The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

Thriftygifty

Karmacat said:

Thriftygifty, retraining in your 30s is incredibly common for teachers, and most of them do it a few years after your situation - when their youngest goes to school at age 5 or whatever.
When me, my brother and sister were in our 30s (a loooong time ago!) we all retrained: my sister had been an insurance admin worker then a SAHM, she retrained as a teacher: I'd been an export finance exec in London, and retrained as a psychotherapist (really, I did  ) and my brother had been working in motorway construction and then managing a DIY shop, and he retrained as a drugs counsellor - they bit his hand off, because he was older, with life experience, but hadn't been an actual addict, kind of rare in those days.
Honestly, the world is your oyster, have a look around, take it all in and let it settle, then go for it.  Good luck.

Thank you Karmacat, my theory is that if I were to start training or get the ball rolling in 2021 that by the time my youngest starts school I should be a reasonable amount into it, well that was my logic, it's a pipe dream at the moment, I need to look into how much this will cost and juggling everything luckily DH is supportive and quite a hands on Dad, although he is currently in my bad books for breaking Covid protocol (my protocol not the gov, I am much stricter). 

I've just put my A order in for the 27th, as expected no bananas, strawberries etc.  Everything else was in stock for me to order, I shall see what actually arrives, I am not that bothered if there are subs or OOS we fortunately have enough to get by.  Mr T has started reintroducing limits on certain items.

I have family that live in Hereford, I spoke with them today, they said that a lot of Welsh people were crossing the border to go to the pubs and that one man had been arrested at the weekend. 

MingVase

Prices shooting up in Sainsbugs this morning, doing my online shop. Cream that was 80p is  now £1, and tins of carrots that have been 30p forever are today 40p.

jamanda

I mentioned to Mr. J this morning that I thought a lot of prices had increased by around 25%

euronorris

Good Morning! Final day before Xmas break for me. Still very busy.

Hopefully car is fixed and ready to be picked up today. Collecting meat order too, and I need to pick up a repeat script. And food shop from Mr T arriving this afternoon. I had some eggs on therefore neighbour and noticed yesterday they were out of stock. Went to look at other options for her, and ALL egg options were out of stock! Thankfully, I had time to add eggs to my Milk and More delivery (which came early this morning), so she is covered.

Yesterday was just as manic as I had an emergency dental appointment in the morning. I thought I had broken a tooth, but luckily it was just an old filling which had fallen out. Temp filling put in place and I go back in....May!! Fingers crossed it lasts! And in the afternoon, I had a work zoom quiz and an electrician came by to do an 'electric condition report' for the landlord. He only called the day before to organise. Seems it's a new requirement, and as our contract is due for renewal in early Feb, it had to be done before that. Masks worn the whole time and all fine.

I'll be glad when I log off the laptop at 5pm today!

pollyanna_26

On the subject of garden tools being slolen. It's a long time since I had my allotment but back then local chancers would steal both produce and some tools. Back then pricey equipment was kept elsewhere.

In recent years there have been breakins locally garages, sheds and summerhouses and sometimes houses. Some have been the chancers hoping to sell on  but often it's happenened when the "travellers" arrive. There are some genuine folk who live on the road but there are certain groups who visit the same areas year in and year out and we are unfortunate enough to be one of those areas.

In Spring and Autumn it's a knock at the door "Want your trees cutting Missus?" A few years ago they added rubbish removal to their portfolio of course those of us in the know never respond to the knock at the door but the local council have the job of clearing the mess from when they move on leaving their mess behind along with the the "rubbish removal " items thrown out in the nearest country lane.

A few years ago I and others had put charity bags out for collection by our local self funding hospice .I noticed someone quickly grabbing them and a large van with no number plates take off at speed. My neigbours and I stood there open mouthed. We reported it and a different arrangement was set up for collecting donations.

We also reported the tiny, shivering puppy sales in the car park of a local supermarket.far to young to leave their underfed mums .

When I had the lottie we always knew some fruit and veg would go awol ditto small items. I never left even a trowel in the shed on mine.

Many are struggling financially in the present situation. I've known some times in the past when only the life skills of cooking from scratch, balancing a budget , making and mending and growing our own food kept the wolf from the door and the bills paid. Those skills came from mum,dad , my beloved grandads and my youngest aunt who taught a young girl to sew , wallpaper a room and many other things. So many don't have that learning and the borrowing culture hasn't helped. With putting everythings on cards to buy the latest must have.

