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CALLING ALL NEW PEOPLE!!! (PART TWO)


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:wave:  Hello SusanAnn.  I’m so glad you decided to join us.  I’m not sure now how many members are from the UK but we have had many in the past and we have members from all over.  It always good to get points of views from all over the world. 
 

I am sorry about your problems but I’m sure you will be able to find all sorts of frugal and saving info here.  I believe many of us here are being as frugal as possible right along with you. If you have problems finding something be sure to let us know.  You can just post the question on a forum or msg a moderator and we’ll do what we can to help.  I am looking forward to seeing you share your ideas and knowledge with us.  Learning goes both ways here at .Mrs Survival.  
 

:bighug2:

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33 minutes ago, Mother said:

:wave:  Hello SusanAnn.  I’m so glad you decided to join us.  I’m not sure now how many members are from the UK but we have had many in the past and we have members from all over.  It always good to get points of views from all over the world. 
 

I am sorry about your problems but I’m sure you will be able to find all sorts of frugal and saving info here.  I believe many of us here are being as frugal as possible right along with you. If you have problems finding something be sure to let us know.  You can just post the question on a forum or msg a moderator and we’ll do what we can to help.  I am looking forward to seeing you share your ideas and knowledge with us.  Learning goes both ways here at .Mrs Survival.  
 

:bighug2:

 

It's good to know there's members from everywhere here ....on the other hand being the token Brit could be quite fun as well!!!!  Thanks for the warm welcome, I don't think I know an enormous amount about frugality or saving....but quite possibly I know more than I think I do and I'm always happy to share, I'm looking forward to getting to know you all and to looking through these boards :-)

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31 minutes ago, SusanAnn said:

..on the other hand being the token Brit could be quite fun as well!!!! 

I can hear your wonderful British accent already! :grinning-smiley-044:

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Welcome both RHJill and SusanAnn.   Glad you are both here. Would love hearing about how the Brits are preparing. Might give us all some insight on things we might have missed in our prepping.  Looking forward to both of your post.

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17 hours ago, Jeepers said:

 I agree Littlesister. I love to hear about how other countries are coping. Sometimes we can have a rather myopic view of the world. There's a lot of things we can learn from others. 

I will just say that "prepping" is not a word you hear much in the UK .  Especially not in England, I think there are more  folk doing self sufficiency things in Wales and Scotland who might lean in that direction, as they have more rural and remote spaces......most of England is quite densely populated and land prices are high, so the idea of big self sufficient gardens are just a dream, but there is still a lot you can do on a small scale if you want to!  I wonder though if the Ukraine/Russia conflict will change our minds on this, we may be out of the European Union, but we are still very affected by what goes on there and our petrol prices are going up fast, and although we don't have anymore Covid food shortages, there are still odd gaps on the supermarket shelves from time to time.   

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SusanAnn I think we have much of the same thing here.  In the urban areas where there is almost instant access to supplies people aren’t so quick to prep as in the country.   We have a good urban homesteading sub forum here that we hope will be more active in the very near future.  I’m hoping you will share your urban prepping/homesteading tips with us there or where ever you feel comfortable. 

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SusanAnn, I really love watching British shows. Keeping Up Appearances is my all time favorite. I even bought the series. Love that 'bucket' woman. Most of the shows are older maybe even cancelled by now, but I've picked up some of the different terms. I also watch a couple of British Youtubers. I think your garden is our backyard and your allotment is our garden. And what would my grandson do without Peppa Pig! :0327:

 

 

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11 hours ago, Jeepers said:

SusanAnn, I really love watching British shows. Keeping Up Appearances is my all time favorite. I even bought the series. Love that 'bucket' woman. Most of the shows are older maybe even cancelled by now, but I've picked up some of the different terms. I also watch a couple of British Youtubers. I think your garden is our backyard and your allotment is our garden. And what would my grandson do without Peppa Pig! :0327:

 I watch "Lost in the Pond." He is a Brit that married and American and has been here for 14+ years. Most of his content is comparisons of living in England v the US. I thought I heard hime say that a British "garden" is equivalent to our front yard - grass, plants, etc, but no food items. I can't quite remember what he called the equivilant to our (backyard) gardens, except that theirs are very SMALL and you can't grow a lot of food in them. Quite the change from WW2 properties.

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I hadn't heard of him. I'll have to check him out. I've watched a lot of British 'reality type' TV shows and when they talk about the garden it always ends up being in the back yard. And yes, their yards are very small. A lot of their houses have a 'conservatory'. A small glassed in room. I wish we had more of those here. I'd spend a lot of time out there. And council houses. Those all look alike on the inside. I'm not sure I understand how those work. Are they government owned apartments that you can buy?  And those allotments, are they always like our community garden...away from the house?  Some of them are pretty big even allowing chickens on them.

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6 hours ago, Midnightmom said:

 I watch "Lost in the Pond." He is a Brit that married and American and has been here for 14+ years. Most of his content is comparisons of living in England v the US. I thought I heard hime say that a British "garden" is equivalent to our front yard - grass, plants, etc, but no food items. I can't quite remember what he called the equivilant to our (backyard) gardens, except that theirs are very SMALL and you can't grow a lot of food in them. Quite the change from WW2 properties.

