What are you panic buying?

[gentlegreen]

Shame cos I rated the bread mixes. I did get one bag of strong wholemeal from Sainsburys last week but there was bugger all else.

They had some amazing flours in there a few years back - spelt and "Cotswold crunch" - but as per usual spoiled it by having crazy amounts of pattiserie flour on the pallet.

 

[Mogden]

They had some amazing flours in there a few years back - spelt and "Cotswold crunch" - but as per usual spoiled it by having crazy amounts of pattiserie flour on the pallet.

Yeah same here. Either that or terrible packets which meant most of them were split.

 

[gentlegreen]

Yeah same here. Either that or terrible packets which meant most of them were split.

I've still got a bag of dark rye I bought at the time and promptly went off the idea - very difficult to make it rise and no sign of insect contamination years after I bought it !

 

[Epona]

I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but why is everyone so desperate for flour and doing so much baking (if you didn't before)? There are bread and cakes on the shelves

Personally I've been baking my own bread for a while before all this started and it's the sort of thing that it difficult to go back from - you get the equivalent of a really nice bakery loaf hot from the oven for a fraction of the cost - even the least horrible processed bread is fucking disgusting in comparison (and the salt and fat content is horrendous in a lot of processed bread).

Same with cakes/brownies/biscuits, you'd have to be really really shit at it to not (at least after a little practice) consistently produce goods cheaper and tastier, and you know and can control what ingredients are going in there - I am not going to try to argue that anyone is producing really healthy cakes, but you know what is going in it if you make it yourself. Patisserie and pastry goods can be somewhat more complicated so I won't include those in the "easy and cheap to do at home" bracket as they take a bit more practice and skill, but the point about baking in general stands.

Also it's massively satisfying and therapeutic tbh - an hour or several spent baking a cake or some bread and enjoying it gives a massive sense of "look what I did" type glee If it weren't for the flour shortage, what a wonderful time it would be for folks who are furloughed or self isolating to learn to bake

 

[smmudge]

The last time we needed bog roll was the time of The Great Shortage. Anyway we didn't have a lot of choice in Aldi. They had a 24 pack, which is going to take us months to get through. But also it's scented. Which after a while (like 5 bog rolls through) we suddenly thought, why the hell does anyone want scented bog roll?? At what part in the wiping process does one think, gosh i really wish this bog roll had a cheap artificial floral scent?

 

[gentlegreen]

Prompted by the above, I've written the date on a bog roll to see how long they're lasting me these days - possibly a month ...

Thanks to miscalculation, I just had to go to Aldi on a Sunday.
I was guilty of pillaging three packets of pine nuts from the boxes of now exclusively pumpkin seeds...
Extra chocolate, beer, cereals - not good diet-wise ...

 

[Puddy_Tat]

not that i would know quite what to do with either, but small tesco near work had a few varieties of flour and also baking powder today

 

[gentlegreen]

6 kilos of tahini - but I always buy that sort of quantity to avoid being exposed to dangerous confectionery in the deli ...

 

[maomao]

Still very well behaved at Asda here but maybe it's the time of day I go. The early crowd is always orderly. I find if I turn up about ten past eight there's no need to queue.

I panic bought some biscoff and decided to have a couple before I started off home. I actually got the biscuit out and lifted it half way to my face before I remembered I was wearing a mask.

 

[Badgers]

A combination of panic buying and batch cooking has left me with a freezer packed to bursting Have about 6 pints of chicken stock in there alone

Going to try and eat from the freezer for the foreseeable. Although the hot weather is not idea for batch cooked stews, chilli, curry, etc...

 

[Epona]

I GOT PLAIN FLOUR!!!!

 

[existentialist]

Yeah same here. Either that or terrible packets which meant most of them were split.

I've just had an email from Cotswold to say that they're back in stock on quite a lot of the range - they have some sort of "5 bag" deal online...

 

[existentialist]

I can't equal gentlegreen's record on bog roll use, but we have at least one thing in common, because I did the sums a few days ago, and a loo roll lasts me between 7 and 9 days, which didn't seem unreasonable. What it means is that I still haven't opened the pack I bought a week before lockdown

 

[William of Walworth]

I can't equal gentlegreen's record on bog roll use, but we have at least one thing in common, because I did the sums a few days ago, and a loo roll lasts me between 7 and 9 days, which didn't seem unreasonable. What it means is that I still haven't opened the pack I bought a week before lockdown

So much depends on what quality and size of rolls you source though.
I suspect from the above that you get pretty good ones.
But between the two of us, each one of our cheap (but always available) Home Bargains ones can be got through in not much over a day .......
We are veggies though

 

[existentialist]

So much depends on what quality and size of rolls you source though.
I suspect from the above that you get pretty good ones.
But between the two of us, each one of our cheap (but always available) Home Bargains ones can be got through in not much over a day .......
We are veggies though

A DAY?

Not sure if being veggie has that much of a bearing on it - I'm vegetarian, too...

 

[farmerbarleymow]

A DAY?

Not sure if being veggie has that much of a bearing on it - I'm vegetarian, too...

A roll will last me around a week I think. Think of all those poor trees William of Walworth

 

[William of Walworth]

Recycled paper at least ... and there are two of us, remember

 

[Lurdan]

Whitechapel Sainsbury's this morning. I was talking to one of my siblings a couple of weeks ago, saying that having got myself pretty unfit, carrying a weeks supplies at a time was very tiring . Why don't you go twice a week then? Don't be silly I said scornfully. But thinking about it later it struck me as kind of a good idea (not that I'd admit it) so I've been doing that.

