Preparedness for when

Frugalsod

calicocat wrote: »

De-lurking for a minute again.


If people thought their cash was to become useless, aside from dry/tinned foods, cleaning stuff, toiletries etc/general household stuff that's usefull to store for yourself.......i'm interested what folk on here would buy to use up their cash? what kind of things do you think would be very tradeable?.

Canned food, water and toilet paper would be useful. These would always have some value as long as they were useable. Though if you have a skill or spare tools those will also be useful in a trade. Things like paracord, duct tape, refuse sacks and similar multi use items will be useful.

[Deleted User]

CALICOCAT good sturdy waterproof footwear and clothing is a sound investment as is warm natural fibres clothing cottons/linens for summer and woolens for winter. Good warm proper feather duvets and wool blankets will last a lifetime and serve you well. Install a woodburner if you can and invest in fuel, logs for preference, and stock up as much as you have room to store and good quality cookware and manual tools also worth investing substantial amounts in. Alternative ways of lighting whatever is your preference and as much or as many as you have room/purse for. Books on How To make, fix, build, grow, cook, cure illnesses and make herbal medicines/cosmetics/soaps/tooth cleaners and go on courses to teach you how as well. Really big investment??? Learn how to drive a horse and carriage and learn how to look after the horse and repair the carriage which means learning many skills and trades, but that's only for serious money!!!!!

calicocat

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

CALICOCAT good sturdy waterproof footwear and clothing is a sound investment as is warm natural fibres clothing cottons/linens for summer and woolens for winter. Good warm proper feather duvets and wool blankets will last a lifetime and serve you well. Install a woodburner if you can and invest in fuel, logs for preference, and stock up as much as you have room to store and good quality cookware and manual tools also worth investing substantial amounts in. Alternative ways of lighting whatever is your preference and as much or as many as you have room/purse for. Books on How To make, fix, build, grow, cook, cure illnesses and make herbal medicines/cosmetics/soaps/tooth cleaners and go on courses to teach you how as well. Really big investment??? Learn how to drive a horse and carriage and learn how to look after the horse and repair the carriage which means learning many skills and trades, but that's only for serious money!!!!!

I have all the clothes,duvets,blankets, books on how to do all those things (except growing veg as no room....but am looking at ways of doing this in a small garden).

I have been wondering about getting a wood burner when research it a bit more and where to store wood/cost etc.

I'm scared of horses now due to a near miss bad accident on one where I literally thought I was about to die, but thinking of getting a push bike. It's finding room for all this stuff, but if I got more organised it is doable.


Thanks for all the replies folks......food for thought...as usual.

[Deleted User]

One other thing occurs as a practical good idea and an investment but only if you are intending to stay in your dwelling for a long time and that would be to insulate your home as much as it's possible to do so, to replace windows with double or triple glazing and to have a glass room/conservatory built to act as a heat sink and utilise warmth from the sun to heat your home if you have a wall available that faced the right way and even to perhaps have a borehole dug in your garden (not possible if your garden is tiny) or even a well dug to ensure a water supply and that relies on the water table being right and the geology suitable. You could also look at having a root cellar dug and built (again not if the garden is too small) but it would be a good use of spare cash to give you a better future. Transport is a difficult one if you're iffy around horses and a pushbike is only viable for as long as you can get the spares to keep it on the road. I'd maybe think of investing in some sturdy footware and a handcart which you could use to transport most things or there used to be goat carts or dog carts for moving loads though I don't know how that would be viewed by the animal protection or humane societies these days. These things are all going to be costly but will make life so much more comfortable in the future.

calicocat

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

One other thing occurs as a practical good idea and an investment but only if you are intending to stay in your dwelling for a long time and that would be to insulate your home as much as it's possible to do so, to replace windows with double or triple glazing and to have a glass room/conservatory built to act as a heat sink and utilise warmth from the sun to heat your home if you have a wall available that faced the right way and even to perhaps have a borehold dug in your garden (not possible if your garden is tiny) or even a well dug to ensure a water supply and that relies on the water table being right and the geology suitable. You could also look at having a root cellar dug and built (again not if the garden is too small) but it would be a good use of spare cash to give you a better future. Transport is a difficult one if you're iffy around horses and a pushbike is only viable for as long as you can get the spares to keep it on the road. I'd maybe think of investing in some sturdy footware and a handcart which you could use to transport most things or there used to be goat carts or dog carts for moving loads though I don't know how that would be viewed by the animal protection or humane societies these days. These things are all going to be costly but will make life so much more comfortable in the future.

Lol...I had a cart made for my GSD years ago (no longer have it)....she loved pulling stuff and hanging out outside shops ( walked home and forgot her one time, went back and she was still just sat there watching people go by). I lived in a small village then though. I also had a 'xmas cart' made for my terrier, and he would pull the rabbits around the garden centre where I worked.....they all loved it too....said terrier in a santa suit naturally....well cloak.

