Preparing for troubled times ahead - Advice on what is needed.....

[Paul_B]

This thread confuses me a little in that it seems to be about planning for disasters or breakdown of modern society or similar. I don't think that's as likely a scenario as inflation putting a squeeze on personal finance. Prepping for that IMHO starts with tracking where you're at now.

Do you track your incoming and outcomings? Have you spotted your wasteful spend? Have you looked into your energy use? Which devices/appliances are wasteful or not needed? You can get devices that measure appliance electricity use so you can see what's wasteful. Timers on your sky TV box so it's not on when you're not going to be in using it will save the cost of the timer in one month. Turn microwaves off completely when not using it, I've done that for some time because of an obsessive need to zero the timer if cooking is stopped mid timer, saving electricity is a positive side effect and excuse for it.

IMHO reducing waste is good for your financial situation and the environment so that's one prepping that we should all do. The hoarding of food, fuel, wood, use of woodburners, making own clothes, stocking up on tools, etc are really not of interest to me because i don't expect societal breakdown. However my big decision we're looking into is whether the really good FiT payments from our solar panels are a better bet than electrical storage. If we get a battery I think the FiT payments will stop so will it mean our finances loose out.

Another thing is to get a better job and one that hopefully allows for home working. As I said, my prepping is about coping better with the inflation issue. A better job is a good prepping action for that I reckon.

 

[TeeDee]

A better job is a good prepping action for that I reckon.

Define what is a better job?

 

[Scottieoutdoors]

Define what is a better job?

Getting paid a million quid a year to go and hike and camp whenever you want?

 

[TeeDee]

Getting paid a million quid a year to go and hike and camp whenever you want?

I meant more , what is better?? Better money or salary? and what are we willing to trade to achieve that? I'm not saying to take the view of checking out from society but that balance of quality aspects matter.

Better salaries can come and go-its what we do with them that also matters , if one just uses bigger monthly income to live life in a bigger way via more hobbies its a sum zero game.

Better to live modestly , and invest surplus to over time generate an income if one can. I've always seemed to make more money ( to create investments and other assets ) from side hustles as opposed to my main job.

 

[Paul_B]

Define what is a better job?

Better benefits and hybrid or home working. Former helps with the bills and latter helps with family life/ travelling costs/pollution costs due to travelling to work site. We've got solar panels so home working, certainly in summer months, has limited costs but I'd still be able to claim tax benefits AIUI. Plus family stuff like school drop off/pickup is possible.

It might sound a bit strange but the less we all have to travel for things the less costs and environmental damage we'll be causing I reckon. Lockdown changed our outlook. We moved into a small, rural village with a usually excellent train service to allow us to use ICE vehicles less. We now feel less need to go distance to nice countryside because it's outside our front and back doors. It all helps.

 

[Paul_B]

Oh! I should point out that I'm in a job in the private sector that hasn't had pay increases for salaried staff for an embarrassingly long time. Even waged staff only got pay increases when the minimum wage increased and there was a risk of the company slipping under thar wage level. Now salaried supervisory workers are not much better paid than basic operators for a lot more responsibility and no overtime pay at all!

Overall it takes very little to count as a better job. The only positive is I get top management backup and I almost never work outside of my standard hours which are such that I travel at good times for commuting. Plus I can do the job with my eyes closed and half asleep.

What is a good job? Well there's a certain large employer I had a summer job with when at school who's got a major site on the train line through my village that's won a major UK government contract and is looking to increase staff levels by 25% in that by business group in this site. I have friends and neighbours working for them and the positive feedback on my chances is encouraging. The work involved should not be harder or more onerous than my current job neither. I just need to take the plunge. If successful our already low expenditure tendencies and a successful job at this place would significantly improve our household's chances with the cost of living / economic issues coming our way.

I think these last two posts explains well what a better job can do for household budgets. It's not about mo' money in itself but the whole package of benefits for what I have to put in.

 

[Scottieoutdoors]

I find having had a pretty damn low income in the past it's really stripped out various things, I was still comfortable, still perhaps overly comfortable, but it certainly made me recognise that physical hobbies were much more entertaining than (for example) sky TV which I never had, but have known many who have...

It made me and my wife "invest" into hobbies - camping stuff, kayaks and necessary stuff for them... very very roughly kitted out our van with a lifting bench storage that can pull out into a bed, camping loo in there too etc... it suddenly meant that whilst friends on days off were buying tickets for things or going to town shopping or spending lots, on our days off we were making sure we had fuel for the van, food for us an that was it... everything else we were doing was "free"...

