Using up Brexit stockpile

[MyNameIsArthur]

Have you all started depleting your Brexit stockpile yet or are you holding on to it still?

I used to love being as minimalist as I could with food, and I read a no waste blog, which challenged us to have nothing left (in the fridge at least) at the end of the week.
It made for some interesting meals sometimes.
I always had a bit of pasta and rice, plus a few tins in the larder though, and the freezer was generally full (even if it was just bread and frozen veg, as well as leftovers)
I've ramped it up quite a lot due to brexit originally (thanks to the threads on here)
I've no idea if we'll need it or not, but I'm careful about rotation so nothing will get wasted.
The shops in March were proof that the unexpected does indeed happen, so I fully intend to main good stocks.
One thing we also learned was how people and businesses pulled together very quickly, even though the government weren't any help, and thst was heart warming.
I was very pleased to a) not be queuing for food and b) be able to help a few people with my stash.
I am grateful to be in this fortunate position. It wasn't always that way, and I have received help myself in the past, so I'm pleased to be able to pay it forward.

Thanks to my stash, I've only spent £19.73 on food this year. (I've only spent £38.69 all year after bills, but that's a different thread!)

Adds ketchup to list...

That's wonderful Dontlick!
Ah yes, we get through mayonnaise very quickly here. Though possibly not so difficult to get as ketchup, not containing tomatoes and all 🤔

Have been pleased to have it. This month I've missed 2 Tesco collects, as 1) car broke down, 2) snow and ice. I've been making good use of the bread flour and UHT milk. It's meant that I don't have to brave the smaller shops during peak Covid.

My stash is about to get used up as my local Waitrose has closed due to covid and cancelled my next two orders 😱 I've never been more grateful for my stash and to the brexit preppers who got me stashing.

I have been so grateful for my stockpile these past few weeks. As infection rates have shot up I really hate going to the supermarket, but don't want to take a delivery slot of someone who really needs it.

I have been using the frozen meat and uht milk as well as the flour and yeast to stretch out the days in between my shops. It means only supermarket shopping once a fortnight instead of weekly.

Those who sneer at preppers shoud be thanking us if we are able to reduce the numbers in the shops right now. If more people had fuller stores then the supermarkets would be far quieter.

Oh no Flatterd, have you managed to book delivery from another supermarket?

I’m lucky that even though we live in the sticks we have most supermarkets nearby.

My brexit stash (that my friends had all mocked) came in really handy in March when the supermarket shelves were pretty much empty. I’ve tried to keep it as stocked as I can throughout last year and moving forward can think of no reason why I won’t keep extra tins/packets/jars stored just in case. If Dh and I both get ill, I want to know that the dc don’t have to worry about what they are going to eat. I appreciate people can drop things off to them, but they know there is enough food In the house to see them through a few days without the need to restock. (I appreciate we would run out of fresh fruit and veg, but there would be enough frozen to see them through).

I am still eating fresh and going to the shop while I can
but its nice to know that if I can't
I have a backstop

I had three months supply, which I'm using now and am glad I have it as it means I can have a very occasional relationship with shops and supermarkets! I have veg delivered so very rarely need to go anywhere with people.

By April I think that we certainly won't be back to normal, but through the worst of it I've avoided other people in a significant way.

I didn’t “stockpile” as such, but had some essentials (toilet paper, pasta, UHT milk etc) in case the shelves were empty on Jan 1st.

Came in very useful when we had to self-isolate, so I’ll keep it up for a few more months I reckon.

I worry that actually we are going to see more of an impact food wise in April, as that's when we bring in import controls on food. I should think we will have run through any stockpiling the supermarkets managed to do last year by then, and that will coincide also with our hungry gap.

Hmmm. I think the April and June changes are going to take people by surprise.

Yep 1st April and 1st July will both bring in tighter controls on imports. So personally if I'd gone to the trouble of creating a stock I'd hold on a bit.

Oh bugger, so sounds like a bit more stockpiling will be needed before April? Is it the beginning of April?

Sorry Mistigri - cross post. Thanks for that!

Budgies: as I understand it, April will see another significant tightening of export controls on food and chemicals among other things, and also tighter import controls from NI to GB. In July, controls on imports into GB are due to start. So trade in both directions (but particularly EU to U.K.) is going to get significantly more difficult between now and summer. It is very hard to say what the impact will be - less choice and higher prices, and maybe some shortages of some goods. It's also true to say the the full impact of the first round of increased friction has not get been fully felt yet due to low trading volumes and ore-Brexit stockpiling.

"Pre-Brexit stockpiling" obviously - random autocorrect there!

That's helpful, thanks. So some more stockpiling in May/June sounds like a good idea, particularly of fresh food.
I've been too disorganised/lazy to rotate my stockpile, so we are now eating some out-of-date food, bearing in mind all the missed Brexit dates.

Thanks Mistigri for the clear explanation. I remembered enough to know to keep the stockpile but not exactly why.

I really hate this waiting period to see how it will turn out.

I think the main impact will be less choice and higher prices, and there is not much that stockpiling can do about that. But if you've been worried enough to have a stockpile this long it seems odd to decide that all is well three weeks into Brexit, when the situation is still evolving and there are two more milestones to come that will make trade harder.

I think the last year has taught us that people who can afford it really should have a week or two's worth of groceries in stock!

I have had a stockpile for years, indeed started on 24th June2016. I was looking forward to having more space. I am just grumpy that we bloody have to. And it was try to get ex to decide what he wants to order from Morrisons that is not too expensive or too heavy if I have to collect it from the roadside because of the snow.

Kids have been in contact with a positive case so stuck with not going too far to top up in emergency. Not going to supermarkets anyway. Mind you I may have 10 weeks worth of stuff, nevermind ten days so should be fine isolating.

Generally pissed off with waiting for too many things: medical assessments, whether kids have caught covid, whether Brexit will be shittier, whether contact will be ok, etc etc etc....