Preparedness for when

Hollyberry

We had the extreme prepping first aid kit on our recent travels, as in the dental kit. No point in paying some extortionate fee to have someone put in a filling when I can mix up the temporary stuff on the bathroom counter and pretend I'm plastering. We have used one of the dental kits before (me and the OH have pretty dodgy teeth) and it was fine. Just wish I'd known about Walmart, as I would have found a local branch to stock up. I did bring back some preptastic snacks though.

Family tale re going equipped... My lovely mum, who once announced of DIY "It's only stiff dressmaking - how hard can it be?" :cool:, was once stopped by the police at 5am on the outskirts of big city on her way to answer an emergency request from me. "Can you open your boot please, madam?" On seeing a large quantity of tools therein: "Going equipped are we, madam?" "Yes officer, my daughter's hot water tank has burst and I'm on my way to help." Somewhat bemused, he let her on her way, much to my considerable relief, as there was only so long the duct tape was going to hold at my house. I'm a little better equipped myself nowadays, although it has to be said not a great deal wiser in plumbing terms.

siegemode

Things we have in the car


Glove Box
Bag of salt, peppers and sugars, straws, stir sticks and serviettes from Mcds. Also some chip forks.

Large pack of value wet wipes and assorted anti bacterial wipes and small bottle of antibacterial hand wash (no water needed)

Value nappy bags (great rubbish bags etc)

Tissues

Selection of plastic cutlery

Medium Swiss army penknife

Multi tool gadget thingy 10 in 1

2 x pens

2 x pencil

Spare sunglasses

Crystals, tigers eye, malachite, citrine and turquoise

Compact makeup kit

Mini Vaseline

Small pk of plasters

Safety pins and small sewing kit

Waterproof matches

Boiled sweets

Spare torch with small strip light and red flashing light


Door Pockets in both sides


Small notebook

AA book and stuff

Emergency torch/seatbelt cutter/window breaker

Packet of Tissues

Small bottle/tube of sun cream

Hand moisturiser

spongey thing for wiping windows

Small pot of face moisturiser (my side only)

dash board cleaning wipes



Middle compartments


4 x individual wrapped flapjacks

4 x individual wrapped cerael bars

1 Bag of mint imperials

1 tube of glucose tablets

1 pk of throat sweets

1 pk of paracetemol

1 pk pro plus

tyre pressure and tread gauge

pen, pencil and highlighter

2 foil blankets

Compass

Sunglasses for OH

Duster

Beer towel

And a few other bibs and bobs that could be useful



Also in the car with us


2 cushions and 2 fleece blankets

2 large uk road maps

Emergency phone charger

Spare walking stick, inhaler and reading glasses for OH

Always travel with a couple of bottles of water

Small float for parking or roadside stalls etc



In the Boot

Plastic box 1

Large old towel and bath mat

Yellow vests

Warning triangle

waterproofs

Kitchen roll

Blanket


Plastic box 2

Picnic blanket

Assorted paper plates, cups and plastic cutlery

2 trays

Chopping board

Tub containing various metal cutlery and serated knife

Salt and pepper mill

tranga stove

Also tucked in the boot,

A flight bag size first aid kit with added extras

Folding spade

Folding crates x 2

Spare jacket and treky type boots for both of us

Bottle of screen wash

De icer in the winter

I'm sure I've forgotten to list one or two things, but I do like to be prepared !
We like our picnics out and I like to prepare stuff fresh, picked up locally where ever we go and so always take a small cool bag and ice packs on days out. In the winter we take a couple of flasks of soup or coffee (especially on long trips).

Hopefully this will give others ideas and if I've missed something you'll let me know.

FurryBeastOz

Now I understand your username siegemode. Is there any room in the car for you and DH? Actually some great ideas there. We are travelling to South of France in May and I always find I've missed something. Your car list now added to my various scenario packing lists. Thanks

GreyQueen

Hollyberry wrote: »

My lovely mum, who once announced of DIY "It's only stiff dressmaking - how hard can it be?" :cool:.

:T Oh, this is a fantastic line, I am so stealing it, and the message behind it. Brilliant. Like the line about how if you can ice a cake you can plaster a wall - eventually.

I have a couple of crowns and I asked my dentist how long they last and he said it depends, but if they do come off, it's usually toffee-assisted detachments, something to perhaps be aware of, especially when travelling.

Sometimes, it's the lack of the simplest things which is a nuisance. Last year, Mum and Dad were on their regular Saturday morning jaunt across the back roads of the county to Nan's village when they heard a dreadful racket.

Stopped and found out that part of the exhaust had come detached from the rest of the exhaust, but was still hanging on by some kind of plastic doodad which was stopping it falling into the road but was enabling it to bang around under there. It needed this thingy to be cut to detach the bit properly but Mum doesn't carry lock-knives now and they realised that the on-board toolkit didn't have a blade. The second vehicle they flagged down was a van and the driver lent them a knife for a few seconds.

The onboard car kit now contains a knife. :rotfl:

One thing I thought I'd mention, as I only became aware of their existance myself a few years ago, is those notebooks with waterproof pages which you can write on with pen or pencil. You can get them in army surplus type places, and probably elsewhere as well. I keep one in my BOB.

Think how useful they could be if you had to leave a note somewhere it would be exposed to the weather or write something important down in the rain.

Oh, and lip balm is one of my daily carries as lips can dry out quite easily and then split, which hurts like heck and offers an entrypoint for infection into your body. I've even heard this point raised in hardcore survival type books, so it's not feminine frippery.

