Preparedness for when

mardatha

Yep, fur coat and nae knickers, I know the type well! My daughter has known drug dealers next door to her who were given a grant to furnish their brand new 4 bed HA house after being evicted yet again from the last one. They spent it on designer clothes and trainers! Daughter sees it hanging out on the line - all grey and disgusting lol. If the custard hits the fan they'd be breaking into all the houses in the street within a day.
I get 4 weeks rent free during the year and it is a great help, I try to use the money for preppy stuff always.

Frugalsod

GreyQueen wrote: »

Frugalsod, love the sack barrow. I was looking for something not dissimilar at an affordable price and found a newspaper trolley for £5 at a bootsale last summer. I have moved large appliances such as washing machines for a pal who moved 100 yds down the same street with a vintage mahogany railway barrow, plus my heavy blockboard wall unit was moved into this flat by the Sally Ann using a sack barrow. It's amazing what you can do if you have to.

A few years back, I accosted a bloke walking down the street who was towing the most fabulous trolley. I just had to talk to him about it. It was about the size of a single bed, but only two-thirds as long, with a flat bed made of wooden slats, the two front wheels were mounted on a swivellable axle and it had wheels about 12" across with proper inflatable tyres and was towed easily by a rope handle.

He told me he'd built it himself for about £40 in materials to handle a local housemove within the estate. It cost the same to build as it would have been to hire a Transit van for the day, but he saved not paying for fuel, plus he still had this very useful bit of kit afterwards. He was toddling down to the dump with some stuff. His top tip was not to have the wheels too small, you want them about the size of a dinnerplate as a minimum. I'd seen this guy breezing past the line of cars queueing to get into the tip, and the green-as-grass envy of the motorists stuck in their expensive steel cans whilst he just cruised on up to the tip, and they'd barely moved by the time he'd cruised right out again.

I bought my porters/sack trolley off eBay. It cost about £40 but it is a really heavy duty version and could easily take a freezer and contents. The other component of my move was loads of folding crates so I could reuse them again and again. So my last move cost me around £60 for one man and a van for his time moving the mattress and some heavy items, and £40 for the trolley. The previous move cost me more than £500 so huge savings, and the trolley paid for itself on one move, and if I move again I can use it again. Since I only plan to move locally I do not need a remover.

[Deleted User]

Look out for fuel price rises starting at between 2p and 5p per litre, the BBC News has just said that the rebels have now full control of the biggest oil refinery in Iraq!!! I sat rather smugly in my armchair and He Who Knows said our car is too full to fit in another drop and we've been that way for the last couple of weeks , can I say 'I TOLD YOU SO'? to the rest of the world now please??? pretty please???

I'm starting to harvest fairly good amounts of produce from the plots now and today I decided that while the usual thing I do is squirrel it away in the freezer or dehydrate it this year I'm going to use half of it to feed us and invest in tins with the cash I save by not having to buy in so much fresh stuff. I think I'd rather have tins of corned beef etc. in store to feed us in the winter than freezers full of green beans and blackberries. I'll preserve some of it of course but using it for vege food in the summer heat seems a more attractive prospect than vege curries in January snow.

I know I've said it before but we were lucky enough to be able to pay off the mortgage when we were made redundant after our stint abroad, the feeling of walking out of the building society with the deeds in our hands and walking through our own front door with them was one of the most amazing I've ever had. Life is about choices, we have chosen to use our earnings one way and many other of us have chosen that same path and are of a mindset to rescue and refurbish what we need rather than just rush out and buy new, we wait for what we need to turn up and it usually does, sooner or later. I've always got a mental list of things I think will be useful additions and finding an item off that list gives me more pleasure than buying in anything decorative ever will. We fade into the background as 'little old people' (well maybe little isn't strictly accurate!) a bit down at heel perhaps, certainly shabbyish and not likely to attract a second glance from anyone. I'ts an art in itself but we make sure our footware is of the best quality we can afford, also good but durable jackets and waterproofs are much more use than 'fashion' items. We just try not to be too visible and the home is like that too, I always feel that a burglar might just leave us something as my treasures are usually made of cast iron!!! We own nothing worth much money but we live a good life and are set up to continue living that good life, without too many changes in most futures I can envisage. I'll sit in my scruffy window and watch the clothes horses covered in bling with a small feeling of amusement over the next few months, trying to hang on to the tatters of a dream lifestyle that was never ever anything but a soap bubble in the first place.

