Preparedness for when

Bathory

Yes, I remember shops shutting for half days and Sundays. If Christmas and Boxing day fell on a weekend then many shops shut for 4 days because of Bank Holiday Monday/Tuesday. We just had to make sure everything would last. I really hate this 24hr consumer society nowadays.

Just got back from a few days break and catching up on the news about all this black Friday lunacy. Its shocking to see fights over tv sets but I fear there is now no going back from this as more retailers will get involved and it will just get bigger and bigger. OH was out on deliveries at 5am on Friday morning and he said it reminded him of the film 'Dawn of the Dead' with people queuing up at that time waiting for shops to open. Unfortunately though, come Boxing day and it will be mad again.

Frugalsod

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Perhaps we should start a slow and backwards revolution towards making life better for ourselves by rejecting the consumerism and living an even more simple life than we do now. It will never ever be exactly the same as when I was younger in the 1950s but choosing to have a less 'things',luxuries, treats and not seeing the need to emulate the Joneses in any way while still enjoying those things we do and can have must leave us feeling more contented with our lot in the long run. Perhaps we could decide that 'enough' is going to make us happy rather than all the striving to get that next 'thing'. I know I'm preaching to the converted but if you're going to lead, life has taught me that you have to do it from the front and show the world that it CAN be done!

I agree. Nowadays I am doing far more old school and even though I still have the gadgets I have my reasons. What really needs to be taught is that borrowing ultimately means that you will have to give up more in the future so saving for that item means that you are not paying interest for that fancy device.

When people criticise those with a "BMW at the food bank" it ignores the fact that the vast majority of people are literally only a single wage packet from disaster. They may have been keeping up with the Jones and have paid for everything on credit so when incomes fall they are still contracted to pay for the car and even getting rid of it has huge costs which they cannot afford, all while they might still need a car to get to work or job interviews. So their contracted payments leave them absolutely no flexibility. How many people do you know who are in that situation?

Everyone ignores the fact that the government policy for the last thirty years has been to get the economy going with a lot of help from loans from the deregulated banks. So while governments could look frugal they have got the rest of us to borrow to the hilt to get them out of a hole. Unfortunately that road is very rapidly coming to an end. It is going to be impossible to keep an economy rolling like with have for the last 30 years when excessive debts are what is strangling it now. How long before everything implodes is anyones guess but my money is that it will happen eventually. Deflation will eventually strike and then we will see the fortunes of many wiped out. All that has happened is that Central banks have simply delayed the inevitable. But for how long can they succeed?

I have been struck by the incompetence of the vast majority of economists who firstly never saw the crisis coming when some did; they were spectacularly over optimistic as to the prospects for recovery which seemed incredibly lacklustre and had to be constantly and repeatedly revised downwards. I said seven years ago to friends that this was going to be a twenty to thirty-five year stagnation and absolutely nothing has changed. Also you need to remember that most economists work for banks (or want to), and those banks whose whole reason for existing is to create money. So they are really rather conflicted even if they were being truthful.

[Deleted User]

I think the concept that you give up anything be it now or in the future is missing from the younger generations. They have been indulged in every way since birth, never allowed to fail at anything, never been criticised for not working, positively discouraged from being competetive at sports, given every single thing they think they want and treated as little princes and princesses being chauffered from a to b by parents who have to give them everything that everyone elses kids have and do, how on earth will they ever understand that it's not their right to have it all? and how are they ever going to know that it isn't?

Karmacat

Just had another wake up call about looking after myself: I was leaning over very slightly to cut a bramble, and my back went ... if shtf, it probably wouldn't happen the same way, because I'd be doing more physical stuff, but it might happen at the start, and incapacitate me during an emergency... time I realised that I need to look after myself more regularly - nutrition *and* exercise. Once I'm sitting, or lying, its fine, but movement .... no. Just no. Sigh ...

