a consequence of Brexit no-deal. Given that FS Services isn't an 'import' do you mean the UK providing ie 'exporting' such services is where the problem lies? What would happen?

increasingly I feel this is a first world problem. We are all so used to going to the supermarket almost 24/7/365 and being able to choose from 15 types of cereal, every kind of fruit and veg in or out of season and shelves stacked high with packets, jars and bags.

If things do go pear shaped, it will mean we have less choice so maybe we will just become grateful for anything rather than moan that our favourite quinoa isn't available. That's the Royal We. As long as we can put some food on the table, even if it's different to what we normally eat, we will survive. We will still be a damn sight better off that the majority of the world's population. We've just become rich and spoilt as a society. Nothing wrong with aspiration, but sometimes a short sharp shock can be an important reality check.

@daisychain01 "short sharp shock" "quinoa panic". Are you for real?

A Acadia it’s not just products that come from abroad, we don’t have enough processing plants in UK therefore British beef is shipped to Europe to be processed and then shipped back... hows that going to work?

daisychain21 www.cer.eu/publications/archive/policy-brief/2018/brexit-and-financial-services-industry-story-so-far.

As long as we can put some food on the table, even if it's different to what we normally eat, we will survive. We will still be a damn sight better off that the majority of the world's population. We've just become rich and spoilt as a society.

What a wonderful advertisement for Brexit. We will be the first country ever to have deliberately chosen for our children to be worse off than us. I'm sure they'll be so grateful.

It may be that all this talk of needing to stockpile is Project Fear mark 563.

However, what I would say is that we are likely to see less variety in the goods we can buy. I did a course on Futurelearn not long after the referendum about Switzerland and one of the comments was that they have far less variety of goods in the shops because they are not in the EU - they don't get all the brands. Yogurt was an example given but it could be anything. So even though they are a rich country, they have to cross the border to buy the full range of goods.

So I would say that if there is anything particular you like - which is not perishable - buy a few of them.

DaisyChain I like living in a first world country (with first world problems), it is my normal. I would rather it was not turned into a third world country.