Ok, so we come out of lockdown. After you have breathed a sigh of relief (or whatever) what top ups do you need for No Deal Brexit/Second wave of this shit/Normal stuff you prep for

[bellinisurge]

I'm sure we'd all like to pretend this is all going away. I'm sure we have lists of places we want to go and people we want to hug.
Assuming we're going to do some of that, we also have an opportunity to take a look at our preps.
A second wave of this horribleness is not impossible. Neither is a lurch out of Brexit transition.
What are you going to top up on?

(This thread is for preppers in the Preppers topic so don't waste your time whining at us if you happen upon it. It's our thing, just move on)

I've started a medication spreadsheet.

Bizarrely @GreyGemini I was trying to give away some (new) cloth nappy packs just before lockdown and hardly got any takers! I had two packs, one went to someone who was (fair enough) very grateful, the other I had a couple of CFs who were clearly going to sell them... it's still in our storage cupboard for now. Definitely get a bit of babyfood in, it lasts for ages and I'm sure the foodbanks would be grateful for it if you didn't use it.

There are some great gardening threads on here (I'm on a couple) if you need help with growing veg - I buy most of my stuff from Poundland so if it doesn't work then I'm not too gutted - the DC are very keen but are none too gentle with tender little plants!

Sports bras here I couldn't find any underwired bras I liked or that were comfy enough, plus they all seemed to be £££ for, ahem, larger ones... I bought some cheapo Primark ones and they've been great, will invest in more if they ever re-open.

I'm sure there was a PP upthread who mentioned getting spare prescription glasses - my only pair broke today when I got them I couldn't justify spending the extra money on a spare pair, obviously wish I had now!! Off to the opticians tomorrow to find out the difference between simply replacing my current pair and buying new with any special offers. Definitely worth bearing in mind for anyone else who wears them...

@RubySlippers77 that's a shame! I need to learn about the nappies first as I've heard it's difficult? But also don't like the idea of disposable nappies in general! I'll have a look at the thread, thanks lovely! Praying I can get my Dad to start growing some bits for me and maybe give me one of his chickens lol! Said he's going to get me a poly tunnel x

I finally had a taker for the nappies @GreyGemini! Coming to collect them tomorrow or Friday. I think they do take a little more getting used to but then will be much cheaper to use than disposables (from what I understand); I wish I'd tried them actually but I was very ill after the birth, DP was useless and I had baby twins to deal with, so not giving myself too much of a hard time on that one!

Do you have room to grow anything indoors and/ or a garden? I start most seeds off indoors and then move them outside into our (small!) garden later. Peas are easy to grow, as are runner beans and similar.

I did buy a spare pair of glasses and replaced my current pair, they weren't repairable cost me £160 in total but worth it I think to have two usable pairs. For anyone that has regular medication - does your GP agree to let you order more? Or do you manage to stockpile somehow?! I get mine a month at a time via the pharmacy but they wouldn't give me three months at once or whatever. I do pay for it so that's not the issue!

Order slightly early..

In terms of cloth nappies and how they work - great!

When dd was a baby (14 years ago!) we used a mix of disposables and cloth nappies. I was somewhat used to cloth as DM used them on us and I was eldest of 6 so a seasoned laundry woman and nappy changer by the time the youngest were potty trained. Modern nappies are so much easier than the old terry cloth squares and lethal pins!

I had a few different types, some cotton, some fleece, some bamboo, some integral cover and a couple of covers to go over them - mostly they did up with poppers, a couple needed a pin but there were grippers instead which didn't go through so much better than the old types of pin. I used to use a flushable liner for poo which helped. But they were grand, just pop them on very similar to disposables, put in a lidded bucket (no need to soak generally) when removed, and add into ordinary loads of washing (especially as she was a reflux baby so lots of throwing up, meaning lots of her and my laundry). Mostly line dried when it was dry, otherwise on the radiator/clothes horse overnight. I think I had about 14 in total, and generally managed fine with that.

I had sposies for emergencies and also crèche as they couldn't deal with cloth (lack of storage room in nappy room to be able to send home again). But the few cloth ones I had saw huge use at home and all weekends and most overnights for roughly 3 years, and I sold them on afterwards still in great condition. Well worth the investment. And were easy to manage too, even though I was working ft and studying as well, and we did a major building project too on the house.

