Walk the Walk

[scoobie]

Reduce energy use.

All lights are now of the energy saving type where possible. All electrical equipment is switched off at the wall where possible. Loft fully insulated, cavity walls insulated. Use public transport to get to work, and get a lift to the station instead of driving my car there.

Change/diversify paid work into something(s) that will be needed in a future (hard times) economy. It would have to be something that would require small/modest energy inputs.

With work and travelling, I currently do on average a 70 hour week which leaves very little time or energy to do anything else. I'm doing this silly work because that's where the money is, which I will come along to later!

Learn to look after our own health - healthy eating with home-or-locally-grown food, exercise, home-made remedies, first aid.

Started my home grown veg last year, need to do more this year. Have the Mrs on board too. We tend to eat healthily and only have the odd treat takeaway or dinner out. Also purchase produce from local farmers market too.

Build local communities/networks.

Need to sort this out this year, and get an RV organised for the Kent preppers we have here. Continue with running the site, and expanding its current content

Get out of debt whilst you can. Get all high priced debt (credit cards and bank loans etc,.) paid off. Then get mortgage free asap

Hence the working silly hours in London. Paying off all debts, should be paid off around August next year. Then its the mortgage.

Get out of financial obligation. Renting is just that. A smaller placed that you own, is not that endless drain on money. In a financial decline, no income means no rent, and it may well be that the state wont be in a position to pick up the slack. If you can get to owning, even a modest place, outright, then you will always have a home.

Own my house, but not outright. Will be paying down the mortgage from next year when the unsecured debts are paid off.

Stay liquid and get money behind you. A six month layoff might be the least of your worries. But if you can't get through a few months of no income, without being chucked in the street, then you are likely to be the first to go.

Difficult to achieve when all spare money is going on paying off debts, but this will be addressed next year.

Build infrastructure now - stored food, woodburners, gardens, fruit trees, fruit cages, stored coal, better insulation. DO that instead of a holiday, meeting or expensive trip. It will pay dividends lat

Food stores done and in progress, but need to extend it. Can't realistically fit a woodburner in my current house, but my parents 2 miles up the road do. My house backs on to a wood, so plentiful supply of wood. Brother in law runs a logging business, which is handy. Need to develop the garden for more food. Insulation is done. Rearely go on expensive trips (2 in the last 10 years)

Probably looking at moving house in a year or two, deeper into the countryside.

[nickdutch]

• Reduce energy use.
Check !! and SLOWLY getting better and better at that.
• Change/diversify paid work into something(s) that will be needed in a future (hard times) economy. It would have to be something that would require small/modest energy inputs.
Not sure about that, but maybe I can turn solar creation into a micro business.
• Learn to look after our own health - healthy eating with home-or-locally-grown food, exercise, home-made remedies, first aid.
Check !! and slowly relearning stuff i used to know
• Build local communities/networks.
Check !! Anything from Church to my local singles club. Getting involved socially is important.
• Get out of debt whilst you can. Get all high priced debt (credit cards and bank loans etc,.) paid off. Then get mortgage free asap
Check !! Went bankrupt 2 years ago. Still poor, but not up sh@t creek anymore.
• Get out of financial obligation. Renting is just that. A smaller placed that you own, is not that endless drain on money. In a financial decline, no income means no rent, and it may well be that the state wont be in a position to pick up the slack. If you can get to owning, even a modest place, outright, then you will always have a home.
Hmmmm.... I wont be able to afford property for many a decade. i am living in a building that is owned by my parents so i guess I am ok for the moment.
• Stay liquid and get money behind you. A six month layoff might be the least of your worries. But if you can't get through a few months of no income, without being chucked in the street, then you are likely to be the first to go.
Hmmmmm.... Getting money behind me is gonna take years and years.
• Build infrastructure now - stored food, woodburners, gardens, fruit trees, fruit cages, stored coal, better insulation. DO that instead of a holiday, meeting or expensive trip. It will pay dividends later.
Check !! Got home made wood gas stoves for pellets, have SOME stored food and am learning how to get more with the passage of time. Got some small basic gardening done, built small scale PV solar and little chicken sh@t like that. In 10 years time i may be actually comfortable not needing to buy in power. Also I am improving my slingshot skills nearly every day

[diamond lil]

I think everybody should have regular survival practice, like fire drills. Turn the mains off for 3 days; don't go near a shop for a week; use only one pot for cooking for a week; don't use mains gas for 3 days - etc etc. Make wee challenges for yourself and family. Is the only way to iron out snags and find probs you didn't think of. I perfected living without elect only because we have frequent powercuts here, the longest lasting 5 days. But just talking about it, or buying loads of stuff, isn't the same as hands-on practice.