 

[Woody girl]

This thread confuses me a little in that it seems to be about planning for disasters or breakdown of modern society or similar. I don't think that's as likely a scenario as inflation putting a squeeze on personal finance. Prepping for that IMHO starts with tracking where you're at now.

Do you track your incoming and outcomings? Have you spotted your wasteful spend? Have you looked into your energy use? Which devices/appliances are wasteful or not needed? You can get devices that measure appliance electricity use so you can see what's wasteful. Timers on your sky TV box so it's not on when you're not going to be in using it will save the cost of the timer in one month. Turn microwaves off completely when not using it, I've done that for some time because of an obsessive need to zero the timer if cooking is stopped mid timer, saving electricity is a positive side effect and excuse for it.

IMHO reducing waste is good for your financial situation and the environment so that's one prepping that we should all do. The hoarding of food, fuel, wood, use of woodburners, making own clothes, stocking up on tools, etc are really not of interest to me because i don't expect societal breakdown. However my big decision we're looking into is whether the really good FiT payments from our solar panels are a better bet than electrical storage. If we get a battery I think the FiT payments will stop so will it mean our finances loose out.

Another thing is to get a better job and one that hopefully allows for home working. As I said, my prepping is about coping better with the inflation issue. A better job is a good prepping action for that I reckon.

Just out of curiosity, how would a frail pensioner manage to do this, or perhaps a disabled person who cannot work, or a single parent,(male or female) manage to improve their situation.?
The other thing is that as a married person, you have the possibility of a partner also working, sharing bills and childcare. How does a single adult, with or without children cope?
They have the same costs in daily living as a family with two working adults. Petrol costs the same, rents are not cheaper, you do get, as a single person a 25% reduction in council tax, but its not 50% so a single person is paying three quarters as much on their own, as a two wage family. its far more complicated than just getting a better paid job, or working from home for many people.
I think there is a misconception that single living is cheaper, it's not in reality, as take me for instance as a single person now, due to the passing of my partner, I have no one to share the cost of bills and rent. They did not miraculously become less because he was no longer around.
The one and only concession was the 25%reduction in council tax. The buying of less food was a small saving in comparison, as buying for one, is not that much easier or cheaper. This I do know from experience. And I now had to add bus fares to the cost of shopping., as I no longer had a car, and partner to drive me. Or as I have been forced during the pandemic I had to use my over priced mini market in the village.
Random example.£1.80 for a can of coconut milk, 90p at tesco , with an online order, or 60p at liddell, 14 miles away, but I need transport. Bus is once a day. Leaving 2 hrs to get to the other side of town and shop and walk back carrying everything. Last return, 1.45 pm No trolly to car boot for me either. So that's 4 hrs for shopping out of a day. And if I can't carry it, tough! So I'm back to inflated prices , on top of inflation, and no option
Miss the bus, which takes an hour each way, and it's over £60 for a taxi.
Solutions would be welcomed.

 

[Broch]

QED

It's only Paul's last paragraph that is not applicable to elderly/pensioners etc. - all the other 'proposals' are valid for everyone and, in fact, echo a lot of what you are doing anyway.

Are we not allowed to discuss preparations for troubled times by working people & families?

 

[Scottieoutdoors]

I guess one size doesn't always fit all, equally @Woody girl I suppose your way of lightly stockpiling wouldn't work for someone living in a studio flat (not me, but as an example)..

But maybe your suggestions might make someone think of lightly stocking up on a few essentials, whilst thinning out a cupboard full of extra pans that never get used, or the junk cupboard etc..

He did point out a lot of stopping wasted spending, which if I remember rightly (before we got a little excited) you were keen on.

I heard recently someone saying how they had "beaten" sky down from £120 a month to £90 a month.... people can spend however much they want on what they want, but certainly isn't my idea of a deal...

 

[Woody girl]

Are we not allowed to discuss preparations for troubled times by working people & families?

Did I say that we were not allowed to discuss that?
Please quote me.

I am only able to talk, and can only present my particular experiences, or those of close friends.
I'm interested in all perspectives, and am open to sensible ideas and suggestions.
I don't have a problem with others describing what their particular situation/problems/ solutions are, and that can actualy prompt others to think on something they may not have known or considered, and possibly open eyes to others who may not be aware, of another's difficulties trying to navigating this present time. I've never dismissed anyone who has more, or less than me as not worth talking about.

