Preparedness for when

muffin_man_7

You and me both how the sweetie stash coming along

mardatha

Erm... well... I'm doing market research, to see what's the best to stash.. Got to sample things just in case I don't like them - would hate to face Armageddon with the wrong sweeties

Frugalsod

thriftwizard wrote: »

And standing in the queues at the food stall (we really don't have time to go & cook an evening meal, though we all did our own breakfasts & lunches & had tea & coffee facilities tucked away in corners of our marquee) we overheard conversations like, "No, go to that stall - it's a pound cheaper," and "I've brought £50 with me, and that's ALL I'm going to spend," which indicates to me that there's a much greater awareness of financial constrictions out there than I'd previously thought. This is at a very "posh" and quite exclusive festival in an area where there's no apparent shortage of money, and a lot of very privileged people - and at least some of them are worried now.

I would suspect that these people are not gaining from the so called increase in earnings that are being reported. The fact is that many people are still mired in debt and big mortgages even with ultra low interest rates are going to become a millstone as soon as interest rates rise. So things are tougher than official figures would suggest.

GreyQueen

I worry about mortgage interest rates. So many people under 40 don't seem to understand that interest rates are at multi-decade lows. What can't be sustained won't be sustained, and when they move up, they can move frighteningly fast.

IMO, paying down debt, especially mortgage debt, ought to be the number one call on anything above very basic living expenses. You might wince now, but you'll scream later, if you miss this opportunity.

Lots of people seem to have based their idea of prosperity on ever-rising house prices, too. That's not a given. I encounter new-minted BTL landlords every week through my job. Most of them are buying one property, often a three-bed ex-council house, to make into a student let. Others, with deeper pockets, are buying up very large city houses, often a succession of them, to turn into houses in multiple occupation. I think a lot of these newbie landlords think renting property is easy money, that you just sit back on your arris and watch the cash roll in.

They obviously have no flipping clue about what can go wrong with buildings, and what can go wrong with people, and calculating for void periods, repairs, gas servicing certificates etc.

In general terms, when the world and its dog leaps into any kind of activity, en masse, thinking they cannot lose, then it's a sure sign that that asset class/ activity has peaked. If I were in the position to own property, I'd be looking at small bits of land. Very small bits of land, with garages on them, or enough room to park a car, in the city centre. Easy money, minimal-to-no upkeep.

On a slightly different subject, but it could be loosely-preptastic, if you're gardening or spending time out-of-doors, I'd like to share a tale of woe.

I've known all my life to avoid Giant Hogweed, because it's sap reacts with sunlight on the skin, causing blistering. I was told this as a nipper by my parents. And have never suffered from it.

What I didn't know, until a few days ago, was that you can get a similar reaction from other plants, especially umbellifica family, but also some legumes and citrus.

Last Thursday, on a sunny late afternoon-evening, I was de-heading 2014 parsnips and then pulling them up. They are 6-7ft tall when allowed to grow to their full extent. I was cutting off their umbellifica seed heads and bin-bagging them, in case they dropped their many thousands of seeds. I must have got their sap on the backs of my hands and wrists, the long-sleeved shirt spared the rest of my arms.

A photo-reaction took place. The first sign of trouble was when I woke on Saturday with red, raised and tender patches on my hands, very sore and with small hard nodules, which grew into blisters in the next few hours. The blisters are now weeping and deflating but it's pretty unsightly and hurts like billy-o. See the wiki link for an idea of causes and outcomes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytophotodermatitis

So, online pals, learn by my mistake and glove-up and cover up, if likely to encounter any of these plants.

jk0

Sorry to hear that GQ. I hope that sensitivity is not permanent, as it is with Giant Hogweed.

BTW, haven't you got to wonder why on earth people in the 19th century kept importing and planting it once a few people got stung? Was it planted as a pretty hedge to keep out the 'lower orders'?

thriftwizard

Ooooh, nasty, GQ - I hope you will have a bit of a chance to rest until that's gone down & away? And thank you - I've been wondering which plant in our garden does that to me; bindweed seemed an unlikely cause, though pulling it out generally brings me out in a rash, but after reading that article, it's much more likely to be the fig that the bindweed loves to clamber up!

Nargleblast

Sounds like SHTF has happened - the Day of the Triffids is here!

mardatha

Totally agree with GQ on the property buying bit. People get so fixated on it and I never did see the point, too many potential downs as well as ups.
With one thing and another I haven't got a good feeling about the coming 5 years at all.

Karmacat

GQ, that sounds horrible, sorry to hear you're suffering like that. I'd no idea about that ... it does make me think about how *much* useful knowledge there is thats simply not commonly available - if you don't know that you don't know it, as the saying is, you don't even know to look for it, until something like this happens, and the person is kind enough to spread the news, as you've just done.


ETA - just seen Mar's comment. Yep, that too

ivyleaf

Ouch, GQ So sorry to hear that. Who'd've thought parsnips would do it?!

Forgot to say that on Saturday we had a can of rice pudding I found knocking about in a different cupboard from the others. It had a BB date of October 2012 and was absolutely fine. Mind you, I didn't tell Mr ivyleaf how old it was until he'd eaten his portion He was impressed.

Oh and mardatha, welcome back Hope the sweetie-testing is going well. As you say, it would be awful to be stuck in a SHTF situation with the wrong sweeties!