Chrisblue1962

Bathory wrote: »

...Just got back from a few days break and catching up on the news about all this black Friday lunacy. Its shocking to see fights over tv sets but I fear there is now no going back from this as more retailers will get involved and it will just get bigger and bigger.

Absolutely barking mad. Stupid people spending money they probably haven't got on things they don't need or for people they can't stand.

Frugalsod - I agree. I often wonder at the independance of some-so-called expert economists as they probably say what politicians want to hear or are over-optimistic just to get elected and then stay in power because financially, they have too many "grey connections" and vested interests - you'll never ever see a poor MP .

Butterfly_Brain

SpikyHedgehog wrote: »

Fruit trees, I think ;-) I've not got the books here but I'm sure it's an orchard.

Last time I'd looked at woodland burials, they were more than 4 times the cost of cremation, so I was planning cremation for myself, but when I'd talked to my children, they both said they'd want to be able to visit my grave & wouldn't want me cremated. As they get older, that may change, so it's something we'll revisit, but they're the ones who need to have input.

My parents were cremated and we had their ashes interred at the cemetery, there is a special plot for cremations so we can still visit their grave and it has a headstone. Maybe you could look in to that?

I love the idea of a woodland burial, but agree that costs are prohibative to many of us

Butterfly_Brain

mardatha wrote: »

This all comes about because politicians aren't ordinary people any more. They don't have any idea of real working life and low pay. They go through school/uni/party as a protected species. Can you imagine Ian Duncan Smith in charge of rationing in WW2?

I would expect to see him in Nazi uniform :mad:

Butterfly_Brain

nuatha wrote: »

Green shield stamps were the equivalent of today's nectar cards. Points (stamps) were given when you paid for your shopping - sometimes you'd get double points promotions. Stamps were collected in books and could be claimed against rewards from either a Green Shield catalogue or a catalogue showroom. (The founder of the business went on to found Argos.)
As well as collectable cigarette cards, I think it was Embassy ran points cards that could be exchanged in a similar fashion to Green Shield stamps as a child I remember the showroom to be very glitzy - all part of making smoking seem aspirational I suppose.

There were other stamp systems and for a number of years the Co-ops paid their dividend by issuing stamps, though from memory full stamp books only had a cash value.

HTH

Thursday was double stamp night and it was always murder, I know I worked in Tesco in the 70's :eek:

[Deleted User]

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

My parents were cremated and we had their ashes interred at the cemetery, there is a special plot for cremations so we can still visit their grave.

How about having the ashes interred under a tree, in a Memorial Forest?

http://www.lifeforalife.org.uk/

We chose to have a tree dedicated to my parents, although in our case the ashes are scattered elsewhere.

moneyistooshorttomention

Bathory wrote: »

Just got back from a few days break and catching up on the news about all this black Friday lunacy. Its shocking to see fights over tv sets but I fear there is now no going back from this as more retailers will get involved and it will just get bigger and bigger. OH was out on deliveries at 5am on Friday morning and he said it reminded him of the film 'Dawn of the Dead' with people queuing up at that time waiting for shops to open. Unfortunately though, come Boxing day and it will be mad again.

What I thought was particularly shocking was those two men trying to steal a tv a woman had picked up and intended to buy off her. But I took great pleasure in just how recognisable the faces of the little toerags were in that photo...so hopefully they wont get away with that conduct...as someone who knows them might tell them "what for" for doing that.

Fingers crossed too the woman did what I would have done if I had got there first, but they were trying to grab it off me. That is, I would have thrown it straight down on the floor to break it. I wouldn't have got it then, but they wouldn't have either:).

But...nope....I just wouldn't want to be that consumerist that I was out there even queueing (never mind fighting) to get a bargain. I've never joined a sale queue in my life (even back in the days when things seemed to be more civilised and it was "first come first served" from what I can see). There are better things to do with life than go in for all that malarkey at the best of times, just to get some more consumer goods....