THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

The news is full of gloom and doom about rising prices over the past couple of days, electricity, council tax, the NHS, food, fuel everything between too and it's only to be expected that with government cuts to local authorities and the fall in value of the pound over brexit that things WILL need more input from the population IF we want standards to be maintained at the level we're used to. We need to do some readjustment of thinking over food and domestic items, we're all used to such choice and it seems to me that the whole population is thinking they deserve treats all the time and want the exotics and imports and foreign cuisine ingredients but at the same price as the british grown carrots and cabbages. We need to take on board that this IS a transition time, a time of change where what we're used to may not be the norm forever. That no one of us has the right to live on party food and continually indulge our every whim 'because we're worth it' really is only common sense, if we want comestibles and household items to remain affordable we have to make choices about our lifestyles and rein in expectations to what we can actually afford and make the best from it that we can. We run without central heating because we made the decision to have the stove installed. It sometimes gets pretty chilly in here in the depths of winter but we've gotten used to running cooler in fact going into centrally heated buildings is now uncomfortably warm. We also run mostly (not entirely) on simple foods that I try to find grown/produced locally. I can't do all of life that way it's not possible on a pension but I try. I use the £1 shops, I use places like Home Bargains and B & M, I use the local farm shop and I try to make us as good a life as I can below our means so there is always a tiny bit of slack in the monetary system for unexpected things happening. It's a good life, we're not always away on holidays, we've got second hand furniture that we've had for years, we provide as much food home grown as we can and I cook everything so we eat well too. If prices do go up there are ways of making what you DO have left into a good life IF you work at it, sometimes it's even fun!!!

Don't wait for it to happen, start living the lifestyle NOW, practise living as much below your means as you can, learn to make good things with cheaper component parts, learn to love second hand, make good what you have and if you can't afford a new one refurbish the one you have (I know if machines break it's sometimes not feasible) find the little repair man who lives locally, get your shoes mended by the cobbler don't buy a new pair (if they can be mended that is), develop simpler tastes, find contentment in things that are free...what price a winter sunrise? use the library, frequent charity shops or even do without the latest must have. I know all of this is teaching Grandma to suck eggs but it doesn't hurt to reinforce frugal and simple as a good way to live does it?