Oh to be a Boy Scout.

Hi folks,

At 52 ish I am a bit long in the tooth  to be a REAL boy Scout but like Boy Scouts the world over I want to "be Prepared" as they say.
To me being prepared is not like those numpties you see on Doomsday Prepper or other American lifestyle programmes on Discovery et al.

To me being prepared is common sense and what your mothers or grand mothers did as a matter of course.
In fact these stalwarts of the community used to keep a "war cupboard" where they would buy an extra tin of something and leave it in the cupboard in case war broke out. Now you might think that the great war ended in 1945 et al but what about the Korean war, the Cuban missile crisis, Vietnam, Ireland, Afghanistan, Iraq!! Any of these could have turned into full scale world war so even today it could be prudent, to keep a "war cupboard". Actually thinking about it keeping a war cupboard these days is probably more important than in any time in the past 70 odd years !!

It's not only in times of war that we need to plan or prep for. We are all living in "austere times" well the politicians might not be unless austere to them means only spending £200 on a bottle of wine but that's another rant.

What about your living, could you lose your job and if so do you have enough money saved for 6 months worth of bills and 6 months food stocked away? No? I thought not and if you said yes then well done to you. You will be interested in many of my blogs coming soon.

If you haven't got 6 months worth stashed away what will you do? Go to the DSS? the rules have all changed so like me you might well find out that you are not entitled to any help at all!!
So to recap you don't have to be in a war, fear of war, lose your job or anything else to start to prepare for these things but it might be prudent to do so just in case they happen.

When you go shopping buy an extra tin of things you eat. You can easily plan these things if you want but put simply if you buy 4 tins of baked beans for a months supply buy an extra 1 and then over 4 months you have an extra months worth of beans stored away. Now you can of course do it faster if you want but don't let it impact on your normal life.
Buy 4 tins of beans plus 2 extra tins then in a month do that again so in 2 months you have an extra months beans. Do something like this every time you go shopping and you will be surprised at how much you can stash away for your " war cupboard".
Another way to do this is watching for special offers. There might be a certain tinned pie on offer for £1 or soups for 50p for example. If you buy 4 tins of soup for £3 that's 75p each tin. When the 50p off is on don't just buy the usual 4 tins but buy the same amount of money's worth thus you still spend £3 but you get 6 tins of soup. Put the two extra in your supplies box etc. If of course you were buying 4 for £3 AND THEN AN EXTRA 2 for another £150 as above with the beans idea then you will be buying £4.50 worth of soups. Last week at 75p each you would get 6. this week on the 50p offer you will get 9 so you have a surplus of 5 over the original 4 you wanted.

It's not rocket science but it does help you if you think about what you are doing.You can also partake in BOGOF offers, Buy One Get One Free or buy 2 and get 1 free. Again, only buy what you eat and eat what you buy. 

You can look for coupons to get free or cheaper products and put these in your stash. If your favourite tooth paste is on offer buy whatever you can. If you use one tube of paste every month then buy 12 on offer and you have 12 months worth. If you use this and say after 3 months there is another offer on then buy another 12 months sup[plies at the offer price and so on.

If you or we do have a war or people fall on hard times or even just a prolonged severe winter that stops food and supplies getting into the shops "just in time" what value can you put on a toilet roll or a pack of ladies sanitary requirements? Don't be squeamish about these things as it is currently a supply and demand where as we demand and the shops supply but in hard times people still have demands and you as a prepper will have the goods on hand to be able to barter.
Think about it.
Until next time take care and go shopping........