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Preparedness for when

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  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
    Eighth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Debt-free and Proud!
    edited 2 November 2013 at 8:57PM
    It's just dawned on me.

    I haven't seen buggalugs for a few days.
  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 2 November 2013 at 8:54PM
    :) That's really impressive and I'm so ticked off that my 99p St0re didn't have them in. I shall persist and maybe they will appear.

    I was having a thought of taking a little bit of intra-urban hiking tomorrow (assuming it isn't pertiddling down or blowing a hooley) around the city and into an area of hilly woodland.

    Ostensibly to see the trees turning colour but more to practise carrying the bug out bag, to see what needs to be finessed, and to keep my feet acclimitated to the hiking boots. I've been treating my cloven hooves with surgical spirit once a day and hope to be less of a tenderfoot in future.

    ETA Wot, she's left?! Don't they mostly turn up at least once a day for their grub, like Wild Thing, one of the two mogs who employ my parents? And that noise was me playing with the cheap dynamo radio, not torturing cats, honest.
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • GreyQueen wrote: »
    Wot, she's left?

    Could be.

    Mind you, I'm pretty sure she has at least one extra home, nearby.
    Don't they mostly turn up at least once a day for their grub

    Not this one.

    She's been known to disappear for over a week, only to turn up on the doorstep, demanding food.

    Something of free spirit, is buggalugs.
  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    :D Ach well, at least if anything happened to you, the free-ranging, free-spiritied Buggalugs would successfully rehome herself in a trice.

    Cats are remarkable critters and I've come across several who have had two homes, unbeknownst to the respective owners until someone put a collar on the mogster for the first time.

    Wild Thing isn't usually very far away from the house (she'll be up or underneath a tree) and can be returned toot de suite by opening a can of fish. She just dislikes being indoors unless it's baltic. Her sister, the Queen of Sheba, tends to lie on a bed for 18-20 hours a day. They could've got a stuffed toy which would have been much cheaper to run..........
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • elaine241
    elaine241 Posts: 437 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    PHEWHHH!!! finally caught up! Offline for a bit due to life taking over and this thread adds 30++ pages! Ive been trying to catch up this week but its half term so my time is not my own.

    Ive found out that there is a 99p store in the town I work in although given my usual ten min lunch break I'd never get to it as it is on an out of town shopping centre. I will plan a visit once the kids go back to school.

    It has been blowing a gale this afternoon with the famous horizontal welsh rain. Its the new hunting season so I have spent five hours on a horse! my fitness will definately increase although I have found muscles I had forgotten I had!! Its funny where I live its like two different communities co existing but on different planes (sp?), I live on a farm and the country set have continued much as they have for the last few hundred years, hunting, shooting, fishing, growing food,cutting wood, foraging, home brewing, not being to bothered with the latest fashions/gadgets & driving 4x4s because we need them! etc Alongside me just at the end of the farm lane is a different world ( South Wales Saver not included!) it is a modern housing estate in a nice area where tbh its a bit keep up with the Jones'. When it snows it is total panic stations especially on the bread and milk front. If I ride through the estate or drive OH's landrover people look at me as if I am from another planet ( No im not paranoid!) After following this thread I have been more aware of this and the fact I have a different mindset and lifestyle to my neighbours. One of my boys, friends, mums actually commented how my lifestyle was so diffferent to theirs, and that her son had changed as he has spent the summer climbing trees, camping, running round our fields and hiking on the mountain ( they are only 9 but my boy has grown up on the mountain and knows how to respect it). She was in awe of my veg patch which this year has actually been worthwhile, she couldnt believe how many french and runner beans were produced by just a few plants in a relatively small space.

    It worries me that so many people have become so far removed from what I consider "normal" life. They seem to spend their money on the latest gadgets, clothing or "changing their colour schemes" for various rooms! It sometimes makes me wonder if I am the weirdo and that my lifestyle is not normal! I am sure this faze will pass!

    Tomorrow I have a very large tipping trailer load of logs that we cut up months ago to split and stack in my cowshed, if I can work out how to, I will post a pic BB style! I cheat on the splitting as I have a splitter that fits to the back of the tractor hydraulics, its great fun you place the log and pull a lever and a big axe head comes down and cleaves it in two, or you turn a large round log and it splits it several times. ( does that make sense, another pic needed I guess).

