THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

elona

Mardatha

I agree with you about the bigger tougher looking guys being really kind and helpful. My Mum nearly had kittens in the 70's when I had taken her out for a drive and I asked a group of bikers for a push as it would not start.

The new bungalow is starting to take shape and I am hoping to get shelves put up in the integral garage for stuff like toilet rolls, laundry supplies, toiletries etc. I also want a wardrobe in there fitted with shelves for things like tea, coffee, salt, sugar, pasta in jars, rice in jars etc. I have a load of tinned stuff in the kitchen as well. It would be great if I could get storage sorted before winter so I am prepared for price rises, shortages and icy pavements.

mardatha

A wardrobe full of tea sounds just the ticket I drink an awful lot of tea lol

elona

If tea kept us going through the war then we could do with as much as we can get with all the doom sayers.

I am a cynic and think that whatever happens price rises and shortages are likely.

ivyleaf

I remember back in the 70s when I was first married, we were living in Germany but did our shopping at the NAAFI, and my neighbour told me that because prices were rising all the time she was saving quite a bit by buying two of something when she needed a new one (i.e. washing powder, Vim, washing-up liquid etc) because she knew that by the time she'd used up the new one it would have gone up yet again.

I might start doing that again. I do do it anyway when things I need are on special offer, but perhaps I'll do it with the things that don't go on offer very often.:think:

jk0

My old man used to do that. (Pointlessly in my view.) Unless you know the date of your death, and can buy enough to last until then, eventually you have to go back to the shop, and pay the new price.

Say you have 10 % inflation and stock up once a year, it is no cheaper than stocking up every 6 months and paying 5% more.

mardatha

In the 70s the prices of things rose like a souffle though, things like potatoes (we lived on them then) and sugar went through the roof. Maybe he experienced that jk0 and got in the habit of stashing.

elona

In the seventies it was not just that the price of things shot up by about 100% but that there were sudden shortages of things like coffee, sugar and salt.

During the three day week it was impossible to get candles and a candle making factory near where I worked had a queue of nearly a mile long of people asking for some.

THIRZAH

There was a toilet roll shortage too, also a bakers strike then there was the lorry drivers strike which led to panic buying in the supermarkets-a friend still remembers seeing a woman using her arm to sweep all the remaining tins of soup off the shelf into her trolley.

I was working in the centre of Manchester at the time. Somebody came into the office to say that Macfisheries had sugar. We were allowed out and when we got to the shop there was a pallet of sugar on the floor and they were rationing it to one bag per customer.

elona

Thirzah

I remember several lots of bread strikes in the sixties and seventies. My Dad used to drive a bus to Carlisle and back to Glasgow so when there were shortages in Scotland the driver coming from England would bring a loaf or two and when the shortage was on the English side my Dad would do the same.

DigForVictory

I worry about water. Despite living in a high rainfall area. When things go wrong, they go hard & the Christmas when the mains water froze was a bit memorable.
All the more so as when I called the local cop shop, further along the Valley, they were on a different branch, "had plenty" & invited me to come along with my jerry cans. Where a wonderful chap, no less than Police Constable Angel (honest!) not only whisked two empties away & lugged two full jerries back, but helped me load them into the boot.
My lads willingly drew/made thankyou notes and I was charmed to see one pinned on the board in reception a few weeks later.

I'm told there's a one-time-use sack & pump that goes into a bathtub that lets you wring all the water "in the system" into one safe place you can draw as needed from, (a WaterBOB seemingly)but it's a rare & expensive bird here in the UK. I've seen binliner in box ideas but eep - not sure I'd want to drink from that.

Also one son is a mudpup. He can find mud where the county is enduring a hosepipe ban & the lawns have gone brown. My "technique" for keeping him clean on limited water is to hand him a coffee tin of water, remind him this is the *total*, & shut the door. Last time, he filled a water pistol & washed with that but he's seen a pressure sprayer for gardening & I suspect he'd like to trade up. While we're on unmetered water, I doubt I can teach them to use as little as possible, but we do use "Navy Showers" for speed.

Shelving foodstuffs is great if you have robust shelves. When the entire unit sort of melts onto the middle, & tins go flying, & get dented? It's disheartening.