Preparedness for when

1Tonsil

That is why I said you would have to prove you own any jewellery or prove you bought it. If you inherit anything here it has to be named in a legal deed as a gift. When we bought the house we inherited some of the old furniture and an antique mirror....they all had to be named individually on the contract to buy and described in details. I have heard its the same with anything you inherit.

Waiting for the fun to start, so we went to the beach near to our home. It was lovely, the water was clear and cold and the beach golden. I had a struggle with the beach brolly but finally solved it by holding the base as I was lying in the shade. Many Greek families there with picnics. Its too hot for me in the sun so we left at lunchtime to come home to the cool house.

The word is that the Greeks have taken a list of moderate debt relief and haircuts with them...and have asked for it to be discussed today. It seems to be about fifty fifty if we are coming out or not. I think they are going to rule the debt is not sustainable, the Germans refuse to go ahead and we fall out of the euro..... I will add some updates if I get any news. I think the government are going to fall next week because the people can take no more austerity to save the bankers....then we are at risk of the Golden dawn or some extremists getting in... unless the EU choose our next prime minister of course.....which they have done before....

1Tonsil

Went to the beach this morning and the water was perfectly clear and cool. We went early as it gets too hot for me, and took our sun brolly. The beach had many Greek families, there seemed to be more Greeks than tourists but you can hardly blame them for escaping the politics that are going on. Used coconut oil instead of sun cream and it works great and moisturises the skin. Took some local fruit and water to drink.

Have just been watching the Guardian online news feed and its not looking good. Some say the Greek plan was okay, but it will be weeks of negotiations to get it right....groan......

Others, the Germans and Dutch, say that they want Greek out . The journalist I was watching said he had a pass till midnight, which means it could well drag on till then, going nowhere...

So I am going to do the sensible thing and go and join the Greek dancing and karaoke my friends run in their bar tonight. I think we are out of the euro as soon as the Germans and others stop making nasty comments and actually come out with an official statement.

Meanwhile, hope you all enoy the rest of your weekend. I have been watching the news online and it is looking very bad in Egypt, Tunisia and many other countries. I have a nasty feeling it is just a matter of what breaks first...... stay safe and carry on prepping...its the one thing that has really made me feel better in the middle of all this chaos. Long may we continue helping each other with advice and information on here. We need it more than ever now.

The latest word is that the money will run out in the banks tomorrow night but I have doubts about this. Until a couple of weeks ago we were saving to pay the 1.8 billion to the IMF.....it was never paid and we may well have it hidden somewhere to use in case we get ousted...just a thought!

moneyistooshorttomention

1Tonsil

Sometimes the only sensible thing to do is to think "Well - I've done everything I can. So - for right now - might as well get on and "hang loose" and try and have as good a time as I can manage. Because who knows what tomorrow may bring....".

Right now - I prescribe the 3 s's personally (of which the first two are sea and sun...;))/music/good food if possible)

- and then see what tomorrow brings....

As someone said to me many years back "Sometimes we are 'human' " - ie sometimes we have emotions that are getting upset...

[Deleted User]

We've been making the effort to add to our coin stash this last week, there seem to lots of £2 coins circulating here at the moment so taking advantage of that. Also saving £1s, 50ps, 20ps and 10ps and some £5 notes as I get them in change when I shop. The situation in Greece seems to be on the brink or something I know not what at this stage but the looks on the faces of the high european burocrats as they left the latest round of talks and got into their big shiny cars was not happy! It's interesting times for all of us isn't it? with so much uncertainty in the future for ALL of us it makes for a small comfort just doing something as little as saving coinage just in case. I'm trying to be as inventive with the produce we grow as I can and preserving as much of it as possible in various ways. I guess we can all only do what we can and then await developments.

Meant to say as well we ordered in from Fleabay yesterday a flat bottomed cast iron dutch oven with a rimmed lid to put hot coals on for baking bread, to use on the OzPig in the garden, 4.5 litres and cost £25.99 with free postage. It seems like sensible investment for the future, just in case there should be gaps in the energy supply.

Frugalsod

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

We've been making the effort to add to our coin stash this last week, there seem to lots of £2 coins circulating here at the moment so taking advantage of that. Also saving £1s, 50ps, 20ps and 10ps and some £5 notes as I get them in change when I shop. The situation in Greece seems to be on the brink or something I know not what at this stage but the looks on the faces of the high european burocrats as they left the latest round of talks and got into their big shiny cars was not happy! It's interesting times for all of us isn't it? with so much uncertainty in the future for ALL of us it makes for a small comfort just doing something as little as saving coinage just in case. I'm trying to be as inventive with the produce we grow as I can and preserving as much of it as possible in various ways. I guess we can all only do what we can and then await developments.

