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

[jansman]

Financial preps definitely , other preps to a much lesser degree. . Having food in the house did help to reduce shop visits during the pandemic although frankly we could have managed without in all probability.
On the financial side having a decent stash certainly helped about 18 years ago when my wife's sister had a marriage breakdown and she was effectively homeless. After a time with us we part funded a house for her. Then again about a decade ago having some money put aside helped when I was made redundant twice in six months and had my parents funerals to pay for too.
On a much smaller scale I had stocked up on diesel when it was around £1.30 a litre and used it during the blip in prices when it reached £2 before dropping back , so I've saved a bit there. I did similar with petrol when it was being sold at 99p during the pandemic. Just having an eye on the future really.

I must say that the financial side is a good prep too. My private pension is not huge , but it will see my wife in a somewhat comfortable position in the end. We have other assets too. Nothing huge,but still there. Also , our youngest is aware of the silver and gold I have stashed. And she knows how and where to move them on.

[grenfell]

My Granny was a bit of a prepper, although this was quite some time ago so I am not sure the word existed then. She prepped for Grandad's retirement, food, cleaning stuff, new sheets, towels, tea towels etc so that they would not have to worry about spending much money on such things whilst they adjusted to having less money. My Mum was similar and although it is still only two months since we lost her my Dad has needed very little apart from fresh food. He still keeps opening drawers and cupboards to find things stashed and has he says about enough new socks and underwear to last him another couple of years. I still find it funny that Mum laughed at me when she first saw my store room. Dad is not yet ready to go through her drawers and wardrobe but is still giggling about what "treasures" we might yet find. We know there is a whole bedding box of fabric as she was a keen sewer and provided my children and her grandchildren with school costumes, fancy dress outfits and pram and cot sheets. She also kept a diary and expenditure sheets and knew the date of every single important family event going back years, and how much she spent on shopping and other household expenses every single week for years and years.

My parents were the same although oddly my grandparents weren't even though on my father's side they were small holders. Their lack of preparation was one thing that spurred my mother on to always having a full pantry and cupboards. There was always plenty of bed linen for instance but it still didn't make my father use it. I remember one day going round to find that he'd somehow ripped the sheet on his bed and rather than replace it or even mend it properly he'd "repaired" it with gaffer tape...

[grenfell]

Financial preps definitely

I must say that the financial side is a good prep too. My private pension is not huge , but it will see my wife in a somewhat comfortable position in the end. We have other assets too. Nothing huge,but still there. Also , our youngest is aware of the silver and gold I have stashed. And she knows how and where to move them on.

I'd probably go as far as to say financial preps are THE prep that trumps most else. As they say money makes the world go round and all that. It's perhaps a bit galling to a prepper that money can do the job , for the most part , of that stock of tins or make that bug out so much easier , quicker and safer than trudging through the mud with your home in a rucksack. Not that I'm going to abandon the tins and what have you. They can be a hedge against inflation and can help with the diminishing purchase power of money but except in a very extreme case can't replace money. And all that gold and silver , we keep that not because it has any practical use or because it's edible but because it's a store of wealth , of money.

[Frnc]

Had to get the gaffer tape out of my bugout bag yesterday to pinch an inch. I do have a full size roll on my shelves, but I wanted the narrow stuff (25mm). You can EDC a bit of this by wrapping some round a pen, insect repellant or something. I have some wrapped round a dinner knife I keep in my bike pannier to help pull a tyre away from the rim. In fact quite a few things are day to day items as well as prep.

[Nurseandy]

We did for storm arwen then again with the next storm. Storm arwen we lost power for five days. Cruised it with woodburner, two trangias and lots of wine, chocolate & board games. Then again with subsequent storm, think we lost power for 3 or 4 days again. Two adults, three teenagers and two cats.
Best thing about it is now the whole household is on board with prepping.

[jansman]

Financial preps definitely

I must say that the financial side is a good prep too. My private pension is not huge , but it will see my wife in a somewhat comfortable position in the end. We have other assets too. Nothing huge,but still there. Also , our youngest is aware of the silver and gold I have stashed. And she knows how and where to move them on.

I'd probably go as far as to say financial preps are THE prep that trumps most else. As they say money makes the world go round and all that. It's perhaps a bit galling to a prepper that money can do the job , for the most part , of that stock of tins or make that bug out so much easier , quicker and safer than trudging through the mud with your home in a rucksack. Not that I'm going to abandon the tins and what have you. They can be a hedge against inflation and can help with the diminishing purchase power of money but except in a very extreme case can't replace money. And all that gold and silver , we keep that not because it has any practical use or because it's edible but because it's a store of wealth , of money.

At this point in my life, I must agree. Our house being paid off was my aim from first being married. What most folks consider important,like several holidays a year,new motor ,etc. were never on our radar.Couldn’t afford it! Mortgage rates were almost 4x more than what people are worried about now! But we got through. When the place was paid for a dozen years ago,the mortgage money was saved instead. You get the idea. Initially,the physical stock of ‘goods’ was a winner. Still is,because if / when I am in hospital,it means Mrs J can ignore shopping,which she did when I was two weeks laid up at the infirmary.