For glasses look at the pound shop ones. My dad constantly looses or sits on his and he swears by them. Certainly better than nothing if you’re stuck.

The pound shop ones don't go high enough for my prescription Designed - I buy DP plenty of pairs though as he only needs them for reading and is still in denial even about that

I've just done a big Tu clothing order with their 25% off; socks for myself and the DC and jeans for DP. The clothes we've had from them have been good quality and all my Primark socks are nearly worn through, they've had a lot of wear over the last few months!

I'm with Boots opticians and they are sending me a copy of my latest prescription so I can order a spare pair from somewhere like Glasses Direct. I have varifocals so can't get off the shelf glasses.

I can't even do that @TheWoollybacksWife (I have tried!!) - my prescription is too high

We are having issues getting eggs round here again so I've bought some powdered ones; not ideal but would do in baking etc if required.

@BiddyPop my DM had two DC where she used terry towelling nappies (me and DB) then another after a large age gap when disposables were then available... she said it was wonderful!! This was a bit before cloth nappies were around, I think she'd have given them a go if they were!

Hope everyone is well and enjoyed the bank holiday weekend? I'm trying to make the most of the weather before it gets too hot (I don't want to sound ungrateful for the sunshine, but it makes the DC very grumpy when it's really hot!) and tidy up the garden, planting any seeds which need to be done too. I had a big cooking session yesterday and spent a while scratching my head about where a lot of my tupperware boxes had got to. Turns out the DC have been using them to keep various bugs in in their playhouse

I think if this happens again I am going to do a few things differently. We have actually had a Coronavirus death in our family with devastating fallout so I am actually going to take it all a lot more seriously from now on, not that I wasn't anyway, I could just be a bit more vigilant.

One thing I won't do is go to multiple shops on my 1 day a week shop. I will just go to one. Also, I would move my shopping from once a week to once a fortnight. So, I will need a big freezer and I am going to order more online. I won't take up a vulnerable persons slot, but there are a lot of local companies and restaurants that have turned grocer that I will use. I dread the thought of a winter lock down. It would be horrible.

Really sorry to hear of your loss @DivaLasVegas. DP's family are infuriating me as they're not taking it seriously at all; not deliberately breaking lockdown rules but not being sensible enough to stop their day to day shopping! I would definitely buy a freezer when you can - we tried just before lockdown and there were none at all near us - today's appliances are very cheap to run, you just need the space.

Lovely idea about using local businesses more often there are some near us who have been very helpful/ entrepreneurial and I'd like to support those too. There's a refill shop not far away which I could start using but it needs a bit of initial outlay to get the empty containers, should work out cheaper to keep going though.

A winter lockdown would be awful; it's bad enough queuing for things now but it would be horrible in the cold/ wind/ rain! Our pharmacy in particular has no indoor space and there's often a 20 - 30 minute queue even at quiet times. And I simply cannot imagine the chaos at Christmas if this is still going on by then

DH has finally accepted that we are galloping through ground coffee while both of us are at home and that it's ok for me to get some to replenish the supplies. I'm trying to get some nice coffee in between (there are a few small roasters relatively locally who are delivering), and pick up a pack of standard ground from the supermarket most weeks (we go through a whole bag of that in about 6-8 days, so the smaller bags are gone in about 4 - both depending on how much we use the nespresso pods for single cups during the day). I am putting a mix of regular and nice coffee into my stash also, in case we need to go back into lockdown.

I also had a large stock of nespresso from an offer a few months back, and now down to only a few sleeves left, will need to do an order for that next week I think. But there are at least 1 other house on the street who use nespresso, so I think we'll try to do a joint order for that (we have done before on occasion but I was able to walk into a nespresso boutique near work until 10 weeks ago....).

Actually, it might be an idea to do a bulk order from the local roasters too as most on the street drink a lot of coffee....

Had my first coffee-shop latte in 10 weeks this morning when I was out doing a job, oh, soooo yummy and smooth...….

@BanKittenHeels

Anyone know if you can freeze butter? I do it all of the time!

What about tubs of low fat spread?

