Is ,or has, anyone used their preps in a full- on way?

[Britcit]

I suppose I have used my preps 'for real' twice.
First was, like at lot of people, during the pandemic\lockdown. My wife and I both kept working during the whole thing, and things didn't really change for us except we vastly reduced our shopping trips, and we tried to eliminate any unnecessary contact. I did shop every 4 - 6 weeks and managed to get everything we needed. Whilst Tesco and co-op shelves were sparce, the local cash and carry held loads of stock.

The second time was during our 5 day powercut. I've posted about that on a separate thread.

The big difference between the two was that the pandemic (for us) was ensuring we had enough food and other consumables to keep us safely out of the shops for long periods of time. The powercut was about what kit we had to keep warm, heat water and cook food.

We were more prepared for the 'long burn' crisis than for a 5 day powercut that could have proved catastrophic. Im just thankful we were as prepared as much as we were.
Y'all here need to take a lot of the credit for helping us through the cold days. Years of membership to this forum, reading and asking questions meant we were in a better position than most.

[Frnc]

This thread just reminded me of a couple of things I've heard preppers say. Both are good ideas. They might seem contradictory, but even if they are, it doesn't mean one is right and one is wrong.

First idea: try not to use your prep gear in day to day life. You might forget to put something back, or you could break it.

Second idea: you should use your prep gear, in order to practice and test it.

[preppermike]

I've occasionally had to use my 'loss of broadband' preps. I know it's a relatively small impact but my day job requires me to be online during my working hours.

Virgin Media are supposed to notify us when they are carrying out maintenance but they rarely do! Particularly if it is unplanned or an unexpected outage

For this I bought a Netgear Nighthawk Portable Router and a 5G capable sim card, I've set the network name on the Nighthawk to be the same as my virgin media network name, so in the event of an outage I simply turn the nighthawk router on and all of my devices re-connect to the portable router.

I just have to remember the keep the 5g sim topped up.

[Frnc]

I've occasionally had to use my 'loss of broadband' preps. I know it's a relatively small impact but my day job requires me to be online during my working hours.

Virgin Media are supposed to notify us when they are carrying out maintenance but they rarely do! Particularly if it is unplanned or an unexpected outage

For this I bought a Netgear Nighthawk Portable Router and a 5G capable sim card, I've set the network name on the Nighthawk to be the same as my virgin media network name, so in the event of an outage I simply turn the nighthawk router on and all of my devices re-connect to the portable router.

I just have to remember the keep the 5g sim topped up.

I've only got my phone, but most stuff is the same on my phone and my mac. I recently switched to Sky Mobile because the data rolls over. I hardly use any unless I go away, which might be a couple of times a year, so I was sick of getting ripped off.

[GillyBee]

I work from home and my phone is my failover for internet access. it has only been needed a couple of times,most recently for a 30 min daytime power outage but both times it performed just fine.

[preppermike]

I've occasionally had to use my 'loss of broadband' preps. I know it's a relatively small impact but my day job requires me to be online during my working hours.

Virgin Media are supposed to notify us when they are carrying out maintenance but they rarely do! Particularly if it is unplanned or an unexpected outage

For this I bought a Netgear Nighthawk Portable Router and a 5G capable sim card, I've set the network name on the Nighthawk to be the same as my virgin media network name, so in the event of an outage I simply turn the nighthawk router on and all of my devices re-connect to the portable router.

I just have to remember the keep the 5g sim topped up.

I've only got my phone, but most stuff is the same on my phone and my mac. I recently switched to Sky Mobile because the data rolls over. I hardly use any unless I go away, which might be a couple of times a year, so I was sick of getting ripped off.

I'll look into sky mobile as I'm forever throwing money away as it doesn't roll over on the sim card I have. Thanks for the Sky mobile tip!

[Frnc]

I've occasionally had to use my 'loss of broadband' preps. I know it's a relatively small impact but my day job requires me to be online during my working hours.

Virgin Media are supposed to notify us when they are carrying out maintenance but they rarely do! Particularly if it is unplanned or an unexpected outage

For this I bought a Netgear Nighthawk Portable Router and a 5G capable sim card, I've set the network name on the Nighthawk to be the same as my virgin media network name, so in the event of an outage I simply turn the nighthawk router on and all of my devices re-connect to the portable router.

I just have to remember the keep the 5g sim topped up.

I've only got my phone, but most stuff is the same on my phone and my mac. I recently switched to Sky Mobile because the data rolls over. I hardly use any unless I go away, which might be a couple of times a year, so I was sick of getting ripped off.

I'll look into sky mobile as I'm forever throwing money away as it doesn't roll over on the sim card I have. Thanks for the Sky mobile tip!

I'm actually paying 50p less, and getting 3 x more data (3 GB for £7), as well as the all important rollover. So if I go away, I should have plenty stacked up. Having said that my lodger said his kid was getting somthing like 25GB for £10, with Plusnet I think.

[preppermike]

Decent price that! I'll look into a few different ones and price compare