Preparedness for when

thriftwizard

The reason that our "boomerang" DS2 and TDiL have squeezed themselves back into his old bedroom is that they've had unfortunate experiences in the private rental market. Homes around here don't come cheap, and landlords are only too willing to sell out from under tenants if a developer, say, offers them enough. So they've re-trenched in order to save up enough for a deposit on a place of their own. That said, I think they still have about £19K to save... you won't get anything under £200,000 around here, and they're still a bit hazy on the detail of how, exactly, to save money!

The small, undone-up 2-bed house over the road has just sold in a flash for "offers over £225K" and it will need everything done, especially the roof, which had been replaced with concrete tiles 40-odd years ago, without the rafters being strengthened, and is visibly sagging. And the lean-to kitchen & bathroom are literally hanging off the back, with rather a large gap visible at the top. So whoever's buying that will need another £80k-odd to make it watertight & stable again, unless they're a builder. However, it does have a nice long garden.

They could, of course, relocate to a cheaper area; DS2's best friend did this a couple of years ago & is always tempting them with offers of jobs - he went there as a temporary measure, waiting for a recruitment round in another job down here, but found himself running the show inside 6 months and is loving it - BUT the reason he is trying to tempt DS2 and other friends off up there is because they are finding it very hard to make friends locally. No-one qualified locally had wanted the job he's doing - there were no applicants & he was talked into applying - but they resent him now for having taken it & being able to afford their very-nice home for half what they'd pay for a bedsit around here. Yet he's a decent, fair, hardworking lad; their loss, perhaps, but sad for him & his lovely cheery, friendly young wife.

So it's not always as simple as move to somewhere cheaper...

sb44

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I guess I had the option of getting married to have two incomes coming in

Don't assume that you have two incomes coming in if you are married.

Some people decide to stay at home to bring up their children and no, they don't claim benefits, other than child tax credit and child benefit.

Perhaps not a lot these days due to the cost of mortgages/rent etc.

[Deleted User]

Being married or single isn't a factor even if it is a lifestyle choice. My eldest DD is 36 and still single, not having ever found anyone she wanted to share life with but she has her own house not through luck but through saving as much as she could,she teaches so isn't massively well paid, and by working as a boarding house mistress for quite a few years which gave her the opportunity to make substantial savings by being sensible with her outgoings,unlike her peers she saved what she would have paid in rent, worked very hard and was on call 24 hours a day sometimes and more importantly didn't blue the whole lot of it on unnecessary things and alcohol. She took a smaller mortgage because of her savings and has overpaid by £500 every month and now has only 18 months left to pay on it. She doesn't have children but is considering very strongly adopting. It's not your marital status or having children or even luck involved in making your life and what is in it the way you want, it's sheer hard work and common sense and also sacrificing self indulgence to achieve your goals.

sb44

sb44 wrote: »

Well, mushrooms are one of the things I am going to try, especially mushroom powder made from the stems.

Bananas and pears will def be on the list. I have a Borner food slicer so will use that to slice them, perhaps an egg slicer though for the mushrooms as I like my fingers too much to use it for those!



I will let you know how I get on.

Ok, I left everything on for about 10 to 12 hours as I started late in the day so had to leave on overnight, next time I will start very early in the morning.

I did pears, apples, peppers and mushrooms.

These results were all after 10 to 12 hours, can't remember exactly so may have been ok before then.

Mushrooms - crunchy / snappable

Pears - chewy and very sweet (will def be making more of those)

Apples - chewy (not as nice as pears but I used granny smiths and not a big fan)

Sweet peppers - snappable but chewy and very sweet, lovely as a snack

So, they will be made again, put in jars and vac sealed. I don't think most need vac sealing as they will have a long shelf life, but will do it anyway.

Next test will be dried turkey breast steaks for the pooch. Mustn't forget SHTF food for our fury friends.

Oh, forgot to say, I also did courgettes which were wafer thin and came out like crisps, very tasty, will def make those again.

I dug out my seed packets last night as I will plant some courgette seeds this year just to dry and make crisps!

[Deleted User]

SB44 one of the nicest things we've found from the dehydrator are whole blackberries and raspberries, you can dry them down until they are crisp and they are just like those freeze dried ones you get in very posh breakfast cereals, yummy!!!

sb44

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

SB44 one of the nicest things we've found from the dehydrator are whole blackberries and raspberries, you can dry them down until they are crisp and they are just like those freeze dried ones you get in very posh breakfast cereals, yummy!!!

I take it that result is from fresh fruit? I have seen some YouTube vids showing people drying frozen food, not sure if that includes frozen berries though.



