I know what this economy is doing to all
of us. Even if your income is secure and
you are up to date with your mortgage payments, you have been touched by the
economy. Gas prices are up one day, down
two days in a row and up and up and up.
We have all been touched by the high costs and slow recovery.
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.
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.
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………………
