Preparedness for when

Frugalsod

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

What about dehydrating as a way of preserving food?

Dehydrators also serve dual purpose for raw food "cooking" if you decide to try that.

...or, as I also discovered one time, for helping to preserve some "special" flowers that a friend was hoping to keep.

Dehydrating is good for two reason is can be great for excess supplies and is a good long term no cost storage option as long as you keep it airtight and with an oxygen absorber in the jar.

It has limitation on what can be dehydrated, such as foods with lots of fat, which is why I am looking at other options. You can use solar dehydrators so will have a free energy sourced version which helps reduce the costs of preparing. That said the home versions like Excalibur are apparently very good and reliable. Though even the cheaper models do just as well.

Canning of sauces is a great alternative as well. It all depends on what you want to store. So depending on what you want to store long term there are options.

pineapple

Frugalsod wrote: »

Ditto, but they are also best run at night when you are on economy 7 tariffs. If it is really cold you can effectively drain them of all the heat if you are not careful.

I thought storage heaters only come on at night? Apart from some of the newer ones which incorporate a daytime convection heater facility to boost your heat (in addition to adjusting controls to let out more stored heat).. Which is a trap imo as when you are on Economy7, daytime electricity rates are hiked.
Mine come on automatically at around 12.15 am unless I have them switched off at the wall or the fuseboard. Newer ones are more programmable but they still won't switch on during the day - unless you are on Economy 10.
There is a calculation you can do to help you work out if Economy 7 is worthwhile for you. For the moment I have no choice - though it pays for the moment as 70% of my electricity is used during the ngiht period.
And though the lounge heater is old and loses heat, I am at home during the day so I don't mind.
Summer will be a different kettle of fish so currently deliberating whether to fork out to replace my old heaters with something more efficient or whether to ditch Economy 7.

[Deleted User]

jk0 wrote: »

Has anyone any experience with these?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003VE0ZL6?refRID=H2YYZK8TPS2B5HEFWVW0&ref_=pd_ybh_a_9



I'd never heard of them until a few days ago. I get the impression they are to get you to a garage without the effort of changing the wheel. Is it worth buying a kit?

The question is, will it still be possible to have the tyre repaired, or will it (as with the repair foam) ruin the tyre?

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I made hubby keep the tyre foam stuff in his motorbike panier, plus a little tool kit, the rest of the room in the paniets were for carry beer to the bike rallies , spare clothes and food were in my rucksack, and spare knickers were in my pocket lol.. Got to get the priorities right lol...

Frugalsod

pineapple wrote: »

I thought storage heaters only come on at night? Apart from some of the newer ones which incorporate a daytime convection heater facility to boost your heat (in addition to adjusting controls to let out more stored heat).. Which is a trap imo as when you are on Economy7, daytime electricity rates are hiked.
Mine come on automatically at around 12.15 am unless I have them switched off at the wall or the fuseboard. Newer ones are more programmable but they still won't switch on during the day - unless you are on Economy 10.
There is a calculation you can do to help you work out if Economy 7 is worthwhile for you. For the moment I have no choice - though it pays for the moment as 70% of my electricity is used during the ngiht period.
And though the lounge heater is old and loses heat, I am at home during the day so I don't mind.
Summer will be a different kettle of fish so currently deliberating whether to fork out to replace my old heaters with something more efficient or whether to ditch Economy 7.

I think the basis of economy 7 is to provide steady demand during the night for power when other demand is lower. The best way to think of storage heaters is like rechargeable batteries and you only recharge them at night, because during the day they can be used to slowly let the heat out. They had a switch which opens a valve to let the heat out of the heat blocks. So you had to close it at night otherwise it would not retain the heat at night.

I think the reasons they were used was that it was cheaper for builders than gas to install and there were lots of subsidies at the time as well.

Spendless

First time joining in this thread. Yesterday our Energy supplier took £430 out in one swoop.:mad: Didn't realise as DH has the on-line account, hadn't checked it as he'd spent the last 10 days working in the States and was mid-flight, through 3 different legs. Haven't been able to get through on telephone lines as waiting times varied from 35-50 minutes.:(

So, today I put a minimum shopping list together and printed off my Tesco clubcard vouchers, only £20 as I switched to Aldi some months ago, but meant I only had to put £3ish to the grocery shop. Made DD have her lunch before going into town to get her friends birthday present, bought some American sweets at Home Bargains/poundshop and put in a box I alreaady had stuffed with tissue paper. Looks at least double what was spent. The US dollars DH came home with, I was going to take into town and change back to £s, but DH had forgotten to get the receipt that doesn't charge you to change back. Fortunately my Mum said she'd buy them off me instead and slipped me an extra £20 for them. :A


We have plenty of meat in, I live in a large market town, so we had steak, jacket potato and veg for tea and feeling very full.

thriftwizard

Well done, Spendless, you hit the ground running there!

[Deleted User]

The News seems dominated by the shall we stay or leave theme over our European Union membership, I didn't recognise many of the 'breakaway 6' who are going to campaign for leaving despite them being labelled as ministers, I must pay more attention perhaps. Trouble is there are so many pros and cons for both sides of the debate that making a decision that will give us the best future is not at all easy. I hate that European decisions which apply very well in Europe are implemented here too where being an island they don't work but I also hate the thought of not having the back up from Europe if there is real trouble of any kind and we opt to stand alone. I can't see Mr C getting the changes he wants in perpetuity, talk this morning was of a deal until 2023 and then reverting back to the same circumstances as the rest of Europe and that's seems pointless as a deal. I'm not very political at the best of times and I don't really understand how staying in OR coming out will benefit the man in the street, enlighten me???

moneyistooshorttomention

This woman in the street thinks "We'll have control of our own borders again if we come out" and I'll admit that's all I need to know personally to have put that date in my diary and be chomping at the bit to vote "Out" on the day. My cynics' comment about getting older is "The older I get the more I realise just how much I've been conned/lied to/etc over the years on quite a variety of issues" and, in this case, I'm thinking of when I was daft enough to believe them that it would be a good idea to join in the first place all those years ago.

I tend to think the trade "pros and cons" are a secondary consideration and have a suspicion that, at the least, we won't do any worse trade-wise if we come out.

nuatha

Spendless wrote: »

First time joining in this thread. Yesterday our Energy supplier took £430 out in one swoop.:mad:

Well done on managing to cope.
To me these are the most likely SHTF scenarios, and its the ability to make the most of what you have and to think on your feet that gets through it.

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

The News seems dominated by the shall we stay or leave theme over our European Union membership, I didn't recognise many of the 'breakaway 6' who are going to campaign for leaving despite them being labelled as ministers, I must pay more attention perhaps.

That sounds like a high price to pay, the faces will change next reshuffle, the policies might not, but the faces will.

I have the Clash song playing around in my head:
"Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go there will be trouble
And if I stay it will be double
So come on and let me know"

I've no idea which is likely to be the better outcome for the UK, I have no faith in the current government and if it wasn't for the EU and the Lords restraining them we would be in an even worse mess. If we leave the EU there's likely to be another Scottish independence referendum and I suspect a very different result.