[Alleycat]

I think everybody should have regular survival practice, like fire drills. Turn the mains off for 3 days; don't go near a shop for a week; use only one pot for cooking for a week; don't use mains gas for 3 days - etc etc. Make wee challenges for yourself and family. Is the only way to iron out snags and find probs you didn't think of. I perfected living without elect only because we have frequent powercuts here, the longest lasting 5 days. But just talking about it, or buying loads of stuff, isn't the same as hands-on practice.

I just suggested this to my mini - me, and her response was ' can we still use the toilet? Cos I already know how to poo in a bag' not quite sure how she knows and makes me a bit concerned about sorting her bedroom out

[the-gnole]

Turn the mains off for 3 days;

don't go near a shop for a week;

use only one pot for cooking for a week;

don't use mains gas for 3 days

Have done all four for periods of three days to a week on many occasions.

No mains gas for a week
No electric for a week
No mains water for a week
no proper toilets for a week
one big pot for cooking in
Just a wood fire to cook on, boil water on and for heating and lighting, nor vehicle usage either.

But without the proper kit and many discussions about the methodology it wouldn't have been easy, but if you don't try it out the lessons won't or can't be learnt.

[Jabba]

Feel very fortunate reading that list and I'm torn between the smug desire to gloat and the (rather small) magnaninimous part of me saying that it serves no purpose to list the things I've been lucky enough to get sorted.

Oh go on then, the big, smug monster wins

3.24kw solar installation with decent FITs rate.
No grid service apart from broadband, electricity at night and a delivery of oil every 18 months (tut tut I know, but I do have wood burners).
I work part time from home and the rest of the time I spend growing stuff and looking after the chickens/playing outside. I'm very into permaculture so the food system is turning into a forest garden that will have almost no energy input required once mature, but could feed half a dozen people.
Eating veg and working in the garden makes me feel a bit healthier than I was in an office in London.
Trying to do more networking now, but one neighbour is an organic dairy farmer and the other keeps a few pigs which he sorts us out with periodically, so between the three of us we are perfectly located and cover all the food groups.
I have no personal debt and own the house without a mortgage. I also have enough cash to survive with no income for about 2 years because my expenses here are very low and the FIT payments help.
I have some food stored (not enough), but I am building the infrastructure and could survive with no grid or shops once the forest garden is mature (I'd get quite thin without choclate and cakes obviously ).

I really am very lucky though... we all the make the best of what we have, but some of us get luckier than others and it's not really fair or deserved in most cases. I do feel for the people who're struggling because this list is very hard to get through if you're starting off with very little.

I agree with the mantra though... get out of debt if you can and don't waste money on holidays or frivolous 'throw away' stuff if you owe money to someone who's charging you interest.

Use every spare moment and every spare penny to do what you think is best - like many people on here, I think that's to be the change we want to see in the world and start living more in tune with our environment and preparing for a much depleted world in which we can still thrive and flourish.

Peace and love

[TomW]

• Reduce energy use.
Always working to drop our energy usage. New place were moving to has ground source heating, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, low energy lighting throughout, high level of insulation and good glazing. Quitting tv for financial reasons but looking forward to the added benefits too!

• Change/diversify paid work into something(s) that will be needed in a future (hard times) economy. It would have to be something that would require small/modest energy inputs.
Will probably have to rely on my skills for this one. Can fix and maintain pretty much anything, build new stuff in wood or metal and learn new skills very quickly Starting my own business but slowly as need a little more capital..

• Learn to look after our own health - healthy eating with home-or-locally-grown food, exercise, home-made remedies, first aid.
FAAW trained with a few well stocked kits. Alright stocks of OTC meds but looking for more pain relief and minor ops gear. Joining a volunteer group that will improve my training, equipment and most importantly experience. Ill pop a new topic up for that though...

• Build local communities/networks.
Know a lot of people locally through church and community stuff. Good contacts with the local farmers and getting to know a few prepping/self sufficiency minded folks. Hoping to build a good community when we move in to our new house as there are 6 new houses and we will all be pretty similar in age and situation. Would love to get involved with a local prepping group if only to meet up down the pub occasionally

• Get out of debt whilst you can. Get all high priced debt (credit cards and bank loans etc,.) paid off. Then get mortgage free asap
Only my overdraft to worry about fortunately. Wife has a credit card and loan but we're shrinking them as fast as possible. Only just buying our first place so mortgage free is a long way off yet lol

• Get out of financial obligation. Renting is just that. A smaller placed that you own, is not that endless drain on money. In a financial decline, no income means no rent, and it may well be that the state wont be in a position to pick up the slack. If you can get to owning, even a modest place, outright, then you will always have a home.
Only the mortgage under this one. Own our cars and dont rent anything else.

