In my recent post about creating an emergency bag I mentioned that we have a powercut box in our hallway. Since winter is coming and storms can easily take out the local electricity supply I thought I’d show you everything we’ve got ready for such an emergency.

In the box

Torches and batteries

The most obvious thing that you can keep for a powercut is a torch. In our case we have several battery-powered ones and two wind-up ones.

We also have several packs of batteries that definitely fit the torches (nothing worse than realising you’ve got the wrong size!) so if we run them down quickly we have spares.

Camping lantern

Purchased from Argos a few years ago, this was a lifesaver when our kitchen light stopped working. It folds down so it doesn’t take up much space and when switched on gives out a clear bright light. I’d quite like to buy a second one as it’s been very helpful.

Candles and matches

A bit of a hangover from our pre-child days. Nowadays I think I’d prefer to get another camping lantern as I simply can’t see us using candles until the toddler is past his bull-in-a-china-shop phase.

That said, candles do have a place in the emergency box. If you can keep a close eye on them then using them saves battery power and you can keep them stored for years without worrying that they’ll be ineffective in an emergency. Keep some matches in the same box otherwise you’ll forget where they are when you need them.

Wind-up radio

A more recent purchase has been a wind-up radio, which also takes batteries and has a small solar panel on top. Should we be out of power for longer than a few hours we can have some music and up-to-date news without too much effort.

Outside the box

There’s also a few useful things we have around the house that can be retrieved quite easily in an emergency:

Rechargeable battery pack

We have a solar-powered one that sticks to the window. We keep it on the window most of the time as there’s no point charging it up during an emergency. Should the power go out long enough for phones to be affected then we can charge up our devices.

Rechargeable sensor lights

We purchased these after having a newborn and realising that it was hard to sneak up and down the stairs for 2am feeds in the dark. Ours are stuck to the side of the stairs for every third step. They’re motion sensitive and light sensitive, so only come on when they sense movement when it’s dark enough. Easily rechargable and because we have multiple ones we can take one out to charge without losing much light.

Thermos and hot water bottles

Any time we get storms or high winds predicted I put the kettle on. The Thermos gets filled up, followed by the hot water bottles, which are then put in the beds. That way should we lose power we have enough water for a cup of tea or two and the beds will be warm even if the rest of the house is cold.

Future plans

I’ve already said I’d like another camping lantern but there’s a few other preps I would like to purchase in the future to improve our resilience:

• Camping stove – My parents have one for beach picnics. They’re definitely very helpful so purchasing one with a few of the small bottles of gas (along with a suitable camping saucepan) would give us a hot meal without too much effort. I already keep a supply of tins in the food cupboard anyway.
• More sensor lights – These have been so helpful for the stairs that I’d quite like a second set that could be dotted around other places, such as the bathroom, the boot of the car, and the food cupboard.
• Book lights – Once our toddler is a bit bigger and is able to read I’d like to purchase a couple of the tiny lights that can be clipped onto books. I won’t want to run down phone batteries by playing games on them and we have plenty of books in the house to keep us occupied.

Where is it kept?

My main rule for anything to do with prepping is – can it be accessed easily by the shortest adult in the house (aka me)? My husband is six feet tall so can reach most things quite easily. But if it’s just me and a toddler in the house I don’t want to be playing around trying to find a stepladder in the dark.

This means that the powercut box lives in our hallway on a shelf above the coats and the shoebench. Easy to find in the darkness and easy to reach without needing someone else with long arms.

How much did it cost to set up our emergency bag?

In the past year a few friends and people I follow on social media have found themselves being asked to leave their home quite suddenly by emergency services. From gas leaks and flash floods to unexploded World War 2 bombs and wild fires, there are a multitude of issues that mean you might need to dash out of your house with a few essentials and not much else.

Various European governments, particuarly the Scandinavian ones, have recommendations of what to have prepped in your home in case of an emergency, including food and water to last for several days. Here in the UK we don't have a history of preparedness and the general cost of living means that many people would struggle to even come close to the requirements set out in other regions.

But a basic emergency bag can be created quite cheaply with things gathered from around the house or purchased in supermarkets. With that in mind I thought I would take a look at how much it cost for me to set up our emergency bag.

(Caveat: This is not a "bug out bag". We are not taking supplies and camping equipment to last us days. We have a car, family who live 20 minutes away, and a selection of hotels in several nearby towns. This is a bag that would simply keep us comfortable for a few days while the issue that has caused us to leave has been resolved).

