How are you preparing for Brexit now?

[EatSpamAmandaLamb]

It's months after the initial panic but it looks likely Article 50 and everything to go with it will happen sooner rather than later. How did you prep for Brexit in the intervening months and how will you plan and prep going forward?

• We tried to sell some property since last June but it wouldn't sell. We are not sure now whether to hang on to it for as long as possible or try to reduce the price, get rid and stash the money.
• I started 2 small additions to my freelancing.
• We are growing a lot more food at home but nowhere near enough to feed our large family.
• We are no longer holidaying abroad, doing work to our house or eating out.

Similar to you OP. Growing a ton of vegetables at home, luckily we have a huge space.

No holiday this year. Saving up for one next year rather than sticking it on a credit card.

Generally trying to get our finances in order. Paying down the mortgage, getting out of debt. Has to be said though, with limited success!

I sold some commercial property. Shifted some higher risk investments. No mortgage so no problem there. No major stocking of food. Yet.

I would continue to do work to the house - as long as it's basic maintenance. How handy are you?

We are doing the essential maintenance cozieto the house (roof tiles, mending fences) but not the decorative or non essentials like extensions and landscaping.
Since originally posting this thread we have been granted use of half an allotment plot. Hoping to keep chickens (the man who has the other half is experienced in this) and grow more veg.

Just bought huge amount of loo roll as found a decent offer and I figure it can't go off and we will always get through it. I know the situation isn't similar but we have relatives in Venezuela and their situation terrifies me, loo roll and medicines were the first to go when everything went tits up over there.
I now have a 4 month stock of essential medicine and hygiene products for my disabled son.
We have ditched cable and changed our internet supplier to one we can get a discount on through my DH's work.

We ditched Sky but because I was tired of being ripped off - having to fork out a large annualised amount for, in effect, one channel (that I couldn't get elsewhere more cheaply.)

We don't miss it.

We've moved house now rather than closer to Brexit. My husband is also looking for a better paid job.

Genuinely interested. What are you prepping for when it comes to Brexit? For the economy to go tits up and times being very tough? Or something more?
As someone who grew up never thinking we didn't have enough (although looking back there were probably many times that my parents thought that) then being a teenager during the boom years and a lucky young adult during the recession who was never out of a job, I think I take our life of relative ease for granted. Basically, I don't know what I'd find tough if things changed.
We've just bought our first house which has been a bit of a risk as we're Irish living in the UK so hoping our status won't get fucked with.
We've kept savings in Ireland which I'm planning on topping up slowly. I'm considering that as an absolute emergency fund.
We do have an allotment where we grow our own veg, this is mostly as a recreation more than a money-saving endeavour. And because I really, really love home-grown strawberries.
The additional prepping I could say I'm doing is refreshing my French through duolingo and generally trying to upskill a little bit to make myself as employable as possible if anything happens to my job.

NotAMammy your post reminds me of dh. He knows things were tough when he was young growing up in Ireland but he benefited massively from the Celtic Tiger and his parents still are.

My upbringing, not in the UK, was different and he struggled with my need to have savings, to have an exit in every situation.

He is starting to get it and thinks life as we've known it here as being good and easy is going to change and he's looking for us to leave the UK (which did shock me).

I think it's going to be a slow decline but in 3 years we'll look back to now and think how cheap life was, how many opportunities there were.

Are you all serious? I'm an unrepentant Remainer who would do anything to stop Brexit but I don't get this preparing for the Blitz type attitude - we're in the top 10 richest countries in the world! Also a lot of people have been feeling relatively worse off for a while, not just since Brexit.

Four Yeah it sounds like we're on a similar page. I think I was massively sheltered too, being the baby of a big family, most of whom were out working and running their own households by the time I was a teenager so always fall-backs. Thankfully DH is very sensible with money.

