I have been approached by more than one person complaining that there isn't a single penny extra for prepping for disaster. I know two of the complainers well and I know they have more income than I have.
We have the same number of dependents.
The differences are priorities.
I am going to catch friend crap over this but true is true. I don’t go to the latest movie the minute it
hits the theater. If I want to see a
movie, I wait until the discount day or a few weeks when it shows up at the discount theater. I
haven’t seen the inside of a new car in this century. I don’t get a new one every two years. I own the home I live in, I don’t pay
rent. I don’t shop the mall stores.
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I know even though I live a “cheaper”
lifestyle, I have more designer clothes, more designer handbags, more designer and vintage jewelry than anyone I know. I also have supplies set aside for a
number of different disaster scenarios. I have
supplies stored for personal use and some for barter and some for charitable giving. I have a survival library. I have non-electrically operated appliances,
tools and gadgets to make a life without power possible. I have a generator. I have a Faraday box for my backup discs,
thumb drives and SD cards.
Still, the complainers insist, it can’t be
done in this economy. They tell me there isn't a penny extra for prep. I agree. I didn't achieve my goals with the wave of a single credit card. The money I spend is labeled 'instead of money'. Instead of money for a movie on
opening night, it is money for a bigger Faraday box. Instead of having money for a big cup of
coffee with extra squirts of goo, I have money for eight pounds of rice, seven
pounds of beans or a box of dehydrated milk that makes two gallons of skim
milk.
I
have a different set of priorities. I
shop thrift stores. I shop discount
stores. Tomorrow I am going to a store I
have never shopped before to gauge its place in my life plan. It is a store that sells discount
groceries. I am going with a calculator
and a lighted magnifying glass. I want
to check sell by dates and use by dates as well as packaging integrity. I do discount but I don’t buy garbage. If I can’t use it or see it as a future trade
or charity item, I don’t buy it.
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| safeamericaprepared.org |
I have supplies I once had on a list of
things I needed. I shopped and planned
and bought what I needed until I checked off all the things on the list, and
then I bought all those things again. I
believe one is none and two are one.
I
don’t treat my prep lists as if they were luxuries. They are lists of things I will need and
things I will use. Luxuries are not the things you buy
first.
I don’t begrudge anyone the extras or the
nice things in life. I like nice
things. I just don’t like the idea of
waking up on a day when there is no electricity followed by no city water
knowing the gas stations are dry with no food in the cabinet and no way to cook
it.
I take the complaints I hear with a grain of
stored salt! I consider the source and
the fact that if you say you can’t do something, you know best!
If you can’t, you won’t. If you decide you will, you will.
Trade a cup of coffee for a future. Trade a trip to the mall for a
dehydrator. Start small. Trade a pack of gum for a packet of
seeds. Don’t spend an extra penny on
prep supplies. Spend your money on prep
supplies instead of………………
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