THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

DigForVictory

And himself has been cheerfully getting into the spirit.
We strolled around a Chinese supermarket & himself gleefully pounced on a packet of borax powder, which he plans to use to improve candle wicks with. Also a pack of meat tenderiser powder which apparently helps remove bloodstains (contents salt, wheat flour & papain powder 0.1%), from papaya fruit.

I do wonder what he thinks the future holds, I really do!

kboss2010

Excellent post, GQ, and having been on the very skint & cold end of the scale of living standards for a few years has made me a bit of a hoarder tbh! It’s a little antagonistic to wanting to kondo my flat so that I have more storage space for things I actually may need but slow & steady seems to be winning the day - out with the third pair of novelty slippers, in with the dried pasta & tinned tomatoes!

I thought borax was banned in the U.K./EU? I was listening to a zero waste blogger today & that’s why she reckoned she couldn’t get it to make dishwasher tabs?

[Deleted User]

I have vivid memories of the winter of '62-3 and am old enough to remember the winter of '47 as well and being dragged up with rationing until I was 12 means that I have probably enough stores already to feed half the street comfortably I always use UHT milk anyway and buy crackers and crispbread as well as I don't eat bread.

I have been buying the odd extra few tins of beans and tea bags and cans of coffee as well and stashing them in the cupboard under the stairs or 'glory hole as my old Mum would have called it.

I live in Kent and am old enough and sensible enough to never cross my doorstep once the ice is on the ground, as I have to use a walking stick to get around and don't believe for one moment that I can be a weeble and just rebound back up if I fall over (which I have done on occasions ) and it blooming well hurts not only one's dignity but one's posterior as well

I don't think for one moment that the country will grind to a halt, or we will start eating either each other, or our pets, but it doesn't hurt to be a little sensible, and have a well stocked cupboard or 'glory hole ' just in case, I also have a wee stash of vino, for medicinal purposes along with some gin so I shall be a reasonably happy old lady at least :):)


JackieO xx

DigForVictory

Borax illegal?! I've got it in my ebay watch list. <rushes off to google>

Ah.

In the UK borax is sold at some department stores as a natural cleaning powder, and taxidermists still regularly use borax to preserve and clean hides and feathers of mounted animals. ... Although the substance has been banned for consumption, there is a large group of people who believe borax isn't harmful.

That said

Borax is extremely alkaline, which makes it irritating when used undiluted. Makes sense not to use any form: borax, sodium borate or boric acid as an eye wash, skin scrub or drink it, but it doesn't answer the question about if occasional indirect contact (in things like cleaning products) is safe.

&

"Borax can cause burns, especially when you touch it multiple times," she says. "When you're mixing it up, Borax can get in the air and irritate your airways. ... "Borax is a mild irritant," he says.

So, legal but use with care, and if in serious doubt, consult a taxidermist first...

Me, I anticipate it will be used exclusively for candle making - wicks particularly as

The thing about candles is that it's all about the wick. If the wick burns too fast, then the wax will snuff out the flame. ... All-natural 20 Mule Team® Borax helps create long-lasting candle wicks, and they help reduce ash and eliminate smoke problems.

Seemingly borax is also used in laundry but that is Well Outside my normal range of competence.

Hear hear to not crossing the threshold when there is ice on the ground, if at all possible. Not only do I have winter tyres, I also have a firm policy of only driving if I absolutely have to & that well after the school run has rubbed the roads warmer & clearer. My office hours get erratic but the downside of techie work is that in theory I can do a full day from home.

thriftwizard

I also have a wee stash of vino, for medicinal purposes along with some gin

You rock, JackieO! I have to say, we spent The Beast days lounging around by the stove, wrapped in woolly blankets, drinking Prosecco and watching comedy DVDs along with a bunch of very contented moggies. We had some of those bark briquettes so were able to keep the stove "in" all night (this year's supply is already here) and OH is building a new & bigger log store out of the remains of the old chicken shed. We are about to make sloe gin, and prosecco will be acquired shortly; officially it's the festive supply but generally it lasts well into the New Year. The contents of the Armageddon Cupboards meant that none of us actually needed to go out, though DS2 did (literally) run down to work & back, 5 miles away, because he knew his employers were obliged to pay him if he got there, but not if he didn't; they hadn't told anyone not to go. I do have YakTrax ready to deploy if needed, and am still reasonably bouncy, but would probably send An Offspring out if supplies were needed.

