THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

moneyistooshorttomention

When you say "girl" - do you mean child or adult?

Guess it was an adult - as you didnt go along in the ambulance with them?

ivyleaf

Good grief, jk0! :eek: What sort of age was she? Teenager? I hope she's not badly hurt.

Cappella

Poor girl. She was lucky you were there and able to call for help. Any idea why she'd tried such a dangerous stunt?

jk0

It was a black girl, maybe 15 to 16. As I said, I think her mother locked her in and went to work, as she never showed up while I was there.

I just enquired with a neighbour, and am told she is okay.

moneyistooshorttomention

Well then - I can see why the girl did that (though she shouldnt have - as its too risky). The girl is too old to just be locked in and if her mother is getting up to stunts like that = whatever sort of mother has she got?:eek:

Money_mess

Hi all. Have been reading along. I've found myself more and more recently uneasy about how little stocks we have in for things if needed, for example when we've been short on cash - we've struggled as had no food in.
So I'm determined to prep and have found this thread really interesting.
Things I've done so far :
* made a folder including passports, birth and marriage certs, e111 cards.
* been stocking up on medicines. Have found great prices in qual*ty save. I have my first aid box almost where I'm happy with but also have two small ones if like to fill. One for the car and one for my bag as I have 4 kids.
*been buying a few bargains for the freezer and portioning leftovers for the freezer.
*have lots of clothes safely packed away for my kids to grow into. Stuff that's passed down.
*have spent £11 card factory as needed a few cards but I've got loads of cards for that and put them away in a specific box. Considering tesco change about £3 for one card! I got a few packs of birthday candles for that too.

Plans
*finish two small first aid bags
*build up food stocks so that we could go 3-4 weeks without shopping if needed.
*slowly building up a buffer into my electric account
*making a box for the car of helpful items - have a couple of torches, some bags for life and my tyre pump but need blanket, bottled water, cereal bars, and to put spare clothes in.
*I'm starting to build an emergency fund. Aiming for £1000 by around January. I the plan to perhaps keep £100 in cash in the house?
*need to get bottled water for the house.
*organise all my paperwork in my bills box.
*build a good stock of toiletries and clenaing items we regularly use. Not huge amounts but enough so that we could go a month or so if needed.

I guess my main priorities are being prepared so we don't feel so close to the edge again. We've had moments of pure financial panic wondering how to feed everyone. Hence the debt!
We are paying off the debt currently so I don't have huge amounts to play with but know if I do the above slowly that will work ok and be getting somewhere. It will help my stress levels to know we are prepared and not living pay cheque to pay cheque like we have been doing. I see the emergency fund as vital to this but also the food stocks.

Cappella

Hello Money_mess
And welcome, it's always nice to meet a fellow prepper:) It sounds as if you've thought everything through very carefully, and are taking very sensible steps to ensure that you and your family will happily survive all the future unexpected pitfalls that life likes to throw at us.
I prep for those mostly, though everyone has different approaches to prepping I think it's fair to say that all preppers try to look ahead, and make sure that they've done the best they can to help themselves and their families when times suddenly change.
It's a good feeling to know that if all else fails you can survive for a month on what's in your cupboards and freezer. It gives me a real sense of security, and has been of huge benefit in the past when serious illness suddenly hit us.
You've actually reminded me that I've not checked our first aid box on the allotment for a very long time, and the one in the car needs topping up too, so thank you for that. Better put the tablet down and get on with things

thriftwizard

Oooh, first aid box for the allotment - thanks, Capella, that's a must! I keep one in my van, which is usually with me when I go to the allotment. But OH has ejected the one from his car as something in it was out of date. However, he is a first aid instructor, and I am not... so if anything untoward happens down there, you'd better hope we're both there!

maryb

Money_mess you've really thought it through and it all looks good. I see you talk about building up a buffer in your electricity account. If we have a cold snap (I know, I know, it doesn't seem possible in this weather but winter will come)and power cuts, it might be worth thinking about extra ways to keep warm eg blankets and hot water bottles. Lots of good ideas on the preparing for winter thread

[Deleted User]

FUDDLE made some microwave heated WHEATY BAGS a few years ago which were most reasonable from scraps of material and a bag of wheat/rice/pearl barley from the health food shop. You can get a small bottle of essential oil of your choice of smell and drop a little on the bag and they take 1 minute in the microwave and stay warm for a good half an hour. You have to damp them slightly after each dozen or so heatings to keep the grains inside from overheating but a little mister bottle does that well.

You can make smaller sized bags that are super as hand warmers when you come back frozen in the colder months too.