Preparedness for when

Frugalsod

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I must admit that surprises me - ie people saving extra to deal with negative interest rates.

My own personal take on any risk of that boils down to "If my money is going to go anyway - then I'm going to make sure that I am the one getting the benefit of it" and "spend high". That being to buy the absolute best quality of everything I possibly can - be it perishable products (like food) or more permanent products (like furniture). Then I've had the benefit of my own money - and not banks grabbing it off me as a penalty for having money with them.

I do wonder how people are supposed to manage to stick amounts of money to one side to cover expensive items they have yet to buy (eg expensive work on their house) or "just in case" savings (in case of job loss, in case of ill health, etc, etc) if they are at risk of having those savings "dribbled away" off them by negative interest rates.

Yes but most people are not in that position. Most people are living pay cheque to paycheque. I have a good cushion of food stocks and other items so could cope better than most. Though I am not the average person. Also the government actually think that people are holding on to their money trying to take advantage of deflation oblivious that most people do not have any spare cash. When your economic models are that out of touch with reality even negative interest rates seem sane.

bugslet

elaine241 wrote: »

Hello All


Sorry to have waffled on but its all your fault! yes you lot who post, read & lurk on this thread whether newbies or old hands! Before I started reading this thread I would never have thought to carry anything like the stuff I do now!

I pop/lurk by about once very two weeks. I used to drive a van/small truck round Europe, had a good coat, change of clothes, map, bedding, spare bulbs, oil, water and a torch. Drove round UK for 10 years with less. Never needed more.

That's not a criticism, just an observation. Just CBA with all of that. And yes I used to go up to the top of Scotland and the Shetlands:D

Frugalsod

elaine241 wrote: »

Well the threat of snow has finally guilted me into checking over my get home bag kept in the car boot, other "just in case" stuff kept in the car, a little toilet bag of goodies kept also in the car/shopping bag and stuff I keep in my handbag. I was guilty of just leaving it there as we havent had any serious snow/flooding/hurricanes (not counting last week) that has had me worried enough to check it all over. Ok, Ok I can hear all the "bad prepper" comments from here!!
I dont go far from home on an every day routine , the furthest is 10 miles to work in the nearest city. I was surprised that the plasters had all perished in that they had fell out of their packages, the chocs were a bit manky but tasted OK :-). I tend to keep all my just in case preps in my car as I park very close to my work and can get to it quickly.
If anyones interested here is what I carry! (if not scroll on by, I wont be iffended!)
Get Home Bag

When I originally looked at prepping I was thinking more along the ideas of a bug out bag but that did seem unrealistic when most of us have the majority of our preps at home. So a get home bag is much more realistic and practical. What ever you have in it depends on your own personal circumstances. If you do not have far to get home you can get away with less than others. If you commute tens of miles you would need enough to get you home. If you travel by car then you could keep more in your car, and split what you need between your own personal carry bag and the car boot.

I think having additional money with you is probably more than enough to get you home. Staying in your car can be very good as long as you have enough stocks in it to cope with being stuck in a snow drift for several weeks. It all depends on when and where you need to get home. Though I suspect that even the idea of just thinking about the options will mean that you are better prepared even if you have nothing with you at the time.

elaine241

Just to clarify I carry all my stuff as I have looked at the possible problems that may happen. I work in the centre of a city which can be rough with a lot of addicts congregating in the centre. To get home I could either go via a busy dual carriage way or through the lanes which can flood. I live half way up a mountain on a farm which is difficult sometimes even in normal conditions. I have put items in place which would cover several scenarios that I think could quite easily happen on the journey home. I used to travel around europe ( in a HGV lorry) and often had to help out stranded drivers (often eastern block) who did not have enough money to feed themselves when their lorry was waiting to be fixed. I carried quite a few just in case things then as we were often dropping loads or waiting to be unloaded in what I call the ar*e end of most cities with nothing except industrial units round us.
I used to motorcyle also round uk and further and when young and foolish just took a tooth brush, spare pair of nicks/t shirt and money! travelling light and hitching a lift if there was a problem!!
Now I'm older and a mum I tend to over plan/prep but I have to get home if there is a problem and hopefully I have put in place things that will enable me to get there quickly!! I would love to just travel light as I used to but things have changed for me as I have kids that rely on mum!!

