Preparedness for when

calicocat

Another carpet fan here.

The house I have now has laminate in the lounge and bathroom. The bathroom is ok as is always really warm and must have lots of hot pipes underneath....the lounge I hated, so now have a huge rug that fills most of it. this way I can have the best of both worlds if I need to. I love to hang out on the floor too, and missed this terribly when I moved, all the main area is now covered in rug so I can please myself...easy to hoover or clean, and if I get a puppy of kittens in the future...easy to pull up until they are house trained. ...result.

On a prepping front.....boy am I pleased I got organised on the cat front. I've not been in the best of heath for a while, just spent all morning after night shift sat in A&E, and now have to go in for emergency operation tomorrow as they can't do it today as ate breakfast at work...lol...(nothing life threatening..just painful and irritating)....but am very pleased I have all Asbo-cat stuff in as had got low on the foods and other people wouldn't know what to buy for her and which flavours etc....being the little fuss pot she is.

The S is about to HTF...as I haven't finished xmas shopping, and won't be able to drive for a week after tomorrow. I will have to grab a mate to be my driver / personal shopper...:D....lucky them.................:rotfl:

Just re reading posts.....and I think my laminate has insulation and still 'seems' cold at times. However i'm not sure how much of that is the hollow cold sound, and hard stuff underfoot rather than actual temperature?.


Also...do animals ruin cork tiling? I reckon my cat would rip it to bits?.

GreyQueen

ivyleaf wrote: »

The other day there was a contestant on Pointless (a BBC quiz show) who, when asked what he did for a living, replied cagily "I...work in an office, in my home town."

Aha, Council or DWP staff, I thought! (Been there, done that. not in a TV quiz show, mind you)

One of the presenters commented "That is the answer of a spy!" :rotfl:

I did feel sorry for the poor guy.

IRL, if people ask, I just say I answer the phones for the council (subtext; I'm a low-level person, no need to chew me out about any grievances you have with policies, I'm not involved with that). If they've spent the previous 10 mins ranting about 'the carncil' I'll probably just say I work in a call centre......:rotfl:The truth, just not the whole truth, m'lud.

One of my pals just says he works in an office and hopes to fly under the radar. He's a tax man, but has learned that if this is mentioned at parties, one of two things happen; people start berating him about the grubbyment's tax policies or they whip out a tax notice from somewhere on their person and demand to know what it means.

Mind you, could be worse, I hear doctors get all sorts of body parts brandished at them socially with requests to do on-the-spot diagnoses.

Frugalsod

Many people have a job that really could be described as socially toxic. I have had loads of dealings with tax men and women, and generally they are only doing their job. If you are trying to play the game and not try scam the tax man then they are perfectly decent people. If not they can delve for as long as they like.

What really annoys me is that people blame the wrong person. I was in the local convenience store of a big supermarket and they had run out of the 6 pints of milk that I usually get. I commented to the cashier and said it was not her fault. She said that some people do let rip for such failings. I did say that I doubt that even the local branch manager has much influence in picking stock levels, and as such it was taken at a level above both their pay grades. Why scream at staff that cannot influence the final decision?

GreyQueen

Frugalsod wrote: »

. Why scream at staff that cannot influence the final decision?

I really wonder why some people feel that is acceptable to abuse frontline staff, or indeed any person going about their employer's lawful business.

Several times a week, sometimes several times a day, when a customer service peep on my team tells A.N. Other customer something s/he doesn't like, they threaten to come down to our building and have it out with us. Oh, and they're bringing their big and aggressive mate(s), their staffy, their gun/ axe/ samurai sword etc etc. And they're going to beat us up/ kill us/ set fire to the building etc etc.

Because we're going to change our policy on the hoof (or breach the relevent Act of Parliament) if threatened with physical violence, don'tchaknow.:huh:

Sheesh. Sometimes it's just hot air, but we have to warn the security geezers in case they do show face and kick off. And they do. In a building covered by CCTV and with security guards on site and with the police a short phone call away. And some do kick off and do get arrested, charged and convicted. What a blinking waste of time.

Frugalsod

If you have a problem write to your MP. Most of the time the problems emanate from the Houses of Parliament via badly drafted legislation and might require a Statutory Instrument to amend. Either that or they can bring it to the attention of someone who can fix the problem.

daz378

the problem is many mps deal with macro economic concerns and only play lip service to individual cases. people on low pay (as GQ mentioned) spend most of their income economists express this as high marginal propensity to consume, likewise rich folk have a high marginal propensity to save..... there is already increased uptake of foodbanks due to benefit sanction .....can you imagine the potential societal effects of a cut in welfare or increase in v.a.t.... i hope the tories dont get in on their own ...as their stance on the deficit is most aggressive and could lead to future unrest

daz378

its cold in my flat .....since they took the big CH pipes out ....that GQ is still enjoying ,,,,since they changed the heating flats are colder and you pay more for heating .... which used to be part of the rent..clever that... i have a rule at night no heating on at least till 10pm.... not because i cant afford it.... but to exercise discipline.....xmas work do up town first with work mates.... then later my local mates hopefully be a good night

take care

Softstuff

We have actual wood floors here (other than the bathroom which is tile). It was one of the things that attracted us to our tiny unit. OH has a severe dust allergy and that improved to an almost manageable level when we moved here. Also as a clumsy numpty, things clean up easily when I drop or spill them and crockery stands a fighting chance at a bounce, which it doesn't on tile. In the tropical climate, issues are a bit different though and frankly tile would be better climatically than this. Polished concrete would frankly be the bees knees here for climate (got very used to that in Turkey, it's perfect).