Do you think you's will move to Ireland or elsewhere? Or stay in the UK?
I'm not sure what, other than family, Ireland has to offer us were we to move home. Our current professions mean that we'd only really have jobs in Dublin and moving from NE England to Dublin would be a hell of a shock to the system and bank balance. We're from the border and I can't see that region doing particularly well if the UK goes down.

Sorry, if I'm derailing the thread.

Yes well I think everyone is going to feel a lot worse off because of Brexit.

If I'm wrong, good. But if I'm right lots like myself will leave the sinking ship.

I'd absolutely hate to not have an exit available now. But that's just how I feel.

Not we really aren't sure where to head to but we have a if-this-happens-then-we'll-do-this plan regarding our jobs. So we are kind of leaving it up to fate!

Life in the UK has been really good to us. We arrived with a backpack each and enough money for 6 weeks in a hostel. Nearly 8 years on we are really settled in London so Brexit was just a huge unforseen shock to us.

Dh is from Dublin and I'm from Melbourne so two lovely cities to choose from, hard to know which one though

In my case it's not preparing for the Blitz but rather preparing for a possible recession or to minimise the impact of food price inflation or scarcity of some food products that are widely available and very cheap right now.

So we are:

Overpaying our mortgage (should pay it off in 2 years)

Growing more of our own fruit and veg (already grow quite a bit and we are self-sufficient for veg in a good Summer)

DH moved some savings into other currencies

I expect some imported foodstuffs might become quite expensive. If later on tariffs look likely we might bulk buy long-life stuff like olive oil.

We have also decided that there will be no DC3

So we are talking about a hike in food prices? I don't think I need to plan for the extra few pounds on my Tesco bill. I don't think buying coco pops in bulk and planting some veg is going to make much difference. If I need to later down the line I'll cancel my gym membership and cut back on eating out.
Maybe I'm missing something.

I guess people don't really know.

This is very interesting! DH and I have had similar conversations. We are having a big push to clear the mortgage and are dabbling in growing our own food. If the economy tanks too much, our business will struggle. We also buy a lot from and sell a lot to Europe. So the unknown feels a bit precarious. So we're not over committing ourselves, losing personal overheads (sky will go once contract is up etc) and trying to stay flexible.

Wondering about energy prices and whether to look into solar panels. Happy to pay now for stability and low costs later.

I think it is wise to batten down the hatches.

Growing own food is a no brainer. Building up a rainyday fund is a wise move even at the best of times. Having a Plan B exit strategy, such as seeking out a second passport, is always a good idea.

Slower pay growth and rising inflation are already a reality. Problems with a trade deal could spell a serious recession.

This would fall into my economic collapse prep plan.

-House preventive maintenance
-Save as much as possible (cash in a safe at home)
-diversify business
-grow foods and become as self sufficient as possible
-learn new skills, so you can trade (a morning welding in return for food)

Does anyone have a timescale in mind for when things will get seriously bad? Never posted on this sub-board before but feel increasingly drawn to you

Preparation at any time is a good thing in my view. Economic issues may take a good while to really impact but e.g. a cyber attack on utilities could happen in ten minutes time.

What do you think of Jay Rayner's predictions then?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2992926-Is-Jay-Rayner-right-about-Brexit-Is-Britain-just-nine-meals-from-anarchy?watched=1

We bought a house in the Netherlands. Husband works there and we fly back and forth every week. He was renting but now moved into own house. We are keeping savings in both euros and pounds and both have pensions in euros and pounds due to living abroad for many years. Hopefully he will be able to carry on working out there after brexit.

We've tightened our belts a bit and its an ongoing thing. Focussing on paying off the mortgage since its our biggest expense and interest rates can only go up. Summer holiday this year has consisted of us staying at home (in the pouring rain unfortunately) and we've diverted that money to long overdue home improvements so that if we did have to sell the house (DH's work collapses in times of recession) then we could.

DH speaks to lots of economists and financial bods in his line of work. There is very little optimism out there and general consensus that recession is around the corner.

We also now have a vegetable plot in the garden.