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The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)
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Many things that I used to buy, I learned can be home baked. Fish fingers, for example. I use this recipe https://www.recipetineats.com/fish-fingers-recipe/. I'm now planning to make crumpets. Just need to use alum foil to create rings the right size.
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I think Prepping is all about adapting and changing and using what we have, it's a good exercise for all of us. And stops us getting bored and stuck in our ways20
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I was very pleased with my general prepping philosophy yesterday. For many years I've carried a small bag within whatever bag I've had with me (which my DP told me he would refer to as an EDC pouch-Every Day Carry) and it's got plasters, a bandana, facemask, nail file, pen knife, torch, sanitary products, paracetamol, sweeties, a tenner, and a small finger of Kendal mint cake. Yesterday a friend went into labour at 2am and I dashed over to hers to look after her little boy, just grabbing a rucksack and throwing in a change of clothes, a book, and my EDC pouch. The tenner was useful as there was only oat milk which I'm not fond of (as was the facemask for the corner shop), the torch came in handy when I had to root around for cat food under the stairs, the sweeties were very useful for me and the little'un whilst watching Fireman Sam, and when I took a chunk out of my nail later that day, the file was very handy.And whilst at various points over the years I've used all the things inside that pouch, I think using so many yesterday was a useful reminder that little preps make a big difference to your quality of life.Grocery budget in 2023 £2279.18/£2700Grocery budget in 2022 £2304.76/£2400Grocery budget in 2021 £2107.86/£2200Grocery budget in 2020 £2193.02/£2160Saving for Christmas 2023 #15 £ 90/ £36523
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Floss said:pelirocco said:marycanary said:MingVase said:Def time to start studying how we shopped and ate in years gone by when people were poorer but also more careful!Providing you have any faith in Which.
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Remember always to have a good Multivitamin in among your preps- one that contains a lot of minerals and vitamins as if you end up eating out of stocks and no fresh food one a week should fill in the gaps. These days I also advise adding extra Vit C and if the Vit D is l000iu/mcg or less in the multi-vit have in some of 3000iu/mcg so if weather bad it ensures you have enough - medical thought is now everyone in UK especially north of Midlands should take a Vit D all year round unless you work outdoors. I found it stops depression, had suffered it for years then heard how it was found that those with depression very often have low Vit D so I started to take it. slowly reducing the anti-depressants,
I had for years only needed them in winter but in recent years due to being more and more housebound needed them all year around and found depression slowly went but took me 6 months to convince my doctor about this (this was back in 2014 when Vit D was still not mentioned around as much. So she asked me to stop them for a couple of months - it was February to April and not a fun time I admit as a lot going on legally over our kin child but did it and she found my Vit D levels were basically non-existent and so since then am giving it on prescription and never needed any anti-depressants since - not saying everyone who suffers from depression ( and mine was bad, there was a few times I could have gone if not for others staying with me and talking me through till the total blackness and hopelessness passed - just hits out of the blue one minute fine and next nothing seems worthwhile and all was due to me being low in Vit D - very scary so I make sure I have extra in, in case anything happens and cannot get my prescription, to me as important as my diabetic medication as spend even more time in bed than I did then. They test my Vit D levels twice a year and all now fine and I no black days for me, shudder at the thought.
So, what I am saying is make sure your preps include anything that will ensure you stay both mentally and physically healthy, whatever it is from medications to vitamins or anything else, so check for anything that helps, things you take for granted and never think twice about but if went would make you feel low /ill/ out of sorts. Same of course for all family members and pets.Need to get back to getting finances under control now kin kid at uni as savings are zilch
Fashion on a ration coupon 2021 - 21 left19 -
I take vitamin d every day since DD 's MS nurse said that we don't get enough in Northern latitudes and there's a connection with MS. I had a spell of depression many years ago and try to watch my sugar intake, particularly in Winter, because I felt it was worse when I had too much of it..2025 Fashion on the ration
150g sock yarn = 3 coupons
Lined trousers = 6 coupons ...total 9/66 used
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Nightie = 6 coupons
Sandals = 5 coupons ... total 49/6614 -
Toonie said:I was very pleased with my general prepping philosophy yesterday. For many years I've carried a small bag within whatever bag I've had with me (which my DP told me he would refer to as an EDC pouch-Every Day Carry) and it's got plasters, a bandana, facemask, nail file, pen knife, torch, sanitary products, paracetamol, sweeties, a tenner, and a small finger of Kendal mint cake. Yesterday a friend went into labour at 2am and I dashed over to hers to look after her little boy, just grabbing a rucksack and throwing in a change of clothes, a book, and my EDC pouch. The tenner was useful as there was only oat milk which I'm not fond of (as was the facemask for the corner shop), the torch came in handy when I had to root around for cat food under the stairs, the sweeties were very useful for me and the little'un whilst watching Fireman Sam, and when I took a chunk out of my nail later that day, the file was very handy.And whilst at various points over the years I've used all the things inside that pouch, I think using so many yesterday was a useful reminder that little preps make a big difference to your quality of life.
