THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

ivyleaf

Same here re clothes in the sales maryb. But i do usually get towels in the HofF Sale

thriftwizard

I'm staying out of the shops for the next few weeks... don't need anything, and certainly don't need the hassle of trying to park at any of our edge-of-town retail locations. The next few weeks will be dedicated to tarting up the house - already under way - and making stuff, from resources I already have. Though the odd garden plan is beginning to trickle into my consciousness whenever the sun is shining, and it was one of those days today...

jk0

It's taken a few years, but I think I finally worked out a routine to protect my computer against ransomware, and to some extent my own stupidity:

I bought a solid state drive for my desktop a couple of years ago, when the cost of a similar size to my pc's original mechanical one became acceptable. This came with some software called Acronis 'True Image' to clone the existing disk.

I did this, and installed the new disk in place of the old one, so I've now got a spare hard disk which I keep in a drawer. I bought a 'hot swap' mobile rack for it on ebay, which I installed in my pc.

Every two weeks I put my spare mechanical hard disk in the hot swap rack, and clone the electronic disk to it by booting up from the Acronis CD. (It is important to remove the spare hard disk from your pc, so that it itself doesn't catch any virus.)

Any time my computer fails for whatever reason, (viruses, updates, etc) I can install my mechanical disk, and clone that back again. This will of course lose up to two weeks work and emails, so those are automatically backed up twice daily using Mozy. This costs £4.99 per month. You just tell Mozy to restore your system, and all your emails will re-appear over the next week. (If you want a specific file urgently, you can select them individually also.)

Needless to say, I also use Panda Global Protection to try to avoid the viruses in the first place.

I hope some of you find this helpful.

victoriaplum1

Got excited by the 'prepping' part of the title....not been on this site for a long time but its high time I did some serious money saving...so I am on here looking for basic ideas on where I can make easy savings...easy to start off with! So far today I have switched credit card balance to a 0% til March 2020 as just started to pay interest on the other one. I have also set myself up for online food shopping with ASDA (as of yesterday) with a view to saving by not being in the shop randomly plucking things off the shelves - I had my first delivery today at a cost of a pound.....(order was for 35 pounds worth), was well impressed with it! I work in town 4 days a week and often window shop/impulse buy so if I can stay out of the shops will make a huge impact. Wonder if anyone here can advise me on the best 'beginners threads' for moneysaving ideas....and also whether you actually physically put savings into a jar or log them as virtual savings here??? what works best for you? thanks for any advice.

mardatha

For real preppers, cash is always best If there was a sudden crisis like riots/a serious power outage/civilwar/whatever then you cant use a card. You can't go round the corner shop with a card when the tills are off or the card provider system has crashed. So always always have some cash handy.
I don't know much about the money side, more about practical prepping. Things like always having a backup system in place for cooking and heating... never being all-electric or all-gas, so that whatever happens you can still have heat and hot food. Always have candles and matches in the house, always know where they are etc.
So that's mainly the kind of prepping we do in here- although somebody will no doubt be along soon who knows a lot mroe about money than I do. I know how to manage without it though LOL!

GreyQueen

Ideally have several torches around your home. One definately by your bed (this is also an excellent habit to have when staying somewhere, either in someone's home or a hotel/ B & B etc). You need to know that if you're suddenly plunged into pitchy blackness, you can drop your hands on a working torch in seconds.

I've taken to carrying one of those small 9-LED torches (widely available at about £3 or less) in my handbag. I've used it to find things fallen behind other things, to guide my footsteps down the pavement in a suburban neighbourhood with the streetlights off in the middle of the night (summoned to next door neighbour's for an emergency) and to find something in the dark corners of a friends' stock-room. My Computer Wizard always carries a small torch to see into the depths of computer casings.

Re Mar's comments about cash, I'd like to put my two'pennorth in. Among the other things I do for my local authority employer is take card payments over the telephone. Sometimes the card is declined by the user's bank servers and the customer is incredulous because they know they've got the money. We're not given reasons for a decline and can only refer the customer to their bank. Sometimes, after doing so, they come back to us and get to speak to the same person.