The bag

I had a sports bag that I bought to use as my hospital bag when I had our toddler. It’s quite deep, has handles and a shoulder strap, and there are a surprising number of pockets both inside and outside. It easily fits enough things for 2 adults and we don't use it on holidays so this is where I started.

In the long run I would prefer to upgrade to a backpack each for me and my husband as they’re easier to carry on your shoulders. But as a starter just using this bag has saved us money.

Cost: Nothing (the bag was originally purchased from Amazon for £19.99)

Clothes

This was the easiest part. There is no point spending money on brand new items that may be uncomfortable, don't fit properly, or are not suitable for the season. We packed clothes that are old but functional and still fit fine. One pair of trousers each (swapping to a skirt for me in the summer), one top each, two pairs of pants and two pairs of socks. No need for pyjamas, in an emergency we can sleep in our clothes.

Coats and hoodies live next to the front door and are easy to grab on our way out, as are shoes. Likewise our toddler’s nursery bag, which we bring home every evening, lives on a hook near the front door and always contains two complete outfit changes and a spare pair of shoes. There’s no need to pack extra for him, if anything his bag is the easiest to remember.

Cost: Nothing

Toiletries and medicine

We have a stock of toiletries (easier to remember to occasionally bulk buy than to remember to refill as each individual item runs out) so I rummaged through the box and took out some essentials. This means we’ll just need to refill the box slightly quicker than if we were just using things normally. But it also means that these are full sized toiletries so they take up quite a bit of room. If you have easy access to travel sized toiletries (perhaps you or family travel a lot) then these will be lighter and save space.

We’re also very lucky to not need regular prescriptions or medication, so all we need is some over the counter painkillers.

The toiletries in our emergency bag are:

• New toothbrushes for the 3 of us - £3.00
• Tube of toothpaste - £2.50
• Bottle of shampoo (Alberto Balsam) - 95p
• One deodorant - £1.40
• Small bar of soap - 95p
• Small packet of tissues - 17p
• 4 menstrual pads (tampons or a cup would save some space) - 70p
• One toilet roll - 60p
• One bottle of Calpol - £3.25
• One pack of Neurofen - £1.90

I’ve put everything except the shampoo (which is standing up in a corner of the emergency bag to reduce the risk of leaks) and the toilet roll (which takes up a lot of space anyway) in a ziplock bag so it is easy to find everything. This was something I did for my hospital bag and it was really helpful to not rummage to find one thing.

We also have a first aid bag which lives downstairs and contains plasters, antiseptic wipes and sterile pads, along with more paracetamol. Should we forget to grab that in an emergency we also have a smaller version in the boot of the car (for excursions with the toddler).

Cost: £15.42

Entertainment

This is where we spent a bit more money, as there isn’t a lot that we could raid from other parts of the house that we don’t use regularly. It has to be analogue, ideally something that at least two of us can do, and can age up with our toddler so we’re not constantly buying new things every year because he’s outgrown them.

This meant that I focused on paper-based games. I bought an Uno pack (£4.99), which comes in quite a small box so it’s easy to store, and it’s something that can be scaled up to more players quite easily. I also purchased a puzzle book (£3.85), and a pencil and paper games book (£6.43). There’s enough variety in each one that we should be able to stave off boredom for at least 10 minutes!

For the toddler we have a small Thomas the Tank Engine book that contains 3 stories, and two Hot Wheels cars. These were things already in the house that we have multiples of, so easy to sneak away and pack without him missing them.

Cost: £15.27

Food and drink

This is where we’ve spent the most money. And the bulk of it was on just two items – 710ml food flasks by the Thermos brand at £22.40 each.

I decided to buy these ones, rather than one large Thermos, as although they’re heavy and a bit chunky they take up the same space as one large Thermos. Having two means that we could keep hot water in one and cold water in another. And the cup lids are small and shallow enough that our toddler can hold them to have a drink without spilling water all over himself.

To make up for all the space they take I have packed them with individually wrapped teabags (£2.00 for a box of 25, 4 are in the Thermos and the rest were consumed at work), sachets of instant coffee (£6.99 for 50, 4 are packed and the rest are slowly being worked through), instant hot chocolate sachets (2 x 50p each), and instant soup (£1.65 for a box of 4, 2 sachets are in the Thermos). There are long shelf lives on all of them, and I have a note in my planner to check them twice a year and replace anything that’s close to its best before date.

