Preparedness for when

2tonsils

I will have a look for the link and post it if I find it.

The government in Cyprus just voted NO to the deposits being taken.

2tonsils

This is the closest I can find to the story I saw yesterday...this is actually on a German finance website. The one I saw gave statistics which put them near the top of the league but it has been replaced by new stories about the Cyprus vote and what it will mean to us.

2tonsils

This is the closest I can find to the story I saw yesterday...this is actually on a German finance website. The one I saw gave statistics which put them near the top of the league but it has been replaced by new stories about the Cyprus vote and what it will mean to us.

http://www.dw.de/germany-a-safe-haven-for-money-laundering/a-16343313


This was the quote I saw yesterday ''According to a study published by the Tax Justice Network that examined 70 countries, Germany is one of the biggest havens for tax evasion - ranking even before Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg or Jersey..''

BitterAndTwisted

Tax evasion is a world away from money laundering! I'll put your not being able to distinguish between the two down to pure innocence.

pineapple

2tonsils wrote: »

If the banks close /crash or the **** hits the fan...who is going to buy the gold and what are they going to buy it with? If things are that desperate it is not going to be safe going around bartering for food with gold, it will be taken off you.

Personally I think the money is better spent on stocks of food and fuel and essential medicines, seeds etc that you can use immediately the shops and banks close down and keep using if there is a break down of law and order.

Well timing is everything and it also depends how much 'spare' cash you have. A few years back if I had invested a small windfall in gold, I would be sitting pretty now. I would have had enough cash to buy the perfect off grid location and stock it to the rafters with supplies! Unfortunately I didn't . And now not only is the global situation more precarious but my resources are limited. If things turn bad any time soon, I would be better spending on essentials like you say. But if I had some serious savings - maybe a spare £100,000 lying around :rotfl: and could afford to think long term I would certainly get me a bit of bullion

Cheapskate

Our "spare" cash amounts to a few hundred pounds at the most - hard to know whether to invest in a few more prepping items and increase our food stores, or keep some under the mattress (metaphor, not actuality!), or maybe a bit of both.

I went on a school trip with DS' class today, outdoor centre where we did pond dipping and the like. One activity involved making "homes" for some teddies out of any natural resources. I was seriously impressed by some of the efforts, especially a few of the boys - if TSHTF I think they have what it takes to be junior bushcrafters! :rotfl:

A xo

westcoastscot

Thanks 2T that's an interesting article.

[Deleted User]

Cheapskate wrote: »

if TSHTF I think they have what it takes to be junior bushcrafters! :rotfl:

There's a hell of a lot more to survival, than just building a shelter.

GreyQueen

mardatha wrote: »

I'm looking for a teapot...and found this one for the preppers

http://www.suck.uk.com/products/terroristteapot/

It occurs to me that an excellent imitation of this could be executed with a cheapy teapot from the bootsale (circa £1) a marker pen/ nail polish and a little needlework on a cheap acrylic hat. And for a trifling fraction of the price. We are, after all, OS preppers.

Great gag gift. I have 2 teapots, a large stainless steel one and a 1 pint ceramic one. I'll be sourcing a replacement for the ceramic one in stainless steel for when I finally knock that off.

I'm moving towards replacing breakables with unbreakables as I go, thinking that it would be the pits to be let down with something crucial (and a teapot fits that category) breaking if you couldn't just nip to the shops and replace it. If SHTF, things are liable to have a rougher life that they do now.

Bedsit Bob, I have 4 of those can openers; one on each of my main keyrings and 2 in the kitchen drawer. At 2 for 99p you can't afford not to, can you?

Just refreshed the water in the BOB; a pattern 58 water bottle in there, sitting in an alu Crusader cup, sitting in its army surplus pouch (my main army surplus man has them in black as well as olive and DPM) which itself sits on top of a hexa stove like that with the insert to take the cup. Nice and very compact. You don't want to be without water and and that means having a way to carry it. Will add one of my Platypus bottles in there as well, rolled up snugly. And some sterilisation tablets.

If anyone hasn't seen the Platypus water bottles, they're worth a look. the advantage is that when they're empty you can just roll them up (I keep a laccy band on mine to hold them rolled) and they take up next to no room and virtually no space. Many's the time at the airport when I've drained them down, put them away and sauntered through security.

Liquid bleach won't keep it's strength much past 2 years, tops, and all detergents, whether liquid (like w.u.l) or dry like washing powder, lose their ooomph in a very few years. I wouldn't look at getting good use out of them past the 3 y.o. threshold, but if you keep up on your rotations, you should be able to keep a goodly stock in. Bar soap is pretty much immortal if you can keep it dry. I have a lot of that.

I've been squinting at disinfectants and those seems to have a date of about 2 years. Pretty much the hallmark of a prepper; looking for expiry dates on random things........:rotfl:

Today, in another part of the forest, the parental units were in their local Sainsbugs and purchasing some tomato soup on my behalf (my money, just me taking advantage that they have a car ). They purchased the 20 I wanted and that was that for the stock, bar a coupla stray cans. The assistant said that they wouldn't have any more until tomorrow.

My principle motivation is to hedge against inflation (not long ago the blasted stuff jumped from 17p to 24p a can overnight) but it made me think. This is a large Sains and they only have about 20 cans of anything on shelf at any time and nowt out the back. Just imagine what a crowd of scared people would do to that scanty inventory in a couple of hours of panic buying........ If you waited until the balloon went up to rush to the shops, you could be going very hungry in a few days.

Been thinking about the people on Cyprus and wondering how many of them are down to their penny jars and not having the money to buy the essentials. I'm guessing debit cards are unusable, too? This will make a lasting impression on anyone who has experienced it and thoughtful people who are witnessing it.

ETA, Bob, since you can die of exposure in the UK a lot faster than you'd die of either thirst or hunger, I'd argue that shelter building is an excellent starting point. To be built upon. I grew up making dens in the woods so this is second nature to me.

We had destitute unemployed eastern europeans sleeping in tents here one winter. One died of exposure. They were encamped in the open where about 200 meters away there was a plantation of short bushy pine trees. It's a lot warmer under trees of that kind than out on the grassland and at least one person is dead because they didn't know that.

Shropshirelass

Those of you stocking-up, here an idea picked up from SHTF -type novels - when the loo paper runs out, use telephone directories - the telephones will probably be useless anyway .