I'm still learning how to use this forum, and I'm meaning to reply to Jeepers as well so I hope she sees this.   I'm not sure as I've never been to America, but it looks like our gardens are roughly equivalent to your backyards.  However our gardens vary enormously in size, I live in a traditional old terraced house ( lots of small houses usually in a city joined together in rows),  the house itself is kind of small, 800 square feet, we currently have four adults living here, and it's manageable. The garden is small/medium ~ you have sparked my interest in size, so just been outside with a tape measure~ it is 15 feet wide and nearly 40 feet long. It's behind the house, in front of the house are steps and a small gravel area leading straight on to a footpath and extremely busy road.  I couldn't grow enough to support our family in a garden this size, but I can do something which is better than nothing :D

 

Now my sister married an investment banker, they live in a big ( eight bedrooms, eight bathrooms)  modern house, on 300 acres of land!!!  Most of the land they rent out to a farmer, but they still have an enormous amount of garden space, which I would give my eye teeth for!!! They are not interested in self sufficiency at all,  but have  a  full sized tennis court, and are just going to have their flower garden ripped out to put in a swim pond.

 

An allotment is something totally different, it is a plot of land rented by an individual to grow vegetables and flowers on, usually you rent from your city council.  I am currently on the waiting list for one, it's a long wait for a good plot, and the rents are going up all the time, when I come to the top of the list I will only get the choice of the plot they give me and will have to work out whether it's worth it or not.  Some areas of the country have totally beautiful well kept allotments and they are a true joy to behold....I don't live in such an area, but I've put myself on the list to give myself another option!

 

And now you probably all know far too much about me and the UK !!!!

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14 minutes ago, Jeepers said:

I hadn't heard of him. I'll have to check him out. I've watched a lot of British 'reality type' TV shows and when they talk about the garden it always ends up being in the back yard. And yes, their yards are very small. A lot of their houses have a 'conservatory'. A small glassed in room. I wish we had more of those here. I'd spend a lot of time out there. And council houses. Those all look alike on the inside. I'm not sure I understand how those work. Are they government owned apartments that you can buy?  And those allotments, are they always like our community garden...away from the house?  Some of them are pretty big even allowing chickens on them.

 

I hope it's okay that I keep replying, I don't want to totally take over the introduction thread, but at the same time, I am British and I can actually answer these questions, and it's so nice to understand each other's lives and cultures !!!       I'd absolutely love a conservatory, but this house is too small and the garden  space is stepped upwards so there's no where for it to go.  My Granny had one, and she used it just to grow tomatoes in, the smell of those tomatoes under glass on a hot Summer's day was heavenly :cloud9:     

 

Council houses are what I think you'd call social housing.  They are usually built in big estates, and will be of similar styles.  The first council estates were built in the 1920s, part of a " building homes for heroes" drive after the first world war, also Labour councils encouraged them in industrial towns to provide cheap homes for workers as we had increasing industrialisation moving workers from the countryside to the towns.   Originally they were all rented properties, but then in the early 1980s Margaret Thatcher had the bright idea that home owners are more likely to vote Conservative, and opened up a scheme to allow people to buy their own council houses, which had it's ups and it's downs.  Lots of people got to buy houses cheaply, but unfortunately there was no more building of social housing so the low cost rental housing market largely dissappeared.  I'm not that good at history, and there are way more ins and outs of it than this, but I hope it gives you an idea.   

 

And yes allotment which I went on about in a previous post are nearly always away from the house.  It depends on the local bye laws whether you can keep animals or not, the ones nearest to me do not allow it, but I have visited other places where people have kept chickens and even a pig :)

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Oh my SusanAnn, you aren't taking over at all. I'm thrilled you answered. :hug3:

 

I love your culture. A couple of weeks ago I even mentioned about getting Brit Box and Acorn on the 'telly' because I enjoy your shows so much. Especially the detective shows like Vera. And Shetland! Anyway...

 

I wish the conservatories would have caught on here.  I think only the wealthy have them here. We have screened in porches. Quite a come down. It's just as well because I'd never leave the little glassed in room. I suppose I could buy a greenhouse and pretend.  :D

 

Estates, yes that's what I was probably thinking about. I didn't think about their original goal after WWll. Since America wasn't bombed out, I think we sometimes forget that many European countries had to rebuild...and fast.

 

And I heard the word scheme a lot too. To us that is a devious plan to do harm. Usually illegally. 

 

Well now, see who took over a thread. :sHa_sarcasticlol:

Thanks for the information. I'm sure I'll have many more questions! 

 

By the way, even though I can't understand half of what they are saying, I LOVE that Scottish accent. :wub:   

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SusanAnn,  I am enjoying learning about the UK from you.  Sharing ideas about lifestyles helps us evaluate our own.  Be sure to ask us any questions you have about our lifestyles as well.  
 

I was thinking about your 15’ X 40’ garden area.  When you say stepped up words do you mean literally like steps or just sloped?  Does the area get sunshine?  If my calculations are correct isn’t that 600 square feet?  I believe if it did get enough sunshine and the soil was enriched enough that you would be surprised at just how much food you could grow on that space.  If you think about growing things vertically you could get even more from it.  When you find your way around the site come down to the Country/Urban Homesteading  forum and we’ll talk gardens 😁

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3 hours ago, SusanAnn said:

 

And yes allotment which I went on about in a previous post are nearly always away from the house.  It depends on the local bye laws whether you can keep animals or not, the ones nearest to me do not allow it, but I have visited other places where people have kept chickens and even a pig :)

Hi, SusanAnn! 

 

Your allotments are what we commonly call community garden plots in urban areas. I used to work for a nonprofit organization that operates one. The cost is minimal because the goal was to address poverty and a lack of healthy food access. Like Jeepers, I also watch a lot of British, Canadian and Australian television. I look forward to reading more of your posts!

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