I didn’t want to pack any tins or jars as the space is limited and we don’t want the bag to be too heavy. Packets of mini breadsticks (£1.40 for 6, we've packed 3) are light, have a long shelf life, and can be enjoyed by us and the toddler. We also have a few individually wrapped Kiddylicious biscuits (£2.85 for 6) for the toddler, and some Rice Krispies bars (£2.25 for 4). These were part of the usual weekly shop, I just removed two or three from the packs and put them in the bag.

The costs for the individual bits we've packed are:

• 2 x Thermos - £44.80
• 4 x teabags - £0.32
• 4 x instant coffee sachets - £0.56
• 2 x instant hot chocolate sachets - £1.00
• 2 x instant soup packs - £0.83
• 3 x mini breadstick packs - £0.70
• 2 x Kiddylicious biscuits - £0.95
• 2 x Rice Krispies bars - £1.13

Cost: £50.29

Miscellaneous

And of course there are a few essentials that don’t fit in the above categories but were still things I felt we needed:

• Pens and pencils (£1.70) – We have two pens, two pencils, a rubber and a sharpener. They can be used to make notes or fill in the games books mentioned in entertainment.
• Small notebook (90p) – We have a small notebook in which we’ve written emergency contact details for utility services (Cadent, UK Power Network, our GP surgery) and for our families, in case we can’t access our phones. We’ve also written down policy numbers, expiry dates and providers for various insurances, and the numbers of important ID documents.
• Charger cable and plug (£2.70) – We bought a spare phone charging cable (USB-C) and already had a USB plug adapter so we can access mains charging if needed.
• USB memory stick – I had a stack of these as I frequently back up photos. This one has a text file with the same information as our notebook, as well as copies of important documents.
• Cash – We have a small amount of cash in mixed notes (£5 and £10 notes) and £1 coins. This was collected over six months in a cash bag after selling things on Facebook marketplace so there was no need to withdraw anything from our accounts.
• Cotton tote bag – No idea how much this was as I was given it years ago. Easy to fold up and it stores in one of my emergency bag’s many pockets.
• Mini hot water bottle (£5.89) - Should we have to leave in winter and stay a few hours somewhere with less-than-ideal heating then this will help keep one of us warm. Also very helpful for general aches and pains while waiting for the Neurofen to kick in.

Cost: £11.19

The final total

As you can see above, there are plenty of ways you can create an emergency bag without needing to spend huge amounts of money. A basic bag is better than no bag at all, and everyone has different priorities and things they see as essential. You do not need to have a Thermos, I just know that I function better with a nice hot cup of tea. If you don’t have children you won’t need to worry too much about entertainment. If you have pets then you will need to consider food and water for them.

In total our emergency bag has cost £92.17 to set up. This is still a lot of money, but it would have been more if we hadn't reused a bag and clothing we already had. The Thermos' were the biggest chunk of that cost, without them it would be £47.37. If you remove the "entertainment" section as well that gets you down to £32.10.

In the future we may upgrade a few things, especially when we graduate from having a toddler to having a child. But if you’re worried about needing a lot of money to prepare then hopefully this has shown just how much you can use from around the home, or source quite cheaply from the shops.

Side hustle total for 2023

Much like the mortgage overpayments for this year, having a baby naturally meant that side hustles had to take a bit of a back seat.

As you'll see below, in the end I wasn't too far off last years total! I'm quite surprised but one good thing about being on maternity leave with a good sleeper is that I had a bit of time to do extra random money-making tasks during naps, and that had a bigger impact than I realised.

Breakdown and total

Talks- £215.30

Other- £127.32

Surveys- £115.18

Cashback - £32.33

Receipts - £20.00

Total - £510.13

Sources

Talks

Another year in which talks are my most profitable side hustle. This is also where my maternity leave lost me the most money. I did have two talks booked for early in the year but my Mum gently persuaded me to cancel them as there was a chance I'd be too tired for them. I'm glad she did as my iron levels were quite low at the beginning of the year and I felt wiped out by the early afternoon. I definitely couldn't have done a good job with low energy levels.

Other

This is a category that I think I'll change a bit next year. "Other" is all the things that tend to come in with minimal effort on my part, or that I don't really participate in regularly enough to consider as a separate category.

