Hell is ever closer-how's your stash looking?

[SistemaAddict]

My brexit cupboard shelves have been depleted due to using up the things that were going out of date like long life milk and juice. We also seem to have raided the baked beans
After today's announcement of buffoon johnson (isn't Johnson an American term for penis?) being our new PM and his threat of brexit on Halloween come hell or high water I figured I should assess my supplies. I still have my original lists somewhere so need to check everything.
Anyone else extra worried now and assessing their supplies?

@SpoooyGhost, have you tried looking on somewhere like FB MarketPlace for one?

They're not great for scrambled eggs, it has to be said!

@bellinisurge can I as if you've tried the tvp and where you bought it from please?

I think the DC are going to be in for a big shock if we do have to go back to living off tins. That was retry much all we ate in our house in the seventies and I'm not keen to go back.

Hi @JiltedJohnsJulie , I got mine from Holland and Barrett.

SpoooyGhost I got my breadmaker free from someone having a clear out. Have a look on freecycle or just ask around friends. Or maybe boot sales.

I love mine - get flour, yeast etc from Lidl.

I'm home most of this week, so it's a pantry cleaning and organising week for me. Sigh.

From this year's experience so far, I'm thinking that...

• Things I shouldn't buy more of: rice, pasta, tinned fish, tinned fruit, freezer meat, any kinds of biscuits/chocolate/sweets, longlife milk. Either we're not using them at all, or what we have is more than enough, or (in the case of treats) I binge on them eventually and feel shit.

• Things I need to buy more of because they're great and I use them all the time and my shelves are depleted: tinned tomatoes, tinned beans of various kinds, jars of preserved veg (like the artichokes mentioned above, but also pickles, olives, sundried tomatoes etc), olive oil, bread mixes (I can bake from basic ingredients just fine, but a mix is so easy), more drinks of various kinds.

In the "preparing for the depression" front, we've just both had our dental check ups. DH is having some non-urgent work done this week. This means my new glasses and necessary updates to our wardrobes need to wait until the next paycheck.

I'm subscribed to freecycle already so I'll check the emails for any going. Good idea @thenightsky

Me too @gonewishing, it seems we use some of everything so I'm rotating and maintaining. I'm glad it's being used but others leave it messy when they rake through. Having a nice tidy up. Need loads more UHT milk, that gets hammered every rainy day and we drink 6 pints plus a day easy. 🥛

I think the chicken keepers have to introduce additional lighting to keep the hens laying over the winter.

That's correct but if you do that then they won't lay for as many years. Typically they lay between valentines day and Bonfire night (roughly) and so the timing is rubbish. We have a glut of eggs in the summer but they get frozen so that we can use them throughout the winter, particularly now that we have DDog who eats a couple a day.

I doubt many people who have garden hens (less than about 6) are going to be giving them away, particularly over the winter.

I have a big top up shop arriving today with lots of household things in eg toilet cleaner, washing powder, dishwasher tablets etc. I've also bulk ordered the long life foods we've got through quickly like the beans, orange juice, bread mix, tomatoes etc.

Read an estimate today that British consumers have spent an estimated $4 bn on stockpiling. There are a lot of traitorous unicorn-denying unpatriotic people around ;)

I’ve been buying non food products like toiletries/cleaning products/over counter meds etc in August, with the intention of doing freezer stuff in September, and then shorter date stuff such as UHT milk, juice, part baked baguettes and so on in October.....just wondering if peeps think I’m
leaving it too late?

When is everyone planning to finish forward purchasing? I don’t want to do freezer till September, as it needs defrosting so waiting till DC back in school, but should I be buying more of the other stuff now?

Starting to worry there may be a sudden panic soon.

Very difficult to say tbh. At some point there will be sudden change in public attitudes but the timing of this is very difficult to predict not least because it depends to a certain extent on political machinations in September. The government's spin doctors are already busy ramping up project fear (the new ministry of truth, open talk of curfews in the Times) presumably with the aim of triggering a full-on public panic at some point.