My mum brought us up to fear debt. At times she seemed very strict but always fair. I found over the years she was right as I saw good friends who all bought houses here  when I did , lose those homes when the interest rates shot up and they couldn't pay the second mortgage for the holidays, 2nd car , extensions etc.

I hope everyones produce stays safely in the ground. I'm able to grow a lot at home thankfully.

pollyx

gran3

Thriftygifty said:

elaine241 said:

I must admit this morning I was down in the dumps about the new lockdown, rising cases, new variant of Covid and wondering when it will all end. Will the vaccine cover the new variants if they keep popping up? Yup! I was in a right misery!! Went for a walk round the farm and dug up some potatoes for dinner in the pouring rain, felt a bit better! 

There must be something in the air, I am with you on being a misery today.  I've turned into shouting Mummy and hate it.  We put ourselves in extreme lockdown regardless of what Borris and his merry people say, since the start of March other than DS at school and DH back at work from the autumn we have not been out as a family at all, I have popped into a couple of shops if I have had to for school shoes but these were less than 15 mins when needed.  I think it's time to admit that I may have reached breaking point.  I am fortunate to have my family around me but I am really lonely, I have no happy head space and my head is now full of big questions about the future.  We own our own house we are careful with our money, have 3 beautiful children but since DS3 was born I feel as though its now time for a new chapter he is our last baby and I have been drifting for to long, I want a new path.  I am thinking of retraining, I am nearly 36 but haven't a clue where to start or what to do, I am lost.  DH is nearly 41 and also feeling the same!!  Sorry to babble on not prepping as such.  

Its so hard with everything up in the air. I feel the same but a;so grateful that we are still well.

daz378

Got the taxi   to drop me off at Tesco's  bought myself a caveman  Turkey drumstick and half a leg of lamb....got boxing day off so looking forward   lamb roast dinner....then slice the rest into separate freezer bags...both freezers mostly full......mood music  is for a trade deal   ... hope so.....stay safe

baggins11

I live in herefordshire and thrifty is correct we have lots of people crossing the border to come here especially for the pubs. Being tier 1 feels a bit like sitting ducks at the moment.  

Apparently some of the pubs have now been asking to see proof of address before they will let you in. 

I have also noticed the roads are much busier at the moment. The ones that aren't flooded anyway!

In terms of prepping I am generally well stocked but I had hoped to do a proper stocktaking before now.  Work has just been too busy.  I dipped into alot of my original brexit stash when my husband was made redundant.

Still I have a large veg plot with some produce left, loads of frozen leeks and about 10 massive butternut squash. 

thriftwizard

Baggins11, the roads are pretty busy here in semi-rural Dorset too. After the blessed peace & quiet of the first lockdown, the traffic has relentlessly ramped back up until I'd swear there's actually more traffic now than ever before. And there are RVs and big caravans streaming down the main road towards the south-west constantly; I really don't think people are staying put, though maybe they're not all coming from higher tiers? We're still in Tier 2, but I don't expect that to last; the numbers are still fairly low but so, unfortunately, is hospital provision, and the city the other side of the Forest is going into Tier 4 on Boxing Day. I'm assuming I will have to venture over there in the New Year to return DS3 to his seat of learning to finish his PhD; I just hope they'll let me out again! Though I expect we'll all be back indoors by then anyway... 

We are very well stocked-up (though there's bound to be something I forgot) and do have leeks & chard still in the ground at the allotment, but also a few in the garden. Plus some herbs struggling on in the little greenhouse, and I'll be starting some trays of salad leaves etc. in the conservatory & porch after Christmas. Add sprouting seeds & micro-greens, and we're good to go, even if that's just back into lockdown! Plus we have a couple of deliveries of Spanish sunshine, aka oranges, booked through Crowdfarming for January; fingers crossed they'll be able to get here. I can heartily recommend them, if you can afford them; they're utterly delicious, you can feel them doing you good, and they keep very well in a cool spot. Not the cheapest, but undoubtedly the best.

Helebore

Ooh Baggins 11 I'm originally from Herefordshire! Well we moved there just as I was almost 5 although my dad was in a b+b before we moved properly! My younger brother was born there so he's a Herefordshire bowman!