The most usual reason for being locked out of your own card is that the bank's software is trigger-happy about what may be fraudulent use and locks the account down. It can be as simple as making two or three payments in short order, none of which are of suspicious nature, either individually or collectively.

Most of us wouldn't think twice about booking a ticket and some accomodation then calling the council to pay their council tax but banks have locked down the card for this. As well as being embarrassing, it's darned inconvenient.

Small tale from RL.

Pal of mine who we shall call P (not his real initial) was flying from a regional airport in the UK, an airport in his home region, to Eire for a funeral. P is very modern and doesn't usually carry cash.

So, at the airport P wants to pay for some coffee by card and it's declined. He gets through to his bank on the phone (eventually!) and is told Oh, Mr P, someone has been trying to use your card at Blankety Airport.

Yes, P tells them (crossly). It's me. I'm at Blankety Airport trying to use my card. I'm flying to X-town in Eire and will be there for a few days and will be using my card there. Please unlock it.

He gets his coffee, he flies to X-town to Eire, has to do a bit of shopping in the town which he has named as his destination and whereabouts for the next few days and, guess what? Yup, his card is declined.

So, he gets through to the bank (eventually!) and they tell him someone is trying to use his card in X-town. He repeats the conversation he had with them two hours prior and gets them to unlock his card and they manage to keep it unlocked for the remainder of his trip.I'd like to emphasise that both of these attempted expenditures by card were sub-£10.

Now, imagine that you are stuck somewhere unusual-to-you, such as on a journey which has been interrupted, and you have to purchase emergency accomodation in a strange place. You think it probable your card payment will go through?I'd be surprised if it did. Never mind some weather emergency taking down the power and thus the card machines. What's a hotel clerk or B & B proprietor going to do when confronted with several people competing to hire an insufficent supply of rooms - go for the person like me with an inviting handful of banknotes or the person with the inoperable bank card? As the Americans would say, no-brainer.

smeeth

victoriaplum1 wrote: »

I have also set myself up for online food shopping with ASDA (as of yesterday) with a view to saving by not being in the shop randomly plucking things off the shelves - I had my first delivery today at a cost of a pound.....(order was for 35 pounds worth), was well impressed with it!

If you're going to use online grocery shopping give mysupermarket.co.uk a go, it can show you cheaper alternatives before then sending your basket to your chosen online shop to checkout as normal. I find it easier than trawling through the supermarket website.

moneyistooshorttomention

I guess that card "locking down" doesn't happen if the bank can see you are connected with the place (even if it isn't where you are now living)?

Obviously, I've been back on home visits since moving here. I didn't have any problems using my card whilst there - despite quite a variety of purchases in quick succession with it.

I did wonder if my bank might "lock my card" whilst there - because it "knows" I live here now. But thought I should be okay - because it's easily possible for the bank to tell that I'm obviously just back there on a home visit (as that's where I've come from)/catching up on shopping and eating out that I can't do here (because it's a much smaller place). Anyway - my account is still registered at the branch of my bank situated there - as I've not changed it (not a lot of point - since there isn't a branch of my bank here anyway).

I presume in those sort of cases that banks just treat the customer like someone with a second home elsewhere in the country?

DigForVictory

From a prepping perspective, are the new polymer fivers preferable to the old fibre ones?
I've found a little folder that is just The Right Size & am quietly rerouting the new into same as funds permit. Mind, I've also got a wellie sock accumulating pound coins, but as son got steel toe capped & shanked wellies for Christmas (as he wanted) I may have to swap socks...

GreyQueen

DigForVictory wrote: »

From a prepping perspective, are the new polymer fivers preferable to the old fibre ones?
I've found a little folder that is just The Right Size & am quietly rerouting the new into same as funds permit. Mind, I've also got a wellie sock accumulating pound coins, but as son got steel toe capped & shanked wellies for Christmas (as he wanted) I may have to swap socks...

I dunno if they're preferable, I find them slimy, but I am steadily accumulating them. Smallish denominations of anything are handy to have.

Also, bear in mind that the new 12-sided bi-metal £1 coin is coming in March; http://www.royalmint.com/newonepoundcoin so be ready to switch out the stash. Between March and September 2017 both new and old £1 coins will circulate but after that the old ones are 'demonetised' and can only be paid into bank accounts.