Preparedness for when

ragz_2

Had a very successful prepping day today. DH was home so we tackled the cupboard under the stairs (it's huge) that has been half food store and half junk heap for the last year. He brought back the Aquarolls from the caravan the other day when he went to winter-prep that, so we now have those under the stairs, full of over 25 litres each. I feel much better about the water situation now, just need to get the side of the house sorted so we can have a water butt for rainwater. DH reckons we could flush toilets using buckets of water from the stream at the end of the road.
Food store is looking good but definitely has gaps, it's not very well planned really. Getting there though.

We both finished our BOBs and put them in our cars, where they will be kept. DH has stuff in case he gets stuck on the way home from work in snow, so sleeping bag, kelly kettle, hex stove, mess tins, billy can, water, coffee, tins of food plus all the normal gear he has on him anyway as he's a gardener so plenty of tools, torches for hunting etc.
Mine is more geared towards being stuck somewhere overnight with the children, so a spare set of clothes, pull up for DD as she is not quite dry at night, some medications for all that need them plus calpol, and some food - bag of pasta and jar of pesto in case we end up staying out when it's dinner time and then I can feed them even if we are somewhere without suitable child food! Also have a few tins of chilli and a pack of wraps, so could heat that up in a mess tin on the hex stove if I really had to.

Feeling like we really got it all together today, rather than just reading about it, buying random bits and calling ourselves preppers!

Many thanks to all on here for your excellent tips on this thread

jk0

Walmart kindly let EBT holders shop without limit on Saturday. They spent two hours loading up their trolleys. Unfortunately the cards came back online before they checked out, so all the food was abandoned in dozens of trolleys:

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/23679489/walmart-shelves-in-springhill-mansfield-cleared-in-ebt-glitch

JayneC

Interesting debates today.

Can't remember who said that we'd probably all be less frugal if we won the lottery. Well when I decided to cut my working hours in half someone asked me if I'd won the lottery and I replied that i decided I wanted the time more than the money!

Things are very tight but I think it was a good decision. I too was a young mum - DD1 was born when I was 17, DS1 at 20 and then had 3 more but with gaps DS2 is the youngest, born when I was nearly 31. When the older ones were little I only ever worked part time (mostly evenings in a pub!) and we used to go on the £9 sun holidays, lol... One of the kids would usually win one of the comps - talent show or dancing comp (not shy!!)and we'd get to go back for free for finals week:D. Now when DS2 was 4 I started working fulltime and we had 2 fairly good incomes but still didn't seem to stretch to everything (expectations rise with the money I think!) although we had some holidays abroad (only camping in France which we drove to) my greatest memories are just playing with my older ones on the park on the way home from school or days out to some local petting zoo, collecting leaves and baking cakes, stuff like that. I realized that my youngest had got to secondary school and I didn't know where the time had gone - no going to the park on the way home for him - well he did but with the childminder not me:( I wanted to spend some time with him before he flies off to uni or whatever and I'm happy to scrimp and he seems to appreciate my time and never complains. My older kids are a mixed bunch. Eldest DD worries me with her materialistic nature, but her hubby is quite frugal so that causes some debates. Eldest DS is very frugal and will always consider whether he needs something before buying - he's happy with secondhand and improvising, not averse to 'rescuing' stuff that's been left out for the binmen! Middle DD desperately wants to have all the nice things but is at least wise enough to realise she can't, she has 2 little ones herself. Another young mum - DGS was born when she was 16 and DGD when she was 21, however she went to college, did an apprenticeship and is now at university (DGD is only 18mths). DD3 really doesn't care, she will do her own thing is determined and focused and not in the least bit materialistic. So really I don't know how much their home life influenced them, how much was their peers and how much was 'society'. My mum says I'm just like her mum, who had to bring up 3 kids on her own in the days when there weren't single mums and hardly any jobs for women , granddad died when mum was just 5 with one older and one younger brother. Gran worked in a laundry and as a school dinner lady amongst other things. Also took in lodgers and washing!! But she was always scavenging firewood (and anything else that could be scavenged), kept chickens (that mysteriously disappeared around Christmas;)) and gratefully accepted [STRIKE]cast offs[/STRIKE] donations!

I do think things are very different nowadays, especially for younger ones, to even when my eldest left school, my eldest 2 didn't really have too much trouble finding work but DD2 has really struggled, even with A levels and an apprenticeship in business, which is partly why she's gone off to uni. They've been fed the 'work hard at school and you'll get a high paying job and can buy lots of shiny new things' line which is clearly not the case, hence some seriously peed off youngsters around. Who are going to get more peed off when the benefits safety net is also pulled from under them. They will most definitely paying the price, how they choose to take this will be the making or breaking of our future society I reckon......

paidinchickens

Morning everyone

I ventured into town last night as I had been doing some fleabaying and town is the nearest drop of point for the courier.

The drop off shop is also an off licence/corner shop set up and what an eye opener it was :eek:

DH and I were there for a while as we had quite a few parcels but we did so many and then waited while the girl served the queue at the till then carried on with a few more.

Well ................ I wasn't being nosey, I was just interested as I don't get out much but :eek:

The shop assistant had a personal alarm strapped to her, the people coming in and out were like a scene from Shaun of the dead. The over priced booze and fags were the only items flying off the shelves. There was only one pint of milk sold in the 45 minutes we were stood there.