• Stay liquid and get money behind you. A six month layoff might be the least of your worries. But if you can't get through a few months of no income, without being chucked in the street, then you are likely to be the first to go.
Will not take on any new debt no matter what. Getting savings sorted will be harder but were stripping every non essential outgoing from our budget. Tv is gone initially as a tester but hopefully for ever (wife dependant lol). Beer and fags are gonna be few and far between. Smart price and value are the words of the day... yay

• Build infrastructure now - stored food, woodburners, gardens, fruit trees, fruit cages, stored coal, better insulation. DO that instead of a holiday, meeting or expensive trip. It will pay dividends later.
Good stocks of kit from sleeping bags to generators. Coupla weeks worth of food, fuel for essential travel for two weeks, wood for two light or one hard winter. Couple of projects for the new house which will improve it dramatically, log burner and lpg for cooking (no mains gas). Garden is being planned already, hoping to squeeze a couple of chickens in and have started to negotiate having a pig in with someone elses.

Pretty chuffed with where we are actually. Thanks for this, its given a real nice framework to think about stuff. Jealous of you Jabba, if I was closer I'd certainly be in touch! Hope you find some good folks to join you

[PreppingPingu]

While I tend to live my life as eccologically as I personally can as far as food and energy use goes, one of the other ways of walking the walk is to give my kids life skills to enable them to cope. I have always ensured that they can cook a meal from as early as I felt them safe not to burn themsevles or set fire to the house! I don't wrap them them in too much cotton wool. I encourage them to look after their health and teach them to be careful with money and teach them to be prepared. I remind them how many times people have asked me for a plaster/safety pin/pen etc as my friends know that my handbag has tardisian preportions and can produce all maner of useful things. So they know its good to be prepared on a small scale. I try to make sure that they have a go at stuff and not say I can't do xyz and have a go at making/creating rather than say "no - you might hurt yourself, let a grown up do that for you". Ok so some things arent suitable for the very young but you get the idea. I try to give them the belief that they can turn their hand to anything they choose to have a go at. I have friends that won't pick up a saw or a screwdriver but my girls have always seen their mum do things and fix things so its not an alien concept for them.

I think that if you have depandants teaching them to "walk the walk" by leading by example is crucial. All children young and teenage, learn the most from picking up from others - its human nature. They just don't know they being given these skills and aren't aware of "prepping" , they are just are learning to be a rounded human really.

[Arzosah]

• Reduce energy use.
All the bulbs I have are low energy, new appliances when I moved in 2 years ago are A rated, wall and roof insulation is good (am improving some soon), some double glazing renewed and more on the way. Made my energy company charge me £60 per month, not £65, when I moved in here, and on my first review, they put it down to £50, dual fuel, so I'm doing okay
• Change/diversify paid work into something(s) that will be needed in a future (hard times) economy. It would have to be something that would require small/modest energy inputs.
I'll probably be a pensioner or nearly, but I'll try to make extra income from dogwalking (commuters will *probably* still exist) and possibly making soap, beauty and cosmetic products. There'll still be pockets of affluence, if there's an economy left.
• Learn to look after our own health - healthy eating with home-or-locally-grown food, exercise, home-made remedies, first aid.
In pulling my garden into shape, I'm definitely working on perennials that will supply me with food. I also want to start a medicinal herb garden - and again, herbs could be sold as a small business. I'll probably be burnt at the stake as a witch, but still ...
• Build local communities/networks.
I'm bad enough at this in normal times. I'm trying to contact the local Transition Towns network, but its very feeble. I'm also going to experiment with the local shooting club, as a woman my age was running the stall at the Jubilee Fair.
• Get out of debt whilst you can. Get all high priced debt (credit cards and bank loans etc,.) paid off. Then get mortgage free asap
No credit cards or loans. Mortgage free on the house I live in. Unfortunately, I bought a holiday rental in France, on which I still owe .... E45,251 - coming down at the rate of E543 a month and slowly increasing, as its a repayment mortgage.
• Get out of financial obligation.
Done. I wonder if my little apartment abroad will be a BOL one fine day?
• Stay liquid and get money behind you. A six month layoff might be the least of your worries. But if you can't get through a few months of no income, without being chucked in the street, then you are likely to be the first to go.
Done. I could do with more, of course - I was concentrating on getting out of debt, so didn't pay as much attention to the savings as I could've, I've seen to that now. Regular feeder account, ISA, etc.
• Build infrastructure now - stored food, woodburners, gardens, fruit trees, fruit cages, stored coal, better insulation. DO that instead of a holiday, meeting or expensive trip. It will pay dividends later.
I like the description of these items as infrastructure, thats brilliant! I'm building it up. I've just set up a 6 month or so plan to get the one-off jobs I want done out of the way - that declutters stuff (paint, rolls of insulation waiting to be laid) and improves my quality of life. I *am* taking a holiday abroad later this year, for the first time in nearly ten years. Not compromising on that.

Hobo, thanks for doing this!