Preparedness for when

Karmacat

Yikes! It does make me recall when I went to Cape Kennedy/Canaveral to watch a shuttle launch - we passed eagles and alligators at the NASA entrance!

Butterfly_Brain

I had a doctors appointment this morning and saw a leaflet on the receptionist's desk about sharing medical data under a new name, which I have already refused but they keep trying to sneak in........$*$£*^%$!
When I told her I and my family refused she was taken aback and said that I was the only one who had done so. Probably because no one has been told about it :mad::mad::mad:

Keep your eyes peeled for this, because it is opt out not opt in................blurdy disgraceful!

daz378

cost me a tenner today for an LED light bulb for lounge, will get a few more over the next few weeks, also bought a few meals tin wise.....last 4 days of my annual leave......... received a letter spelling the end of my final salary pension scheme to career average.....happy days.

take care

AnimalTribe

Jolaaled wrote: »

Hi All
I have been trying out the crock pot/flower pot heater idea (with candles..pot mounted on bricks).
The crock gets nice and hot, but I am wondering...
what is the point of the crock??...wouldn't the candles alone (ie with no crock) just provide the same amount of heat??? Am i being really stupid and missing something obvious!! Whats the point of the crock??!!

thanks all!

It's taken me a while to catch up again.

In answer to the above question the pot absorbs heat and then releases it, so I think as the heat is being radiated from the larger area of the pot it will be warmer than just a candle. The pot will also continue to radiate the heat it has absorbed when the candle is no longer lit.

I'm still experimenting with this and I've now painted the pots black to see if that will help the absorption and radiation of heat.

DawnW

daz378 wrote: »

received a letter spelling the end of my final salary pension scheme to career average.....happy days.

This happened a couple of years ago where I worked (public sector). The unions protested, but it happened anyway. Because I had for many years prepped to some extent, saved, and been as self sufficient as possible, I was able earlier this year to take early retirement age 60, on a reduced pension (reduced by 25 % as I took retirement 5 years before I was 'supposed' to). OK, so pension is small, but I have preps and savings, and working till I dropped wasn't in my plan Luckily, designer clothes, i-gadgets and fancy holidays weren't either

Frugalsod

I am looking at an induction cooking pad as it is very efficient with use of electricity. So the plan is to also get an induction ready 9L stock pot and a Wonderbag to be used together. The Wonderbag and induction pads have already been ordered. If I can heat the contents on the induction pad it should only use 500W of power. Then into the Wonderbag for several hours. It should be a lot less than the 3 kW that it used this week.

The thought is that if there are going to be intermittent power cuts then 15 mins is long enough to heat the stock pot.

AnimalTribe

A Wonderbag is next on my list, once I've finished experimenting with the candle heaters - black paint, foil, heat conducting paste and anything else I can think of - I like to mess about with things. I suspect I'll make a version of a Wonderbag rather than buy one though, as it's based on a simple hay box.

moneyistooshorttomention

DawnW wrote: »

This happened a couple of years ago where I worked (public sector). The unions protested, but it happened anyway. Because I had for many years prepped to some extent, saved, and been as self sufficient as possible, I was able earlier this year to take early retirement age 60, on a reduced pension (reduced by 25 % as I took retirement 5 years before I was 'supposed' to). OK, so pension is small, but I have preps and savings, and working till I dropped wasn't in my plan Luckily, designer clothes, i-gadgets and fancy holidays weren't either

I would say there are some advantages to this "career average" thing that has got put in in recent years. I may be wrong on that, but my own personal view would be that "career average" wouldn't disadvantage those who hadn't climbed the career ladder (for whatever reason) and would benefit those who had actually been put down to a lower payscale over the course of their worklife (for whatever reason). Those whose income had been cut would find that there was at least part of their pension that was being paid according to their "proper" (ie previous) rate of pay I would have thought.

Maybe I'm getting things wrong on that and somehow things have been twisted so that everyone loses out????

My mind struggles to get my head round age 60 being regarded as "early retirement age" for a woman. I've duly retired myself at "retirement age" (ie 60 = because I am a woman) and done what prepping I can for the fact that I'm being made to wait for the State part of my pension as a consequence and will never receive the State money I should have had in between my retirement age and my revised State Pension Age:(:mad::(.

DawnW = I'm wondering if you have any other tips besides the general "prepping" you did in order to cope with this gap in between retirement age and revised SPA? It's not my idea of "a load of fun" to have a temporarily reduced income and to find that in some places you are regarded as retired (and duly get pensioner discounts) and others want proof of being in receipt of State Pension before they will accept you have retired (and so you cant get your pensioner discount from them until you're through that "gap"). I've just had to hand over £12 extra above the pensioner rate for something the other day, because their definition of pensioner = proof of receipt of State pension.

Thank goodness I'm not the only one that insisted I was still going to retire at Retirement Age, regardless of when my SPA was....I don't know how many there are of us???

westlothianlass

Hi all,
I've been trying to keep up to date with everyone's posts but haven't managed to post myself as my blooming laptop is dying and typing on the tablet is a frustrating experience, so to keep my blood pressure down I've just been reading:o.
Got some wonderful news the other week, my DS got a job (where's the leaping about like a madwoman smilie when you need it):D
He is happy and enjoying himself which is wonderful to see.
Prepping wise I've been trying to keep up with the vegetable gluts from the garden, I'm definitely not complaining but I am tired of a certain green vegetable!!
I need to do a sort through of seeds, as I've been buying lots of packets in sales so no idea what I have or what I might need for next year.
WLL x

1Tonsil

Just a warning for my friends on here who like to know in advance about the weather...there is a very big low pressure weather system heading for the UK towards the end of this week. I think it will bring gale force winds and very heavy rain for Scotland by Thursday into Friday and will hit the north of England by Friday. It's a beauty!