There were people buying crates of beer and then complaining about having to spend a fiver on gas :cool:

Gawwwd help us as WTSHTF they will have nothing, not even a spare tin of beans

PiC x

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I Had a rare moment, and done a bit wondering round the cheap shops, and 'go outdoors':eek::eek::eek: at go outdoors, WOW I thought they supposed to be cheap...

Poundland I bought some little carry case type plastic boxes for the car/vans and got some bits to go in them... Also went into home bargains and got a Led head tourch and batteries.. I know we have got one somewhere, but it was easier to buy another one.. Tried Looking for the garden solar lights, to try and see what they would be like bringing them indoors in the night, but couldn't see any ( I know wrong time of the year) so might have a browse on the internet, to see if there is any on sale... at the moment I cant justify spending £16 on each of those lights in Ikea..

DawnW

paidinchickens wrote: »

Morning everyone

I ventured into town last night as I had been doing some fleabaying and town is the nearest drop of point for the courier.

The drop off shop is also an off licence/corner shop set up and what an eye opener it was :eek:

DH and I were there for a while as we had quite a few parcels but we did so many and then waited while the girl served the queue at the till then carried on with a few more.

Well ................ I wasn't being nosey, I was just interested as I don't get out much but :eek:

The shop assistant had a personal alarm strapped to her, the people coming in and out were like a scene from Shaun of the dead. The over priced booze and fags were the only items flying off the shelves. There was only one pint of milk sold in the 45 minutes we were stood there.

There were people buying crates of beer and then complaining about having to spend a fiver on gas :cool:

Gawwwd help us as WTSTF they will have nothing, not even a spare tin of beans

PiC x

We live near one of these shops (I agree, very handy for ebaying). This too does a roaring trade in beer and fags, but also lottery tickets. I can never believe how much people spend on those :eek:

thriftwizard

DS2 works in a corner shop - his choice, to drop out of 6th form, and he loves the job & is good at it, but it doesn't pay a living wage - and yes, a number of his customers survive on benefit, booze & fags. Notably a pair of 20-something brothers who quite literally camp (yes, in a tent) in the ruins of their old family house - yes, all year round - and live rough, just walking down to the city to sign on & spending their JSA on cider whilst living off the contents of our wealthy little town's bins & the local rabbit population. I think the water is still running (cold) but they don't have electricity. They make no secret of this, and apparently think we're all short of a sandwich or two to live the way we do; they apparently have no idea about social obligations, reciprocal responsibilities etc. and I suspect that when their parents died, no-one official took any interest in them at all or offered any help, as they were in their teens & apparently coping. Their house is a bit off the beaten track, so no-one has "dobbed" them in to the council to repair it. In a sense, they really are the zombie boys, as people call them, living in the ruins of civilisation. But they're pleasant enough to talk to.

We know a pair of brothers who were hit by a similar tragedy at about the same age, who could easily have become feral like this, but haven't, thanks to other families picking up the slack; their parents didn't own their own home & there was no-one to pay the rent, so they couldn't stay put. But there are other tents & fires that we see out in the woods from time to time; I do wonder how many kids are out there. They won't be eligible for JSA like the two my son talks to, having no address, but must be surviving somehow.

Don't think the booze & fags thing is confined to corner shops, though. I frequently see respectable-looking people in our local supermarket buying YS one-portion ready meals, one apple or yogurt and two bottles of wine, or a bottle of whisky, and a lottery ticket. I suppose they feel they need it, to see them through. And - it might be you!

[Deleted User]

CRAIGY you can use ordinary flour to make bread but it is a softer flour and doesn't have as much gluten in it so the bread will not rise as much or have quite the same consistency as bread made with strong bread flour. Having said that, I've used plain flour and been perfectly happy with the bread that came out of the oven. Give it a go, it will still be edible even if it isn't puffed up!!! Good luck pet, let us know how they turned out, Love Lyn xxx.

fuddle

Just back from my errands this morning. Came out of the supermarket to hear the most harrowing alarm. Really loud, really worrisome. The supermarket is 1 mile away from industrial (chemical plants/fertiliser plants/burning waste gases industrial) so my mind was going haywire.

I suspect just a drill as I can't find any info about it but Im posting it because I was shocked at other people's inaction. Not one person looked as affronted or concerned as I did. Yes ok, there was no immediate harm in our visual vacinity but surely living where we do we have to be cautious about what is being made on our doorstep? Maybe I know too much about what is contained/produced over there? Maybe I over-reacted being a bit of prepper?

[Deleted User]

Not an over reaction FUDDLE as much as a conditioned response. We live across the water from Fawley Refinery and Power Station and there is also a smaller BP storage Depot in Hamble half way between us and Fawley. We also have a Nautical Institute in the village and they ALL have very loud alarms and drills although they usually do tannoy the fact before them. Occasionally, just once in a blue moon they let off what sounds like a second world war air raid siren sometimes without the tannoy message and that is really, really scary. We've never been able to find out why they use that one either but the sound makes my blood run cold and it usually goes on for as much as 15 minutes at a time. Your reaction might just make the difference between safety and not in a real event, so it's a good thing eh? Lyn xxx.