THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

GreyQueen

Yup.

And the world still turns and both of the ninnies will be footnotes in the History of the Early 21st Century to be ridiculed by the grandchilder.

I am spending the post-work early evenings gardening and doing the prep which will see next year's bountiful harvests, working on the ongoing soil improvement project, the 300 sq m of planet earth for which I have temporary custodianship. Nine years and counting, muchly improved, a lifetime project.

I also went through the stores and have decided to keep slightly fewer cans under the bed - stop laughing in the back! Laters, GQ x

mardatha

I think the really smart preppers will be quietly sorting a lot of things out right now. I don't like the way things are going under this gov, def think there will be trouble of some kind ahead. Add to this the impending roll-out of UC which is an absolute disaster of force ten magnitude... without getting into politics on this post.
Imagine how you would manage if your employer went bust overnight - the absolute minimum wait for UC is six weeks. Six weeks without a single penny coming in! The bills need paid - gas, elect, insurances, HP, credit cards. And you need money in your purse for petrol; kids who want sweets or bus fares or need shoes; food, toiletries, pet foods. How are you realistically going to survive for six whole weeks?
And at the end if you are lucky and they are on time (which they might not be) then you get a huge sum of money paid into your account and then you have to untangle all of it. You have to pay the month's bills plus all that you had to spend or borrow for an emergency.
Meanwhile the scaffs in the street up the road have all been desperate for drugs/food/nappies for the baby and they've been breaking into any house that looks likely to have stuff they need.
Are you really really prepped for all of this? I very much doubt that any of us are!

VJsmum

Scary times, indeed

Our drainage bill is currently at £1200 :eek: and it isn't over yet.:(

My DD said "what do people do who simply don't have that kind of money?"

it's a valid question. We are ok to pay it, but blimey if we weren't I dread to think.....

[Deleted User]

We're back to 'haves' and 'have not's' in society, the rich and the rest and it will get hard and harder for all of us who are not 'privileged'. We'll have to re-learn all the old tricks of the trade that our forebears knew to keep ourselves housed, clothed and fed and we'll have to accept that out lot in life is nowhere near as good as it has been for a couple of generations now. We'll have to work at life and not just buy it in, we'll probably live shorter lives than current generations and many won't make it to 5 like it used to be. Learning to make 5p do the work of 10p will be necessity and not choice. Having said that humanity really is capable of adapting to different situations that occur and is not in any danger of dying out, life may be harder BUT can still be good. I wonder if we'd actually be happier all round with less choice, less possessions, less aquisition and less keeping up with the latest trends, shows my age I think feeling like that but I just wonder.....

greenbee

When my dad died, his pension provider was very quick to cancel his payments (including the one due a few days later, paid in arrears, to which he was entitled) but said it would take about 6 weeks to set up my mother's widows' pension. It then took them another 6 months to pay the final missing payment that my dad should have had.

My mum had over 2 months with no income, a funeral to pay for, no access to my dad's capital and the emotional upset along with learning to do everything on her own. If she hadn't had kids who could lend her the money/pay for stuff I have no idea how she would have managed.

mardatha

Exactly why we need to get our a$$ses in gear now. Time is running short to change a whole mindset - and when things go wrong then it's too late to learn. One thing I've learned in my life is that when you're down, very few people are willing to pick you up. When your life changes dramaticaly then you do find out how many real friends you have. If you no longer have the health/energy/money to keep up with the others then they will carry on and leave you behind. You'll be dropped faster than a hot tattie. Just when you really really need friends.
My mum always used to say "if you've got money in the bank then you don't need friends" -- which sounded very cynical to me but I now understand what she meant. And she was born in 1916 into a dirt poor miners family of 10 children, she would have seen hardship that we today cannot imagine.

elona

I have been telling my dds that it is not the things you actually worry about that suddenly rise up and bite you but there is no harm in making sure you have some bottled water, cans and packets of food, spare toiletries etc and tealights, matches etc.

DH had just had his pensions paid in the bank the day before we lost him and his employer paid the full amount for three months after so there was not such a huge drop in finances. We had also tried not to spend everything we got paid every month and to save a third if we could which was such a help later.

My dds find it quirky that I still have favourite frugal recipes for times when a big bill comes up so I don't have to dip into savings.

[Deleted User]

Simpler, less 'modern' lives with less need and less clutter in them and less mental pressure to be the same as everyone else and have what the 'normal person' has and that includes the aspirations and the vanity aspect too would be a very good starting point today in dealing with a 'different' future to the one you have always expected. I will be clean and neat, I may be shabby and my clothes may be worn even patched but I'll be doing the best I can to keep our home and lives as good as it's possible to do. We'll eat whatever we can grow, barter for, catch, buy in, whatever form I may be able to cook them and count ourselves lucky to have that much. We'll keep our clothes and footwear in good order, get them repaired when we can and wear them to within an infinitesimal smidgin of their lives. We'll keep our home in good repair, keep our garden plots tended and full and we'll count ourselves very lucky to have what we DO have, work will be constant and probably hard, choice will be limited to what is available on the day, we'll waste nothing, be frugal and thrifty, sparing with our hard earned possessions and we'll make life as good as we can until the day we die, I don't think anyone could do better than that no matter what prevails in the world.

GreyQueen

I regularly observe people who have very little money for the present (and nothing put by for a rainy day or their old age) and who are incredibly thriftless. Some of these people are already in their fifties and sixties and spend like drunken duchesses on chambermaid-level incomes. Plenty of them have been blessed with above-average intellects and advanced education and still do incredibly stupid things with money.

Yestereve, I watched a twenty-something woman with a tot in the buggy drop £50 + on groceries. There was very little actual food in there (sub-£10 for basics and a very small amount of veg) and the rest was complete and utter carp like crisps, biscuits etc. Things which are negatives on the nutirents and don't contribute anything other than ill-health and obesity.

Eating very badly is pretty darned expensive, in all senses of those word.

I've had my pension age raised in two increments from 60 to 67 and am expecting the pension age to be abolished before I get there; I can easily see a situation where one will have to be in the workforce until one can buy one's freedom or get signed off permanantly as medically unfit for work. And yes, I am pretty darned p'd off about that.

Here's one of the rare UK-specific ZH articles which should make everyone's blood run cold. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-09-22/pensions-and-debt-time-bomb-uk-%C2%A31-trillion-crisis-looms

I was working on the frontline in debt advice in the run-up to the crash of 2008 and I have seen and heard things which would break a stone's heart. I hate debt, I hate it with a passion...........

[Deleted User]

Does anyone want a set of Kelly Kettle Cookware and the support for it? I've just had a mahoossive sort out for the sea scouts jumble sale and realised the girls bought me a new set for Christmas a couple of years ago and a support too that fits my kettle much better than the old one so rather than give it to them I'll happily send it to one of 'us' who could use it? pm me if you're interested.