London based newbie. Any prepper groups in London?

[tigs]

Welcome to the forum

[Deeps]

I maybe didn't explain the 'friends and neighbours' thing very well, I wasn't suggesting that you rally the troops now as it were, more a case of if things do go Pete Tong then you have a ready made group with a shared common interest in mutual cooperation. Not all will be willing or even useful but rather than some nebulous group that might be spread around a fairly large area you'll have a group of people literally on your doorstep. You'll probably now them to an extent (well maybe not in London right enough ) and be aware of some aspects, the guy at no. 12 is a builder, no. 15 is a nurse etc. There's a good chance these will be the people you're 'stuck' with anyway.

[Arzosah]

Welcome

Especially with a baby, I think bugging out is a second rate option: if there's a gas leak, or an unexploded WWII bomb or something, it may be necessary, but "sheltering in place" is usually preferable - you've got *all* your stuff, you've got walls around you not a tent or something, its often better.

And ... water. Again, especially with a baby, you need water - even for the most ordinary event such as a burst water main - those tanks that get put at the end of the road are often vandalised, and they may be put out at inconvenient times. I'd recommend as many as you can of the 2 litre bottles - most supermarkets do the Basics/Value/Smartprice version for 20p, sometimes less. They're also small enough so that if one bursts, its only 2litres over the floor, not 5

As far as groups go, I'd say to get some of your own stuff set up first - there's so much information on here, you don't have to put *all* of it into operation (I haven't done that yet!) but something.

HTH

[Briggs 2.0]

With regards to the above, I add a water filter to your first prepper purchases. The consensus on here is that the mini-sawyer is good value at under £25.00.

[Alloneword]

I maybe didn't explain the 'friends and neighbours' thing very well, I wasn't suggesting that you rally the troops now as it were, more a case of if things do go Pete Tong then you have a ready made group with a shared common interest in mutual cooperation. Not all will be willing or even useful but rather than some nebulous group that might be spread around a fairly large area you'll have a group of people literally on your doorstep. You'll probably now them to an extent (well maybe not in London right enough ) and be aware of some aspects, the guy at no. 12 is a builder, no. 15 is a nurse etc. There's a good chance these will be the people you're 'stuck' with anyway.

Yea ok now i see your point, trouble is most of my neighbours are drug dealers, so if the worse does happen at least we can all get high

[Deeps]

I maybe didn't explain the 'friends and neighbours' thing very well, I wasn't suggesting that you rally the troops now as it were, more a case of if things do go Pete Tong then you have a ready made group with a shared common interest in mutual cooperation. Not all will be willing or even useful but rather than some nebulous group that might be spread around a fairly large area you'll have a group of people literally on your doorstep. You'll probably now them to an extent (well maybe not in London right enough ) and be aware of some aspects, the guy at no. 12 is a builder, no. 15 is a nurse etc. There's a good chance these will be the people you're 'stuck' with anyway.

Yea ok now i see your point, trouble is most of my neighbours are drug dealers, so if the worse does happen at least we can all get high

Probably well armed too. Every cloud and that.

[bungee]

Hi, here's a link to a website with a free book you can download as pdf. or you can buy it for £20.
Its called Beyond Collapse and is essentially my bible.
I reviewed it in the books section if you want to look it up. Its aimed perhaps more at an American market but don't let that put you off as 95 % is relevant and deals specifically with economic collapse.
Well worth a read especially as its free.

http://www.survivalcivilization.com/?page_id=70

[Nattykaddy]

Hi all

Thank you so much for the awesomely detailed responses.
So My responses to ypur suggestions

- I am convinced we are headed for financial collapse in the next 5 years. So the first step me and my partner are doing is protecting out savings by purchasing precious metals.
- I do not have any close friends nearby enough to incorporate them into a plan. My local aquitances I dont gel with enough to branch this subject they would probably look at me like I am a loon. My neighbour below me is nice but again I just don't know them well enough they also don't seem likely to be into prepping. We havent been where we are to trust anyone locally. I did get to know someone today who has worked for us numerous times who has been prepping a little bit and he also shared that his friends think hes paranoid. We are city folk so prepping for us feels important even if there wasnt anything looming. My dad is onboard but my partners parents dont seem interested either.
So far i have two people i know who are interested in working on a plan together or doing 'prepping'.
- In terms of groups, the reason i am keen to work with a group is a group that is working together to form a self reliant pool of resources. I understand that we wont neccesarily get along but im pretty prepared to spend time getting to know people to work this out.
- also im kinda looking for a group that is working together to grow sustainable food or similar. There must be some projects around?
- anyone know how many posts i need to do to have access???
Thanks

