Preparedness for when

greenbee

Technically you're not supposed to use treated wood in case of fumes anyway Lyn... (never stopped my dad burning old telegraph poles though )

But fires are the reason most people used to have patterned heath rugs - so the marks from the embers wouldn't show! I have an open fire, and I'm burning softwood at the moment, so I always use a fireguard as it spits a lot.

kezlou

greyqueen, completely agree with the medication. I know fine well that i would last maybe two weeks max without my medication. At the moment i have a 6 month supply for both myself and ds2.
We both have allergic rhinitis so pretty much allergic to everything. Without his nasal spray and strong antihistamines within 72 hours hes laid up on the sofa, blue lips and can barely breathe. I'm the same but with the added stress of severe asthma and osteoarthritis.

So yes we cost the NHS a fortune and need pharmaceutical companies to make the medicine needed to keep us alive. But i think in the time that i have i can assist others especially in times of crisis. Not only to we need to be aware of ourselves but also others.I very much believe in karma, help others and the same will happen to you.

We each have our own reasons for prepping and i personally think its great because no matter what situation happens hopefully someone out there will know what to do.

Another thing which could help with prepping is always keeping seeds sealed in a box in case they ever needed. Who knows what happens when crops fail. Or in a very real event with myself where we had no money and luckily had salad, tomatoes , cucumbers and rhubarb in the garden. Lean times in the summer but organic and lush.

Kittie so pleased you were able to get out and about. Will do you the world of good.
My father has an aluminium ladder we got out of b&q, very sturdy lightweight and has safety locks. Think it was £35 but got a discount with his over 60's card.It folded in three different positions too.

mar thats we have been doing getting rid of clutter, really has helped to everything open and clear.

Having five minutes to have a cuppa and a mooch before i start sorting things out again.

GreyQueen

My survival window, sans medication, is much smaller; probably 4 days, of which 2-3 would be spent in a coma. Hence my being very conscious of where my meds are, and having plenty. Have never let even one tablet strip go out of date, either, due to careful rotation.

I recall reading something by Dmitry Orl0v about living through the fall of the Societ Union. One summer it was very bad and the family lived off the sack of rice, the summer veggies in the garden (mainly cucumbers) and fish caught from the lake. It was a monotonous but healthy diet when the whole existing order of society was crumbling around their ears.

Righty, off to the allotment, to work on that part of my preptastic life. The white onion sets were sown last weekend, as were some shop-bought garlic cloves. The potatoes are chitting indoors, and I will be planting several things in the next few weeks. Life in nature is circular, and gardening really brings you into that circle.

For me, gardening doesn't stop over winter, it just changes pace and activity, but it keeps steadily ticking along.

armyknife

Nargleblast wrote: »

So, to summarise the Preppers Creed.....

Enjoy life

Have fun

Avoid getting into debt if at all possible.

Don't be seduced by advertising into living beyond your means.

If you have debt, including mortgages, do your best to get rid of it within your capabilities.

Ensure your home is sound, well insulated and comfortable.

Ensure you have a sensible stock of essentials, e.g. food, soap, water, medications etc.

Keep an eye on world and local news.

Practise basic life skills and learn new ones, in case of loss of power supplies.

Keep your mouth shut - no telling other people in your vicinity about your preps, otherwise you will be invaded and robbed in the event of a severe SHTF scenario.

And above all, enjoy life, rejoice in simple pleasures, live in the moment while keeping half an eye on the future.

In other words - be an Old Style!

I'd agree with quite a lot of that, but would add two top priorites as edited.

Frugalsod

fuddle wrote: »

I didn't say that I thought the idea of clearing debt was absurd. Goodness gracious. I am a bankrupt after all. There comes a time when you just cannot function because of the noose that debt is. When in that state there's no preparing, it's all about getting through the day.

What I said was that I felt it wrong to say that debt/mortgage clearing was the basis to prepping. At a very basic level people can prepare their food stocks, clothing layers, blankets, fuel for heating etc without having the free income available to clear debt. I am so sure there are people amongst us that are living hand to mouth, that are trying very hard to build the smallest of cushion while not being able to pay off debt at rates that are needed. I think it's fair to say that debt clearance is part of prepping but sometimes it can't be seen as the basis of prepping.

The problem is that there are millions of people in this country who are just getting by living from paycheque to paycheque, hand to mouth what ever you may call it. They do not have enough free income to even prep at the minimal level that you are suggesting. You only have to see the growth of numbers dependent on payday loans to see that. They may already have enough debt or too low an income to make any such provision painful if not impossible.

