Preparedness for when

Wyre

Perplexed_Pineapple wrote: »

Elona, I can recommend the HB saag aloo gobi (spinach potato and cauliflower curry) - delicious and economical too

So many good posts as normal, I hope I have managed to thank you all.

Perplexed Pineapple, do you have a recipe for the saag aloo gobi at all please? I tried it once and love it, though I am betting hm would be even better!

Perplexed_Pineapple

It's on the BBC site here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/saag_aloo_with_roasted_95304
although as it happens we now have the HB book with it in (bought on the strength of this particular recipe ). Talking of curry, stocked up on a load of spices which were half-price in T3sco this morning, some kind of end-of-line thing, still in date for a couple of years. Usually buy our spices from the Asian grocer in town but at those prices it would be rude not to

westcoastscot

Really cold here with heavy hail showers. Spent the morning in the garden in the teeth of a gale as I felt sorry for the chucks in all the wet weather we've had. Made a waterproof section of their pen right next to the chicken house, complete with bail of sawdust to play on and what do they do? huddle in the open end with they ar** heading into the wind - such dipsticks!!!!

I'm really quite concerned about how bad things are going to get this year - between that article about water cannons, doodah banging on about how we're all better off, i've a bad feeling about it - always worrying as I'm one of the worlds optimists!! I just cant help feeling that i'm missing something significant???

WCS

Perplexed_Pineapple

Frugalsod wrote: »

Be careful if you have your money in the bank that you spread it around. The new bank rescue rules mean that any deposits above the deposit protection scheme will be raided if there is a banking crisis. The only benefit of keeping cash is if there is complete anarchy but there will be signs of problems at the banks so we should basically empty our accounts at the first sign of trouble.

This is one time that panicking is the best thing to do. While the deposit protection scheme should return your cash eventually, it's likely to take months (as seen with Northern Rock) so the people who queued outside branches to withdraw their cash at the first whisper of trouble were absolutely right. I'm trying to pay off my credit card, anyway so cash doesn't stay in my current account for long. Hoping to get it cleared in the next few months barring some kind of expensive disaster on the home front.

GreyQueen

Nice to 'see' you, WCS, and I'm sorry the chooks haven't the sense to get in out of the rain. Hopefully they're just a bit distrustful of the novel new arrangement and will realise the benefits shortly.

Yes, I think there is something incoming, and it will hit hardest on those least able to cope, as it always does.

I mean, why coin the term "austerity riots"? After all, there have been plenty of cuts achieved without rioting, and the poor seem to have been convicted in the court of public opinion as responsible for all our economic woes. Divide-and-rule is working just fine. We haven't had any "austerity rioting" yet, so merely mentioning it seems to indicate to me that TPTB intend to do something(s) bad enough to provoke mass civil unrest.

And they intend to put it down very hard, and probably ram new policing measures through on the back of it, intending that a frightened population will allow them to get away with it.

I'm highly-suspicious that a lot of chickens are about to come home to roost, economically-speaking, in the USA and Western Europe inc UK. And that there will be a Middle-East war provoked to distract attention from the economy going belly-up like the rotting fish it is. And when it gets bad in the ME, you could easily be looking at another oil shock.

And all this joy without the usual round of natural disasters to which the planet is heir, and to which our complicated societies are hghly-vulnerable.

If you have an ounce of sensitivity to the nuances behind the headlines, and eyes and ears open IRL to what is going on, you can't help but feel a growing sense of unease.

westcoastscot

Nice to see you too GQ - been busy here trying to get my house in order a bit more - makes me feel like i'm doing something to address the unease i'm feeling.

chickens have headed under - they've both made a nest in the top of the sawdust - so funny to see two wee heads popping out!

Have been clearing the loft also and came across pretty much the whole set of self sufficiency/home farm magazines - do you recall them? They came out around the time of the John Seymour's book and are full of practical ways of living cheaply and self-reliantly - at least the early ones are. I seem to recall that as they progressed, and changed name, they became more about small-holders and less about urban/rural ordinary folks wanting to look to their laurels a little more. They were hugely useful on the croft - shall enjoy browsing them again.

WCS

Frugalsod

katep23 wrote: »

Nowhere near the limit for being raided but it is spread around anyway so that if one bank has issues like Natwest did I can still access cash via other banks.

I am in the same position but I am not rich enough to be impacted by a 10% swipe of my savings anyway. My sole objective is to get debt free so that I could cope with a 40% drop in incomes which is what has happened in Greece.

boddy

Just seen a share on FB which says the HSBC bank is on the verge of collapse. Not been able to find anything more about this or verify it.

I'm a lurker but love reading the thread and getting tips.

Sorry egg on face. Just caught up with previous page.

Frugalsod

Perplexed_Pineapple wrote: »

This is one time that panicking is the best thing to do. While the deposit protection scheme should return your cash eventually, it's likely to take months (as seen with Northern Rock) so the people who queued outside branches to withdraw their cash at the first whisper of trouble were absolutely right I'm trying to pay off my credit card, anyway so cash doesn't stay in my current account for long. Hoping to get it cleared in the next few months barring some kind of expensive disaster on the home front.

I am doing the same clearing debts first so very little in the bank to worry about.

GreyQueen

I haven't got the magazines but I do have the book and wouldn't be parted from it. Resources like that are well worth keeping and I'm glad you've rediscovered your copies.

I always tell Kid Bruv (the online bookseller) to keep his eye out for books on self-sufficiency/ old crafts as there is definately a market for such. He's under strict instructions to give Big Sis first dibs, though.

Yup, we can't influence geo-politics but we can look to captaining our own lives as efficiently as possible and hope for the best. It's all us little people have ever been able to do, isn't it? Just today we're better informed about what's happening than people who had to rely on gossip gathered at the regional market, from the peddlars or the other informal resources of a pre-literate age.

Now that literacy is for the majority, TPTB have to distract and dissemble even harder than ever to keep the lid on things.

In light of today's feeling of uneasiness, I have removed some cash from the bank, and added one more FB pie and 1 more litre of UHT milk into the cupboard. Pie was £1 in Icelandia.

I have also bought a piece of Jonelle fabric for 50p and a 2013 novel in hardcover for another 50p. A quick search reveals it selling online for min £10, up to about £25. Gawd, but I'm a wily little mare. Bookseller Bruv will be pleased. Besides, we both like the author so can have the pleasure of reading it as well.

See, I can do tin hat paranoia and pleasurable optimism in a single day without missing a beat.