THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

No snow here, but it is very cold. My prepping at the moment is preparing for redundancy. I'm not sure how long it will take to find something else, so I'm stocking up on basic dry foods and cleaning/toiletry stuff.

I've bought myself an address book this week to store passwords in, so at least they'll be easier to find. My current little book isn't in any particular order and is so old it's falling apart.

Thanks Ivyleaf. It's a little scary but also just a little bit exciting. A whole new chapter starting.

I have an encrypted file entitled RIFs for Really Important Files. Even though it's encrypted I still use code words to indicate what the password is for. But if you are a victim of fraud and the bank asks you if you wrote down your password or PIN , what do you say? It's not like writing it on a bit of paper and leaving it in your handbag along with the relevant card to be stolen (which they obviously refuse to compensate you for) but you have still made a record of it and I do worry they would use that as an excuse to wriggle out of repaying you

maryb wrote: »

But if you are a victim of fraud and the bank asks you if you wrote down your password or PIN , what do you say? It's not like writing it on a bit of paper and leaving it in your handbag along with the relevant card to be stolen (which they obviously refuse to compensate you for) but you have still made a record of it and I do worry they would use that as an excuse to wriggle out of repaying you

Me too

Speaking of which, one thing I regularly do is that when my bank or telecoms provider phone me (which is mostly when they've made an idiotic mistake and we've been clearing it up) they ask me security questions, and I refuse to answer. Its publicly available knowledge, they say. And I say, well in that case it isn't a very secure question, is it. And *you* phoned *me*.

But its exactly the issue you mention - if I'd tell them the security answers, then maybe I told a scammer. Such is life - I loathe talking to them on the phone anyway, its the one thing that makes me furious

Well, go me!!! I've just managed to switch back to the old green version, after I-don't-know-how-long on the blue! At least a year, I think. I've only just noticed that there's an option for "forum version" at the bottom of "your settings" - wonderful!

We're also hunting for a new home with a bigger garden; OH & I are a tad dismayed by all the nitpicking and rapidly-multiplying Rules at the allotments, and would rather be free to build raised beds & paths, use our polytunnel etc. Trouble is, we still need a big house, with 3 offspring still at home and an elderly parent we'd like to keep a much closer eye on. Although we'll be selling a decent-sized house with a decent-sized garden in a desirable location, I think we'd have to win the lottery to afford anything bigger within about a 30-mile radius of here! And here, of course, is where the jobs are...

One of DS2's workmates commutes nearly 80 miles each way, every day, in order to be able to afford a sensible-sized home & garden; I know people do that to get into London every day - but down here? With no sensible or reliable public transport options & a main road that only has a couple of small stretches of dual carriageway and goes over the highest hill on the south coast, as well as several others that aren't much smaller? It's all getting very silly, when people can't afford the homes they need in the places that they need to be...