Bluebirds on the ground. Denise in England. (Bedford.)

Denise began telling me her concerns in January so her coverage of her experience begins then.  

It began....  "Like you I have to change my grocery orders around as so many things are out of stock.  So sometimes it takes three times as long to get an order."

The cost of food goes up every week and the size of packets get smaller.

Denise decides to sort through her seeds and plan.  She told me she did my preparedness 30 challenge and she has been working on her pantry.  She has a garden and grows all she can.  They have friends on a farm and this is a great help to them as her husband can get some rabbits.  He also goes fishing which is another great help as he comes back with some pretty good fish!  With this Denise builds up her freezer.

Denise also knits, cooks,  makes cards and is very creative.  

March 25.  A trip to Aldi is a shock at how much things went up.  Denise goes over the budget, cuts everything back to the bone.  Her husband is retiring as well.

April 5.  Denise learns they are to expect rationing of heat, light and cooking fuel.  She has not seen this in her lifetime.   She knows she needs to be getting ready for winter.  Everyone is worried about food prices and shortages now.

April 25.  There is a shortage of sunflowers and limits on cooking oil.  

May 24. Denise realises their heating oil is going to be 1000 pounds more this year than last year and is worried. 

June 8.  Denise has a farming friend and they said their fertiliser bill doubled over three weeks.  She can see how this will have to affect food prices coming.   Denise determines to stock up on seeds.

Jun 15.  The BBC is talking about wanting people to eat bugs.  Denise said farmers came on and talked sense.   But she can see where this is going...

July 1.   Denise is hearing talk of winter blackouts and she decides to put together blackout boxes.   She also orders heating oil which has doubled from last year.   Her black out boxes include easy food that heats quickly, head torches, candles, solar lights, night light, batteries of all sizes.  Warm clothes, hats, gloves. 

Aug 26.  Gas and electricity are going up dramatically.  Denise and her husband determine they will change the house and live only downstairs.   Then they can not heat upstairs except on frost setting to stop things freezing.   Denise is working out ways to not have to turn on her oven.

Sept 8.  Denise is given a big bag of pears and sets to work on them.

Sept 9.  The Queen has died.  There has been a lot of political turmoil, difficulties and this hits hard.

Sept. 13.  Denise learns a milling company had paid 12 million dollars in 2022 for energy.  This year it expects it to be 60 million because of the cost of power rises.  This surely has to increase the cost of bread.  

Oct 18.  Denise talks to a friend who is upset that her daughters mortgage is going from 1000 pounds a month to 2000 in the new year.   They are not seeing how they will manage it.

Oct 20.  Cheese now has security tags!   Aldi is tagging lots of food now! 

Oct 21.  Denise does her usual Aldi shop buying the exact same list which comes to between 50 and 75 pounds.   Today it came to 93 Pounds.   

Oct 29.  The gov provide some temporary subsidies as the price of heating is dining by 80%.  There is a shortage of eggs.

Nov 21. One of the top supermarkets is collapsing and closing in the new year.

Nov 22. Denise meets a lady struggling with Shingles. She looked very poorly and could not get the needed drugs for treatment. 

Nov 23.  A lady on Denises street tells her they cannot afford heating and they are sick.   The cold is really setting in.   

Dec 8 ... Denise and her husband discover a family up the road from them have no food at all.  Denise goes through her emergency pantry and puts together a one week supply for them which they deliver.   She says the family is overwhelmed.   Denise's husband is a retired Minister and they have always watched out for people needing help but never seen anything like this.   They are hearing of children going to school not only without breakfast but without dinner the night before. 

The UK is running short of many drugs and children have now died of strep as they are short of antibiotics. 

Denise has a friend with Shingles in her eye and was not able to get the antiviral meds.  (unavailable.)

The latest update is that the hospital in Bedford has no beds and it is taking 90 hours to get one.  They are also running out of Oxygen.   

As you can see I have been chatting with Denise for ages and at times she has sounded quite distressed.  She also suffered a serious of serious medical problems through 2022 and experienced first hand long times to get to see a specialist and it was a case of each step along the way was relentlessly difficult.   She continued on adding to her pantry where she could and got a long way ahead on baking supplies,  the freezer well stocked and putting to good use anything that came their way.   At times Denise sounded shocked and in just disbelief at what she was seeing and experiencing.   The hospital/drug crisis now has made main stream media.  I began watching a report and found it very distressing.   The UK had the most wonderful medical system admired by the world so much so Australia modelled our system on it.  But now it is a mess. 

Denise I really appreciate your generosity to share your story from England.  I hope this gives everyone insight and areas they can work on in their own homes. 

I would like to add I am getting reports of similar drug shortages beginning here (Australia.)  Please get ahead with anything your family needs,  fill prescriptions etc. xxx