Another very simple prep I've used recently is having lots of pound coins - car parks nowadays seem to either be contactless or cash, and the cash is £1 coins only.
ETA - and since I don't have a car myself, the other useful prep in this situation has been memorising my sister's car registration number!2023: the year I get to buy a car15 -
thriftwizard said:I'm thinking about that idea, @marycanary, and must admit to being slightly baffled. I'm self-employed and work both at home and outside it, and tend to shop, cook & eat fairly traditionally (admittedly from a number of different traditions) because that's what works best for our household; I've nothing against my sisters who work full-time outside the home, but I don't see how me shopping & eating differently would support them? And I'm not clear that using modern technology does, in fact, prevent waste? I see friends piling their trolleys high with ping-cuisine, then struggle to get all the containers into their recycling bins, and there are always bits that various members of their families won't eat, and I know they spend much more on food than I do.
Back when I was working full-time outside the home & commuting, I made full use of those twin culinary blessings, the slow-cooker and the wok, which are definitely not cutting edge technology but did make it possible to eat well whilst saving money & not working too hard at it. I suspect that teaching people (not necessarily just women) how to plan & shop effectively & cook well would be more helpful than any amount of modern technology. Or television chefs!I'm not all that old, and I am still years from state pension age. Nevertheless, when I was a child, we lived in a house without an inside toilet or bathroom. My parents did not own a fridge, freezer, slow cooker or microwave. We did have a keeping cellar and meat safe. Us children come home from school for lunch. My mother did not work outside the house, she had to shop frequently because perishables did not keep well even in the cellar. She was stuck at home because she had to provide us with a midday meal. I think our diet was quite monotonous. Anything left over had to be eaten quickly before it went off. I don't recall being hungry but we did not always have the amount of food we would have liked when we would have liked - if you can understand the difference.While I was still at primary school two things happened, we moved to a new house because the council demolished our old home as part of a slum clearance scheme and we also became eligible for free school meals so stopped coming home for lunch. I think this freed Mum from continual cooking, although she still cooked a hot dinner every night for my father.Mum could now go out cleaning to earn a bit of money to supplement the family budget. About that time, my parents brought a fridge with a small ice compartment. The compartment was just large enough for a bag of frozen peas and a block of arctic roll. Even so, my parents could not buy in bulk when food was on offer or in season, they could not batch cook.Even though Mum earned a small amount of money cleaning, we were all dependent on my father and his wage. That wasn't a problem for us because he was a good man who worked very hard for his family. However, some families were not so fortunate and it must have been very hard on them if the main wage earner was a "wrong un".As an adult, apart from a period of unemployment, I have always been in paid work even when my children were small. This came in very useful when my ex-husband left us and "disappeared". I made and still do make full use of a fridge, freezer, microwave and slow cooker. I have used ASDA's delivery service enabled by the internet, although I don't do so at the moment.I don't waste food and I don't think working full-time means waste is inevitable.
There is sometimes a nostalgia for "the good old days", even the war, depression and other times of hardship. I don't share that nostalgia and I don't feel superior to others who I think should be educated to act better through cooking and planning. I like technology and I am glad it has enabled me to work outside the house. So you can wish for the old days, I'll take technology and the ability to earn my own money.18 -
The prepping threads have never been about wishing we were back in 'the good old days' of no home technology but more about learning from the past so that if ever there were power outages/shortages of any type, we can fall back onto the old ways to keep ourselves fed and warm even in deepest winter or hottest summer days. Most people don't have an ice house deep in the shady part of the garden nor a larder that really stays very cold all year round.
Most if not, all love our fridges, freezers, microwaves, slow cookers etc but they all rely on electric power (ok odd one does still use gas) and if that goes out, they stop working it's that simple and if it lasts for days then food is going to go off quickly and not be able to be cooked using modern electric tech. Heating and water also rely usually on electric even if only tiniest amounts to start them off and most are not lucky enough to have a working fireplace and well in the garden so again the prepping thread is about learning from the past and having alternative ways to keep warm and have water to drink as against most do not have the room to buy and store vast amounts of water.
Very, very few of us want to live as they did in the past before such wonderful items appeared but we accept that the power to run them might one day be off for a while and don't want to be caught out with a full freezer and fridge and no way of using it to keep us feed for days if not longer.
Unlikely yes but to those of the being prepared persuasion it's something we take into consideration in our lives and incorporate learning how to indeed prepare and survive in our own homes rather than be taken elsewhere, should the worst ever happen. Not saying we will succeed but we are interested enough to try and in the mean time totally love all our moden tech our homes have.Need to get back to getting finances under control now kin kid at uni as savings are zilch
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That's a good post PaH, decribes perfectly how I look on prepping.
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