Hello!
Sort of Newbie here, taking a look around to see what hints and tips I can add to my stash of "useful things to know"!
Married Mum of 3 girls in their late teens and 20s, with a Hubby who is often away for work.
Most of my "Preps" are reactive - but should the situation I've reacted to should happen again I'll be in a better situation "next time"!
I have the usual pantry, toiletry and "black out box" stashes, a car that always has half a tank of fuel and various "keep us comfortable should we be stuck overnight" bits and pieces that have grown from the baby bag necessities I've carried since becoming a Mum.
Looking forward to seeing what else I can gleen from the forum's knowledge and experience!
Riggers!
Newbie Here!
Re: Newbie Here!
Hi and welcome from the North West.
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought
Not Feeling Optimistic. Let me be wrong
Not Feeling Optimistic. Let me be wrong
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Yorkshire Andy
- Posts: 9137
- Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 4:06 pm
Re: Newbie Here!
Welcome it's very easy to get sucked Into a virtual rabbit hole and spend a absolute fortune
Before spending plan plan plan
Funky kit is nice but an £80 torch won't feed the family for a week ..
Figure out what your local risks are flooding / industrial accidents etc
Knowledge is always worth more than kit but kit makes life easier..
You'll come across Bob kits (bug out bags).. this is the UK if you bug out your likely to wind up in the church hall or sports club sports hall so a Bowie knife and axe won't be top of your must haves a decent kip mat and sleeping bag might be better and a bag of change for the vending machine...
Before spending plan plan plan
Funky kit is nice but an £80 torch won't feed the family for a week ..
Figure out what your local risks are flooding / industrial accidents etc
Knowledge is always worth more than kit but kit makes life easier..
You'll come across Bob kits (bug out bags).. this is the UK if you bug out your likely to wind up in the church hall or sports club sports hall so a Bowie knife and axe won't be top of your must haves a decent kip mat and sleeping bag might be better and a bag of change for the vending machine...
If your roughing it, Your doing it wrong 
Lack of planning on your part doesn't make it an emergency on mine
Lack of planning on your part doesn't make it an emergency on mine
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Yorkshire Andy
- Posts: 9137
- Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 4:06 pm
Re: Newbie Here!
Sorry I'll now continue littlest had just climbed on the eldest and popped his kneecap out of place ..... A decent first aid kit is handy .. likewise knowledge a bag of frozen peas to reduce inflammation works so does a gell ice pack left in the freezer
A workplace offering first aid training or fire warden course can play dividends shtf speaking from experience.... We had a house fire a month ago ... From alert I had the kids out in less than 10 seconds and the fire fully out in less than a minute with a faulty none working fire extinguisher thrown into the mix.... Based on the old "one is none two is one" mentality of a lot of preppers .... A backup / redundancy item to hand should the first fail/ be lost ..
Many people get the run for the hills Rambo idea on their head... Let's run to the lake District . You only had to look how that figured out in lockdown "for daily exercise" it was chaos....
Many will store food .. store what you eat.... Eat what you store and ensure you rotate your stocks so you don't end up with a cupboard of out of date spam that no bugger will eat
The mundane stuff power cuts .. car breakdown... Bad weather..... Minor home disasters minor as in it only affects you decent insurance / breakdown cover/ few quid in savings (yeh I know I've got three kids
) To cover unforseen garage bills when the car decides that a week before pay day is the time to breakdown
A good book to read when the power/ internet goes down I would say board games but we'll monopoly and the kids and the wife as banker ....Youd be safer and get less agro telling the drunk in the town centre a few home truths
Shop for bargains that you want make use of vouchers or special offers if you buy a lot of beans and one week they are on bogof you know what you do .. I've just got a £200 solar panel for £80 combination of boxing day sales and sone nectar points i save all year and use in the sales to get an extra saving i had £20 of ebay vouchers from the nectar points only use it from filling the car and the occasional Argos purchase so cost me nothing anyway
A workplace offering first aid training or fire warden course can play dividends shtf speaking from experience.... We had a house fire a month ago ... From alert I had the kids out in less than 10 seconds and the fire fully out in less than a minute with a faulty none working fire extinguisher thrown into the mix.... Based on the old "one is none two is one" mentality of a lot of preppers .... A backup / redundancy item to hand should the first fail/ be lost ..
Many people get the run for the hills Rambo idea on their head... Let's run to the lake District . You only had to look how that figured out in lockdown "for daily exercise" it was chaos....
Many will store food .. store what you eat.... Eat what you store and ensure you rotate your stocks so you don't end up with a cupboard of out of date spam that no bugger will eat
The mundane stuff power cuts .. car breakdown... Bad weather..... Minor home disasters minor as in it only affects you decent insurance / breakdown cover/ few quid in savings (yeh I know I've got three kids
) To cover unforseen garage bills when the car decides that a week before pay day is the time to breakdown A good book to read when the power/ internet goes down I would say board games but we'll monopoly and the kids and the wife as banker ....Youd be safer and get less agro telling the drunk in the town centre a few home truths
Shop for bargains that you want make use of vouchers or special offers if you buy a lot of beans and one week they are on bogof you know what you do .. I've just got a £200 solar panel for £80 combination of boxing day sales and sone nectar points i save all year and use in the sales to get an extra saving i had £20 of ebay vouchers from the nectar points only use it from filling the car and the occasional Argos purchase so cost me nothing anyway
If your roughing it, Your doing it wrong
Lack of planning on your part doesn't make it an emergency on mine
Lack of planning on your part doesn't make it an emergency on mine
Re: Newbie Here!
Hello Riggers, welcome to the forum. You've already had Yorkshire Andy advising you, nothing to add there, except that with you and three young women in the house, women's sanitary protection is really important. You can go a-googling, and see what you think is useful; you may have already covered it, but it's crucial in any issue. I've taken tampons to a neighbour who was being taken to A&E before now.
Re: Newbie Here!
Welcome to the gang. Most of us prep for the more likely horrors. It sounds as if you have already been learning from experience so are ahead of most of the UK. Have a look around. I think most topics are covered unless they are illegal in the UK which is a clear "No".
As Arzosah said - sanitary protection. Nightmare if supplies get disrupted and I have friends who stock up before returning to their homes overseas as supplies are poor where they live.
I discovered the mooncup many years ago. No longer need it but one will last ten or more years if cared for so you never run out. Easy to carry in your bag and does not need laundering so an excellent prep in my mind one you get used to it,
As Arzosah said - sanitary protection. Nightmare if supplies get disrupted and I have friends who stock up before returning to their homes overseas as supplies are poor where they live.
I discovered the mooncup many years ago. No longer need it but one will last ten or more years if cared for so you never run out. Easy to carry in your bag and does not need laundering so an excellent prep in my mind one you get used to it,