Financial prepping

[PreppingPingu]

Given the global financial uncertainties at present of a possible Brexit and a possible Tump president combined with various other economical factors, I personally feel it will be a bumpy year ahead. So my question is - NOT going into politics here - are any of you thinking more keenly about financial resilience in terms of prepping? Financial worries ruin relationships and make hard times that much harder.

While paying off bills, mortgages etc is not an option for everyone, there are things that we can do to give ourselves a bit more financial security which tends to filter out into everyday prepping. For example: the weekly food shop costs money. Think how can you make it go further, how can you change your eating and shopping habits to save money. Think of not only how ,when and where you shop, but can you barter with friends for home goodies/services rendered? What can you forage? Furniture: Can you upcycle, repair, car boot, skip dive, (asking permission where appropriate.) Transport: the weather is looking up, maybe now is time to cycle to work rather than jump in the car if you work locally which can lead onto the question of does your family need to be a 2 car family?

Budgeting and sticking to it is a must when looking at personal finances. If you haven't got the money do you really need to buy item X or Y by sticking it on a credit card because yes - you WILL worry about it later! Yes I know a lot of us on here do live a sensible and frugal life but its worth chatting about, as prepping for another financial mess may be a prudent thing. If nothing major happens, then hey - you have just saved some money and learnt to live slightly differently!

[preparedsurrey]

I'm still saving all the metal off the building jobs I'm on, the price is dire at the moment but hopefully it will go up again soon, especially if we get to keep our steel industry.

Am not weighing anymore lead though after seeing that pellet making system in another thread.

[yorkshirewolf]

I was always brought up not to have debt, 'if you want something you save up for it' was my old mums attitude!

It's a good way to do things because if you still want it a week or months later, it was worth having! whereas impulse buys are usually a waste of money, taking a day or two to mull over big purchases can be a huge help.

Unfortunately we live in an 'I want it now' society and people are happy to whack everything on credit cards and worry about it later, and I say good luck to them!

Me, i'll be the one not buying, not having debts, not having court enforcement knocking at the door, and generally enjoying the piece of mind i get!

[DustyDog]

It can be very hard to have the spare money sometimes to prepare, for some every penny is accounted for, but the things you say about meal planning etc are positive and can help increase spare money for prepping emergencies. As another prepper has just said, the 'i want it now mentality' unfortunately persists for a lot of people, i have been guilty of that before myself before but managed to leave it behind, not always easy for some though.

[grenfell]

I'm still saving all the metal off the building jobs I'm on, the price is dire at the moment but hopefully it will go up again soon, especially if we get to keep our steel industry.
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I've saved and sold scrap for years and still do although I now don't work on building sites and I've joked that a good indicator of a drop in prices is a week before I have enough to fill the van . Still it doesn't cost anything to store . One slight downside of course is that payments go to a bank account rather than in cash as it was a few years ago.
Going back to the original topic , I haven't really changed anything drastically. I've always had one eye on the future not being as rosy as it could be ( well it's more of a continuation of what my parents did) and have always tried to save up , not waste money , repair things , grow stuff etc so we've no debts or mortgage , and have money in the bank.

[Arzosah]

Always good to have a reminder of how to bring down the average costs of things. I've been doing most of that for years, to be honest, between illness and declining popularity of my niche offering in employment, its been a necessity!

Just getting to grips with selling a lot more books now, it feels very stale to hang on to so many, and conveniently I've discovered lots and lots of unused postage stamps, which I've been collecting for years, along with even more franked ones. Investigated selling the unused ones online, and like others before me have realised that by the time fees and postage are taken into account, you only just cover the face value, if that. I'll try a few things just in case, especially the older ones: quite a few with a value of "10.5p", for instance which I don't think I *could* use as a stamp any more But I'll use what I can, especially for sending out those parcels of sold books For the franked ones, I'll investigate selling to a dealer as a job lot - they include a Penny Red, which followed the Penny Black, so they're probably worth *something*.

So that's my tip for financial prepping: check that you still want everything you're storing, and if you don't, sell it! Amazon, Facebook, Abe Books if its rare, facebook group, preloved, gumtree, webuybooks, ziffit, they're all possibilities. If stuff doesn't sell via *any* of those channels, get rid of it, via a charity shop or freegle etc, help the air circulate in your property to avoid damp and mould, and/or store something useful

[nickdutch]

On the subject of using credit cards. yes they can be tricky but not using them at all can damage the credit rating. You have two options as far as I can see.

use them for a weekly food shopping load to the value of money you have in the main bank account that is available for the afore mentioned shopping and then pay it off in a few days all in one go so you have it on your credit file that you have used credit,

or use credit to a value that you have in your bank account and then pay off over a few months. If you do the latter you technically making repayments and therefore that shows up as a positive thing on your credit file even better than just using credit and paying it off straight away.

Either way, pay it off faster than if you were just making minimum repayments as early repayment is a positive thing as far as credit scores are concerned.

There are also prepay top up able cards that you can get too that have a charge that is essentially loaned to you and then you pay it off over the year (5 - 10 quids worth a month) and that ranks as a repayment and over a few months that also has a positive effect on the credit score.

Being totally loan or credit adverse can ironically be damaging and there may always be a time when you need finance in the future so maybe a "prep" is to study credit score maintenance big time.

[PreppingPingu]

"On the subject of using credit cards. yes they can be tricky but not using them at all can damage the credit rating"

That's a good point Nick. An idea is to use a cashback credit cards that reward you in cash for using it. Some banks have ones that are tied into their accounts. (As long as you pay off totally at the end of the month!) Switching bank acc and energy suppliers is also good. Some currant accounts offer good cash rewards if you pay in x amount and have y amount of Direct Debits or bills being paid. I have found it is a good way of earning money for nothing and the fees associated with those accounts are outweighed massively by the amount that you earn off them.

[Deeps]

I'll be misusing my credit card tomorrow. For me its for a couple of season tickets for football, we all have our wee indulgences. In the past I've been able to pay them off quickly but I'm poorer now than I have been in a long time. I'll be buying the tickets anyway so 'whats a guy gotta do' . While I don't like having debt I do anyway and I'm comfortable with the flexibility of the credit card. I used to have a free overdraft I could dip into but the banks have got a bit nippier about these so they're not the bargain they were. I have got assets that are far in excess of my credit card debts but they're tied up, even so, I'm not too concerned. Even if both me and Her Maj maxed out our credit cards at some point the mortgage would be paid and we could attack the credit cards, not that we fancy that option. I'm cool with credit cards, every purchase online is paid using them, they provide an extra level of security there and if something does happen in a non-zombie (perish the thought) situation then you have the ability to deal with the financials and worry about thing later.

For me credit isn't the enemy, its what you do with it. Toss in a good old dose of "can you afford it" and it comes down to the individual. Mortgages are credit and plenty businesses use credit, as in most things its being clever in what you do with it.

[grenfell]

quite a few with a value of "10.5p", for instance which I don't think I *could* use as a stamp any more But I'll use what I can, especially for sending out those parcels of sold books

They're perfectly ok and legal to use as long as the total value meets the required postage cost. We had a couple of sheets of 11.5p , 15p , 17p as well as quite a few smaller dominations all of which we have used mainly for ebay parcels .