Preparedness for when

Karmacat

Doveling wrote: »

Karmacat - so sorry. Are you and your family all ok? x

Thank you Doveling, thats kind. We're okay - it was raining hard for about an hour early this evening so the built in wardrobe under the destroyed bit is now empty, everything I can get off the floor on *both* floors is up resting on something else, unplugging is going on.

Just going to clear a bit more before I go to bed. Difficult when this is about water coming from *above* in the house - its not coming yet, and I've no idea where it might make its way through.

My sister has a builder she's used for years, so she was first on his list, but I've only used my builder twice, he's managed to get the roofer around today, but no work can be done till tomorrow at the earliest. No idea what I'm going to wake up to!

Hard_Up_Hester

You can always tell when TS is hitting my personal F round here, I start getting rude,

monnagran

START getting rude Hester? START?

You sound to me as though you have been practising for years!

x

milasavesmoney

Frugalsod wrote: »

I suspect that you are more likely to be killed by co-workers going "postal" especially when you consider the numbers getting laid off right now, and especially if they have firearms.

A lot of the school shootings in the US are the high school equivalent of a co-worker getting revenge on the office bullies.

As for practical advice hiding somewhere where you can avoid any confrontation is probably best. Actually getting any concealed gun out could also increase your risk of being shot by the incoming police SWAT teams.

Our current unemployment rate is below 5%. We workers tend to see ourselves as family so I really don't understand what you are getting at with your first statement.
Since I live in the States, I also understand gun culture. if SWAT were onsite taking care of the situation then no consealed weapons would be needed. But as you have probably heard of our recent San Bernideno shooting you will know that those individuals didn't have time to wait for SWAT. They were dead before it arrived.
Gun scenarios are very real to us. They can and do happen.

Frugalsod

maryb wrote: »

I have been keeping detailed gas and elec readings every week for the last few months and I cannot see any rhyme or reason to the ups and downs. I tried doing daily readings for about two weeks and still couldn't work out what caused the quite large fluctuations eg a day when I washed and tumble dried four wash loads had lower electric usage than the day before. And since we have gas heating and hot water it's not really weather dependent

Yes mine was like that. It could only be two things that were power hungry, my computers and the fridge freezer. If I was away for a week the demand would halve as the fridge door would not be opened at all, and the computers would still be running but with the screens off.

Heating is again not linked to electricity at either place, though I have made up some hot water bottles that I did not need before, but even that does not add up to enough to make a difference. My cooking is by microwave so that is very efficient. There is the possibility that the meter is not working properly. It does happen.

Frugalsod

milasavesmoney wrote: »

Our current unemployment rate is below 5%. We workers tend to see ourselves as family so I really don't understand what you are getting at with your first statement.
Since I live in the States, I also understand gun culture. if SWAT were onsite taking care of the situation then no consealed weapons would be needed. But as you have probably heard of our recent San Bernideno shooting you will know that those individuals didn't have time to wait for SWAT. They were dead before it arrived.
Gun scenarios are very real to us. They can and do happen.

Yes but the US unemployment figures are a joke. They do not count anyone who has not actively looked for work in the last 4 weeks, plus part timers who lose their jobs are not counted as unemployed. You also do not count if you have been out of work for more than a year. So many months the headline figure only fell because people had exhausted their unemployment benefits. They did not find work.

If you add in the discouraged workers that are not even counted then the real unemployment rate in the US (U6) is still above 10%. Plus the labour participation rate has dropped to levels that have not been seen since the 1980's before many women joined the workforce. Some of the older ones will remember during the 1980's there were lots of changes to the definition of unemployment which almost always led to a lower count. Plus there will be a drive to push people on to benefits that do not count as unemployed. Apparently there are lots of young people in the US being counted as disabled, this happened here in the 1980s when people were pushed on to incapacity benefits instead. Headline unemployment went down but the welfare bill did not.

In addition the US needs 225 000 new jobs a month just to keep up with past birthrates, it has been below that for several months and yet the headline rate is still falling. Then there are the seasonal adjustments which also defy logic at times.

http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts

If unemployment was also so low why is food stamp usage at all record levels?

It is the same with the US definition of inflation. It does not count the real costs. Rents are only 15% or so of the inflation figure yet it makes up more than 50% of many peoples wages. Medical costs also are grossly under reported in the US inflation figures, yet many are reporting double digit increases to their medical insurance.

Just look at http://www.shadowstats.com to get a better idea of how things are really going.

milasavesmoney

You are looking at work place gaps.
https://www.economonitor.com/dolanecon/2015/06/15/deconstructing-shadowstats-part-2-in-search-of-an-alternative-measure-of-unemployment/

While in the long term this has to be taken into consideration, currently unemployment rates are for people Actively looking for work within a four week period. You may think it's a joke but our numbers haven't been this low in a long time. They are one part used for our economic indicators.

And I don't really see what this rabbit hole,we just went down, has to do with the question that was put before us. Just sayin'.

Frugalsod

The UK figures are no better and they have many of the failings of the US methodology. Discouraged workers should also be counted but they are not because they screw up the figures for politicians who seek re-election. Governments decided long ago that unemployment was a price worth paying to keep inflation down. Real full employment has around 0.3% unemployed not 5%. The rest are kept unemployed to keep wage demands down.

The long term discouraged workers exist here, but most will not believe they exist unless you live in a employment blackspot where there are 500 applicants to every job. Politicians will call them lazy rather than admit that bad policy has created this problem.

If things were really so good in the US there would not be a rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in the polls. The US is rapidly becoming a third world country when you look at its infrastructure and nothing is being down about that. We in Europe are having a rise in extremist parties because the people realise the reality is not as governments portray them. This becomes a prepping matter because if you see what is happening around you can prepare for that event to minimise its impact on you.

How we got here was that you are more likely to get shot by a co-worker than a terrorist incident. The San Bernadino shooter was both, so what were the real motives? We will never know.

NewShadow

Keeping the momentum going - It's 2am on Saturday night/Sunday morning.

You wake to a crashing sound.

Your kitchen ceiling has just collapsed - lets say burst pipe, but obviously your house layout may vary, all you know at the time is the sky is falling and its wet.

Frugalsod

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

My electricity bill in < £180 a year.

I bet you never expected to see a man, announcing that his is smaller than yours.

When it comes to energy bills it is a good thing to have a lower reading than others. It gives you more scope to cope with potential power cuts or a drop in income. If that were to happen you could maintain your standard of living more easily.