westlothianlass

Good Morning all.
We managed to pay off our mortgage last month and its a wonderful feeling, I still get a buzz thinking about it. Our house is a bit shabby round the edges (well more than a bit on some edges :rotfl:) but its mine and when time and cash allows we are slowly doing it up bit by bit.
My gran used to say "whats for you won't go passed you" and I have found that to be true more often than not. I too have a list squirrelled away in my brain of things to look out for, and its amazing how often things appear when you least expect it.
My army blankets arrived from fleabay last week (very happy bunny) but I did have to laugh, the swedish army one was pale cream, cosy and soft and the British army one brown and jaggy :rotfl:, but both will be cosy additions to the winter stash.

Take care,
WLL x

GreyQueen

Lyn, I think stealth security is the best kind to have. And a modest home owned outright is the best kind to have.

My parents, like many of their peers at work, had the chance to buy their council houses whilst in their thirties, for silly-small money, back in the 1980s.

They took it, after much debate, and making sure the mortgage and all other costs could be covered by one wage, at a time they were a two-wage household and we kids were teens. Seeing the annual statement showed they were barely making inroads into the capital, they paid the whole thing off in 5 years and were mortgage-free by their early forties.

Years later, one of my Dad's colleagues, (same income same price of house at the same time), asked how much he had still to pay on his mortgage? Dad doesn't do bragging but he doesn't do lying either, and didn't want to tell a mate to mind her beeswax, but she was speechless and done-in when he quietly told her they'd not had a mortgage for years.

Most of their peers decided that their ex-LA houses weren't good enough, and were forever tainted by some imaginary 'germs'. These are solidly-built 1960s numbers on the very edge of a small market town, with woods and commons and rivers and lakes adjacent, not slums. But hey, gotta get away from those 'LA germs', y'know?

So they sold up to buy new-builds on a private estate on the edge of town; smaller, set higgeldy-piggedly on smaller plots so they can claim the premium of detached status, and made to inferior standards. I think if you can lean out of your window and the neighbour can lean out of theirs, and you can touch hands, you ain't really gaining anything by being a detached house, are you? People who live in them after living in terraces tell me the sound travelling between properties is just as bad.

Some other people decided that the town where they worked and shopped and where their kids would go to high school anyway, was 'germy' too. So they moved out to very small towns or villages and commuted in. One of them died in a car crash on the 6 mile commute. The rest lost shedloads of money each year in commuting costs, not to mention their time. Mum and Dad walked the 7 mins from their home to their jobs for the last 30-odd years of their working lives.

I'm a five minute stroll from my workplace. I commuted once - for a week. 60 mile round trip in an elderly car. Vowed hell would freeze over before I did that again.:rotfl:You can save a lot of aggravation and a lot of money by not moving away from your work.

[Deleted User]

People are hilariously funny in what they do consider to be thier needs, one of my immediate neighbours has over the years we've been here bought a second hand yacht ( staunch members of the sailing club) which they took out once, it stood for 6 or 7 years on its cradle in the front garden and then got sold on at a huge loss, next came a camper vam which they used a couple of times and then that stood there for a few years not being used and was sold on again at a loss now they have a large caravan which was purchased secondhand along with a very large and ostentatious Rover car, just to pull the caravan you understand which they've used twice. A couple of weeks ago a strange man was knocking on thier door when we were in the front garden weeding, he called up to us 'are they in?' and we said 'Don't know' so he knocked again and then called up 'are they in the garden then?' again 'Don't know' 'When will they be back?' 'Don't know, why?' and he said 'Oh I buy and sell caravans and camper vans and wondered if they'd sell it?' ' Shouldn't think so' we said 'They've not had it long and they use it' and away he went. When they did come back we told them and they wheel locked it and put on the immobilisers as they'd been having phone calls asking about selling it and thought it might not be there next time they came home. Us? we have a very old (some 25 years) tatty and patched after many rebuilds garden refuse trailer which we've never been asked to sell to anyone, I know what I'd rather have!!! Sometimes being visibly tatty and threadbare is a much better prospect in life isn't it?

