THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

pineapple

You lucky lucky people. All I get offered is sex and viagra

GreyQueen

Dammit, no one's offering me millions, or any little blue pills (the neighbourhood can provide a variety of other off-list pharmaceutical and fragrant 'erbal products). My email address must not be circulating in enough places. Must-do-better.

Personally, I have thrown away my mattress and purchased a large wicker dog basket to sleep in, lined with bank notes several inches deep. I like to keep my cash close to hand and my larcenous neighbours will protect me from being burgled by anyone else but them. That'll stick it to the banks, ha ha! :rotfl:

thriftwizard, unbelievable, there must be some real bargains to be had in the used car market in your immediate surrounds. You'd think people would understand that £300 is small potatoes in terms of car repairs and that it's a lot more economical to repair than replace.

[Deleted User]

I keep around £110 in the house during the month to cover small bills, gardener,quiz night, history club and cash only food budget,The rest is calculated to the penny for S/orders D/debits etc and any surplus is swiftly swept into various savings accounts that produce pennies per month :)I only use my c/card to buy my diesel per month and its paid virtually as soon as it comes in.Like many folk of my generation circa 1940s I have a deep rooted fear of debt, and a deep-rooted belief in a well stocked store cupboard. I think I can probably hold out for a good couple of months at least with tinned stuff and my freezer.

I use UHT milk all the time so fresh milk wouldn't be a problem I think I would miss fresh fruit and veg most (but I also have some tinned and frozen stuff)

I wonder if there is some sort of correlation between the German thoughts of stockpiling food stuff and re-introduction of National service.

Is their economy likely to take a dive with the bank going down ,or do they have info that we in the west haven't had yet ? Its certainly food for thought

thriftwizard

thriftwizard, unbelievable, there must be some real bargains to be had in the used car market in your immediate surrounds. You'd think people would understand that £300 is small potatoes in terms of car repairs and that it's a lot more economical to repair than replace.

I'd certainly hope so. But I think Fuddle, if she's still reading along, will confirm that for many younger people down here, looking as if you have lots of money (or at least access to plenty of credit) is FAR more important than actually having any!

GreyQueen

In Texas, I'm told that phenomenon is referred to as big hat, no cattle.

TiredTrophy

In the light of the latest Italian earthquake, what does one do if one is there?.....I assume one starts with booking a room in an earthquake 'proof' building...but building codes are often ignored.....so....?

Karmacat

Living_proof wrote: »

I guess I am in a different situation to most. I work from home and tend to use a debit card for shopping. The only cash I need is to pay the window cleaner once a month and pay for purchases at the car boot sale on Sunday. Occasional charity donations, etc. If it came to it that I couldn't get access to money in my bank I wouldn't starve for quite a long time as long as electricity supplies remained intact. I guess clean windows would be a thing of the past and car boots might not operate if it was terrorist activity. If on the other hand the banks went under then who knows! I can afford to have a fair bit of cash in the house as it is pretty unproductive in my current account, but I still can't foresee the necessity - yet.

So, carrying money on you, and having money at home, are different things. If you have food stocks enough to see you through, say, a cyberattack worse than the banks have already suffered, then maybe you'll be fine. But maybe at that very time, you'll need to pay out for petrol or a train ticket because you need to travel for a family emergency or something, and you can't buy what you need because you don't have cash ... that's the kind of necessity that there might be. To be "prepared" is to account for the "known unknowns", as far as anyone can. That's all, and banking problems could be the sort that have already happened, 36 hours down for one particular bank, or a full scale banking crisis as GQ describes in the paragraph below that I nicked from her post :

GreyQueen wrote: »

If we do have a banking crisis in the UK, and I honestly think it's a matter of when not if, there will be a heckuva shock to the under 25s. I see them out and about, paying 50p extra per transaction in small shops to buy a portion of chips etc etc. Lots of them don't carry any cash at all, not even a tenner, and are going to be up a certain creek without a paddle when the card payment system falls over.

TiredTrophy wrote: »

In the light of the latest Italian earthquake, what does one do if one is there?.....I assume one starts with booking a room in an earthquake 'proof' building...but building codes are often ignored.....so....?

That's a good question ... I hope to make it out to Italy now I'm retiring, maybe in a couple of years, so I'll be watching the answers on here ...

Save

fuddle

thriftwizard wrote: »

I'd certainly hope so. But I think Fuddle, if she's still reading along, will confirm that for many younger people down here, looking as if you have lots of money (or at least access to plenty of credit) is FAR more important than actually having any!

Always reading

Yeah I agree wholeheartedly. Kudos where thriftwizard is talking about is more important than economics. To fit in with expectation is everything. Being 36 in a friendly bustling town I should have had more friends than work colleagues from out of the area. Truth is, I think, because I didn't play that game I was never going to have any doors opened for me socially amongst my peers. My acquaintances were all of age.

Just my view

elona

I was contacted by my bank last Monday to query some card transactions. A couple of them were certainly not mine so they cancelled the card. Luckily I can still get cash if I go the local branch and use my chequebook with ID.

It does however mean that I can't shop online till the card arrives. Today is day 10 and still no sign. I have decided to be philosophical
about it and take it as a way to make sure I really want what is in an online basket.

It has made me think about the idea of applying for a simple credit card which would be paid off in full each month just to have a backup in case of bank problems.

mardatha

What I've found is that many people are aware of having to prep and do prep to an extent - but don't really really expect anything to happen.
Over in UKPreppers when I was there we had a few long standing knowledgeable members who were caught up in terrorist stuff on the Underground in London and yet had gone to work that morning without anything preppy. So they ended up walking in stilettoes or shiny stiff posh meeting shoes along the tracks, in the dark, without cash to get home. Had mobile phones yes - but no signal in a tunnel underground and later I think the masts were switched off anyway.
It's no use playing at this, you have to live it. You can't be a real prepper and be out and about with only a credit/bank card in your pocket. Even a powercut can be a crisis then - no tills no transactions= no food no drink no way home. We need to think back to a time before all this and be smart