I need to buy some more raspberry plants, always good to have food growing in the garden just in case the SHTF.

Not sure whether to buy the small bush type ones that we have had in the past or the long cane ones I have seen in Aldi, not quite well up on the cane type.

[Deleted User]

Yes, we grow copious quantities of both fruits and freeze loads too but when they catch me out and give me over 10lbs at a picking I chuck some into the dehydrator and let it work its magic on them. I've never tried pre frozen fruit in there but I suppose that ought to work too.

Our raspberries are technically autumn fruiters but they start to ripen in July and I'm usually still picking reduced amounts in November. They are Malling Bliss I think (certainly Malling somethingorother) and have large fruits which are lovely and sweet. We have 2 x 16 ft rows of them on the allotment and we have 2 x thornless blackberries on the back fence behind the polytunnel and get masses and masses of fruit each summer. Well worth the outlay and earn their keep well over the years.

mardatha

I wouldn't buy a house ever unless I was seriously rich or won the lottery. My dad always used to say people who buy their house never have any money, and I looked round at my school pals who had a bought house and he was right.
But then I know I'm lucky in where I live. I got my first council house in 1967 when I was 17 and have had a few since then . Only once had a bad house but we got a move after 6 months. My HA is polite, approachable, helpful, and lovely.
When my kids were young my husband was always on strike or out of work for long spells - this is why I'm a prepper - but we would never ever have been able to buy a house. If that was now, we would have been repossessed and flung out on the street. It's so sad for the younger people now, the system is all wrong.

moneyistooshorttomention

thriftwizard wrote: »

They could, of course, relocate to a cheaper area; DS2's best friend did this a couple of years ago & is always tempting them with offers of jobs - he went there as a temporary measure, waiting for a recruitment round in another job down here, but found himself running the show inside 6 months and is loving it - BUT the reason he is trying to tempt DS2 and other friends off up there is because they are finding it very hard to make friends locally. No-one qualified locally had wanted the job he's doing - there were no applicants & he was talked into applying - but they resent him now for having taken it & being able to afford their very-nice home for half what they'd pay for a bedsit around here. Yet he's a decent, fair, hardworking lad; their loss, perhaps, but sad for him & his lovely cheery, friendly young wife.

So it's not always as simple as move to somewhere cheaper...

Absolutely true:T - and I'm also trying to tempt friends over here (though, fortunately, I've now got a pretty wide circle to date and made some friends).

It is easier to move to said "cheaper area" if there are a lot of other incomers there already (something I thought I would be thankful for and I am). Most locals are fine, though there have been "one or two" (but you will always get that anywhere).

I think the thing that has struck me is that I've been very used to an environment with a high proportion of single people/very high proportion of incomers (yep...which is part of what shoved up our house prices there:mad:)/a very "independent/questioning/expecting to progress one way or another" communal mindset.

It literally didn't occur to me that it wouldn't be the case in some parts of the country that the mindset would go from "majority of people pretty much thinking of themselves as 'individuals' making own personal decisions/deciding individually what they wanted from life" etc to a rather different mindset. In my new area its very family-oriented and this is something that wasn't particularly the case where I was (family entrance fees to some things...but that was about it). Here....the "locals" social life does seem to centre very much around families and the whole "community yearly social calendar" is worked out to suit them.

So, if you've moved from an "individuals decide and plan" type community to a "family-oriented" community then its going to be harder to get into the "locals" social life. Thence the reason incomers make the sort of social life we are used to (ie individuals based) and "locals" come along too if they wish (ie things are organised for anyone and everyone who wishes to come - but that's just the way it works out in practice).

I'm guessing there may be other differences between different communities??

Karmacat

I've been reading through the finance posts while doing some scanning-to-declutter, very thought provoking, especially as I've been writing about finance recently. Got to get my thoughts in order about all that.

Its the scanning I wanted to mention: the first part of my Bug Out Bag (in case of house fires etc, the kind of thing to get me to a hotel and start things up again from there) the first thing I did was scan my Official Documents - insurance, qualifications, pensions, all of that. Now I'm decluttering to be more mobile, partly because my financial situation is such that I *need* to be more mobile (I plan to be working solely online by autumn 2016, in various new occupations) I realise I had no proof at all of my qualifications in my current type of work as a counsellor. Just because I'm self employed, doesn't mean I don't need proof now or in the future! I thought I'd worked so hard at this (partly because of the experiences with Hurricane Katrina documented at www.theplacewithnoname.com) but I'd left a socking great gap!