Getting a small margin and concentrating on cost of living improvements can have a much higher rate of return than even paying off credit card debt. So doing some of those like insulation could be a priority. They may even get some if these things for free via energy grants. Switching energy supplier can also make some savings all without any outlay. Though many families already are currently having to decide between heating or eating. How can they prep?

Also clearing a mortgage would be the last debt to clear as it is generally the cheapest of all. The only time you need to concentrate on clearing mortgage is when you have no other debts and a higher loan to value than 50%. This is because you get better rates on lower LTV loans and homes are still massively overvalued. If you think that they cannot fall that much just ask the Japanese who experienced a 90% fall in home values.

Also prepping is less essential during good and stable times, also people do not think anything bad will happen to them, an optimism bias. Yet this is not a good or stable time. Incomes are vulnerable and if we have a Greek style austerity then wages for many could fall as much as 40%. Now could you afford your current lifestyle with a drop of that severity? If you had cut the mortgage outstanding significantly then you might still have a chance of keeping your home. If not expect to lose it eventually as it is repossessed.

Debt clearing is essential because if you do not clear it then the bailiffs could simply come and take anything that they are allowed to if you fall behind with payments. So you lose any preps that you may have started building. You will feel a fool if your bug out vehicle is repossessed.

Personally I would concentrate initially on things that reduced your cost of living in a way that increased your disposable income after fixed outgoings.

Starting with the no cost changes first like eliminating food waste, turning down the thermostat or even turning the heating off and wear clothes instead. Move into one room if necessary. Look for energy saving grants to insulate your home. This will also reduce your energy bills. Switch providers of any thing that you can, energy, insurance, telecoms and tv providers. These will save money more if you can cut them out completely. Cook food from scratch, stop the takeaways.

Then concentrate on low cost changes like low energy bulbs or various insulation options that you may not get a grant for, like draught excluders or window seals. These will start to save you money quickly but will probably take a couple of years before they have paid for themselves. Though that still equates to a rate of return close to 50% still better than paying off that credit card. If you need pans to cook from scratch then buy them. If it cuts your food bill it will pay for itself very quickly. I bought an expensive food mixer but it allowed me to do even more from scratch and so cut my food bills even more. It has paid for itself within 2 years easily, and the savings continue to accumulate. Others might find that buying tools might get them more work so that is helpful, or they can do home repairs rather than pay someone to do it.

If you are regularly getting penalty fees for exceeding your overdraft or credit card limits then concentrate on those first. Once you have stopped being hit by penalty payments you should start to see the improvements quickly. Possibly several hundred pounds a year depending on how many accounts are impacted.

Then concentrate on the most expensive debt and pay that off. Over time as the debts are reduced if you can over pay on the most expensive debt and bring the term of repayments down. It might take years but if you can dig yourself out of a hole you will appreciate it.

I split mine between building up a cash reserve and paying down debts. Pick what ever suits you best.

Once you have cleared all your debts except mortgage then you could either prep faster. Though once you do have some extra disposable income then you could buy the odd prepping items especially if they are on sale.

Overpaying your mortgage is the last option. You could have all your other preps in place by this point or have just started it does not matter. Many preps will be no cost like knowing where stop taps are. These could be started whenever as long as you have the time. Or low cost like a fire steel or water filter and water storage. Air tight food storage is something else that is low cost. It will be then only a matter of time before you have completed most of your preps. It will be even easier if you have the cash flow to do it.

Prepping without clearing your debts is like building a house without foundations. Eventually it might collapse on you. In general to prep properly you need a margin of safety and clearing debts is a very good way to do that.

RAS

I have been at the point of having 11p when a pint of milk cost 11.5p, some marg, some flour, a small amount of pasta and some dried herbs. And nothing coming in until the end of next week, but an appointment for the week-in hand payment from my previous period of unemployment.

I had been agency-working but it was very irregular so I was in a mess.

I walked 6 miles to get there and was surprised to be offered a claim form for the bus fare. I filled in for the fare back home and was told to claim for the fare there. I explained how I got there and why I had walked and a little while later was told that I would be paid for both journeys.

I walked part way and celebrated my 65p winnings. The very kind lady must also have expidited my claim as it arrived 36 hours later.

When I did get money, I used to work out how much needed to be put aside for items that were used over more than one payment cycle - washing powder, hygiene, lamps etc and then split the rest into weeks. That budgeting pot meant I could replace those things more or less when needed.

It paid to cook for several days at a time in the oven; casserole, dahl, quiche, baked potatoes, sausages. That meant I could rustle up a hot meal on other days using very little fuel. I could not afford a vest but I had a too tight T shirt and could layer clothes.