Frugalsod

Actually a caravan is a good back up housing solution if the SHTF. They may lose the home but at least they will have somewhere to live cheaply, though whether they will accept that as a long term solution is another matter. The only problem is the ongoing cost of a car to move it.

I do agree about the costs of commuting and how that impacts the quality of life. I have a friend who is on a high income (top 5% of earners) though not so high that he can get a repayment mortgage. He has been stung with repossession before and while he earns a lot his outgoings are high as well, so he is unable to over pay his interest only mortgage. I on the other hand have an income half of his yet can save close to 70% of it because my expenses are so low. Though am currently paying off a huge loan around 120% of income that would strain most people, and I am still seeing my quality of life improving. This time next year I will be completely debt free, and able to save 70% of my income.

GreyQueen

One of my greatest qualities of life is that I don't have to lie in bed at night fretting about my bills. I keep 'em very low and I afford them easily and save about 40% of my modest income on my best years, about 20% on my worst.

I have decided not to go to the lottie, as had a bit of a crash last night and had to go to bed at 7.30 pm. I know peeps who can't get their kiddies to sleep that early FGS. Think I may have just been overdoing it up at the allotment, and I need to save some juice for my lovely archery club tonight. But I've made the flask of tea and I'll be drinking it at home, and having some soup with rather overdry bread, but it's still bread and edible, and won't be binned.

I have jaunted down to the charity shop with my donation bag and have spent a whole £1.20 on three secondhand books, which will be read and re-donated. I shall thoroughly enjoy reading them and shall wave bye-bye to them happily, too.

I always worry that someone official will work out how much I enjoy my simple little lifestyle and try to stop me doing it.

Righty; some preptastic things to do in the next few hours; crumble up the YS discounted herbs I have been drying off and jamjar them. Put away the 16 cans of baked beans added to the stash (Branstons at Liddly 4 for £1.25), have a bath at some point using the water carrier water as part of it, then refill them. Keep an eye on what the wicked of the world are up to via the interwebs. And possibly iron some work duds for tomorrow, should all else fail.

I am reading The Fall of the Roman Empire by Peter Heather since yesterday. Interesting stuff. I'm wondering if I'll live long enough to see the fall of the US empire? Will probably be around for another 30 years or so, all things being equal, although they often aren't.

Was there anyone who had a Last Light flashback moment when reading MrsLW's post about the Iraqi oil refinery in ISIS's hands? I certainly did.

[Deleted User]

Overdry bread sprinkled with a little water and popped into a preheated moderate oven for a couple of minutes becomes nice again as long as you eat it while it's still just warm, even presliced white can be reclaimed like that. Don't be tempted to pre do it though, as you'll end up with a cross between sandpaper, blotting paper and loofah!!!

nuatha

Appearances are often deceptive:
In the 90s I was told the tale of a bank teller going to his manager saying that a tramp had just walked in and handed him a cheque saying pay cash to the sum of £10K. The manager looked at the clock and said she's early this week, and told the teller to give her the cash.
There'd be a gentleman waiting outside the bank door holding her dog on a leash and her Rolls Bentley parked on double yellow lines 50 feet from the bank. The lady only kept her petty cash at the bank, and may turn up in couture or gardening rags (her descriptions). Appearances can be very deceptive.
There are several areas nearby which are renowned for toffee nosed attitudes, posh houses with very minimal furnishings (no carpets, mattresses on the floor, no sofas) and new posh cars on the drive. Generally detached eggshell walls with very narrow paths separating the houses (and failing to give any privacy). All funded by credit that was stretched to or beyond breaking point.

Its always surprised me what some people consider essentials, but its their life and how they wish to spend it is up to them, I just hope they'll offer me the same courtesy.