That said, of course we only see snow about once in a decade, down here...

We do have two smallish supermarkets in our little town, BUT we are very much afterthoughts when it comes to deliveries; they will go to the city centre stores, then the out-of-town retail parks before we get anything. There have been times when the shelves have been really quite empty, so I do prefer to have plenty of supplies to hand, and I'll be getting a few extra bits n'bobs in over the next few months just in case...

GreyQueen

If you stand in certain places in the morning in my city, you can watch the heart-stopping sight of HGVs trying to squirm themselves between ancient churches and ancient houses with jettied upper floors. They are delivering to the small supermarkets in the centre.


Even with dry pavements, it's touch-and-go whether they get around, even with an outwalker guiding them. Trying to imagine the same thing but with ice or snow on the ground boggles the mind. As it is, street furniture is often stuck at rakish angles where slow-moving trucks have bent it and the jettied buildings nearly always have dings on their first floors where the trailers have touched.


Many's the time I've had to send a conservation officer out to a listed building which has had an argument with a truck.

pineapple

DigForVictory wrote: »

Seemingly borax is also used in laundry

My mother used to keep a little blue pot of borax and honey (for mouth ulcers) in the bathroom cabinet. Now and then I used to sneak in there for a secret taster. I loved the flavour. I didn't know then that it was the honey as my mother had never bought honey. Looking at today's uses I'm amazed I'm still here to tell the tale.
Edit: These days the product is definitely banned in UK foodstuffs. It seems we are gradually losing access to things that work due to elf and safety. But we are still walking round in a smog of 'permitted' carcinogens

DigForVictory

My passport has arrived! And promptly been signed, whopped into a cover (charity shop find!) & then locked in the firesafe.
I also bought a small portable folding handled step, which my esteemed husband has helpfully labelled "the equalizer". Not accurately, alas.

pineapple

Morning preppers
On the news this morning was the (to me) astonishing statistic that even in this age of austerity, 3 out of 4 children under the age of 5 now have their own tablet, smartphone or computer. With my PAYG phone and ageing XP laptop, as a baby boomer supposedly living it large on the backs of the young, I must be doing something wrong. :huh:
What a generational shift we have seen - in my early years, many didn't even have a TV let alone the all singing all dancing models of today.
Meanwhile in pineapple land the high street banks are closing one by one. I have to do a round trip of 50 miles to get to my nearest branch. But local traders expect money transfers and frown at payment by cheque so I had to set up online banking to pay for a recent kitchen refit. So XP has to go
With all the reports about state hacking, I fear we are heading for the perfect storm.
Are the good folks here teaching their kids and grandkids about 'the old ways'? Or is it a fruitless exercise anyway?

moneyistooshorttomention

I'm in a remote area too Pineapple and have had loads of work done on this house (and sometimes redone:mad:). We don't have many banks either.

This is a part of the country where cash payments are often "preferred" - so it's always possible to pay them that way (bar it being huge sums of money that are unfeasible to pay in cash anyway).

For the rest - some expect cheques (and refuse to take cards - as they won't set themselves up with a machine for it). Others take cards.

There are a few that will accept bank transfers - but I've never had a problem yet with one saying "Bank transfer - and ONLY bank transfer" and I think they are clear in their heads that it is THEIR responsibility to provide at least one method of payment that the customer is prepared to use.

When I had my new kitchen put in - I was asked for the money in installments, as each stage progressed, and just stood there in the showroom waiting for them to push a card machine towards me and I paid them that way.

So the biggest cost of all (that kitchen) was paid by card and most of the other bills have been paid by cheque.