Having a cash box with a coin rack is my way of sorting coins. It makes it easy to see how much you have of each denomination and then can bag it up as you fill the rack. I have done this for years. Depending on the nature of my spending I can save as much as 25% of what I take out. So I might take out £50 use only notes and then pound coins if I have run out of notes. All my change is collected and bagged up. For example if I buy 4 pints of milk for a pound but pay with a £10 note then I will get £9 change which will probably include a £5 note. The coins are collected but the note will be spent the next time. Gradually your notes disappear but your coin box is full.

I also combine this with a weekly or monthly emptying of my wallet, of all the notes. Sometimes this is only £5 but could be £70. This money is then put into my long term pots. So it does not take too long to build up a small cash pile at home. If I get some really new notes I will switch them for older notes at home and store the new notes in my seriously SHTF fund. These new notes lie very flat and so can compress more of them into the same space.

GreyQueen

Morning all.

Am exhausted from my revelries yestereve. Stuffed myself silly, enjoyed good company and live music and a yurt. Magic.

Have realised over the past few days reading here that I ought to have a coin pot again, and a stash of fivers. Wouldn't want to have to lose out by breaking a high demonination note.

People who deal with cash a lot put it in bunches of nine notes, with the tenth note folded in half around the middle of them. This mean you can do an easy reckoning of how much in a pile by multiplying face value by ten. Doesn't work on US dollars, though, because they're too long and skinny to be folded this way; you can put the tenth note around the end of dollars, but not the middle.

I'm going to keep £1, £2, 50p, 20p and 10p, not going to bother with 5p, 2p and 1p. Shall continue to spend them. If I have to shop with cash in a crisis, losing out by under 10p per transaction will be a non-problem, I reckon.

People who don't have cash on hand are going to be up the swannee if the power is off for card readers etc. I've been in supermarkets when this has happened and cash customers have been able to pay and get their stuff, whereas card payers have been stuffed.

Am seeing yet more signs of the profitting from economic distress parts of the business world with yet another c@sh converters/ payday/ logbook loan type of place. With a lot of secondhand places, chazzers etc, it's looking very much like an economy cannibalising itself. My jeweller friend tells me that the inflow of gold for scrappage has slowed right down, they're all noticing it in the trade. The public may be getting tapped out of portable valuables to sell.

Frugalsod

GreyQueen wrote: »

Am seeing yet more signs of the profitting from economic distress parts of the business world with yet another c@sh converters/ payday/ logbook loan type of place. With a lot of secondhand places, chazzers etc, it's looking very much like an economy cannibalising itself. My jeweller friend tells me that the inflow of gold for scrappage has slowed right down, they're all noticing it in the trade. The public may be getting tapped out of portable valuables to sell.

Not just that but apparently even with the low prices of gold and silver the demand for the metals outstrips the supply so many are being told of delayed delivery.

I think if people look around them and see if things are improving in their city they see how things really are. Just ask people that you regularly meet if things are improving in their business? Taxi drivers are a good source of information about the local economy.

In the US the stock market is being held up primarily by stock buy backs funded by zero interest loans. So it makes earnings per share look good because falling profits are being masked by a greater reduction in the shares outstanding. What they are basically doing is cannibalising the company. If businesses have sufficient demand for their products they will continue to invest, Though look at the levels of investment by companies to see that many are not doing well.

Cheapskate

I have a tin each of £1 and £2 coins, and a normal cash tin where I put excess from my purse, plus a healthy stash of various notes, but am going to stop saving £20 - too high a value, I think - and just keep smaller denomination notes. DH laughs at my system, but whenever we're short, I can raid my stash for all sorts!

Our town centre is full of that type of shop, too, GQ, has really changed the feel and dynamic of the area. All the cheaper shops seem to be full of customers, the regular department stores (not even that pricey) seem almost empty and even supermarkets busy spells aren't as busy.

A xo

GreyQueen

Yeah, a lot of shops come empty then go over to this kind of take-advantage-of-the-poor-and-financially-illiterate sector. It's been increasing steadily over the past decade, I reckon. I do find myself wondering if there can be that much to hock that they can all get a living.

There is a lot of material goods out there which can and should be circulated as used items for sale or back into the material stream, but I find myself aware of how much economic activity seems to be scavenging the results of previous production, rather than producing anything new.

Parents sold the copper water tank and various other metals leftover from the old CH system last week, raised about a quarter of the fee for the asbestos water tank's proper disposal, but it's better than nothing.

Yeah, Frugalsod, when I see people on modest wages feeling safe enough to spend freely on non-essentials, when the foodbank closes for want of customers, when people launch new terrestrial as opposed to online businesses (and make a go of them) and any number of other micro-signs and portents, then I shall start believing the economy is improving.

Righty, going to raid my jamjar stash and start divvying up my change purse. I have a wallet and a change purse, but the purse always has a couple of notes folded into it. The idea being that the wallet doesn't come out for most transactions, minimising risk of flashing the cash and attracting the wrong kind of attention.

Look poor, it's going to be the safest way.;)

[Deleted User]

All set for our holiday GQ?