I'm also a big fan of very strong ziploc type plastic bags from the army surplus. You can get packs of them in mixed sizes and they are brilliant. I have the various elements of stuff in my BOB isolated in their own placcy bags, in case the overall bag gets soaked.

In fact, it's occuring to me that I haven't been to play at the army surplus place for months and must go down there on Saturday to see what new toys they have. I got my button compass from there, £1.99. which fits over my watchband and is thus always on my person.

GQ, a woman who always knows her direction - presently across into her kitchen (west) to fix her brekkie.

vivatifosi

Something else that lives in the boot of my car is one of those cheap shower curtains that you can buy from the likes of Asda and Tesco for about £1.

At home they make great liners behind a nice shower curtain. When they discolour a bit, I take down the old one. I use mine as a groundsheet for picnics - the holes at the top can be anchored with tent pegs to stop it sliding away and they fold down to nothing. Plus if I need to look under my car I've always got something to lay on that doesn't involve getting filthy.

My mum uses hers for gardening. Chucks all the garden waste on it, then picks up the four corners and it is ready to take away to compost (minus shower curtain of course).

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I am going to try and grow a lot more this year.... including tobacco... yes its legal lol, as long as you don't sell it..I am going to try and fill my car right up with fuel, and then just top up every week, so the tank is quite full all the time... so if there is a fuel crisis again, or a threat of one, and there is panic buying, at least I will not be left with no petrol....I am also going to try and stock pile vegetable oil too, as not only do we use it for cooking, hubby uses it instead of chainsaw oil ( a professional tree surgeon told hubby not to waste money on the expensive stuff and to use the oil... as it works really good) and also if SHTF we can use it for the van.. to eek out the diesel ..Do you know where the cheapest place to buy the 5ltre cooking oil from??

paidinchickens

Hollyberry wrote: »

We had the extreme prepping first aid kit on our recent travels, as in the dental kit. No point in paying some extortionate fee to have someone put in a filling when I can mix up the temporary stuff on the bathroom counter and pretend I'm plastering. We have used one of the dental kits before (me and the OH have pretty dodgy teeth) and it was fine. Just wish I'd known about Walmart, as I would have found a local branch to stock up. I did bring back some preptastic snacks though.

Family tale re going equipped... My lovely mum, who once announced of DIY "It's only stiff dressmaking - how hard can it be?" :cool:, was once stopped by the police at 5am on the outskirts of big city on her way to answer an emergency request from me. "Can you open your boot please, madam?" On seeing a large quantity of tools therein: "Going equipped are we, madam?" "Yes officer, my daughter's hot water tank has burst and I'm on my way to help." Somewhat bemused, he let her on her way, much to my considerable relief, as there was only so long the duct tape was going to hold at my house. I'm a little better equipped myself nowadays, although it has to be said not a great deal wiser in plumbing terms.

I'd never heard of DIY temporary tooth filler, DH and my teeth are terrible also, so I'll be tracking some down.

vivatifosi wrote: »

Something else that lives in the boot of my car is one of those cheap shower curtains that you can buy from the likes of Asda and Tesco for about £1.

At home they make great liners behind a nice shower curtain. When they discolour a bit, I take down the old one. I use mine as a groundsheet for picnics - the holes at the top can be anchored with tent pegs to stop it sliding away and they fold down to nothing. Plus if I need to look under my car I've always got something to lay on that doesn't involve getting filthy.

My mum uses hers for gardening. Chucks all the garden waste on it, then picks up the four corners and it is ready to take away to compost (minus shower curtain of course).

Ohh great idea, I have a blanket but plastic sheeting would be a good idea in many ways.

The plastic notebook is going on the shopping list as well.

Will you lot stop it, every time I think I'm finished you find something else I really, really need :rotfl:

PiC x

GreyQueen

CTC, from my (mis)adventures towards the bottom end of the retail chain, anything under £1.50 a litre for ordinary veg oil is a good price. You sometimes get it as £1 a litre in the fixed price stores like £land or 99p but you have to be observant as sometimes it's less than a full litre.

I'd check out FarmFoods, they sometimes have 10 litre bottles very reasonably, kept by the checkout in my store. Think it worked out at £1/ litre. They don't always have that size, though.

I lucked out in a Tosspots in January when they had a lot of 1 litre bottles reduced to 75p for a 'quick sale'. Couldn't see any reason to account for it, bar a slight crumpling on the corner of the shoulder of each bottle, but they were sound and had more than 12 months date on them. Although I have used oil more than 12 months OOD with no illeffects. I got 6 of them......

bugslet

Sorry I can't resist! I used to drive a van round Western Europe, I barely took anything with me bar basic toiletries and few changes of clothes and one map book.

siegemode, I don't know if I'm impressed or bemused:D

maryb

I was born in 1954 (get my Boris bus pass in 6 weeks, can't wait!!) But I won't get my state pension until I am 65 years and six months. Originally I would have got it at 64. It was going to go up to 66 because Georgie thought it was a good idea to speed up the age at which men and women's pension ages equalised at the same time as raising it by a year, (wilfully?) oblivious to the fact that those of us born in 1954 would get hit with a double whammy. What really got my goat was that, at the same time as that announcement, they announced generous redundancy arrangements for civil servants of 50 plus because "people within 10 years of retirement can't be expected to accept adverse changes to retirement arrangements"