Having a tiny budgetting fund meant that sometimes I could "invest" in a majorly reduced item that was needed shortly. Which meant the future fund would stretch further.

I may have been fortunate that overdrafts were not an option. It occasionally meant dodging the LL for a couple of days until the next cheque or payday but debt was harder to acquire.

A year or so later I failed an interview miserably; the company was one of the first to introduce store cards.

I was asked if I had one? No.
Would I like one? No
Why not?

Because I had worked out that if companies were keen to offer me a card to buy something I could not immediately afford, then it was because they made money by doing so. And I preferred to have that money in my own account.

thriftwizard

Posted this in entirely the wrong thread this morning:

Not at all a SHTF situation, but my aunt's death yesterday (not completely unexpected, she was 94 and and had been "terminally" ill for most of the last 50 years, in her own opinion at least) means the absolute chaos here will be extended by a couple of weeks whilst things get sorted out in Wales too. It does make me realise one thing; our home may look like total chaos to the uninitiated (i.e. those who have no clue about large family life) but it has functioned perfectly well throughout these last few months of unanticipated trips, emergency overnight stays, waiting around for equipment & medications, etc. etc. No-one's gone unfed or not had clean clothes for work, the non-human inhabitants are all alive & well, the business is still afloat. There is something to be said for a bit of redundancy in one's domestic systems, and a certain amount of over-stocking. Just sad for OH that he aspires to being a minimalist!

fuddle

You can prep when you are in a bad situation. It is the very reason I turned to OS in the first place. Everyone preps for their own reasons. Me? I'm a food prepper and a knowledge gatherer.

Prepping doesn't have to be about the physical accumulation of stuff. It's as much about planning and thinking/knowing how to utilise items that are available.

GreyQueen

fuddle wrote: »

You can prep when you are in a bad situation. It is the very reason I turned to OS in the first place. Everyone preps for their own reasons. Me? I'm a food prepper and a knowledge gatherer.

Prepping doesn't have to be about the physical accumulation of stuff. It's as much about planning and thinking/knowing how to utilise items that are available.

:T Bravo!

If you drink cola, you can save the bottle and fill it with tap water. A prep. If you don't drink cola and don't have 17p for a bottle of basics water, you can scrounge a cola bottle and fill it up. You can borrow Richard Mabey's Food for Free from a library and wander around the countryside looking for edibles. Most people over 5 can recognise a dandelion, yes? You can make a hobo stove from discarded drinks cans (any street or beauty spot will provide).

You can keep your eyes open at bootsales and chazzers. I know of examples of people IRL buying gold jewelley worth a couple of hundred pounds for pence from boxes of junky costume jewellery, because they had the nous to detect its dense weight-to-size ratio and they were fly enough to recognise the hallmarks. Learn what a sovreign looks like - it'll take your less than 10 seconds; they don't say 'sovreign' on them and some peeps have no idea what they are when they see them. They turn up in busker's guitar cases, garage sale detritus and charity penny collections in our city frequently; one of my mates buys them off the happy finders. If you find one, that's a cool £180-£200 instant cash or something to stash away for a rainy day.

You can talk to people all the time, mostly for free. Some surprising things can be learned by conversing, and even more surprising things by keeping your trap shut and your ears open. You can have the radio on, on talk stations and learn interesting stuff for hours each day.

You can pick up random hardware off the pavement and can probably be self-sufficient in misc small hardware forever. This week's gleanings from city centre pavements include lovely washer and a number 8 woodscrew. Useful things. Other useful things can be found in skips or loitering on the side of the road. Remember the W0mbles?

With change from £1 you can have a can of sardines and a 500g pkt of pasta. That'll keep you alive for several days with a nice dandelion side salad to stave off the scurvey.

The world is full of opportunity; this afternoon I saw some wombles with a handmade cart wombling some fallen and cut up trees alongside the cycle path. And someone else gathering alu cans for the cash-for-cans place.

[Deleted User]

Never a truer word said FUDDLE when the situation is that all you have is your knowledge and experience then knowing how to make use of things around you will save your and anyone with you's lives. You dont need a tool kit to make a shelter but if you have a tool kit and don't know how to build a shelter a tool kit won't be much use will it? If you know HOW to build a shelter with your hands and the resources you find in the area you are in, then you have a safe haven and warmth. If you don't know what is safe to forage for food but have a cook book with you etc.etc.etc.Prepping isn't always about physical things and posessions, more about knowledge and the courage to try!