THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

Scrimps

Thank you. I feel reassured on the plum trees.
I spent my prepping/improvement money this month on a chest freezer so will have to save again before buying the fruit trees but, I will put them in this winter.

We have once been able to source some free apples but to be honest they were not very good/to my taste, they were very, very floury/soft. Im going to keep my ear to the ground on it though, freecycle etc is a good idea. There was a fruit tree outside a local day centre that I had seen laden with fruit every year, i was just plucking up the courage to knock and ask if they were using it or if the fruit needed a new home and the tree was removed and paving put in instead.

I wish there was money in snails, I removed just over 40 from my garden yesterday with less than 10 minutes work.

[Deleted User]

In extreme circumstances all varieties of land snail found in the UK are actually edible, you'd have to purge them for a few days before you cooked them but you'd not be starving!

DawnW

Scrimps wrote: »

I spent my prepping/improvement money this month on a chest freezer so will have to save again before buying the fruit trees but, I will put them in this winter.

Aldi / Lidl and such places usually have fruit trees for sale cheaply a bit later in the year. Fine if you have room for larger trees, my daughter has bought several over the years and they have grown well. Unfortunately I have a mini garden and had to spend considerably more at a nursery on trees grafted onto dwarfing rootstocks. Better than no fruit though!

moneyistooshorttomention

jk0 wrote: »

Sadly someone turned a bungalow next door into a house wiping out all the sea views and about a third of the value. I have rented it out since Auntie left in 2008.


I have the choice of either installing storage heaters or sending the flat to auction. I'm going to sleep on it before making a decision.

How annoying that someone mucked around like that with the sea views/value of the place:eek:

Personally - now that it needs some more money going on it (besides the one-third loss of value because of the neighbours) I'd be inclined to think "I don't want to chuck good money after bad - and lose any more money on this place" and I'd just feel so sickened that someone else had reduced the value of my property like that that I'd "get shot" in your position and I'd be putting it in the auction.

At least that way I wouldnt have a constant reminder every time I looked at it and be thinking "That house is due to be worth £300,000 (for the sake of argument) but because of the neighbours is only worth £200,000". That would just upset me so much that some of my money had vanished like that that I'd get rid personally.

jk0

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

How annoying that someone mucked around like that with the sea views/value of the place:eek:

Personally - now that it needs some more money going on it (besides the one-third loss of value because of the neighbours) I'd be inclined to think "I don't want to chuck good money after bad - and lose any more money on this place" and I'd just feel so sickened that someone else had reduced the value of my property like that that I'd "get shot" in your position and I'd be putting it in the auction.

At least that way I wouldnt have a constant reminder every time I looked at it and be thinking "That house is due to be worth £300,000 (for the sake of argument) but because of the neighbours is only worth £200,000". That would just upset me so much that some of my money had vanished like that that I'd get rid personally.

Thanks Money. It was sickening for quite some time, but I've had ten years to recover.


I was going to do as you suggest, until I looked at the sold prices on the auction sites. If it went as low as them, I'd be suicidal!


I explained the situation to Npower, and they have kindly agreed to change the electricity to Economy 7 without charge. I think that's a good omen.

Living_proof

mardatha wrote: »

I did berry picking and found it easy but that's when I was in high school . I think potatoes are done with machines now, never hear of anybody going to the tatties now. I do remember my mum thought it was good money. I suppose the way things are going people will be forced to do it though or else get no money.

When I lived in Scotland I was in a village where the old head teacher could remember a time when the farmers dictated the school holidays to fit in with the potato harvest. There was never any unemployment as such and locals went from daffodil picking to tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries, etc. onto potatoes. All the ladies locally worked like this and took their children along as well. So different now, everyone works in the city or a factory of sorts.

moneyistooshorttomention

jk0 wrote: »

Thanks Money. It was sickening for quite some time, but I've had ten years to recover.


I was going to do as you suggest, until I looked at the sold prices on the auction sites. If it went as low as them, I'd be suicidal!


I explained the situation to Npower, and they have kindly agreed to change the electricity to Economy 7 without charge. I think that's a good omen.

Difficult ...hmmm..

Is it an area of the country where you think it would be a feasible proposition to let it out on a site like AirBnB? Or is it a more "workaday" type area/no facilities people want to come to for conferences and the like either?

jk0

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Difficult ...hmmm..

Is it an area of the country where you think it would be a feasible proposition to let it out on a site like AirBnB? Or is it a more "workaday" type area/no facilities people want to come to for conferences and the like either?

Oh, yes, there are certainly plenty of holidaymakers in Torquay. Just the lease bans me from letting it as a holiday let. I'm presently getting a similar yield from it to the 5 year bond I just took with Vanquis, so I'm not desperate to sell.


When we had all the hoo-ha about the Skripal poisioning, I mentioned to my mother that maybe it's preferable to keep it, as it might be the only bit of England that's not irradiated.

Living_proof

DigForVictory wrote: »

Possibly, but it's wonderful what bicarb of soda can do.
Preceded & followed by copious amounts of scrubbing with hot soapy water & rinsing thoroughly.

Leaving bits of fruit ring adhering to the racks definitely causes mixed flavours, but sons *liked* apple rings with a twist of mango. (I still prefer dusting with cinnamon.)

I purchased eldest ostrich burgers once - he liked them but not enough to justify the cost (£6 a pair! Still, his birthday money.)

There some cut of beef that's said to make wonderful jerky & you have of course to slice it seriously thin - but can I find that page in the right book? Not for the last two days, no.

I shall harrumph off & hunt a desk for youngest & with luck I'll have forgotten the jerky project & the book will be on the top of the heap when we get back!

If you can get your butcher to slice a joint of topside really thin (and it's not much trouble to them usually) then that is ideal. I must make some for my SIL when I have finished the allotment harvest!

thriftwizard

Bit of excitement here; I'm staying down at Mum's new place before demonstrating at a local show tomorrow, and found the town square festooned in police ribbons when I attempted to drive through this afternoon. Some enterprising souls had surmised that the local ATM would have extra cash because of the show, so attempted to ram-raid it with a stolen tractor at 4am this morning. Well, in a city centre full of high-tension-steel skyscrapers, with no-one around after business hours, they might have got away with it. In deepest darkest Durrzet, the 17th century grade-1-listed building collapsed around the backhoe, and the local residents, alerted by the racket, were out in the street filming the perpetrators as they fled the scene.

Sadly this probably means they'll lose their ATM, as the bank it belongs to withdrew a couple of years ago. But it's rather wonderful that just about all the inhabitants of the town centre - except the lady sleeping in the flat upstairs - woke up & had the sense to get their phones out & record the villains in the act!