Frugalsod

elaine241 wrote: »

Just to clarify I carry all my stuff as I have looked at the possible problems that may happen. I work in the centre of a city which can be rough with a lot of addicts congregating in the centre. To get home I could either go via a busy dual carriage way or through the lanes which can flood. I live half way up a mountain on a farm which is difficult sometimes even in normal conditions. I have put items in place which would cover several scenarios that I think could quite easily happen on the journey home. I used to travel around europe ( in a HGV lorry) and often had to help out stranded drivers (often eastern block) who did not have enough money to feed themselves when their lorry was waiting to be fixed. I carried quite a few just in case things then as we were often dropping loads or waiting to be unloaded in what I call the ar*e end of most cities with nothing except industrial units round us.
I used to motorcyle also round uk and further and when young and foolish just took a tooth brush, spare pair of nicks/t shirt and money! travelling light and hitching a lift if there was a problem!!
Now I'm older and a mum I tend to over plan/prep but I have to get home if there is a problem and hopefully I have put in place things that will enable me to get there quickly!! I would love to just travel light as I used to but things have changed for me as I have kids that rely on mum!!

There is nothing wrong with your preps. What you have done is cover what potential problems you could expect and have worked out as most likely. That is realistic. Travelling light is appropriate in some situations not in others. Prepping is not the same for everyone. I can cope with a wallet and phone as I only have to get a short distance home, and can walk it. A coat will be required on a cold day but that changes depending on the weather. There is no one single right answer for us all.

In fact what you have done is help others think about what they have planned for and given them ideas on how to plan better. Many might not have thought of a tooth brush in a get home bag.

GreyQueen

I don't think TPTB have a clue how poor many of our fellow citizens have become. And I don't think they care, either; they're certainly working hard to worsen living conditions for the majority.

One of the best cushions in most emergencies is cash, closely followed by access to a line of credit. An awful lot of people cannot drop their hands on a few hundred pounds, which means that any major appliance dying/ car repair/ urgent need to travel to family/ interruption to employment is a crisis not an unfortunate extra entry onto that month's budget line.

The situation which most people live in now is that we have material comforts which would have only been available to the wealthiest 4 or so generations back, but with extended vulnerabilites. Such as a gas boiler as opposed to a coal fire and a copper in the scullery. With open fires, when skint you can womble around for burnables, with an expensive and sophisticated device like a gas boiler, you are in the hands of highly-skilled professionals rather than in DIY territory.

That's just one example, but you can extrapolate it across many areas. I do know that in my 1970s childhood, and even into my own car ownership on the cusp of the 1980s/90s, it was very common to be outside on the street on our council estate working on your own car - cleaning, bodywork and mechanical stuff. There would be lads learning basic mechanics from their dads, men conferencing about what to do next, it was rather sociable and companionable.

Now, cars require sophisticated dianostic machines for most faults, produced by the same people who produce them for hospitals in most cases. Car repair is thus one of the many things taken out of the hands of the interested amateur and put into the hands of the professional.

All these things collectively conspire to make people more dependant on bought-in services and less self-reliant. And, when the force magnifier of money is in scant supply, many of us are truly stuck.:(

moneyistooshorttomention

Guess you've been watching the latest "Back in time" mini-series GQ. Latest programme being leisure time in the 1960s.

We watched the family in the 1950s and 1960s programmes mending their own car/doing DIY/etc.

I remember the first typewriters I used at work - as manual ones with carriage returns. When I bought one for myself - I got a reconditioned 1940s model and the first comment from my father was that he could mend it for me if it went wrong.

