What are the best things to buy now?

[UndercoverElephant]

No future for a wild food expert then?

[adam2]

No future for a wild food expert then?

Possibly not as a full time paying job, whether payment be in money or in kind. As a useful skill in addition to medical, farming, or other useful skills, certainly.

[adam2]

Oil lamps and spares are worth stocking up on, and of course parafin for them.
Basic hurricane lamps cost less than £10, one will light a room sufficiently to permit of safe movement and simple work, but not for reading or fine work.
A duplex oil lamp is the brightest readily available non pressure oil lamp, and permits of reading if close to the lamp. Good used examples can be found for about £30 to £50.
A tilley lamp is brighter still and also portable and weather resistant. They are well over £100 new. They are more complex and of little use without spare parts.
Parafin is of course derived from oil and liable to increase in price.

In the event of extreme weather, fuel shortages or industrial disputes affecting electricity supplies, it is likely that parafin would be in short supply. Stock up now.
A kilo of parrafin contains a lot more energy than a kilo of batteries.

A small PV battery charging system has a lot to commend it for emergency lighting and other very low power loads.
A smaller and cheaper system would suffice for most of the year, if oil lamps were used in addition.

The sheer convienience of even basic electric light, at the push of a switch, is often under estimated until one tries managing without it.
Limited battery power may be conserved by use of an oil lamp as well.

[emordnilap]

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

[DominicJ]

Heinlein said a lot of things....
Mostly about the joys of polygamy

[ujoni08]

Adam2, exactly what I've been thinking. I already have an oil lamp. Need to get some spare wicks (do you know of a good online shop?) and at least a 25 litre can of paraffin. The 4 litre cans are pricey. Do you know where I can get 20-25 litres, preferably by taking my own can with me?

Also, would ordinary home heating oil be suitable? I know it's very similar in viscosity to paraffin, but seem to remember something about it not being quite as refined, and therefore more likely to give off higher levels of sulphur in the fumes.

Thanks,

Jon (PS good point about the energy content... I find my lamp warms the room quite well over a few hours, as much as 1.8 degrees, according to my mini weather station).

[adam2]

This supplier have a good range of wicks and other spares
http://www.base-camp.co.uk/

Parafin varies a lot in price, the above website has a link to a national supplier, but local might be cheaper.
The larger drums are cheaper if available, but are not widely stocked.

A few older filling stations and hardware shops still sell parafin loose, into your own container.

Central heating oil is safe to use, but may contain more sulphur which produces an offensive smell when burnt.

never under any circumstances use petrol/gasoline. It has a much lower flashpoint and is therefore extremely dangerous.

[Little John]

I'm sure this has been discussed before in some format or other. I can remember a list of what was valuable during the siege of Sarajevo, but Brighton post-peak-oil is not the same as Sarajevo besieged by Serbs twenty years earlier.

I have cash in the bank which is just going to devalue as prices go up. What should I be buying now and putting in storage for the hard times?

Shoes, towels, lighters...anyone got a list?

What I'm really interested in is smaller stuff which doesn't degrade over time and is likely to become much more expensive in real terms.

I've been thinking of legally buying several thousand pound's worth of cigarretes and then holding onto them for about half a decade. It would not surprise me to see their retail price double. It's legal to buy them. it's legal to store them, they are non perishable as long asd they are kept dry and, as far as I know it's legal to sell them since the duty has already been paid when you first bought them.

[DominicJ]

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 337AA1kaFG

Apparently they need to be kept humid rather than dry.


I'm not sure taxes will go up much more, generaly they've gone up in line with disposable income, if that doesnt go up, taxes are unlikely too.
Even if taxes do go up, cigarrete smuggling is already a big business and it only likely to get more so.

[UndercoverElephant]

It is also perfectly possible (and legal) to grow tobacco in the UK. It is growing in a garden near you right now...

Rather than storing imported tobacco, it might be a better idea to learn how to cure it so you can produce your own!

I think you might need a barn though...

[ujoni08]

Thanks Adam2,

Yes, I know about not using petrol.

My neighbour has a friend nearby who has heating oil central heating, so is going to ask if he'd sell me 25 litres. Any idea how much I should be paying? I have a vague memory of it being 47p/litre last year, then going up quickly to around 60p. Is it still at that price?

I'm going to order 5 spare wicks from that shop.

Jon

[postie]

Something I saw in Tesco about 4 or 5 months back, at the end of a shelf facing the till.. y'know the little bit they have that sells things like shoelaces, hairclips etc was a sewing kit. But instead of all the normal straight needles, these were all bent for certain jobs. They were only about 99p. The needles looked a bit like this and there were about 10 different sies.