I agree that we do have, as a modern society, much wasted spending. I have cut all unessasary spending, such as my TV. I no longer miss it, as I find I now have much more time to make things I might need, learn new skills, and read my extensive library of practical books, forage and make stuff for my larder etc.
It's a different, and much simpler way of living, and if I was able to have a great full time job as I have in the past, I would not have as much knowledge and peace of soul as I have now, as I'd be forever working and dreaming of a walk in the woods, instead of actualy doing it.
I do not work in the accepted way at a job, granted, but ask British Red, a smallholding, and all that entails, even though mine is garden sized is a lot of work, all the same.
I'm lucky to have a space to grow food, but its not always an easy idyllic life! I do grow a lot of sprouts on the window sills , so growing stuff isn't impossible in a flat without an outside space, for very minimal outlay. There are wonderful compact hydroponics kits designed for just that situation.... if you have the money. So cut out sky and do that instead.
if you want sky or whatever, more than the ability to grow food, don't say that you can't! Where there is a will... there is a way.

 

[Corso]

If you take the country, rather than the land mass as dating from 1776 then yes it is

We honestly don't know how old because it's not a house of status so there are less records than grand places. It's certainly documented back to the early 1700s but an expert tells us that the bricks are older than that. But could it be that the bricks were reused from an older building? I doubt we will ever know. The place names are Norse but the land was farmed here long before they came. We settle for "old"

Be grateful it's not a house of status, there are so many maintenance restrictions it becomes unviable

 

[TLM]

While the above discussion is on target one way mostly handles how to prepare food wise. Very OK as without eating things start to look dreary fast.
But.
That does not solve all the other few hundred problems. I have a kind of McGyver approach to that, enough odds and ends and one should be able to figure out something. If not then alternative B, C, D ...

The one problem with that approach is that one really should do a dry run for two weeks and see what lacks and where is the catch.

Next you know there are those nice young men in their white coats on the door ...

 

[Woody girl]

I guess one size doesn't always fit all, equally @Woody girl I suppose your way of lightly stockpiling wouldn't work for someone living in a studio flat (not me, but as an example)..

But maybe your suggestions might make someone think of lightly stocking up on a few essentials, whilst thinning out a cupboard full of extra pans that never get used, or the junk cupboard etc..

There are all sorts of unused spaces if you realy look. Under a bed for example.
I don't have much spare storage, one cupboard that I keep tools in, including gardening tools as I don't have a shed, so I looked, and realised I could actualy get two shelves in above the tools. A bit of no nails, some old roof battening being thrown out from a new roof job localy, and a broken down pallet have solved that one. Extra storage that in twenty odd years I'd never noticed. The kitchen kick boards are easy to remove, and with a few hinges so that they stay in place, but are accessable , you have storage under a cupboard.
Under a bath has loads of room. A bit of DIY on the bath front to make a door, , and you have a huge storage area.
If you have a pedestal basin in your bathroom one of those little cupboards that go round it makes storage for soap, toothpaste, towels etc.
Do you have empty suitcases on top of your wardrobe , or stored somewhere else? Fill them with spare blankets, winter pj's, hot water bottles, or even tins.
There are many hidey holes if you take the time to realy look.
I've lived in a bedsit and a very small studio flat too, so I know it can be difficult.

 

[slowworm]

The one problem with that approach is that one really should do a dry run for two weeks and see what lacks and where is the catch.

I get plenty of practice with that as we often get power cuts and other problems. I also tend to prefer living with things I can mend and fix, so a wood burner rather than some complex central heating boiler.

Along with growing quite a bit of food and having a general interest in wild foods and perennial plants etc I could survive at home for a few months without issue.

Even then though, a medical emergency and you're stuffed.

 

[TeeDee]

Even then though, a medical emergency and you're stuffed.

Small community resilience is severely underrated.

 

[British Red]

Be grateful it's not a house of status, there are so many maintenance restrictions it becomes unviable

When I say "not of status" I mean not a Manor, Abbey etc. It is Grade II listed

 

[Scottieoutdoors]

@Woody girl

Tbh, we live in the city, but we're not too short on storage space if we use it efficiently...

What I need to do is thin out a lot of stuff, starting with clothing really, I've got so many t shirts that don't fit properly and I've used the "it'll be a t shirt I'll wear if I need to do any painting or mucky jobs" far too many times... What I want to do is check the material, make a small fire on the beach and try and make some char cloth... but alas, time is hard to find.

 

[Corso]

When I say "not of status" I mean not a Manor, Abbey etc. It is Grade II listed

respect to you, it's not something I'd want to take on - far too much red tape

 

[Scottieoutdoors]

respect to you, it's not something I'd want to take on - far too much red tape

Depends how far along it was prior to being grade II... also depends on what features are listed, what you can get away with because unless they're knocking on your door they won't see it! Etc...