If this computer goes wrong - I have no option but to pay someone and I've had a couple of different "someones" of the paid-to-do-it variety sitting looking at my computer a bit puzzled over the years. So much for my expectations that they would just go "Oh yes....x is the fault and I do y to fix it":cool:

***********

In fairness - re the TPTB not having an idea how badly off many are - yep...I guess I would probably agree with that. It doesn't make it easy for them I guess - when they spot people still buying lots of consumer goodies (cars, fags, etc, etc) etc. I know I tend to assume "They're driving a car around for leisure purposes, have just bought some ready meals, just had another child - well they must be doing okay for money". I guess we don't know just how much of all that has been spent on credit.

Its sometimes not easy to get in someone else's "skin" on that one. I've figured out that one of my awful neighbour households are jealous of my finances - but they don't bother to stop to think I could turn round and say "Well you spent your money instead on having a big family and buying a bigger house than mine", whereas I lived within my means - so jealousy isn't applicable in those circumstances..

So its not necessarily easy to compare like with like.

thriftwizard

they don't bother to stop to think I could turn round and say "Well you spent your money instead on having a big family and buying a bigger house than mine", whereas I lived within my means

MTSTM, I'm going to pick you up on that... one of our neighbours quite clearly thinks we're THE archetypal dole-scrounging big family and has been overheard a number of times commenting on the unfairness thereof. But yes, we have a bigger house, we have a big family, we have had the odd foreign holiday (mostly to visit family) and have 3 cars in the household (one of them a kind of camper, but it's my work vehicle) and a Sky dish - and we have also lived within our means and never claimed a penny beyond child benefit. OH works, I run a small business, the mortgage is paid off and several of the Offspring are in "good" jobs, though only one can afford to live away.

There is a bit of a misconception that all big families are permanently broke & living on handouts; I've found that to be far from true. Certainly some are - and so are some one-child families, and singles too. Just wanting to make sure no-one's falling for any tabloid stereotypes here...

GreyQueen

Not been watching the TV series, gave the telly away in 1987.

Of course, the thing about having children is that there is no method of contraception which is 100% reliable, and without any particular effort, I can think of any number of young people/ children who were concieved due to failures in their parents' contraceptive regimes. Including one young man whose father's vasectomy reversed itself (!) resulting in him being a late addition to their brood.

Because of that, I wouldn't automatically assume that the presence of another infant meant their parents were feeling flush.

Re cars, I recall from from doing statements of means at the CAB that a lot of households were spending 25% of their net income on running the car, and I know several people who aren't too badly paid who are one big bill away from losing their car, so again, I wouldn't see car onwership as an indication of wealth, it can often be an indication of poverty.

It can be tempting to look at a household's consumer durables and assume they are an indicator of wealth. Even if fully-paid for, all they indicate is past wealth, they can mostly not be liquidated for cash, and would only get pennies on the pound if they could be.

Wealth is liquidity, in many cases, and most people have paper wealth and a household of devaluing chattels, not anything which can be liquidated to see them through a crisis.

[Deleted User]

They wouldn't do that in our house GQ our household consumer durables were on that Ark with Mr.Noah, my big chest freezer is a national treasure it's so old, all our posessions are fully paid for, unfortunately all they indicate is how little cash we had to dispose of in the first place BUT it's home and it's comfy and it's clean even if it is worn and shabby and isn't even worth 'pennies in the pound' any longer. Do we care? not a jot, neither do I give a fig for what any neighbour, acquaintance or connection might think of how we've lived our lives. That has been and IS our own personal business and the decisions we made to have our family and how we've raised them and how we live today are also no one elses business but ours. If I felt I had any right whatsoever to judge my fellow humans I would accept being judged by them in return but I don't so what they think of us is irrelevant!!! Our assets of the paper kind run to loo rolls and the daily newspaper to light the fire and we don't have much by way of chattels but we do have knowledge and the common sense to see ourselves through most crises for which I'm seriously grateful. We have enough, we don't owe anyone a single penny and if we can't afford the gilding on lifes gingerbread at least we can afford the ingredients for a basic loaf so we're content. The world can do and think what it wants to, we're not interested in what it thinks of us!