I've always worked in one form or another in customer service, it's amazing to me what people do get worked up about. You have for example the person that the company has messed about and screwed up their dealings, but rather than be upset, the customer is fine and pleasant. Then you get the customer who something has gone wrong for, but it is entirely the customers fault and they go nuts. I once had a death threat for not replacing a customers faulty item that was long outside of warranty. And it wasn't an essential item to life by any means.

jk0

I don't think number 36 is such a riddle when there have been 35 others this year. Full list here:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-07/riddles-surround-36th-dead-banker-year

Frugalsod

daz378 wrote: »

the problem is many mps deal with macro economic concerns and only play lip service to individual cases. people on low pay (as GQ mentioned) spend most of their income economists express this as high marginal propensity to consume, likewise rich folk have a high marginal propensity to save..... there is already increased uptake of foodbanks due to benefit sanction .....can you imagine the potential societal effects of a cut in welfare or increase in v.a.t.... i hope the tories dont get in on their own ...as their stance on the deficit is most aggressive and could lead to future unrest

Most MP's are clueless when it comes to economics especially those with degrees in the subject. It is why the economy has not recovered fully. They are all Chicago school neoclassical with hints of monetarism thrown in. Hence any mention of the term money velocity.

If anything they should as you said be increasing income to those with a higher marginal propensity to spend such as those on benefits or low incomes. The multiplier effect from such spending is more than 1.7 times. It also works in reverse when you cut the same spending from the poor it cuts an even greater amount from the economy. Even if you took it all from the higher earners and companies so the fiscal effect for the government was neutral you would actually have a better growing economy. Though the real problem is that there is still too much private debt about and that is hampering any recovery. It is the same everywhere.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-07/are-we-reliving-1930s

Until we have the debt clear out then we will not have the recovery, because any growth will be drained towards the banks. Though I doubt that will happen carefully as governments are too tied to private banks so a dramatic collapse worse then 2008 is the most likely outcome.



The problem with Zero hedge is that they misidentify the cause as Keynesian economics. Keynesian policy was replaced by monetarists in 1980 and they morphed into the current bunch of Neoclassical's in 1982/4 when monetarist policies failed to get the economy growing again. Keynes said that central banks and governments should take away the punch bowl when things got heated but they did nothing of the sort. They should be doing that now with the current housing bubbles. During the thirties Keynes did not mention debt because that debt got cleared out during the crash of 1929 to 1932. What we did wrong this time was to stop that debt being written down so we still have the problem. So any possible solution has to include huge debt write-downs. That will be fought by the banks because that will mean they are all insolvent and the managers will lose their bonuses.

All that TPTB everywhere have done is re-inflate all the bubbles to every higher levels in the hope of fooling us into buying into the new Ponzi scheme, and the "wealth effect" causing the economy to grow. So apart from hoping for a disproved "wealth effect" to actually do something they have no idea what to do. This could go on for many years as Japan has demonstrated. Even Japans solutions do not include debt write-downs.

So what can the average person actually do for themselves? Eventually I suspect that when things erupt there will be panic in governments and central banks as deflation takes hold. We already have talk of disinflation already. It could be severe like in the 1873 depression or mild like in Japan since the 1980's.

So what everyone needs to do is get rid of that debt one way or another. Pay it down if you can. In six months I will be completely debt free from all debts so will be safe. Some of you are already in that wonderful position. Many others will not be so lucky they have mortgages. So cut every other debt if you can. If it is only mortgage debt left then maybe they might actually have a restructuring of all mortgage debt. Other debts will not be so lucky. Once deflation takes over then debt burdens become onerous and the only exit becomes bankruptcy. Wages and benefits will be cut for all but the very rich. Look at Greece with wages down 40%. With lower wages debts that have not been cleared will be even harder to pay off. Even rents will fall as people cannot cope and move in together. The related problem is that as people are squeezed they will want to sell off anything and then they discover that those with cash will be really reluctant to buy at anything other than at fire sale prices.

Some have suggested buying gold as a hedge against deflation but the problem is that governments might make gold holding illegal and confiscate any gold owned. So you will be no better off. They have done it before. Also those who are suggesting buying gold have a vested interest in the gold market in some way so are they not completely independent.

You could keep cash but with the new policies on Bail-ins this means banks will be the worst places to keep large sums. I am keeping no more than a few thousand pounds just for transactions and emergencies in my bank account. Hopefully it will be low enough to avoid being bailed in or affordable if it is. For most people that will be the case as most people do not have much in the way of savings.

Keeping cash might be a very viable option but there are risks and the government might ban cash and force people into electronic money. It will still have a black market value so it might be harder to wipe out.

The problem then becomes if this all does unravel badly then there will be complete lack of faith in governments and the financial system and then unrest will be inevitable. Though we do not know if the transition will be fast like Greece or slow like Japan, though we are all facing a decline till we erupt like Ukraine.

If the Tories do win power which I doubt right now, will they still try and blame Labour for the next crisis? Longer term I see the rise of new parties that will replace the three main parties.