[Deeps]

Hi all

Thank you so much for the awesomely detailed responses.
So My responses to ypur suggestions

- I am convinced we are headed for financial collapse in the next 5 years. So the first step me and my partner are doing is protecting out savings by purchasing precious metals.
- I do not have any close friends nearby enough to incorporate them into a plan. My local aquitances I dont gel with enough to branch this subject they would probably look at me like I am a loon. My neighbour below me is nice but again I just don't know them well enough they also don't seem likely to be into prepping. We havent been where we are to trust anyone locally. I did get to know someone today who has worked for us numerous times who has been prepping a little bit and he also shared that his friends think hes paranoid. We are city folk so prepping for us feels important even if there wasnt anything looming. My dad is onboard but my partners parents dont seem interested either.
So far i have two people i know who are interested in working on a plan together or doing 'prepping'.
- In terms of groups, the reason i am keen to work with a group is a group that is working together to form a self reliant pool of resources. I understand that we wont neccesarily get along but im pretty prepared to spend time getting to know people to work this out.
- also im kinda looking for a group that is working together to grow sustainable food or similar. There must be some projects around?
- anyone know how many posts i need to do to have access???
Thanks

You need to have 10 posts approved (not including your joining thread) before flying solo so get posting Natty.

[featherstick]

Welcome to the forum.

First of all: needs analysis.

What are the local risks? What impact would they have? What measures can you take now to mitigate? This will help you decide where to place your time and money.

For example:
Risk of zombie apocalypse Low. Impact - high. Worth prepping for right now? No

Risk of house fire, by comparison - a lot higher. Impact - high. So mitigation is worth doing now and includes insurance, inventories, copies of key docs stored in safe place off-site, escape plan, enough cash to get an Uber to your mum's house, etc. etc.

Any industrial hazards? Any other risk factors? and so on.

Now, with the baby, there are concrete measures you can take right now. Day bag is a great BOB for baby and should be kept stocked with clothes, nappies, food and drink for you and baby, bit of spare cash, muslins, small baby-specific FAK and meds for both of you, list of phone numbers etc. Kept handy, and refilled after every outing. That's baby covered.

Have you done a paediatric first aid kit? Lots of places offer them for free or low cost, and it will make you a lot more confident (making all sorts of assumptions now about your competency/confidence, forgive me).

Then an adult first aid kit and some training.

In terms of finances - before you buy any precious metals, have you paid off as much debt as you can? The number 1 financial prep.

People. Babies are great ways to get to know people in the same boat. I don't talk to our neighbours about prepping, but I do talk about growing food, helping each other out and so on and I know who would be closer to us in an emergency. So take it easy, get to know people, work out who you want to pal up with later and what skills they have and that you can offer.

Food. There's loads going on in London on food. Quick google will help. I know personally of Transition, Otesha, Sustainable Lea, London orchards and so on. Dig about a bit (see what I did there?) and once you've found one lot you'll get referred to others. There you go:

http://www.sustainweb.org/londonfoodlink/

Health and fitness: Need to lose weight/get fitter/kick any bad habits?

Food and stores: How's your cooking? How would you fare in a power cut? Got a camping stove and a few tins if there's a glitch in supply?

Books: I thoroughly rate Fernando Aguirre's Modern Survival Manual about living in a society that collapsed overnight (Argentina in 2001), and Dmitry Orlov's Five Stages of Collapse (financial, commercial, political, social and cultural) which is a historo-philosophical examination of collapse and serves as a useful frame for thinking about collapse, without lists of things to buy or what gun to carry. In tandem these books form a useful duo - one which takes the long-term view and the other which is much more operational.

Fwiw it's worth, I think that we are well on the slow collapse and desperately vulnerable to all sorts of power outages, network disruption, minor or major infrastructure disasters etc. but the prepping response is pretty much the same for all of them.