What Preps are you doing this week? Part 12

[Frnc]

Got to get my boiler sorted, but at least it's back on. The management are gonna talk to manufacturer management on Monday to try to figure out what to do!

Noticed I still have some dried egg left, need to chuck that. I'll probably give the Nido to a food bank.

[aldhelm]

Just as a bit of background as to how we got here four years ago we had a car accident that has left my wife with multiple health problems, not long after I had to leave work from ill health. We coped for a while when then wife also had to stop working she had taken a job at vastly reduced rates of pay. So we find ourselves in this situation.

This year we plan to work on the wife's business she had a little start up company last year, made very little from it but it has allowed us to see where the cracks are and more importantly what she can and can't do anymore. If she was as anywhere near as healthy now as she was it would be flying already but ......... well baby steps and all that.

Aldhelm, I had no idea you and your wife were facing those sorts of problems. You're doing incredibly well to pay any attention at all to prepping, rather than getting through each day, and I really admire the determination to start up a new business, however "little", in the middle of all that. Hope its a roaring success.

Thanks Arzosah, it means a lot to know we have support, I have two daughters but we don't live in each others pockets, (I wanted them to be independent and able to cope, unfortunately they are a bit too good at it) the wife's family aren't interested in her unless they want something, we have a friend who has been incredibly helpful, so it really does mean a lot.

I'd love it to be really successful and before the accident I know it would have been but to be honest if we can just pay the bills from it it will be enough. There is an insurance claim in progress which I'm hoping will be enough when put together with the money from our house for a bungalow as the stairs are getting harder for her. Fortunately the business doesn't need her to do much running.

[GeraldTheBonzai]

I'm due to retire in a couple of years ( if things work out). As such, can't put it off any longer - have started on The Plan.. What i need to do on the run up to retirement and, more importantly, what the hell I'm going to do with myself once I do retire.

Have a reasonable idea on the run up to retirement. Post retirement? Currently staring at a very blank sheet of paper....

[Arzosah]

I have two daughters but we don't live in each others pockets, (I wanted them to be independent and able to cope, unfortunately they are a bit too good at it) the wife's family aren't interested in her unless they want something, we have a friend who has been incredibly helpful, so it really does mean a lot.

You're very welcome in terms of any support I can give, which is very little but I know online support has been really important to me in the past.

It's a balancing act, isn't it, encouraging adult offspring to be independent. I'm glad you have a friend nearby. I know that with the chronic fatigue I've had, if I didn't have my sister in a town only 10 miles away (by sheer coincidence, we're hundreds of miles from our city of origin) I'd be having problems.

I'd love it to be really successful and before the accident I know it would have been but to be honest if we can just pay the bills from it it will be enough. There is an insurance claim in progress which I'm hoping will be enough when put together with the money from our house for a bungalow as the stairs are getting harder for her. Fortunately the business doesn't need her to do much running.

Income streams are the way forward, its a form of prepping to not depend on any one form of income, in a way. And an insurance claim is definitely a form of prepping, here's hoping that you've been able to tick all their boxes.

Are you sure a bungalow is the way forward? I've seen a lot recently about lifts in a domestic setting - I suppose without the national grid, or a massive supply of electricity from a petrol generator, a lift is irrelevant to a prepper but they look so much more secure than the stairlifts my parents had, that's all, really.

[Arzosah]

I'm due to retire in a couple of years ( if things work out). As such, can't put it off any longer - have started on The Plan.. What i need to do on the run up to retirement and, more importantly, what the hell I'm going to do with myself once I do retire.

Have a reasonable idea on the run up to retirement. Post retirement? Currently staring at a very blank sheet of paper....

Noooo! Even in terms of prepping, there's a million prepping-type hobbies. A U3A local branch is a wonderful thing. Tell us what interests you?

[pseudonym]

I'm due to retire in a couple of years ( if things work out). As such, can't put it off any longer - have started on The Plan.. What i need to do on the run up to retirement and, more importantly, what the hell I'm going to do with myself once I do retire.

Have a reasonable idea on the run up to retirement. Post retirement? Currently staring at a very blank sheet of paper....

Courses, lots of courses.... First aid, sewing machine, gardening, brick laying, windo fitting, plumbing, etc... the list goes on.

Wish I had done that but I've sat on my arse since 2009

[aldhelm]

Are you sure a bungalow is the way forward? I've seen a lot recently about lifts in a domestic setting - I suppose without the national grid, or a massive supply of electricity from a petrol generator, a lift is irrelevant to a prepper but they look so much more secure than the stairlifts my parents had, that's all, really.

You sound just like me I've told her about that and all I got was a rant about cost and not wanting to have a house where she can't access, but it's early days on that one. The dream is somewhere just outside a little village somewhere in Aberdeenshire, where we can just let the dogs come and go as they please and she can have some raised bed planting space.

[Frnc]

Boiler and tax issues all sorted. Phew. Apparently clearance between flue and joists realates to non-condensing boilers, that had hotter gases. It can't be that hot if it's made out of plastic. Tax was reduced from an extra £1800 to £119.

Got some Imodium delivered, routine update. One of the most important.

[Arzosah]

Are you sure a bungalow is the way forward? I've seen a lot recently about lifts in a domestic setting - I suppose without the national grid, or a massive supply of electricity from a petrol generator, a lift is irrelevant to a prepper but they look so much more secure than the stairlifts my parents had, that's all, really.

You sound just like me I've told her about that and all I got was a rant about cost and not wanting to have a house where she can't access, but it's early days on that one. The dream is somewhere just outside a little village somewhere in Aberdeenshire, where we can just let the dogs come and go as they please and she can have some raised bed planting space.

It's a good dream, for sure. And if there are issues other than accessing the first floor, about the surrounding neighbourhoods, then fair enough. If it was only about the access, I'd still say that a domestic lift is a much cheaper option than the money a move entails.

[aldhelm]

Ah no staying put isn't a viable option, although where we are now was fine when we bought it more than 20 years ago but as the years roll by niether health nor lifestyle is what it was. The gardens too small to allow a decent size extension, then add into that that we absoluely hate it where we are now (Sheffield), just wish we had known then what we do now. The good side of all the problems we have is that the wife is now much more onboard with a prepping lifestyle lol.