Bertolli freezes ok as mum used to do that. Not sure on anything else.

I am enjoying the clotted cream I froze before Christmas.

@graphista dry wipe marker on plastic tubs in the fridge is genius!

I have bought a dental mirror and temporary fillings. That would have seemed a very extreme purchase to me a few months ago.

I was very envious of those with veg boxes so I’m going to set up an order in another month or so, when I anticipate a dip in their custom. I’ve been so grateful for my milk delivery and was very glad to be a registered customer. I’ve been ordering meat from a butcher and will keep that up as the quality has been excellent.

I’ve struggled on a number of fronts with ds who has asd and I need to think carefully about his needs. He reacted to the disruption by going off various foods and it’s been a nightmare trying to keep him fed. We had made great progress at expanding his repertoire but he’s eating less variety (and a lot more crap). He swims and climbs normally but with neither of those available I haven’t been able to get him to take any regular exercise. He reads voraciously but reacts badly to too much screen time so a kindle hasn’t been an option and it’s been difficult, and expensive, to keep him in books. I haven’t really got my head around these things to figure out how to manage if there’s another lockdown.

@RubySlippers77 I’m laughing so hard at the idea of your Tupperware being co-opted for bug storage!

Barbarara that sounds really hard for your DS. In terms of books, could you set up some sort of book swap where you live? In our village someone commandeered a telephone box and people take books they don’t want anymore and leave them in it for other people to take. Is there the potential for that?

@Barbararara how old is your DS? Mine is 13 and while he won't part with any of his Alex Rider books he might have a couple of others on his bookshelf that he won't read again. Happy to send them on.

Someone asked if butter can be frozen, yes it can along with cheese. Check here for a list of foods that can be frozen

Just watched that video ParmaViolets and it says you can freeze eggs if you crack them into individual pots before freezing! Has anyone tried this?

I have frozen eggs before. I separate yolks from whites first. Yolks I do individually in ice cube trays (pierce each yolk before freezing) and whites go all together ( I mark on the jar how many). I don't buy eggs specifically to freeze, but will freeze a glut if it comes into my life.

@TheWoollybacksWife thanks so much - that’s lovely of you. But there’s no need really. I just needed a bit of a grumble more than anything. I have some on order at the moment and he has plenty to re read (I guess he’s entitled to grumble too)

Hopefully I’ll get a chance to go charity shopping soon and take advantage of all this decluttering and home improvement everyone I know has been talking about. And the libraries will reopen in a couple of weeks too. I just won’t hand them over quite as freely as I used to.

@AlohaMolly that’s a great idea. worth thinking about.

On the topic of eggs, I freeze them beaten in silicone cupcake cases. I pop them in a muffin tray to freeze then put them in a bag.
The texture is a bit weird and I’ve been too precious to try scrambling them yet but they have been fine in baking, and French toast.
I’ve always frozen egg white as yolks get called on more often. Same method with cupcake cases. They are absolutely perfect.

Frozen cheese can be a tiny bit more crumbly but I’m fine with that.

@Barbararara I found another box in their playhouse today with a grumpy looking moth in it

Sorry to hear that your DS has a book shortage!! Have you tried asking on Freegle/ Nextdoor if you use either of those? You might find that people have some to pass on with the charity shops shut. Would your DS react badly to a Paperwhite e-reader (like this one) - they are quite plain, might not be as bad for his screen reaction? I completely sympathise though, my DS1 is currently being assessed for ASD - or would be if I could get any further during lockdown! - and I'm starting to despair over his limited diet (dry, beige foods) and moaniness at doing any exercise that he doesn't want to. The GP wants to stop his prescription milk too, which I understand as it's expensive, but on the other hand he loves that milk, and otherwise I'd have to try and get him to take vitamins...

I bought some powdered eggs to get round the egg shortage; I haven't had to use them yet but they'll come in handy at some point.

I have another veg box delivery arriving next week. It's a different company to last week's as I'm trying to use as many as I can to stay on their list of current customers!

Long time lurker since Feb - thank you for all the wonderful advice.

@BlackeyedSusan - can you use the clotted cream on scones like usual or have you used it differently - thank you (feeling hungry now).