Stocktake Time - Brexit Countdown

[AldiIsla]

Can't believe we might actually have a No Deal crash.

Anyone else finding it overwhelming doing usual Christmas stuff, the winter weather preparations and then Brexit and being ready for more coronavirus stuff?

I need to do a stock take of food and toiletries.

We've been life prepping so boiler has been serviced early, electrics have had an upgrade this year. Car getting serviced next month.

I can't be arsed.
I feel sick.

Better late than never l suppose Adora.

We had a lovely time at Christmas, but are now waiting for test results from a bubble member. stuck in for potentially 10 days.

Any update on your test results @BlackeyedSusan? I keep getting the 'possible COVID exposure' notifications from the app. No idea why as I don't stand near to anyone for too long, even supermarket trips take 20 minutes max!

That's interesting about the food production @AdoraBell, I didn't realise that we don't produce enough because we physically can't. I'm guessing that people who think we can/ should are harking back to some 'golden age' when it was possible? Probably not now unless we all 'dig for victory' again!

I think people thought that maybe instead of situations like Scottish potatoes being sent abroad and then UK importing potatoes from other countries that maybe we would keep our own stock and buy from our own farmers first sort of thing. But I could be totally wrong.

Would also just like to update that big supermarkets where I am are rationing fresh produce to one item or pack per customer apparently because of the lorry situation, (which I thought had been resolved) but apparently it hasn't, and then I thought of all the news reports telling people not to panic as supermarkets had been stocking up for this. Yet still people were being told to put items back and they would only sell, for example, one cucumber to someone and no more than that. Just a heads up that's happening now in some places.

I noticed with my online Asda order that you can only order a small amount of fruit and veg. We usually order 7 cucumbers as youngest DD snacks on them rather than sweets and chocolates. Strawberries are non existent and so are bananas at the moment. May have to send DH out to the grocers if there's going to be restrictions on fruit and veg.

Yes toilet rolls, tins of tomatoes and pasta and rice are limited too.

I buy most of my veg and fruit from the local farm shop. I was in Sainsbury’s today and didn’t notice any limits, although I wasn’t looking for produce/loo roll etc, just Weetabix. There are limits on tinned fruit and flour that I’ve ordered for tomorrow. Teen DD2, home from Uni, she’s using a whole can of tuna for her lunch salad, almost daily 🤦‍♀️

I'm guessing that people who think we can/ should are harking back to some 'golden age' when it was possible?

That's definitely my octogenarian mother...and if you try and tell her we can't it'll be 'because we've let so many immigrants in' .

I stocked up on frozen veg in my last delivery, and have two full freezers and a good stash in the garage of ambient/tinned food and household supplies.

I'm going to start working my way through the freezers and hoping not to spend too much over the next few weeks.

Popped into Tesco on way home from work today, about 17:15. Normally would be heaving, very few people in there at all. No problem getting the few bits I needed. Mum didn’t need any thing so a relatively small shop. Still cost me £70.00. I did pick up some packs of mince beef and chicken breast but nothing extravagant. My biggest concern at the moment is cost. Food in the UK is so much more expensive than other countries like the USA.

Lurker here - thanks for the heads up about fresh and staple food limits (hardly surprising I guess). Thankful we're pretty well stocked for now, as we enter Tier 4 today.

Is food more expensive here in the UK vs USA? My impression has been that a lot of our food is extremely cheap here, certainly vs many places in Europe. $3 ish for a loaf of bread in America (£2.20) sounds more expensive to me? I guess it depends a lot on what you eat though!

I'm not sure what to think at the moment. I felt momentary relief when the deal was struck. But I still don't really understand how it's all going to be if drivers' paperwork has to be checked at the border. I understand Boris Johnson has said goods will be 'waved though' into the UK, but as far as I can tell, that's not actually legal unless he's willing to 'wave through' goods from all countries and not just from the EU
So my dried goods are still stashed as everything has a good use by date, and I plan to watch and wait.
I was in tesco yesterday, and noticed a lot of fruit was missing, and happened to pass the warehouse area when the door was open, and there wasn't a great deal in there.
I do wonder whether stocks that were prepared to cover brexit transition time has been used up due to the situation with those poor lorry drivers before Christmas.
I feel that trouble could still be coming over the hill quite shortly
Today I am busy using up fresh stuff in my fridge. So that's dinner for 3 nights if I batch cook today, plus a bit for the freezer.
Sticking to a weekly shop now, given covid is suddenly much more rife in my area. 7 people I know currently have it, and a few more are in isolation.
It's a real double whammy, but this is why we prepared.

Yes I feel that too Whenwillow only in my vision I see it racing over the hill like an avalanche Pretty stocked here at the moment, but one thing that worries me is the time it will take to test every lorry driver at the border, and the delays that will ensue. but as you say that is why we prepared.

Yes of course - I hadn't thought of the testing. Is that still ongoing? Every driver tested on going between UK and France? It's not really being discussed anymore is it? Just 'nothing to see here'. But yes, we have passports/paperwork checked, plus testing for the foreseeable.
How can there not be delays
And there's no word on how EU drivers are feeling about coming here either, is there. Remarkably quiet on that front.

I think so Whenwillow yes I feel they are not wanting you to look at Dover too closely over the next few months and see all the delays.

Happy new year everyone, hope it’s a vast improvement on the outgoing one.

Happy New Year. Time to process fresh veg for the freezer.

Sticking my nose into the thread to report on Costco Krusteaz pancake mix - bought it for my Brexit stash (which is also my Corona stash) and decided to sample it today to make sure we will actually eat it.

Really impressed! It's just add water, mixes easily, cooks really nicely and tastes good. We had a box of similar from Tesco previously and the pancakes tasted rubbish but these were genuinely nice. Which is good because the bag makes like 200

I bought some of that for my DDs, they started Uni in 2020. They haven’t tried it yet, I ordered it from Amazon. Probably more expensive than CostCo.

Happy New Year all (although it's not shaping up very well so far ) - I did a big Lidl shop last week and a smaller Tesco one last night, mainly because after Boris' announcement I knew I'd be stuck at home with the DC for an eternity many nights to come! There were empty shelves both times but that might be because I go quite late (9pm ish).

Hoping to do some more batch cooking soon. It's either that or sob into my gin at the thought of yet more home schooling...

Starting to think my dad is a secret prepper. He used Amazon prime to order me some teabags. Was confused when I opened the door (we don't live together) to Amazon man staggering with a giant box
Dad "well you drink a lot of tea"
1000 Yorkshire teabags

Gotta love Dads like that, looking out for their babies still 🤣

@BiddyPop he also took out a contract (runs hotel) and they gave him a years supply of toilet roll so he was annoyingly smug when covid hit
It's ridiculously thin but does the job in an emergency!

That is a lot of @QueenPawPaws!

My DF is so disorganised that he'd never think to do that for me. In fact I regularly send him up food hampers etc so he always has something in the fridge/ freezer. I hope that won't be too affected by supplies

Heads up for those of us who are still stockpiling. Superdrug have their Unilever daily deals back on. It's usually toiletries that are half price but then you also get 1 free. I stocked up back in September.

Thank you.

Hi hope everyone is doing well. Just wanted to post this for any Northern Irish gardeners who may be interested.

www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/ni-gardeners-lose-hundreds-seed-varieties-major-company-suttons-withdraws-fruit-and-veg-seeds-due-irish-sea-border-3115211?amp