    Prepping wise I havent really added to my stocks just cheap candles, blankets, tins etc I realy need to do a stock check, this house is a rambling old place ( think 4 lofts!!) and my stuff is everywhere, funnily enough not in the lofts! as they have a new breed of super spider in them and I am a total wimp! One made an appearance in the lounge and a half pint glass was too small to put over it! EEK had to get a pint one! I may in a SHTF situation go aboriginal and skewer the blighters and toast on the woodburner! LOL

    I love this thread and the ideas and discussions on it. I have learnt so much from everyone AND you all make me realise even if I am "not normal" in my lifestyle that there are others out there who are just as mad/strange/weird/self reliant/prepared/sometimes a little smug in minor SHTF (snow etc) as me!!

    South Wales Saver are you still here? havent seen any posts for a bit, I hope you havent gone off grid!



    "Big Al says dogs can't look up!"
  • jk0 wrote: »
    This has given me another thought regarding funerals:

    Although my family will get a few bob when I go, they probably won't have much ready cash to give me a decent send off. (I certainly didn't when my father died.)

    Has anyone considered paying up front for their funeral?
    When my father died we were able to use one of his savings accounts to pay for the funeral even though probate hadn't yet been granted. Apparently it is quite normal to do this and most banks/building societies are ok with it.

    That said, after dad died, mum decided she did want to prepay her funeral and it was quite straightforward to do through her Building Society. The service is administered through a company called Dignity, and at the time, the easiest way to do it was for mum to pay with her credit card and then pay it off in full when her credit card bill arrived.

    Mum still has all her marbles but has occasional mental blocks which led to a couple of comedy moments. First - she told my sister that her funeral was going to be with a company called "Digital" (could have been worse - she might have said Dignitas!), and then she kept forgetting how she'd paid, so every couple of days for the next fortnight she'd ask me "Have I paid for my funeral, how did I pay for it". Eventually I got slightly exasperated and said in a very loud voice "Mum - your funeral is on your credit card!" I'd forgotten we were sitting in the local posh coffee shop at the time - it suddenly went very quiet :o
  • jk0
    jk0 Posts: 3,479 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    elaine241 wrote: »

    Prepping wise I havent really added to my stocks just cheap candles, blankets, tins etc I realy need to do a stock check, this house is a rambling old place ( think 4 lofts!!)

    That reminds me of an interesting item I saw at B&Q this week:

    http://www.diy.com/nav/build/insulation/loft-insulation/loft_storage_stilts/Diall-Loft-Storage-Stilts-12-Pack-11837507

    They are stilts to allow you to build a platform above your loft insulation. However, sadly I can't even go into my loft as the insulation sets me coughing.
  • When my Dad was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, the first thing he did was prepay his funeral and specify which casket he was to be cremated in.

    He also specified no religious services as he didn't believe and wasn't going to start just because he was terminal.

    Our government has a funeral payout of $2500, which isn't much but did cover my Dad's expenses. He also had a funeral coverage insurance policy that paid out $10K upon receipt of a death certificate, so my Mum had it all taken care of before the shock hit her.

    We are having our first snowfall today. it's still wet and the roads are getting slippery.

    But the snow tyres are on and the furnace has been serviced.
  • jk0
    jk0 Posts: 3,479 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Last week, I came across this old crime prevention public information film, which seems to be good advice:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AtEsLeTMhU

    Tonight, I have been setting up two old lamps with 9W CFL's and two of these bargain timeswitches, in the spare bedrooms.

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/24-HOUR-24HR-MAINS-PLUG-IN-TIMER-SWITCH-TIME-CLOCK-SOCKET-UK-3-PIN-MECHANICAL-/130832492078

    I am trying to minimise consumption, so tried to have only one lamp on at once, but with a 15 minute overlap, so the place is never dark.

    I imagined that one bedroom belongs to a younger child, so the light comes on at 4pm, off from 5 to 6pm, then on until 9.

    The other bedroom I imagined belonging to an older child, so the light comes on later, has supper later, and stays on until 11pm.

    My own bedroom has a fake tv plugged into a remote controlled socket:

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/221014094273?lpid=83&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=83&ff19=0
  • JayneC
    JayneC Posts: 912 Forumite
    I told my kids that they could just put me in the wheelie bin when I die. I said well I won't mind I'll be dead. They didn't think that would be allowed!
    Official DFW nerd - 282 'Proud To Be Dealing With My Debts'
    C.R.A.P.R.O.L.L.Z member # 56
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