Preparedness for when

ginnyknit

I love the idea of the Queen shopping in Harrods with her ration book and the butcher slipping her an extra few chops :rotfl:

All I can say is you guys have strange things next to your PC's

Off out today whilst we still have petrol, things are getting squeaky tight here as we are saving like mad for emergencies but everyone needs a day off from prepping and todays mine. Dd has jumped on board - at last - and is tightening her belt fine style. Its daft she didnt do it before as she is really good at pinching pennies. Ds of course is as tight as a ducks bum but despite having a really good job and a comfortable income can see the sense in keeping the money in his pocket. He is buying me a halogen oven thingy with his PPi repayment as he knows a happy Mummy is good for moral :rotfl: And he likes the idea that I will stop shouting at him to turn lights off if Im saving on the cooking, thats the only fault with him, the house looks like Blackpool illuminations when he is home.

D&DD

I just love this thread you know..where else can you be talking about zombie stew one minute then on to such interesting posts as churchill.wartime rations and potato famines?
I'm always astounded by the knowledge I find on here there are some very well read and intelligent peeps about on MSE.:D

Caterina *whispers* I love Boris too *ducks*

Just having a look on MrT to see if theres any decent offers on

MrsC I tend to work my stores to supermarket offers and find generally 3 months supply of any one item takes me around to the next special offer if that makes sense?So say I use two packs of teabags in 3 months I'll buy two when on offer (plus a spare just in case) and that'll last till the next offer so that way nothing in my store is usually bought at full price.The plus one then builds up as a long term store or is used if the offers are slow..

fuddle

GQ I thank you, as always, for explaining things to me. I learn an unbelievable amount from you all across OS and wouldn't be the person I am today without you.

I'm a bit perturbed by the whole growing your own idea too. It's very much dependant on the weather isn't it... and slugs!? But, I have to try to grow something

2tonsils

Talking of potatoes as you were (the blight comments) ..they have become very expensive here in the last two months and I can't think of one single reason for it to happen. Last week standard potatoes were 85 cents a kilo in the cheapest supermarket. We have had incredible weather all year so they can't blame that for the rip off!

The same thing happened last year and the farmers all got together to cut out the middle man and sell direct to the people. They were driving from Northern Greece to the islands and it brought the price down to 30 cents a kilo. Hopefully they will be bringing them down again soon by the sack load...or I am going to have to give up eating them again and have other veg instead.

Kitchen_Garden

fuddle wrote: »

I'm a bit perturbed by the whole growing your own idea too. It's very much dependant on the weather isn't it... and slugs!? But, I have to try to grow something

Must admit it's not been the best of years for growing your own (bad weather in spring/early summer) but you can save lots of money if you are selective and grow the right stuff for your soil conditions and tastes!

Things for a beginner would be runner beans (very prolific and do not take up much space), courgettes (yummy and also very prolific), shallots (store really well), salad leaves, spinach...

D&DD

Fuddle I'm one of life's 'chuck it in and see' types if I can grow stuff I pretty sure you'll be able to
Best bet is to start with something cheap and easy,maybe cut and come again salads,carrots,or potatoes.

MrsC it has been a challenging couple of years for GYOwners but I think as with most things we adapt to suit theres lots you can use a conservatory for from bringing on young plants overwintering others and growing herbs and winter salads indoors throughout the cold weather

I'll be tweaking my growing plans to cover floods/drought/man eating slugs and snow next year then I may be able to grow a ruddy turnip :rotfl:

I'm off to sort some stuff out for DS3 to occupy him
have a great day all XX

PRINCESSX87

Morning all,

I was wondering if i could join?

I'm currently unemployed and OH is finding it real tough with work at the moment and at anytime, He's hours can cut with a phone call.
So we're walking on egg shells atm.

As we're 2 people on a very limited wage and no benefit assistance other then a small portion of HB - Stocking up is the only way to go for us. But, On the up side, After reading this thread and others alike, I've spent £60 so far on:-

* Gas bottle for heating, This should last us at least 3 months easy!
* New duvet. Pillows, Sheets
* Wellie boots for me & OH. (Bargain on e*ay!)

Over the weekend, I'll be popping to the supermarket and stocking up on the food side and buying some supermarket stamps for Christmas grub!

Todays prep so far:-

Stock take of the cupboards, Ashamed to say, We've never done anything like this before.

