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Every family I know is cutting back on extra spending. When your goal is preparedness, though, the fact of the matter is that money is required if you’re working on food storage, making trips to the shooting range, or buying a generator. What might help, when times are tight, is to have two prepping lists.
To Buy
On this first list, keep track of what you want to purchase. Create sub-categories for food, camping supplies, tools, communication, fuel, and the like. To make the lists even more useful, prioritize what you want to purchase first. Then, keep the list with you always. You never know when you might drive by a garage sale and see a perfectly fine generator sitting there with a price tag of fifty bucks or a case of Y2K era MREs for ten. Your lists will keep you from making spontaneous purchases for things that, you discover later, you already own, and will help you stay on track.
To Do
This second list will likely be longer but will keep you from getting discouraged when a tight budget puts that To Buy list on standby. On your To Do list, list the books you want to read or download. List all the things you want to learn. List the names of people who can teach you survival skills or just how to install a ceiling fan. If you haven’t compiled everything you need for a Bug Out Bag or 72 Hour Kit, add that to your list. You probably have nearly everything you need for those bags right now. Add “decluttering” to your list! That’s one of the most important things you can do, it won’t cost a dime, and if you put all your unwanted stuff out in a garage sale, it just might give you some cash for your To Buy list! Have you made an evacuation plan? Have you gathered together all your important documents for a Grab-n-Go Binder? Have you printed out important survival information for your Survival Mom binder, just in case your computer crashes or you lose power?
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I think we all get caught up with the idea that to prepare, we have to spend. When the money just isn’t there to spend, then we feel doomed! As you can see, though, your To Do list is actually the more important list. Knowledge, skills, and experience are priceless. It’s every bit as important to stock up on those as it is buckets of wheat.
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Jacqueline Acevedo says
April 22, 2010 at 5:24 pmYour ideas are so factual and full of common sense.
Thanks for all.
😎
LizLong says
April 22, 2010 at 6:19 pmGetting fruit trees has been a high priority item for us because they take a few years to start fruiting. We had to DO a plan for landscaping, then DO research on what grows well in our area, then DO learn about gardening (basics, at least), then DO remove old trees, before we could DO research to find a place to BUY trees. Then, when we knew what was available to buy, DO some thinking about what we could realistically grow, would like to eat, and could take care of. After all that, THEN we could BUY trees. Then, we need to DO gardening to maintain them and DO learn how to store and best use the fruit and DO…. While that is an extreme case for more do-ing than buy-ing, it illustrates your point!
Well, you get the point! And yours is a very good one indeed. 🙂
rightwingmom says
April 23, 2010 at 12:25 amLiz,
Rightwingdad has become obsessed w/ fruit trees. We have grape vines, peaches, plums, oranges, apples, and satsumas. Many are still young, but some are beginning to fruit. We figure if you're going to work in your yard, it should give you something back. We have a great local gardener who's advising us on more landscaping that fruits.
LizLong says
April 23, 2010 at 3:32 pmExactly. I put in some small cheap berry bushes last year. They survived, so I'm adding more this year. And the apple trees. Probably adding figs this fall or next spring. And an herb garden and some veggies will get started this summer. I have seeds to do more, but it's not at the point that I need to rush it all right now, and I certainly have plenty of other prepping to do, so we're taking it a step at a time. But everything we add to our yard at this point will give back in some way. I may actually plant the upper meadow (septic drain field) with nicotine. That gives back by helping keep insects away, as will the marigolds I have to plant. I'm thinking about maybe grape vines, but we aren't there.
What are satsumas?
midge says
April 23, 2010 at 5:41 pmI know of Satsuma China, A beautiful Japanese fine china typically extremely thin (sometimes called eggshell). My mother’s is so delicately painted, and the bottoms of the cup have the cameo of a lady that looks like a photograph, but done only by the thickness and thinness of the china.
Satsuma trees? Hmm… Wikipedia, here I come…
rightwingmom says
April 27, 2010 at 4:31 pmLiz, I placed a reply but it hasn't shown up. (?)
Satsumas are similar to tangerines. If you've purchased Clementines in you local story, they're a close cousin. They predominately a southern citrus fruit. (We live in south TX.) I grew up w/ a tree in my front yard and loved it! If you're not too far north, try planting one!
Here are some links:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/f…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satsuma_%28fruit%29