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THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

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  • mardatha
    mardatha Posts: 15,612 Forumite
    Mila you shouldn't mess with car fires you should just get out and on your phone fast. But there is a very handy wee gadget you must have - it fits on your car keyring and its for breaking glass in the event that you cannot get out. See how many people die when their cars go into deep water, up here that happens a lot. It's a tiny thing that punches a hole in the glass and lets you escape but I forget what it's called. Somebody here will know...
  • WantToBeSE
    WantToBeSE Posts: 7,729 Forumite
    I've been Money Tipped! Debt-free and Proud!
    Good morning Everyone :)

    So, the house move has been and gone. We've been here 2 weeks already! Time flies when you are busy.

    My main job has been to sort out the garden. It was VERY overgrown. My Mum came to stay for 3 days to help me with it. Once we trimmed everything back and got rid of weeds and dead plants, my garden was twice the size!

    I did a huge (£116) food shop and stocked the pantry to full. My aim now is just to go fruit and veg shopping, no more than £20 a week.

    I am going to get a handle on my debt too, so will head over to the DFW board in a bit. I have about £6K of debt left :(

    Have a lovely Saturday everyone!
  • lobbyludd wrote: »
    Bob - re fire extinguishers in cars - I'm a bit worried that in the time I'd spend getting the extinguisher and deploying it - i'd be trapped, and actually it'd be better to get out and leave the car?

    Of course, the first thing you should do is bail out.

    Having bailed out, you may be able to kill a small fire, before it becomes a big fire, which it will long before the fire brigade gets there.

    Also, a fire extinguisher can be used to briefly hold back a fire, while an occupant is being rescued from a burning vehicle (and indeed to break a window to rescue someone), or to extinguish a person who is on fire.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
    Eighth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Debt-free and Proud!
    edited 30 July 2016 at 12:27PM
    You wouldn't keep it in the trunk (boot)? I was thinking that's where I would keep mine when I get one. Is this not right?

    Actually, it's a toss up between keeping it in the boot, and keeping it in the passenger compartment. Both have their pros and cons.

    Keeping it in the boot means it's as far as possible from the engine bay, where fire is most likely to occur, meaning it's more likely to be reachable. However, that would put it out of reach if (heaven forbid) you were trapped in the car.

    OTOH, having it in the passenger compartment would be handy if you did get trapped, but might cause you to delay bailing out, while you reach for the extinguisher, and it'd be unavailable to you, once you have bailed out.

    In short, I don't think there's a single right answer, on where to store it.

    As for a home extinguisher (assuming you only have one), I'd suggest the bedroom as the place to keep it.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
    Eighth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Debt-free and Proud!
    edited 30 July 2016 at 12:28PM
    GreyQueen wrote: »
    What would people do, exit the burning car, clutching their diddly extinguisher, open the bonnet, burning their hands, and have a face full of flames as the extra oxygen accelerates the flames?

    Actually, opening the bonnet is the last thing you should do, for the reasons you have stated.

    What you should do (if safe to do so) is release the bonnet catch, using the release lever inside the car, but don't lift it, then use the extinguisher through the gap between the bonnet and grill.

    If you are very quick, it's possible to kill the fire, before it gets a hold.

    If however, the flames start to erupt from around the edge of the bonnet, then it's time to get the hell out of there, and wait for the fire brigade.
    I used to have a very small kitchen fire extinguisher which was a gift from a friend.

    TBH, small (1-2kg) extinguishers are pretty much useless in a house, and are more suited to cars, barbecues etc, where you are on top of the fire, before it takes hold.

    A kitchen fire, which can't be tackled with a fire blanket/damp tea towel, is a major event.

    Even a large (5-6kg) fire extinguisher is of limited value to tackle a whole room fire, and is more likely to be a method of holding back the fire, while you escape.
  • lobbyludd
    lobbyludd Posts: 1,464 Forumite
    thanks bob, that makes sense, my kitchen one is by the entrance from the hall and at the furthest point from the cooker (as per my fire training at work) and is only there to aid safe exit from the room, rather than extinguishing the fire, I agree it'd be useless for that - I do need a fire blanket (although we don't fry anything so any fire would be electrical - have to think about that).

    GQ - I'd assumed the letter was the result of one of the "campaigns" that the council run every so often where they have people out looking at the state of the rubbish, or the result of a previous complaint about flytipping in the road, and I'd just been unlucky with timing, but still, I'm not risking a hefty fine, now I apparently have "form"!. I only report things using the online system and have never had any reply from it. I live off an access lane that gets a lot of flytipping - the things that really rancour are those that block the access to my front door like large mattresses and that the council will remove *for free* if you arrange a collection - but maybe that is people from out of area? access to the city's recycling centres/tips are now strictly limited and you have to prove that you are a resident before being let in.

    and I'm not blaming all students or landlords - many students are scrupulous with recycling and charity donating, and landlords very good, but there are sufficient that aren't that our council used to put on extra collections at the end of the summer period - that hasn't happened the last couple of years, given the huge pressure on council funding :(
    :AA/give up smoking (done) :)
  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    :) I was reading a blog called frugalwoods and they were referring to a custom in their area (Boston, Mass) called 'Hippie Christmas'. Which is when leases change over, usually on Sept 1st, and no end of useful stuff gets put to the kerbside and other happy people go wombling. Someone even allegedly found a brand new KitchenAid mixer still boxed.