Defrost the fridge & stock take that too

Defrost the freezer. This is going to be shocking! I think its only been done twice since we've had it, About 14 months. Scared to see whats in there

Growing your own question:-

We've tried this over the summer, And had no luck, Its surrounded by slugs & snails and half of my produce was ruined before it started. Is there anything i can attempt to grown indoors?

thriftwizard

I think there's something that those who live in urban or suburban situations often miss when they're incredulous at some of the preps some of us outside the major population centres make, which is that we are much more vulnerable to disruption in the supply networks. If you live somewhere with lots of supermarkets & medical centres within walking distance & good public transport links, you probably don't need to worry too much about fuel shortages or food stocks unless things have gone very seriously awry. But for those of us who know that our already-infrequent buses will be cut first, whose little shops are last on the supplier's lists, whose doctors & teachers may not be able to get to work if their home village is cut off (which happens every year, even here in the South) whose broadband signals & gas pressure are low to start with, need to be a bit more on the ball.

I've had discussions with people who cannot understand why we don't just switch to cable when our internet connection isn't reliable & is more expensive than theirs; the fact is that there is no cable out here & we've been told there never will be - it's not economic to run it this far (5 miles) out of the city centre. And the last village my brother lived in simply didn't have any mobile phone signal worth mentioning; ours is quite dodgy. The vast majority of people live in the cities & quite rightly, if anything serious should ever happen, that's where the relief efforts will be concentrated; the rest of us have to be prepared to look after ourselves, for a while at least.

There are plenty of compensations; fresh air, bigger gardens, low crime rates, and we're surrounded by potential food for most of the year if you know what you're looking for & how to deal with it. BUT we all know we're on our own when things come unstuck, and it'd be downright irresponsible not to be able to fend for ourselves & do what we can to free up resources for those most in need.

GreyQueen

Welcome PRINCESSX87 and I'm sorry to hear that you and your OH are in a precarious position right now. Sending good wishes that things will improve for you soon.

Plants of any sort need light, water, suitable temperature and space. Daylight is dwindling fast so any plant is going to struggle indoors in autumn/ winter.

I would certainly try to grow indoors in spring and summer, if you have suitable sunny areas. Things like herbs for cooking or salad leaves of the loose cut-and-come again variety. You may want to look at sprouting beans and seeds as this is a fast way to gain tasty and nutritious additional foods into your diet.

Culinary herbs fresh from your kitchen will add a fillip to home-cooked foods and make plain ingredients seem a lot more satisfying.

Of course, if you have access to a glazed area, such as a greenhouse/ conservatory, you will be able to do much more, but with the light dwindling, you won't get much at this time of year, so I wouldn't personally spend much time/money on it at this time of year.

ETA Thriftwizard, couldn't agree with you more. I'm a city-centre dweller but was raised on the edge of a market town and before that in one-horse-villages with no shops nor pubs. My relatives live on the edge of a large village equidistant between two substantial market towns but their bus links can go down and their homes are prone to powercuts which often last several hours and in one case were over 24 hours. And this is southern England, not one of the more remote parts of the UK.

I'm 2 minutes' walk from my GP and 10 minutes' walk from an out-of-hours walk in health centre and 3.5 miles from a major teaching hospital. My uncle in currently an inpatient at a major teaching hospital which is 47 miles from his village (he's 81) and the expense and logistics of visiting are dreadful.I also have the BT exchange about 200 metres away.

A pal who lives in a village about 8 miles out has a lovely home and a garden but a lot of problems; powercuts, very slow internet, roads flooding etc etc. He also seems to live in a dead-zone for texts; they can easily disappear for hours between sending and arriving. He works and socialises in the city and shops there as well, as does almost everyone else who lives in his village. Me, I don't like and cannot afford commuting costs. The longest powercut I've experienced has been 40 minutes here in the city centre.

boultdj

MrsChristmas wrote: »

Anyway, I have to get ready for work just thought I'd introduce myself a bit more! ...... be sure to point me in the direction of an Aldi shopping money off voucher if you come across one!

Ps... love the thought of growing my own but the past 2yrs attempts have proven more expensive than what I got back. I have a large conservatory if anyone has any ideas?!

MrsC, look on the Discount Codes 'n Vouchers board for the Nespaper Summary thread, they put all the offer's,coupon's and freebie's that the paper's are doing that day.


Is the conservatory heated or unheated?

This is for next year.
Can think of the pepper family, so chillie's and pepper's, tip to remember, use light coloured pot's, if the root's get too hot the plant dos'nt grow as well.
Tomatoe's,personaly I go for the bush type, mainly 'cause I'm lazy and don't like tying in,I'm to heavy handed:o


You can also use it to start outdoor crop's off early if it's not to hot in there.


Stuff you could try for winter is herb's and salad leave's.

Hope I'v given you some idea's and don't get dishartened growing your own, every garden is diffrent as to what will grow there and the weather is never right for every crop, it's just a case of trail and error to find what work's for you.