I love goats, and would love to have the room for a couple (and am quite good at milking)....sadly, in my experience, they have their own ideas which way they are going to go (unless a loaf of bread is in front of them) so may not be brilliant little 'work horses with a cart).


A chimenea i'm after too, with cooking facility so it's of double use.

Got the double glazing and conservatory (cat / herb / learning to grow things room). And am looking at getting a water butt when I research that a bit more.


Thanks for the input guys.......i usually just lurk on here, but love this thread, and read it when I get the time often.




Re: cards and spending...i'm thinking of having my own private rebellion and getting cash out and paying with cash for all the everyday/week/month purchases, and only using card for the unexpected purchase and bigger items.

Up the revolution!!


Right, off to vile work to earn some more Cash...

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

GreyQueen

And I'm back. Have been on the lottie all afternoon, what bliss my own bit of outdoors is. Have turfed out the shed and re-arranged stuff and re-acquainted myself with my belongings.

jk0, yes, most strange. I read that article shortly after you posted the link and I am sure that it said a month not a day.......that's the trouble with online newspapers, or even wikis; they can be edited on the fly in the way that print media cannot be. I've seen stuff disappear off national newspaper websites, too. And it's always the interesting stuff, too.:mad:

Just imagine if all history was online rather than in dead-tree format, and it was being edited gradually so that almost no one noticed, until it was the opposite of what actually happened.

Bedsit Bob, yes, you are right, P.38 can-opener. Couldn't be bothered to look it up this morning and thought I was right, mea culpa. Handy little things, aren't they, and only a squid for two.

I'm mentally-compiling a list of my shed-based bag, have some secondhand stuff in mind, would be bagging the clothes in ziplocs (haven't had much success with vacuum bags, they've always failed on me), and the courier bag itself would be bagged in the bottom of a large and strong lidded crate. I shall have a few small mainly ring-pull type tins in there, but no packets of anything in case it attracts mice. With a six-monthly check and laundering of the clothing, all should be kept in good condition and ready to go.

I have known cases where tower blocks like mine have had to be evacuated in minutes with no warning and people not allowed back in for weeks in some cases. If I were to be home and that happened, I would grab the BOB and the handbag and coat, but if I were out, I'd have the daily bag, which I could live out of for a couple of days, excluding food, but being able to go to my lottie and drop my hands on some extra bits and bobs would be a help.

I also plan to have a couple of 2 litre bottles of water up there, which could come in handy at any time, esp in winter when the stand taps are switched off.

Musing on. Well, eating my supper and musing on.......

maryb

what about your meds GQ? Do you have enough with you at all times to see you through until you could get a new prescription?

GreyQueen

Yes. I have enough with me at all times for a couple of months. And bigger stashes in the BOB and at the parental home, all carefully stored and dated. They come with about 2 + years' BB on them. The meds are the bottom line; miss them and what'll happen is described medically as weakness, prostration, coma then death.

I scare the beejeezus out of medical professionals, particularly anaethetists. One of them had to sedate me for 10 mins for a wisdom tooth removal. He wanted to interview me the week before, arranged to have me take 10 x my normal dose and put some extra in on an IV line. If you go comatose with my condition, it's apparently very hard to get brought back again.

I like to be close to a major hospital whenever possible.

Having said that, I have been happily kept alive on synthetic drugs for 17 years now, so that's 17 years I wouldn't have had if nature had taken its course. Three is no herbal cure, btw, people with my kind of problems just used to die in ye olden days (anything up to about 80 years ago).

maryb

I know you take it very seriously. I suppose I was thinking about the scenario where you pop out for a pint of milk and just take a bit of cash with you, or walk down to the post box and that just happens to coincide with the incident you described and you couldn't get back in.

GreyQueen

maryb wrote: »

I know you take it very seriously. I suppose I was thinking about the scenario where you pop out for a pint of milk and just take a bit of cash with you, or walk down to the post box and that just happens to coincide with the incident you described and you couldn't get back in.

S has the habit of HTF when people are least expecting it.

I heard about the colour code system for situational awareness, how most people spend the majority of their time in condition white - blithely oblivious. Because of where I live, my usual status is condition yellow - wary and watchful. F'rinstance, came off the blower with SuperGran a few seconds ago. All hell has been breaking loose with one of our 'favourite' loose cannons (bliddy junkie waster) today.

SG, and two other pensioners have been harrassed, this person has been standing in their window effing and c-ing at passers-by, there has been a blazing row between this person and our friendly neighbourhood weed dealer, the Police have attended several times and taken statements and at one point SG thought the druggie was about to thump her one.

Several of the people being harrassed today by the druggie are vulnerable due to old age, and others are vulnerable due to mental health problems. This whole affair is like living in a pressure cooker.

When you live in high density housing with unpredictable people (one former neighbour blew up part of the Towers, back in the day) you don't take much for granted.