How are you prepping for Brexit?

[DoYouRememberJustinBobby]

I know we don't know what will happen in the run up to Brexit or afterwards but in my book things are looking scary.
I have legitimate concerns about some of my contracts (one very large one has already pulled out and left me around £1700 pcm down) and I am scared witless about DP's job.

We are currently trying to cut loose any extra expenditure in our household and decided this morning to sell a couple of tech bits we no longer need for my business, in order to free up some cash. Ideally we would love to be saving a bit more but we have some urgent repair work needed on our home which we can't skip until the financial situation looks a bit more calm.
We are overpaying our mortgage by a small amount each month but are now trying to decide if it might be better to stop that and keep the money to one side incase everything goes tits up.

We have a vintage Airstream which is worth a decent amount of money and we use 2x a month min throughout the year (plus almost the entire summer). The value of it continued to rise during the credit crunch and keeps going up. We are trying to decide if it is worth hanging onto in the long term as an investment (and our only source of holidays) or to sell up.

We always have a decent stockpile of freezer, tinned and home preserved food but now I'm wondering if buying in some large bags of rice and pasta for long term could be useful. We have a tiny kitchen so storage is an issue, although not impossible. Does anyone know of any reliable, waterproof, food grade storage containers for keeping non jarred and tinned food in cellar type environments? Our cellar is a little on the damp side, so we tend to be very careful about what we keep down there, although airtight containers fair well.

I know some people will say this is an over reaction but our family is already feeling the direct impact of the leave vote and we are genuinely worried about the continued impact.

Are you worried? What are you doing to prep?

I think we may have to wait until the spring to sell the airstream as they don't seem to budge when the weather is cold. I'm just hoping waiting until spring (past the possible date for a50) isn't waiting too long. I suppose it's a gamble.

How is everyone else prepping?

I have prepared by buying a tent from a Dutch company yesterday.

Not because I think I will be reduced to living in it (I hope) but because the price had already gone up by £4-5 last week because of the exchange rate and once the Euro is worth £6 I won't be able to afford it.

Op - tourist places should be OK if they attract European customers - the weak £ strong E will bring many visitors, surely? Market in Europe!

I wouldn't sell the Airstream atm. You don't know that you need to, could you rent it out for zillions/ like glamping airstream holidays attract a premium, and if you do need to sell it in the depths of a recession, I would sell it in Europe once a E is worth £6!

Blu A great deal of our customers are American and they mentioned they would probably visit only mainland Europe and skip the UK, if coming for a long summer tour. They seemed to be worried about visas and checks and all sorts of things. I doubt it would change much for them but they seemed to think it would all be too difficult to look into for a 3 day jump over here to do the usual London, Bath and Edinburgh tours after a month or so on the continent.

We won't know where we stand for a while (as with most of the country I suppose).

Today I got my dehydrator out and started dehydrating some apples from our garden.

I think we should prep our children to have a lot of skills to be globally competitive.
language skills (additional language)
an empathetic understanding of different cultures
knowledge about international issues and foreign political agendas

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/02/article-50-trade-eu-deals-globalisation

"But the irony is that, contrary to the hopes of many Brexiteers, leaving the EU will expose Britain to more globalisation, not less; and in a more competitive and harsher world it will be the “left behind”, those most likely to have voted for Brexit, who will suffer the most."

I think we should prep our children to have a lot of skills to be globally competitive.
language skills (additional language)
an empathetic understanding of different cultures

Surely they should have that anyway, with or without Brexit.

I've paid off my mortgage already and have no debt.

Recently we've cancelled non-essentials, gym membership and Sky have gone.

Coffee shops and meals out can be reduced if necessary.

I'm dreading the impact of Brexit on the uk as a whole.

I cancelled Sky recently. Any (small) difference I've noticed doesn't equal the (fairly large) amount I'm saving.

Cozie, I've been really surprised by how much we as a family don't miss it. I expected some initial pangs of regret, but we've all embraced the loss very easily.

@Onthe roses: you cannot have had a pay rise since Brexit as the UK is still a member of the EU. Same applies to your DH's business.

I was/am a remainer. But following Cameron's ill-judged and self interested decision to hold a referendum on this issue (and then to so hopelessly misjudge the public mood that he lost ) we have to get on and leave. Any other course would result in civil unrest. So we have to make the most of it.