That’s what I’m nervous about. I think at the moment there’s still a slim chance no deal could be stopped, but I’m worried once we get past that point, there’ll be a sudden panic.

I feel like I want to get ready right now, but it’s not practical with DC off school, and storage space is limited. Plus I don’t want to buy things like part baked bread too early and find it has short dates.

I’m so conflicted! So I think I may book a shop for delivery the first week of September, so I’ve got everything I feel I need, and then just try and rotate during October.

I think once Parliament resumes in September we're likely to see a whole bunch of activity all at once. I'm restocking as much as I can at the moment, because if No Deal is likely, panic buying will kick in and that's one of the scenarios I've been stocking up in order to avoid. I don't want to have to try to feed my family if people are kicking off in the supermarkets over who gets the last carton of UHT.

I have £8 of co pp dividend to splurge!

On uht milk probably.

@Mistigri, I saw that too.

metro.co.uk/2019/08/12/uk-spends-4000000000-stockpiling-chaotic-no-deal-brexit-10555339/

It's good that so many people have a buffer, but it's still not enough if the shit really hits the fan.

I'm desperately racking my brains to think of more stuff to sow now to keep us going through winter. It's quite limited really though, sadly.

It's when the public tip into panic that's bothering me a bit. Difficult one to predict. And it's too late once it's happened!

For the bread makers amounts us a teaspoon of ascorbic acid (vitamin c powder) will give you a much better rise in the breadmaker and oven and acts as a preservative so will give you a couple of extra days freshness if you need it to. I buy a big 500g tub off amazon and it lasts forever. It's particularly good for whole meal and granary flour, makes it much lighter!

Great tip, thank you!

I'm just focusing on growing spuds, @NoWordForFluffy. We've plenty of tinned peas and baked beans to go with boiled and jacket potatoes.

I also like them as mash, as wedges, as spicey 'Bombay potatoes', and as potato salad.

I'm not fussy

I have my 'Christmas' spuds just starting to poke through now. We've still got loads of the last lot too.

I think I'll have to sort butter and cheese. Plus the kids' Vitalite (they've not quite conquered the milk ladder in full yet!). Both quite soon. Probably this pay day. Then play it by ear.

JiT will still be working until we no deal, so hopefully it'll be short-lived panic when it happens and we can go back to building up our supplies!

@EveLevine, personally I'd recommend doing what you can, as soon as you can.
I suspect there are lots of people who'll start buying loads of extra stuff as soon as no deal starts looking likely, or if the papers start predicting imminent shortage. Doubt you're the only one waiting till term starts either. So shops could get busy.
I don't want to get caught up in any of that!

Fluffy. I’m no gardener but here’s the war time winter planting plan courtesy of Jane F-Whitingstall. Expand photo to see crops and yield

@Socksontheradiator thats my thinking, so I'm going to get as much as possible next weekend, and just leave the freezer stuff till September - I just can't face trying to defrost a chest freezer with 3 DC about - plus at the moment its filled with ice creams/lollies/snack food for the school holidays.

Due to ASD DC I don't actually go to supermarket unless DC are in school, so I currently have delivery passes for Tesco, Asda and Ocado. My plan now is to book one delivery from each supermarket per day for the week the kids go back to school.

So on the Monday I'll defrost the freezer, then have a shop per day for the rest of the week. The "essential" items I will have in all 3 orders, if they arrive in the first order I'll remove them from remaining orders.

I'll also need to do an Iceland order, as ASD DS will only eat Greggs sausage rolls, no other make, I can't do that in advance, but there are 5 Icelands within 10 miles of me, so if necessary I'll just drive around them all until I find some.

I'd say at this point make sure you have all the non-perishables sorted, like bathroom/kitchen/laundry products, personal hygiene, spares for your devices, batteries etc done by the end of this month. That leaves the rest of the time free to consolidate frozen/tinned goods and then finally perishables. The last couple of weeks before a potential No Deal will be nerve-wracking but I don't want to panic buy then, especially if some folk are only just realising the enormity of what's going to happen.

'Do not waste this time' as Tusk says.