    Translation for mila, 1970s children's TV series and books The Wombles of Wimbledon Common, about creatures who collect and re-purpose discards. Dunno if it traveled to your side of the pond but wombling is a widely-understood slang adjective in the UK.

    Re council tax, here is the backstory for overseas readers.

    For centuries in Britain, there was something called the rates. This was property-based local taxation which was used to pay for such limited services as were available and only the wealthier minority of households would have paid it. Gradually, every household ended up paying rates, regardless of whether they owned or rented, but they were relatively modest, even in my young day.

    The rateable value of a home is determined by assessment by the Valuation Office and advised to the local council. It is based on the market value of the property (as it was many years ago). Of course, if you rent rather than own, the market value of where you live is irrelevant.

    The Conservative Party (aka Tories) and approximately analogous the Republicans, disliked the rates because the richer people who usually voted Tory paid more of them than the plebs. They had long made much of the fictive example of the little old lady on her own in a large house with a small income, by comparison with a household of multiple wage earners who would be quids in.

    Of course, the little old lady probably couldn't afford the overall running costs of a large house, and always had the option of downsizing. And a multi-adult earning household is usually only a brief stage when newly-adult youngsters first join the workforce and before they fly the nest, but why let the facts get in the way of a good narrative?

    Margaret Thatcher had tried to reform the rates in 1974 but finally changed them to something which they publically called 'the community charge' and which privately was referred to as the Poll Tax. Basically, it was a tax on being an adult..Joe Public and media always did call it the Poll Tax.

    In their wisdom, the community charge/ poll tax was instigated one year earlier in Scotland than in England and Wales (April 1989). I was resident in Scotland at the time and very active in the anti-poll tax movement. I have indeed been taken to court by one of the Scottish councils for unpaid poll tax (I paid when they threatened me with bailiffs and not before). The word in Scotland was that they were being made a tartan test bed and it really fuelled the nationalist movement at the time.

    The chaos of mass civil disobedience (including riots) over the poll tax, which included beseiging some local councils in their buildings, lead to the community charge being abandoned and replaced by the council tax from April 1993.

    Council tax is the !!!!!! offspring of the rates and the poll tax. Your home is assessed by the valuation office into a banding (A-F) mine is band A, the cheapest. The tax is based on the assumption of each home having two adults. If you are a singleton household, you get 25% discount off the bill, amusingly called the SOD - single occupancy discount. If you have a very low income, you may be able to apply for council tax reduction, which is a means-tested concession which can even be up to 100% of liability. For persons like myself, who are a scant amount above the threshold to get help, the full council tax is due and mine is not far shy of £1k per annum. I don't earn that in a month.:(

    If you're not happy with your home's council tax banding, you can ask the Valuation Office to re-assess. There is always a risk that they might assess you higher than you are now - the council will have to apply whatever the VO says. And your neighbours might - theoretically - end up with their valuations dragged higher if yours goes up. In which case, you should keep schtummn about ever contacting the VO or risk being an extremely unpopular person indeed. :rotfl:

    Council tax is pretty unique in that there are severe sanctions if you don't pay it. Your get taken to court by the council for a 'liability order' which is proof that you were the liable party and that you didn't pay. Then, with that in place, you can have bailiffs sent after you, they can apply to your employer to have money taken off your salary before you get it, they can apply to have money taken off your benefits before you get those and you can even, in worse-case scenarios, be jailed.

    Debt advisors such as those I used to work with regard arrears of council tax as second only to arrears of rent and mortgage, because the consequences are so severe. Could be worse, in several parts of the world inc (I think) parts of the USA, you can have your lawfully-paid for home seized for non-payment of local taxation. :eek:
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • alice-mary
    alice-mary Posts: 249 Forumite
    Hi All,

    I'm probably asking on the wrong thread but here goes anyway...

    Have any of you Nationwide flex-account holders used a cash point this afternoon? I tried and was told my card was faulty... as were 3 of the next 5 customers (all Nationwide accounts...the successful customers were using other bank cards). I don't want to waste my time trying other cash points if there is a national problem!

    Thanks in advance,

    Alice
    xx
    Debts in March 2007:
    Loan £24,180 Argos Card £2000 C Card £2000 O/draft £2000 Mortgage £113,000
    Debts in Jan 2020:Loan £2900 Sister £0
    Argos Card £0 :j C Card £0 O/draft £0 :j
    Mortgage £96,000 (finally on a repayment mortgage :) )
    Getting there slowly .....
  • RAS
    RAS Posts: 35,573 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Not brilliant kit but cheap at the Coo up; steel fork or spade for £2 each, flyaway mini greenhouse for £4.50. Worth it for spares or next season.
    If you've have not made a mistake, you've made nothing
  • ivyleaf
    ivyleaf Posts: 6,431 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    No idea, i'm afraid, Alice (I don't bank with Nationwide) but hope someone has by now answered you on a different thread!
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