Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Oh, I do like a good sport. Nice to have you back with the nutters, Bob. I shall now disappear into the ether to drink tea and read cyberpunk whilst knitting.

Middle-aged wimmin are different in the 21st century, I tell thee.

Laters, GQ x

Karmacat

GreyQueen wrote: »

Look, said the anxious foreman, seeing his workforce about to leave, I need names and addresses, they don't have to be your names and addresses, for f***'s sake!

I love that :j

I've never forgotten that office guy; he obviously was so unused to roughing it that he didn't even own a teeshirt, was working in a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Wonder what redundancy or other catastrophe reduced his circumstances to scrabbing for a few quid with the manual labourers?

Mmmm .... its not Mr Charlton/Charley boy with Pop Larkin, is it. The reality is a lot more painful.

In the light of events in the eurozone, I have been running some calculations for the next 7 days about when my money is going in, when it is going out on bills, and when I can pull out cash to minimize my balance. I'm a woman with a plan.

:cool: And a well-stuffed mattress. Bank of Slumberdown, anybody? Just as much interest as any mainstream bank, but withdrawals are oh-so-convenient.

Mmmmm, again. There's a local ATM ... I'm sure nothing's going to happen here, but I *am* low on cash at the moment. The next few minutes might see me popping round there ...

Frugalsod

GreyQueen wrote: »

In the light of events in the eurozone, I have been running some calculations for the next 7 days about when my money is going in, when it is going out on bills, and when I can pull out cash to minimize my balance. I'm a woman with a plan.

:cool: And a well-stuffed mattress. Bank of Slumberdown, anybody? Just as much interest as any mainstream bank, but withdrawals are oh-so-convenient.

I am stuffing cash into safe books and safe cans.

Another problem with a cashless society is that it effectively makes pocket money much harder for families to use. It stops the kids learning budgeting.

jk0

Maybe eighteen months ago I told you guys about losing my glasses. I never did find them, and got some new ones in Jan last year.

Last week I took my car to be serviced, so took everything out lest I lose it...

You guessed it, my new pair were in the car, but are not with any of the stuff that came out of it.

Fortunately these were only a £25 pair from Specsavers. I wonder if I'll find the previous pair now.

Runcorn_Bridge

Good to read you again Bob, bin wonderin'

Penny-Wise_4

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I made the decision last year to NOT store dry pulses other than lentils purely because of the amount of fuel it takes to cook them. On the stove in a pressure cooker in normal times it's 20 minutes but if I was relying on gas cannisters or hard foraged firewood to make meals I wouldn't want to spend the hour at the least needed to cook beans or things like brown rice.

I have quite a bit of dried pulses stored and plan to get more. But I had planned that in an emergency situation I would use a haybox to cook with. In theory you bring your dinner, including the soaked beans, to the boil and then cook for 20 minutes (especially for long shaped beans like kidney beans - they need to boil for at least 20 minutes), then put it in a hay box for around 4-5 hours. They are even more OS than a slowcooker.

You don't have to use hay. I have done one before with a duvet. You just need something that will cover it completely, but with enough air pockets to hold the heat.


This box is lined with an emergency foil blanket to reflect more heat:-
http://www.instructables.com/id/hay-box-cooker/

Also, in the comments section there is a link to a free online book - The Fireless Cookbook - I've had a quick look, it should be worth a read. https://archive.org/details/firelesscookbook00mitcrich

Also for the boiling bit, I plan to use a rocket stove. I've researched the principles & plan to construct one outside as a 'hob' next to the barbeque and create one made from tin cans to be more portable.

moneyistooshorttomention

GreyQueen wrote: »

:cool: And a well-stuffed mattress. Bank of Slumberdown, anybody? Just as much interest as any mainstream bank, but withdrawals are oh-so-convenient.

There might be an - initial - slight problem for those of us who don't look at first sight like we could/would defend ourselves from any of the scrotes of this World who thought they might get in on that act to find the dosh if anyone did that....:cool:

Mind you....for those of us who are 5'notverymuchatall in height/look like "butter wouldn't melt" etc etc...the Note to Scrotes from moneys "mansion" (I jest...) would be "You'd soon learn not to underestimate again buster.....":rotfl:mwah...hah...

I've heard tales of some summary local justice being administered over these parts that were a bit "interesting" - but it clearly did the trick....as there doesn't seem to have been a peep out of those particular scrotes since...

GreyQueen

Morning all.

Seems I will be instigating a miniature bank run. Good.

Red kidney beans have issues when you cook them by certain methods:

From wiki:

Toxicity

See also: Phaseolus vulgaris § Toxicity
Raw kidney beans contain relatively high amounts of phytohemagglutinin, and thus are more toxic than most other bean varieties if not pre-soaked and subsequently heated to the boiling point for at least 10 minutes. The US Food and Drug Administration recommends boiling for 30 minutes to ensure they reach a sufficient temperature long enough to completely destroy the toxin.[2] Cooking at the lower temperature of 80 °C (176 °F), such as in a slow cooker, can increase this danger and raise the toxin concentration up to fivefold.[3] Canned red kidney beans, though, are safe to use immediately.[4][5][6]


Because of the need to pre-soak and thoroughly-cook red kidney beans, I tend to trade off the additional price of the canned over the dried (get mine for 23p/ can from Liddly, used to be 16p a couple of years ago). Plus the convenience. Chili is one of my regular dishes, probably cook it twice a month.

For those who haven't considered it, can I suggest looking for TVP mince (textured vegetable protein eg soya mince). Available in health food shops, I've used it and it's a shelf-stable, long-keeping product. Cooked as mince, it takes up the flavours of the other ingredients, doesn't taste peculiar and gives a satisfying sense of having eaten well.

Today's cunning plan will be doing the day job, visiting a pal and doing some chazzer donations. If there's sufficient juice in the system, I may toddle up to the allotment to plant beans and eat strawberries.

The variety up there is a very delicious and very fragile berry which isn't grown commercially. As the Magic Greengrocer remarks, you can't even get them off the field without them bruising. I tend to eat them whilst on the plot for maximum joyfulness. Friends who wish to share the largesse get texted to join me up there.

ETA MTSTM - OPSEC is your friend, here. Look like you have nowt and say nowt, and hide any cash in several places. Good to have a bit of sacrificial cash/ unimportant jewellery somewhere easy to find, so that any passing hooligans think they've got something for their trouble. If they think they've got your purse and your jewellery box, they may look no further. Most burglaries take under 10 minutes, and the level of searching possible in under 10 minutes isn't forensic-level, is it?

ivyleaf

Lovely to see you back, Bedsit Bob! we've been a bit worried about you.

thriftwizard

Nah, we can't possibly go cashless - they'd have to make all the Tooth Fairies redundant.