The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

VJsmum

My beginnings were similar, MrsLW and i don't think that ever leaves you - no matter how well off.. For me, money is security and so is having some preps in place.

Also, if you are snowed in (or flooded in as we have been when i was small), it makes sense to have something in. My mum fed 6 of us for 3 days when we were flooded in (the sea water came to our doorstep, but never quite over it). yes it was all tinned, but we were not hungry.

If people want to mock, that's ok by me. I will have the last laugh... - venom is a different matter and totally unnecessary. But we will still have the last laugh.

moneyistooshorttomention

Has obviously missed a post that's now been deleted......:cool:

DigForVictory

Having acquired some battery powered decorations, I am now implementing the gaffer & plastic feeler gauge battery storage techniques that lights may shine & seasonal fun return next I’m looking for it!

Better living through intelligent preparation!

[Deleted User]

I'm scanning my assorted documents to PDFs (I know, should've done it long ago ), so I can put them on a micro-SD card, to store in one of these, to be worn around my neck.

So far, I've digitised the following:-

Passport.
EHIC.
Driving Licence (front and back).
Car Insurance Certificate.
MOT Certificate.
Road Tax Receipt.
Log Book (first two pages).

Can anyone suggest anything I've missed?

Karmacat

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

I'm scanning my assorted documents to PDFs (I know, should've done it long ago ), so I can put them on a micro-SD card, to store in one of these, to be worn around my neck.

So far, I've digitised the following:-

Passport.
EHIC.
Driving Licence (front and back).
Car Insurance Certificate.
MOT Certificate.
Road Tax Receipt.
Log Book (first two pages).

Can anyone suggest anything I've missed?

I've got my version of this on several media, but not a micro SD card, thats a really good idea, Bob.


Other items: national health card, birth certificate, council tax demand and most recent bank account statement (need these for ID a *lot*), home and contents insurance if you have it, details of bank and savings accounts, addresses and phone numbers of loved ones. And your email password - you can do anything with any of your accounts if you can get on to your email account.

Cappella

Bob - house insurance policy details?

Everyone else - over the past few 3 weeks I took to fainting rather too dramatically and too regularly for fun. It was absolutely terrifying and triggered the anxiety attacks I really thought I'd conquered over the past three years. I didn't leave the house or enter a shop for two weeks but it didn't matter because our pantry and deep freeze were so well stocked, and still had brassica, spinach beet, beetroot and leeks on the plot. We were able to eat, and eat well, and that eased the stress and anxiety a lot.
It makes perfect sense to me to prep, to have a well stocked pantry is often better than having money in the bank and being able to grow a few things of your own can mean that you can still eat healthily when housebound.
Thankfully the trigger to the fainting episodes was fairly quickly identified by my doctor (heart medication prescription were too high after a significant weight loss so my blood pressure was very low) and I'm fine again now. However my first trip to the supermarket saw me replenishing all of the tinned and dried food we'd eaten whilst housebound.
Let's just ignore the mockers and the ignorant and carry on doing what we know makes sense - being as prepared as we can for whatever is thrown at us.:)

moneyistooshorttomention

Cappella - I gather the amount of medications taken does often need adjusting when people either lose or gain a significant amount of weight - and I gather some apparent failures of The Pill are down to the woman concerned having put on weight, but carried on taking the type/dosage prescribed for a normal-size woman.

Guess it's an analogous situation to a child often being given a lower dose of medicine than an adult is. Good that they've figured out what's happening:)

DigForVictory

Cappella - hugely relieved to hear you're back on form!

Karmacat - let us not forget that the ID requirement can be that these address documents are up to 6 months old....

Bob - this is the list I think Cappella shared a while back & I saved to Get On With:
Birth and marriage certificates
Passport details
Utility bills for the current year
Council tax bill and water rates bills for 2018
House bricks and mortar insurance details
House contents details
Life insurance policy details
Car and pet insurance details
Bank account details for all of our accounts (current and long and short term accounts)
Bank account standing orders and direct debit details
Our NHS numbers and relevant medical records
Copies of our last P60s
Pension authority details
Our solicitors details - they have copies of our wills and power of attorney documents.

I'd add: any repeat prescriptions you are on, your medical exemption certificate, & your glasses prescription where any are relevant.

May I suggest also Not Around Your Neck. Unless you have a really long length doubled on slip knots, you are wearing a garrotte, which unless it is intentional is a bit awkward. Plus you are wearing something clearly important to you & golly it's a canned kit to build a fake ID with. Just from a security perspective, hide it better?

MicroSD cards are so small you could stash them almost anywhere - wearer of an SOS talisman with some of that info on paper & space for a microsim & microSD too, ahem. Then you move into the more aesthetically delightful carriers, like matchcases, stampcases & the like.

If you're getting distinctly boggle the blighters, almost any largely flat but opening silver charm (and miword what a lot of bibles there are, along with passports & driving licences) into which you could quietly tuck some altogether more modern media exist - our grandmothers may not have had SD cards but they were wide awake to the possibilities of convenient little carriers of messages that the chaperone didn't rumble. These pandora things are all well & pretty but they're not usually hinged & intended to open & shut with good engineering.

Finally, when crossing borders, I'd have that card wrapped & fastened to my skin with a chunk of elastoplast. Unless I was certain of being scanned, at which point the nailed together footwear comes into its own, alongside the St Christopher, the ta'wiz (caveat your mileage may vary hugely depending on the devoutness of the individual security person) and whatever local religious lucky charm is appropriate - if scanned at all, the right charm should read metal & not be unpacked respecting religious sensibilities. Those you could wear around your neck - but security folk vary in their diligence, paranoia & hoping for a bribe.

I've wandered a bit, because I'm not sure when I'd want to carry all that information in one location. Some of me says it's an ID theft gift therefore split it, and some of me says hide it in plain sight on a portable hard disk, one page in an encyclopedia.

Do please digitise the data, store it in the cloud if you must (and there areas many pro & anti as there are believers in the efficacy of St C & co) and then carry it as you chose!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

I'm not sure that wearing shoes that have been adapted to include a handy stash point would be looked upon kindly at many airports.

herbily

DigForVictory wrote: »

A propos of technique, anyone heard from herbily?

It's OK, still here. Wasn't using razor blades, but my handy Lakeland hob scraping tool (ceramic hobs, for the removal of melted-on guck from) and keeping fingers well away from it. Inhaling gin fumes gave me a stonking headache after half an hour, this rescue project is definitely something to do out of doors rather than in.


Good tip, though, about unlocking the front door before you start.