Preparedness for when

Cheapskate

Good grief, I have missed a lot - DS works at sainsbugs and didn't know they were phasing out Basics stuff! :eek: I buy quite a few of those things, have just discovered the delights of the teabags, tinned potatoes and sweetcorn, although they've all gone up in price in my Sainsbugs! Bu99er and double bu99er - as if our budgets weren't tight enough as it is!

Will have to hie me down to the larger branch tomorrow to see if I can pick up a few things before they disappear!

Have priced up change of gas/elec a few times of the last 5 or 6 days or so, each time I get wildly different results, wonder what's going on?! Need to do this week, my gas is £74 a month, leccy £57 and we are fairly careful, but we can't afford that, esp if the firms we use put prices up from that!

Despite recent reports that food prices are going up by about 3% or so, my basket of goods is going up by closer to 8-10%. Might be only pennies per item, but the percentage increase is scary! :eek::mad:

I have rellies in Scotland and it's getting quite tough up there, too, and family and friends in USA, Norway and France tell similar tales, which is quite worrying if such different economies are struggling!

Good luck to all in the gathering storm, will try to catch up on the dozens of pages since I last popped in.

A xo

mardatha

Oh my god I miss a days prepping and my teabags are now under threat :eek:
that'll teach me to ignore you lot eh

meme30

Thanks for that Vanoonoo I wasn't thinking straight.
PAH:- am off to S**nsburys today will let you know how it goes!

We have had a scrat about in the shed. Because we never throw stuff away I think we have found a home lighting solution. Of course we still have a generator if petrol is available, but I wanted a quiet solution too IYKWIM.
We have a small solar panel which we used to use to keep a car battery charged up. This battery will light 12v fluorescent lights which we still have from camping 25 years ago! Car batteries will run 12v water pumps too, the biggest problem being getting them charged in a non-mains electrical situation.
Yes we still have car batteries as well!. We used to buy them cheap from scrap car dealers local to us and if looked after they work very well.
Of course you can just take one off the car to use in the house or run a long wire from under the bonnet into the house to the light itself. If you are using the car, the battery will stay charged, the only thing you have to be careful of is running the battery down to the extent the car will no longer start. One light used in the evening will not kill your battery and if you use the car everyday or just run it for a while everyday you should be able to keep a good bright light running in your home.
http://www.cableuniverse.co.uk/labcraft-pearl-strip-light-8w.html--This is the type of light I mean
This is the type of solar panel I mean http://www.maplin.co.uk/solar-powered-12v-1.5w-battery-trickle-charger-98358

Sunshine4

The OH said he noticed when he was in Mr S that there wasnt a lot of basic items.
It takes two bues to get to our Mr S its not that far just awkward. OH was out on his pushbike yesterday and passed there so today I think I will get him to get more teabags incase they go as well.
Can not do with tea:eek:

mardatha

Could I ask if anybody knows, if there is any way you can keep the freezer running without a genny ? Even if you only let it run for ten mins every hour? Can that be done at all in any way? Because we have a lot of powercuts in bad weather and I can't fill the freezer too full in case we lose it all.

[Deleted User]

MAR - not a thing to keep a freezer running but to extend the time the produce inside it stays frozen is to freeze bottles of water (things like the 2 litre pop bottles) then if the power does go off for any length of time, provided you don't open the lid that should keep the temperature low enough for the food not to spoil. Only useful for a few hours I'm afraid, not over long periods of time. The more bottles in there, the longer it extends the cool temperatures. Hope that helps Cheers Lyn x.

mardatha

Ok pet ta

Gigervamp

Mard, you need a UPS (uninteruptable power supply). They're large batteries and they're used to keep servers running in IT dept in the case of power cuts.

They're not cheap though.

betony

I'm sure PAH will be along later to clarify, but she did say it was her Mr S saying that was her store.

My OH works part time for them, too, but in a railway station branch, so very few Basics goods there.

We did our big 4-weekly shop last night and there were loads of Basics lines in. Don't know that's because it's in what's classed as a 'deprived' area? Any way, I got lots of Basics stuff; instant mash, tinned potatoes, chopped tomatoes (up from 31p to 35p:eek:) plain and self raising flour, fresh potatoes, peach slices, custard etc, etc. Oh, and tea bags, 3 boxes, bringing my grand total up to - 3 :rotfl: I have tried them before, though, so I know I like them

My OH thinks I'm nuts and doesn't understand why I'm doing it; he's very resistant to the idea of having stocks in. He thinks we could cope with very nearly everything that might happen and that things will never get too bad to benefit from it. I'm hoping he's right, but I'm going to carry on regardless. You never know, really, do you?

prepareathome

Haven't caught up fully but wanted to say the basics line is just going from my Mr S not all of them, just mine. I don't know if this will be followed in other branches or just a decision locally.

I had a chat with the Manager there, I know all the staff quite well after 20 odd years going there and he was saying they are not the biggest store but have to keep their sales figures up even so and basic lines although sell very well do not produce high sales so they have decided to stop stocking them. I did say how I know they will lose customers by doing this and he said they realise that but are hoping that the higher priced items they sell will make up for it and they will look again at sales in the New Year.

He asked if there was anything I really, really wanted to stay so mentioned teabags, tomatoes, sauces,stock cubes,bubble bath,shower gel, deodorant and eggs off the top of my head. He wrote them all down and said if there are any others just drop a note of them to cs.

He did say he might, just might have one small area that held a few basics rather than them spread out, I said that would be a fantastic idea and I thought it would be a winner as was sure if people came in to buy the basics and saw everything at once they would then most likely buy the dearer versions of what they do not stock in basics rather than go elsewhere as he had made it so easy for them to find at least some basic lines.

So all I can do is hope. Over the years they have tried to remove the basic lines before and I have complained as have others and they have stayed. Usually happens like now when manager is fairly new to the job, he has been here 4 months.

Part of the problem is the area store is in is classed as very, well to do and a lot of shoppers are actually house keepers of the wealthy that live nearby in the big 10-12 bedroom homes. So new managers assume everyone is well off and can afford to buy the dearer versions of everything.

So the lines will go( he said but not giving up hope as one of the supervisors told me they already had dozens complaints over the lack of basic items) as ordering has been done for October and November and they plan to fill the spaces with seasonal items. I will be adding to teabag mountain (have 54 boxes now) and plan to do an on-line shop of basics products next week when hubby is paid, nothing else just the basic items.

Hubby and I also plan to visit the only other Mr S store in the city or even travel the 10 miles to the big one where on-line shopping comes from to see what their policies are.

Sorry didn't mean to alarm anyone.