Sainsbury's pretty well stocked. No use for flour myself but I ran across a couple of stacks of big bags of plain and self-raising (not sure if they were 10 or 16 kilos). Also saw very small supplies of 'regular' sized bags.

No queue and not crowded. The distancing etiquette pretty well worked out by now. Got to say I'll miss the elder/carers hour when it goes.

As I was setting out heard some excited children's voices on another floor of my block. (Unusual sound these days - very few families with children left). Wondered if they were off to school. Two thirds of Tower Hamlets primary schools have stayed open for vulnerable and key workers children, but no sign of any wider re-opening today. Road traffic up a bit - it has been at mid-morning levels on Commercial and Whitechapel Roads for a few weeks. Busier still today. By contrast rather less foot traffic. Guess that will change as more shops open.

First persistent beggar I've encountered since the lockdown started. (Seen some passive stationary ones). What I call a 'lone walker', traveling around looking for someone prepared to engage. Followed me for a minute or two trying a range of pretty reasonable quality pick up lines, interspersed with expressions of rather more genuine exasperation as they didn't work. Almost worth a donation for entertainment value. But not quite.

 

[gentlegreen]

Aldi had 10KG bags of plain white flour today which is of no use to me.
Tesco have strong white bread flour which is also not my thing.
So my bread is going to be a mixture of malthouse and spelt for a while...
Embarrassingly my groceries now include beer

 

[existentialist]

Aldi had 10KG bags of plain white flour today which is of no use to me.
Tesco have strong white bread flour which is also not my thing.
So my bread is going to be a mixture of malthouse and spelt for a while...
Embarrassingly my groceries now include beer

Don't be embarrassed about buying beer - some of the best people buy beer in their grocery shops.

 

[gentlegreen]

Don't be embarrassed about buying beer - some of the best people buy beer in their grocery shops.

My one bottle of wine (or less) a week could almost be classed as a condiment, I now seem to need the calming effect of beer at lunchtime - and I'm still on the lookout for Pernod - but that's never more than a capfull or two per day ...

 

[gentlegreen]

I can't equal gentlegreen's record on bog roll use, but we have at least one thing in common, because I did the sums a few days ago, and a loo roll lasts me between 7 and 9 days, which didn't seem unreasonable. What it means is that I still haven't opened the pack I bought a week before lockdown

I just weighed my dated bog roll and was shocked to find I'm only getting about 18 days out of a roll
I may have to start counting the sheets ... my habits are very regular, but there are several variables involved ...

So I will need to buy some more within the next couple of months ...

 

[platinumsage]

Went to B&Q this morning to panic buy some 6ft feather edge fence boards. It was the first time I’ve been to a shop since the 8th of March so I was feeling rather wary.

Not many people there, and none of the staff or customers were wearing masks. The chap at the entrance said it was mandatory to take a trolley, which I did. I followed their one way system, which not everyone complied with and i felt fortunate it wasn’t busier.

It was easy to pay at the till and the checkout person was behind a screen. I waited like a lemon for the receipt before she told me I could take it myself from the machine.

The till and general arrangements were fine, but most of the staff and some customers on the shop floor seemed rather nonchalant about keeping two meters away from each other and from other customers. I wouldn’t have minded so much if they’d been wearing masks but if I go to a shop again this year I might have to improve my own face protection.

 

[Pickman's model]

in marks and spencer today to stock up on their clearance chopped tomato and pasta, 23p a tin of italian tomatoes, 50p for 500g of italian pasta best before 2023. regardless of whether the next shock is the second wave lockdown or the convulsions caused by brexit i'll have enough food to make pasta and sauce for a month

 

[William of Walworth]

New washing machine ordered this morning! Definitely a panic buy because .....

The old, crap one flooded the kitchen and we're having to replace it with a new one immediately
(We tinkered around with the old one, and it's definitely beyond repair ... )

New machine not arriving until next Wednesday, either ..... hand-washing until then.

At least there's no more rain in the forecast from Friday onwards, with sunshine returning , so at least we can go back to drying stuff in the garden

 

[sideboob]

In the before days my pantry was filled with food. Still have 38 boxes of expired kraft dinner though

 

[existentialist]

I still have a good half of my stash of dried pulses, but I've had to restock tinned tomatoes, and some flour, in case of a second wave. And, probably, toilet rolls

 

[Dogsauce]

People are apparently now panic-buying MOTs as the six month extension thing finished on 31 July. Unfortunately mine was due on the 1st, and won’t be done until the 21st. We’re out of the two-week quarantine on Saturday but still won’t be able to do a big shop :/

 

[Yu_Gi_Oh]

We've just re-bought our cheese stockpile for the fourth time. We have an emergency cheese reserve too, which we don't eat, so if times get very bad again, we should be sorted for dairy.

I also just bought a larger basket to keep my PPE stockpile in.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Polaroid film. Okay I have quite a lot left but they're doing free delivery at the moment.

Always Polaroid film. They're selling a new batch of yellow Duochrome at the moment.

Shop Black & Yellow 600 Film – Duochrome | Polaroid UK

Get a sneak peek of the stunning Black & Yellow 600 Duochrome Film. Bring up your instant photography experience.

uk.polaroid.com

no I have not shot all of the film I already have, what a silly question