Useful for repairing things that are ripped .. including skin.

[MrG]

Steve and UE.

I've been thinking about doing both these tobacco related plans, buying up loads of tobacco (which only ever increases in price) and also growing and learning to cure it. It's one of the most addictive drugs known to man and a large percentage of the population are currently hooked on it - so it's a no brainer really isn't it. And most importantly I don't smoke tobbaco. Kicked that paticular habit about 13 years ago so 'don't get high off you own supply' as they say.

I want to start growing it anyway for insecticide, for which it is very effective. I kill blackfly on broad beans by collecting peoples fag butts (rollys only) soaking in water for a few months and then spraying on the critters - they don't like it up em. Trust me this really works very well.

Why stop there UE.. with your knowledge of plants your halfway to reinventing yourself as the sheriff fatman of the long emergency. I've been thinking along those lines.. Alcohol, Cannabis, Opium, Tobacco, Magic Mushrooms (both of the common native types which I'm sure you know well), Salvia Divinorum, Valerian all of these things I can produce from plants (and fungi of course if we want to get technical) which I am entirely confident in my ability to succesfully cultivate (or forage) in this country.

Not while times are normal you understand. It's just easier to have a job! But in some sort of post collapse society I think there's always going to be a call for the worlds second oldest proffesion.

Add in a bit of knowledge about herbal medicine which you could build up now, asprin from willow, comfrey etc. etc. All fits in with your wild food thing.

You spend enough time foraging in remote places to teach yourself to guerilla grow sativa, save seeds and develop a strain that can do well in the more shady hidden places.

I Need to learn about distillation too. And about growing hops. (Incidently if you can grow hops you can grow cannabis pretty much they are closely related). And gruet beers, need to learn those... most of the herbs the monks used to put in their gruet beers are perfectly legal, Damiana (aphrodisiac) may have got banned recently in that Holland and Barret law, Wormwood, got that growing on the allotment gonna try adding it to the slow gin this year.

... anyway I'm offt o make another batch of plum wine

[JavaScriptDonkey]

I want to start growing it anyway for insecticide, for which it is very effective. I kill blackfly on broad beans by collecting peoples fag butts (rollys only) soaking in water for a few months and then spraying on the critters - they don't like it up em. Trust me this really works very well.

Sounds good. Nicotine is natural insecticide.

I am entirely confident in my ability to successfully cultivate (or forage) in this country.

You and 59 million other people? I think the future of a food forager's life style is written in NYC. Especially as the resource becomes more valuable.

[UndercoverElephant]

Steve and UE.

I've been thinking about doing both these tobacco related plans, buying up loads of tobacco (which only ever increases in price) and also growing and learning to cure it. It's one of the most addictive drugs known to man and a large percentage of the population are currently hooked on it - so it's a no brainer really isn't it. And most importantly I don't smoke tobbaco. Kicked that paticular habit about 13 years ago so 'don't get high off you own supply' as they say.

I want to start growing it anyway for insecticide, for which it is very effective. I kill blackfly on broad beans by collecting peoples fag butts (rollys only) soaking in water for a few months and then spraying on the critters - they don't like it up em. Trust me this really works very well.

Why stop there UE.. with your knowledge of plants your halfway to reinventing yourself as the sheriff fatman of the long emergency. I've been thinking along those lines.. Alcohol, Cannabis, Opium, Tobacco, Magic Mushrooms (both of the common native types which I'm sure you know well), Salvia Divinorum, Valerian all of these things I can produce from plants (and fungi of course if we want to get technical) which I am entirely confident in my ability to succesfully cultivate (or forage) in this country.

Not while times are normal you understand. It's just easier to have a job! But in some sort of post collapse society I think there's always going to be a call for the worlds second oldest proffesion.

Add in a bit of knowledge about herbal medicine which you could build up now, asprin from willow, comfrey etc. etc. All fits in with your wild food thing.

I'm already working on that one.

You spend enough time foraging in remote places to teach yourself to guerilla grow sativa, save seeds and develop a strain that can do well in the more shady hidden places.

A masterplan!

I Need to learn about distillation too. And about growing hops. (Incidently if you can grow hops you can grow cannabis pretty much they are closely related). And gruet beers, need to learn those... most of the herbs the monks used to put in their gruet beers are perfectly legal, Damiana (aphrodisiac) may have got banned recently in that Holland and Barret law, Wormwood, got that growing on the allotment gonna try adding it to the slow gin this year.

... anyway I'm offt o make another batch of plum wine

Yeah, I really need to get into brewing....