This year it has covered some ebook money (my ebooks were published nearly 10 years ago but I still get the occasional purchase or KENP read), some sales on eBay, and a payout from Zazzle. I think for 2024 I'll try tracking "sales" as a separate category in its own right. The eBay sales have actually been more consistant this year and I'd like to try and increase them next year, as well as try selling outgrown baby things on FBMP.

Surveys

Being on maternity leave really helped with this. During naps I could pop on to Prolific and do a few quick tasks. Prolific has always paid well due to their rules around minimum amount per hour, and doing 50 pence here and 20 pence there, for tasks taking less than 10 minutes, meant that I could build up a decent chunk each month.

I also finally had a Yougov payout of £50. I have been doing it for years (literally) and while the £50 is a big chunk in one go it simply is not worth all the time and effort I put into it. This is one I am not going to be returning to.

Cashback

This continues to be a bit of a slow burner but it's worth it for the occasional payout. I've had payments from Shopmium, Greenjinn, TopCashback, and Hashting. In some cases the cashback has been the amount I've spent on a grocery item so we've effectively got something for free.

Receipts

If "Sales" are going to get their own category next year then I'll lump "receipts" into "other". This used to be a bigger earner but with the closure of ReceiptHog and some difficulties I've had with SnapMyEats, I've given up and just stuck to Shoppix. I always cash out an Amazon voucher as it can just sit in my account and cover the occasional ebook purchase.

Next year

For 2024 I'd like to try and see how close I can get to £600. I'll be going back to work next year so we'll see how much time I have between that and the baby, but I'd certainly like to increase the amount. Perhaps £550 would be more realistic?

Mortgage overpayments 2023

I am honestly a little amazed that I managed to get any overpayments done after March. I had a baby at the end of the month so remembering to knock extra chunks off the mortgage wasn't exactly top of my list of things to do each month.

But extra payments were made. Not too much more than the standard overpayment we make every month but there were a few account sweeps and side hustles here and there.

The overpayments

Jan - £168.68

Feb - £137.27

Mar - £135.52

Apr - £128.70

May - £130.99

Jun - £127.48

Jul - £134.69

Aug - £143.32

Sept - £196.48

Oct - £196.21

Nov - £149.61

Dec - £162.69

Total - £1,811.64

Thoughts

I must confess that if I'd totalled this up a bit sooner and seen how close we were to £2000 I would definitely have found £190 from a savings account and chucked it at the mortgage. Just for the satisfaction of rounding it up and the psychological boost of tipping into £2k territory.

But even without reaching the giddy heights of £2000 I'm still really pleased with how much we overpaid this year. This is definitely the best year we've had for mortgage overpayments since we started back in 2017, and we've done it while I've been on maternity leave and had a baby to look over so the attention of finances has dipped quite a bit this year.

I wish I could say we'll take it forward next year and push for a big target. But our mortgage deal with it's low interest rate ends in the spring and we simply can't get the kind of rate we got a few years ago. We're also not likely to get big promotions, bonuses or new jobs next year, in fact we're looking at my husband taking a career break so he can have time with the baby as well. We'll still make some overpayments but circumstances will significantly curtail them.

30 books for Women's History Month

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March is Women's History Month, and if you're like me you'll be thrilled with how women's history has exploded as a subject over the past few years.

I'm not even that old, I was born in 1985! But I remember how much history at school was focused on men and their achievements. The change has been very welcome, for me at least.

Side hustle total for 2022

This post contains some referral links. If you sign up after clicking a link then it won't cost you anything, but means I get a few extra pennies as a thank you for referring you.

As with my recent look back at my mortgage overpayments, now that we're in 2023 (well into it, it's February!) I can look back at my spread sheets and see what the impact last years side hustling was.

This is the first year that I've properly tracked my side hustle money. Most of it tended to go into my Paypal and then just sit there until I bought something off eBay. But with more of a focus on FIRE in the past few years I realised I needed to be a bit more sensible about this as well.

And I'm very glad I did, as I can now see the impact of all those little sums from various sources, that just come drifting in throughout the year.

Mortgage overpayments 2022

Now that we've waved goodbye to 2022 and can look forward to 2023, it's time to reflect on some of the finances over the past year.

To start with I've had a look back at our mortgage overpayments for 2022! I know there's some debate among personal finance bloggers over whether it's best to overpay the mortgage or invest the money instead. For me and my husband overpaying works for us, but I'm very aware that it's not for everyone.

