Are you worried about an imminent economic meltdown - preppers

[Ladymaverick]

FTSE crashing. Talk of HSBC going to the wall. NASDAQ under 4000. DBank in big trouble. Gold soaring which is really worrying me, although we do have some in coins we don't have a huge amount.

I've taken quite a bit of cash out today to keep at home. Luckily we have a very secure safe so i'm not really worried about having it at home.

Anybody else keeping an eye on this?

Succinct winchester

It is crazy keeping a lot of cash at home , we do have £500 in the loft but your house insurance would probably not cover in the event of loss.

DH bought more shares the day the FTSE was at its lowest.

Interestingly, in our work email newsletter last week (NHS Trust) there was a blurb re going into purdah before the upcoming GE in May! Presumably a mistake but did make me wonder if the powers that be knew something we don't.

I think having large amounts of cash in the bank is not really safe. I don't believe the banks guarantee to bank up amounts up to £75K per person or whatever the current rules are. If there isn't the money there it won't be possible. It will be like Greece with cash withdrawal restrictions. Even if there was an EU leave vote they will twist it so we can't leave. IMHO. I'm voting out.

Talk about whatever you like throughthick it's fine by me. Not sure why the stroppiness. I thought we were all friends on the prepping boards. I simply said that I couldn't see why there would possibly be a GE. What incentive would there be to call one when we've only just had one?

Cash value entirely depends on what sort of emergency we are talking about. In the very short term in a major societal breakdown cash would still have some value for some. If we are talking about a banking crisis and no ability to access cash from the banks themselves such Greece has seen it would be very useful.

Sorry then redhat I read your post as a reprimand for going off topic. The thought of s GE has blind sided me a bit, I can't see why it would be necessary.

I have stocked up on vegetable seeds that should keep us going for a couple of years. We would be quite skinny though after any length of time!

I thought I was getting newbie agro . I'm not a newbie Ive just name changed from our early prepping board days.

One of the things I often fail at is carrying cash around with me. I get it out and then spend it even though I know that having cash on you at all times is one of the basics so that you can get home in a crisis however much it might cost.

Surely if there's a complete market collapse, then cash will be about as useful a currency as toilet paper? Surely a total collapse asks for a complete shift in the way we live? After all, cash is still very much tied to a market economy. The question remains what happens when the market economy no longer exists.

Unless you have young children at home who you need to pick up, why do you need to get home 'at all costs' ? (Genuine question. ) iIf there was a difficult situation and I found myself out of the city, I wouldn't want to go back into it for example.

I agree with Winchester. Stuff and skills. (In anything but a minor hiccup.)

Sorry winchester. Darned auto correct thinks you're a rifle and not a poster.

But a complete collapse of society isn't likely in an economic meltdown situation. If the financial markets, banks etc went bang society would still try to function and whilst a loaf of bread might cost £40, currency is still likely to be in circulation in some form.

If there was a worldwide pandemic/blackout/weather crisis such that society stopped functioning then sure, currency is likely to be useless.

Either way, reducing dependency on cash is helpful and so a store of food for example is far more likely to be useful.

Guess it depends on where you live cozie but for "home" substitute "wherever is your safe place" and it still makes sense.

We live rurally and would bug in in almost any scenario. DCs are at school 15 miles away and DH works in that city too. Getting home would be crucial.

After I took the yougov survey I spoke to someone in the know there are two dates ready being spoken about for a GE this year I can't remember the other, the last is early September. They think it's very possible.

If you look at the poor souls near starved recently in Syria, they were still using money. I think it was £50 per bag of rice.

I think that in the UK, we're all so 'tight' and interlinked that societal collapse would be fast I'm afraid. I add the lack of skills to that mix of course. Just ask yourself how many of your family youngsters would know what to do in the event of something like a power failure for example. In my own family, they would likely be completely flummoxed as to how they would get their phones charged and working. Beyond raiding store cupboards and finally looting, much would be beyond them I suspect.

I guess it depends on whether there is still money trickling through like in Greece where the money was rationed or whether the supply stops suddenly and completely. If there was still money trickling through then I think we would adapt (although clearly there would be major problems for everyone). If the tap was just turned off then I agree we'd have a breakdown pretty quickly.

All in all though I'm not concerned that there will be imminent economic meltdown as per the OP's question. I do think there's a chance there will be another significant downturn though.

It's the likely 'major problems' that would concern me. If I were in optimistic mood, I would look on the possibility as a 'grace period' to upskill and allow for adjustment to a degree. If I were pessimistic, I would regard that as just the beginning of a greater slide. I don't know

Don't forget not all banks would collapse. Whilst one group of people would have problems many others wouldn't. You wouldn't want to buy a house at that time or require a business loan.

Redhat totally agree about bugging in it would be essential for us and we carry a bug in bag if we go any distance. I always have cash as I earn cash and generally only bank what the bank expenditure needs but i don't hold more than £500 ish i can't see any point in most financial crashes cash devalues too quickly to be worth holding. We are minimising expenditure so solar panels, hot water optimiser, log burner. We have reserves of alcohol, food, water, wood and seeds all of which we rotate and could use for trade if things got really bad. I got a dehydrator for Christmas so this year as well as pickles, jams, marmalade I will be able to store excess veg fruit and herbs. In general we try to reduce expenditure and really focus on seasonal eating where we can. All sounds better written down than the actual chaotic reality [grins]

[walks in, looks around incredulously , creeps out quietly]

...and looking round incredulously - and not thinking about things in advance - is just what's going to have some people at the end of the queue.

(Inasmuch as there's going to be any place for queues.)

What an odd waste of time, posting to make others inferior. Do you do that on feminist, baby feeding etc type threads too?

If I were in your situation, red, I'd probably agree. I guess we all have to make the decisions that are right for our particular circumstances. (My own neighbourhood probably wouldn't last a week in the event of serious problems and I have no transport - even temporary - to get away from it.)

I agree with you redhat that even if there's a massive economic meltdown society won't collapse. As Vertigo says It will just be very hard for a lot of people, mainly because there will be huge waves of redundancies across the board, causing people not to be able to pay rent/mkrtgage and other bills, therefore losing their homes, cars etc. But many will be virtually unaffected. IF they can keep their job throughout the downturn, or don't have debts they have to keep repayments up on.

In fact there was one excellent prepping advice I read; in an ideal situation don't rely on one wage coming in (DH and I's case so we'll be vulnerable), have at least two, but ideally several sources of income via a few part time or weekend jobs. The idea being that if you lose one of these it wouldnt be the end of world as you hsve other income. That would be quite a serious prepping lifestyle to chose though.