My own attitude towards prepping is that it is for personal strength against adverse situations.Back in the early days,I was like many other prepper/ survivalists. Prepared for zombies,asteroids,bugging out against some doolalley invasion and living in the woods! In reality,it was redundancy,wage cuts, the odd shortages, my wife having cancer,and of course,now myself.

Mind you,it’s a personal situation,and we all have different ideas.

[steptoe]

At this point in my life, I must agree. Our house being paid off was my aim from first being married. What most folks consider important,like several holidays a year,new motor ,etc. were never on our radar.Couldn’t afford it! Mortgage rates were almost 4x more than what people are worried about now! But we got through. When the place was paid for a dozen years ago,the mortgage money was saved instead. You get the idea. Initially,the physical stock of ‘goods’ was a winner. Still is,because if / when I am in hospital,it means Mrs J can ignore shopping,which she did when I was two weeks laid up at the infirmary.

My own attitude towards prepping is that it is for personal strength against adverse situations.Back in the early days,I was like many other prepper/ survivalists. Prepared for zombies,asteroids,bugging out against some doolalley invasion and living in the woods! In reality,it was redundancy,wage cuts, the odd shortages, my wife having cancer,and of course,now myself.

Mind you,it’s a personal situation,and we all have different ideas.

Like jansman has said the wife and i never holidayed other than our honeymoon , we use to save money and so on and would not do what many our age did run up huge debts remorgage and so on we always say if we have not gotthe cash we don't have it , we do use debit cards but only if we know we have money in there ,pay your bills and way first then whatever is left is youra to play with if you like but again i am like jansman we have always prepared in one way or other mainly after i got sick it got more to the point we had to put stuff in place but again it is personal choice but i always say buy what you can afford do not over stretch buying it all at once just dribble in the stocks and bits you need and you can not go far wrong .

Just remember we are all different and prepare in different ways

[grenfell]

Like jansman has said the wife and i never holidayed other than our honeymoon , we use to save money and so on and would not do what many our age did run up huge debts remorgage and so on we always say if we have not gotthe cash we don't have it , we do use debit cards but only if we know we have money in there ,pay your bills and way first then whatever is left is youra to play with if you like

I've said this before so sorry for repeating myself. For most of my life I have been an employed carpenter and my wife was a secretary until our daughter was three and went part time after that. Neither of us had huge wages , mine was average wage in a good year and women are paid less .We've supplemented our income with ebay sales , scrap metal and so on and consider ourselves comfortable rather than rich. But despite that we managed to buy ourhouse outright , part funded her sister's house and still have been able to run motors nd have holidays and don't feel we are hard done by so I frankly struggle to understand why those on £30K a year are finding it hard. Just poor money management in my eyes...

[itsybitsy]

Like jansman has said the wife and i never holidayed other than our honeymoon , we use to save money and so on and would not do what many our age did run up huge debts remorgage and so on we always say if we have not gotthe cash we don't have it , we do use debit cards but only if we know we have money in there ,pay your bills and way first then whatever is left is youra to play with if you like

I've said this before so sorry for repeating myself. For most of my life I have been an employed carpenter and my wife was a secretary until our daughter was three and went part time after that. Neither of us had huge wages , mine was average wage in a good year and women are paid less .We've supplemented our income with ebay sales , scrap metal and so on and consider ourselves comfortable rather than rich. But despite that we managed to buy ourhouse outright , part funded her sister's house and still have been able to run motors nd have holidays and don't feel we are hard done by so I frankly struggle to understand why those on £30K a year are finding it hard. Just poor money management in my eyes...

Grenfell - I'm going to ask you to refrain from comments regarding people's personal circumstances and monetary situation - thanks. We set out how this forum would operate some months ago after we had to eject some utterly appalling individuals. Everyone's circumstances are different.

[steptoe]

Like jansman has said the wife and i never holidayed other than our honeymoon , we use to save money and so on and would not do what many our age did run up huge debts remorgage and so on we always say if we have not gotthe cash we don't have it , we do use debit cards but only if we know we have money in there ,pay your bills and way first then whatever is left is youra to play with if you like

I've said this before so sorry for repeating myself. For most of my life I have been an employed carpenter and my wife was a secretary until our daughter was three and went part time after that. Neither of us had huge wages , mine was average wage in a good year and women are paid less .We've supplemented our income with ebay sales , scrap metal and so on and consider ourselves comfortable rather than rich. But despite that we managed to buy ourhouse outright , part funded her sister's house and still have been able to run motors nd have holidays and don't feel we are hard done by so I frankly struggle to understand why those on £30K a year are finding it hard. Just poor money management in my eyes...

I'm going to ask you to refrain from comments regarding people's personal circumstances and monetary situation - thanks. We set out how this forum would operate some months ago after we had to eject some utterly appalling individuals. Everyone's circumstances are different.

Ok i am lost there i have not picked on anyone i am just saying as jansman did we put paying our bills first , i am unsure what i have done wrong please can you explain if i have picked on someone