The apocalyptic visions on this post are just that. The UK will get an acceptable Brexit deal even if there are ups and downs in the process. Imo it is unlikely to be as good as the status quo - but I lost that argument.

If I was to panic about anything at the moment it would be about a Trump victory in the US. Now that really would have me digging a hole in the back yard and stockpiling food.

I also bought a cycling machine. Admittedly on sale and online but I did the sums with regard to gymn membership. It had paid for itself in a few months.

What? Stocking up on Chilean wines? What have I overlooked?

I am learning to speak 12 different languages and faking passports/birth certificates and other legal documents so I can move if I dont like the outcome.

Another foreigner here, with a foreign spouse. Without resorting to dramatics, we're planning on applying for UK passports (to hedge our bets), and then going off elsewhere. We just don't feel welcome here.

Do not sell the Airstream!!!!

We've started to stockpile food and we're looking to grow more of our own food next year. We're keeping pigs and lambs and have some chickens.

We've also got 3 kids, so we'll be able to have them trafficked for exploitation/organ harvesting.

We should be o.k. I think.

Cant have too many baked beans in your larder...'maliceinwonderland78' lol
Seriously though, I have done nothing to prepare as I havent a clue what the outcome will be.

I am working, am luckily mortgage free but with zilch in savings and a pension reliant on stocks and shares so probably my retirement home will be a coffin! :)

I'm not sure that those who in general don't embrace the concept of prepping will really appreciate this thread...

I'm not doing anything different really, although we've already been adversely affected. But that's because I already have stocks in the house anyway to see us through rough periods.

Our biggest decision at the moment is whether to pay off more of our mortgage with our savings (which are earning next to nothing in interest) or whether to keep the savings in case we need to live off them.

Would your savings pay off the majority or all of your mortgage atticus? If so, I'd go that route. At least then you have it paid off (one bill a month done and behind you forever) and if you still have money coming you can live off what had previously been set aside for the monthly mortgage payments.

Yes I think that's what I'm inclined to do but then I worry about having no buffer. It would pay off a big chunk so that what was left would be down to 1 year of DH's net earnings (although we're both self employed and work has dried up considerably).

Our biggest decision at the moment is whether to pay off more of our mortgage with our savings (which are earning next to nothing in interest) or whether to keep the savings in case we need to live off them.

Same here atticus. We would have paid the mortgage off in about 4 years but Brexit is likely to affect our jobs so we will probably stop overpaying.

I thought all the prepper-bashing came to an end when we got this board. Looks like I was wrong

I'd pay off the mortgage too. I think interest rates will go up next year.

This weekend we really sat down and had some serious discussions about getting our finances ironed out for the coming few years.
After a discussion with a local business we have decided to keep our airstream and rent it out, on occasion, to them for weddings and events. They used to have a campervan which they used for similar events but it wasn't large enough for their requirements. I work with them on a regular basis, so I feel I know the angle they are going for and it's likely we could make an OK amount from them over time. We are going to go for a year of that option before deciding to sell or not.

We have also decided to do the essential repair work to our house (leaky roof, cellar damp) but are going to put off the extension and cosmetic work we had planned to happen at the same time, in favour of putting half the money (we saved for the extension for what feels like forever 😫) into the mortgage and keeping the rest as savings.

I'm growing incredibly nervous of what's ahead.

Anyone stocking up on the old Marmite now?

And pot noodles?

Seriously though it's the sign of things to come now

Anyone else getting worried now? We heard today that one of our clients is looking to scale back on their UK work until they know what is going on. If they completely pull out, I think we will have to close my business. I do have another part time job but I don't know how we will make ends meet.

We have an unused, falling apart small orangery (about 5meters long by 1.5m wide) at the side of our house, the plan was to pull it down and build a dining room/back entrance extension in its place. We had decided to leave as (ramshackle, unused dumping ground)it is for the forseeable but I think I might get to work this weekend with clearing out with a view to use it for growing veg. Even in winter we were able to grow spinach in pots in a corner last year, so I'm wondering if we can't make it into something even more useful for the short-medium term. I suppose if in the long term the idea is to knock it down it doesn't really matter if it gets messy and muddy before that time rolls round.
We have minimal garden space which is already turned over to growing what we can but I'd like to optimise our cheap food potential.

Does anyone else grow year round in an orangery, conservatory or green house?