Last year our total was just over £900. My target had been £1000 a year. And this year we managed it!

Birthday freebies

I recently celebrated my *whisper* 37th birthday! And naturally that meant that I could load up a few apps and loyalty cards and get a few freebies and money off vouchers.

This might be one of my favourite rewards in recent years. Birthday rewards for loyalty cards and apps only started up a few years ago, but they do seem to be a slowly growing trend. I don't like things to go to waste so I've only signed up to things I know I want, there are more offers beyond the four I've listed here.

Paperchase - £5 off with Treat Me card

If you're signed up to the Paperchase "Treat Me" card and you've given them your date of birth, then around your birthday you'll get an email saying you have a £5 voucher ready to spend. They give you a code to use online or if you're in the shop just hand over the card and it will be assigned to your purchase.

I used it to reduce the cost of my 2023 diary. For the past few years I've been keeping a daily hand written diary and I generally purchase them from Paperchase as I'm left handed and find their diaries are quite easy to write on both sides of the page.

Although the code is emailed to you close to your birthday, it generally has an expiry date set 30 days later. If you time it well you could combine it with a sale to get a real bargain!

Greggs app - Free sweet treat

If you download the Greggs app and add your date of birth then you'll find it automatically gives you a free sweet treat voucher on the app! I got this delicious sprinkle doughnut but other options include yumyums, gingerbread biscuits, and chocolate chip cookies.

The offer was added to my app on my birthday itself and was valid for 7 days, if you don't have a huge amount of time to use it. In my case though I was going into town to do some Christmas shopping so I just made sure I stopped by Greggs on my way back to the car. If you don't have a Greggs nearby then you might want to decide if it's worth the cost of a trip.

You also need to have had the Greggs app for a few weeks before your birthday, if you download it on the day then I don't think it will work.

Hotel Chocolat - £5 off with VIP Me card

Like Paperchase, if you have the Hotel Chocolat VIP Me card then you'll get an email confirming you have a £5 voucher on your VIP Me card, or a code to use online.

Back when you could get three selectors for £10 this was a fantastic bargain, as you could get great chocolate for half off. Sadly though inflation now means that it's £12 for three selectors and it doesn't feel like quite as good a deal (to me at least, but I understand why the prices went up).

Instead I got one selector and one milk chocolate "tiddly pot", with the voucher I paid less than £2 for the pair of them. It's still a really nice offer though and if your birthday falls just after a holiday like Halloween, Christmas, or Valentines, then you can use the voucher to get some already discounted chocolate.

My birthday falls in the middle of November and the email normally arrives in my inbox right at the end of October, valid until the end of November, so I think it mostly covers your birthday month.

Costa Coffee - Free cake with the app

If you have downloaded the Costa Coffee app and filled in your details, including your birthday, then you can get a free cake for your birthday. Like the Greggs app this is automatically added to the app on your birthday, and you need to use it within the week.

I chose the millionaire slice but I don’t think it limits what you can buy. I was very tempted by the lemon muffin as I really like them, and they had also released their festive menu so there were also Toblerone muffins, large mince pies, and a cake with a reindeer face.

If you want to download the Costa app then you can use my referral code (8XQ6D), and we will both get 5 free beans, which will put you halfway towards a free drink.

Overall a nice little haul that just required me to pop into a few shops, I had a week off work anyway so I was going to a few places with the relevant shops. It's a nice way to get a few treats for free or very reduced.

Books I read in May 2022

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As you'll see from the books this month, I've been on a bit of a Second World War kick.

I can't really explain why, I'm not normally much of a recent history fan. And actually the second one, about the Home Guard, was read this month because I borrowed it from my local library so needed to read it before returning it. Had it been a book I'd bought it would no doubt still be sitting unread on the bookcase.

I did cheat a tiny bit and still write it in my "to be read" section in my planner, just so I could have the pleasure of ticking it off. I also returned it to the library before taking a photo for the blog.

Becoming a Women's Institute Speaker

In a recent post about my side hustles I mentioned that one of my main earning streams was doing talks for the Women's Institute.

I really enjoy my talks as an alternative side hustle, and I know that WIs need a good diversity of speakers. So I thought I would write a little guide on how I became a speaker, and a few things you need to keep in mind if you want to become one yourself.