While this is a basic list, it bears repeating. As you read through these suggestions make note of where you have been deficient or haven’t really started.
1. Simplify your life. Get back to basics: Put God first, turn off the TV, read your Bible daily and classic books, listen to good music, learn how to really talk with people, spend more time with family, and start a modest exercise plan. The more you do these things, the more you grow in all the relationships that truly matter and improve your health. You’d be surprised how much more you can do when you stop watching so much television or Internet.
2. Skills. Learn or refine basic skills that will save you money. For example:
● Start growing your own food now! Whether you own a home or rent, everyone should learn how to grow vegetables. There’s a learning curve to gardening, so the sooner you start the better. You may need to study ways to grow food in small spaces, in containers, and types of gardening in larger spaces, such as hügelkultur, row crops and how to plan a large garden. You can start sprouting and grow micro-greens at home even during the winter. Figure out what will work best for your situation. This skill will become much more important as inflation begins to go into double-digits in 2022.
● Learn how to cook from scratch. Commit to eliminating overly-processed food from your diet. Make it a goal to learn one new scratch recipe each month. Start with baking your own bread. This one skill alone can save you $2-$3 a loaf or more. Depending on how much bread you consume, this can really save you money. But don’t stop there! Your cooking skills should include learning to make healthy soups, stews and casseroles from scratch. There are so many quality meals you can make from less-expensive foods that are still very nutritious and so much better for you. Added benefit: The more you learn to cook from scratch, the less you spend on groceries.
● Learn basic car repair. Learn to fix a flat tire, do an oil change, and tune-up. If you already know how to do these things, then expand your car repair skills and learn how to fix brakes, install a new fan belt, etc.
● Learn a variety of other skills such as how to repair a lamp, build a rocket stove from fire bricks, basic woodworking, knitting, make baskets, weave rugs, welding, etc. Start by reading about these skills from books at your local library.
3. Start a basic food storage program to stay ahead of inflation. This can be done inexpensively if you know how to scratch cook. Invest in half-gallon (64 ounce) and quart (32 ounce) size canning jars, lids and rings. Buy your scratch cooking ingredients and dry can the dry ingredients. Example: if you learn to bake your own bread, you can buy 2 or more bags of flour and dry can it in the larger jars. If your family eats a lot of baked goods, then purchase flour in bulk sizes and learn to put it by in food-safe buckets and Mylar bags. A modest investment can save you so much on your grocery bills, especially as inflation continues to rise. Start keeping track of how much you eat and work out a budget to save enough to store a month’s worth of extra food ingredients (if you can’t afford that much, start by saving enough food for a week’s worth of meals). However you start, work towards building up your larder so that you can prepare meals with what you have on hand and only need to replace what you’ve used. I did this and it cut my grocery bill for 2 people down from $400 a month to $200 a month. This effort alone can help you survive longer without the total reliance of “just in time” grocery deliveries and food chains that are now breaking.
4. Start a side business for profit and barter. Be mindful it should be a business that is not dependent on the Internet so no one can the pull the plug on it. Offer a grass mowing or babysitting service, do sewing repair, or a garage, house or laundry cleaning service – anything you can do for extra income or to use as barter for other goods or services. This will become even more important as the government controls more and more of our banking and economic system in 2022.
5. Connect with your community and get active. It’s time to get out of your shell and join a community group, and shop at co-ops, Farmers Markets and garage sales. Start regularly attending a good church. Join a fraternal organization that does things for your community. Get involved helping at a food pantry, a homeless shelter, or animal shelter. Come up with ways to raise funds for these organizations that do so much for your area. The connections you make with your effort will become more important as government exerts more control.
6. Prepare for power outages, new pandemics, and more civil unrest. Acquire the tools you need to stay warm and prepare meals should the power go out for an extended period of time. Stock up on Vitamin D, Vitamin C and other supplements to keep your immune system healthy. Be prepared to deal with ever-expanding civil unrest. Lawlessness is increasing and you need to be prepared to protect yourself and those you love. This may mean relocation to a safer area, buying a firearm or other self defense weapons, and learning how to use them properly. Reinforce your home’s doors and windows by replacing the short screws holding the front and back doors in place in the door frames, with 2 “ – 3” inch-length screws. Doors can be protected from being kicked in by installing a 2×4 board held in place across the door by two L -brackets. Check out this article – 50+ Basic Preps You’re Probably Not Thinking About.
7. Stay informed but don’t live inside their media and world-view bubble. The more you detach from planned narratives and propaganda, the healthier and wiser you become. Stay as independent as possible by connecting even more with God, your community, real friends, neighbors and family.
Author: This is a guest post by Dare Tuitt
Build a Chaos Kit. You have a spare tire and jack for the car? It would be wise to add some blankets, and maybe an extra coat?
A short story for illustration:
Know that your home is going to get damaged in the near future. Winter storms, power outages, stray bullets, attempts to throw objects through your windows, fires both from home made heat sources and arson from “Peaceful Protestors” and so on.
Have the tools and materials put away where you can find them in the dark, in a hurry maybe while having a weapon on your person. Establish and practice SOP’s for various situations. From my two + decades in active duty nothing beats confusion and fear like a practiced battle drill.
What does that mean Michael? Glad you asked. A short story:
It’s O’ dark 30, it’s a stormy night, a glass breaking crash occurs in the living room. You awaken slip on your Bedside Ready Clothing and Slip On Shoes (so you don’t cut your feet on the broken glass and the frozen wind blowing in your home) , grab your loaded personal defense weapon, a strong flashlight (with fresh batteries) to check it out. PER your Family SOP and Practiced by all involved Mom has her Personal Defensive Weapon and is securing the children’s rooms. You determined it was a tree branch thrown by the storm through your window. You inform Mom, and get out your large roll of Heavy Duty Clear Plastic sheeting, the fasteners , the wooden strips, the hammer etc. and deal with it. Later after the sun rises you notice a bit of tree damaged your roof. You get out the tarps, rubber washered roofing nails, the ladder and hammer and fix it.
It’s been a few days since the *Still* contested Elections. Folks are getting weird. Mom didn’t want to go all “Mad Max” before BUT smoke from the neighborhood across the valley from the burnt homes has her understandably freaked out. She doesn’t want a Molotov through the windows. Lowes has been empty for days from panic buying BUT you had Already had bought 1 inch by 2 inch welded wire fencing, measured and cut for the windows along with the fasteners (extras and extra bits as Mr. Murphy is a bastard) an fully charged cordless drill (with a fresh spare battery). You, your wife and your Oldest standing watch get the windows covered ASAP. Happily you also bought fence posts, 2 X 4’s and tools to make “Airlocks” to protect the pretty weak doors and that sliding glass door from unwelcome visitors.
A stray bullet cracked your wood stove or your ally neighbors’ stove or stove pipe. Smoking them out. You get out your stove cement and fiberglass tape and fix it.
Even now I know if tonight’s sleet and windstorm awakens me to a breaking window, I have everything I need to investigate it and do a quick fix before winters nastiness floods my home with icy sleet.
If I awaken to the smoke alarm or that smell I know where my night shoes, flashlight, Fire Extinguishers and RALLY Point if we have to flee the house. Nothing is so heartbreaking responding to an emergency than family’s searching for one of their kids while the Fire Crew is working. A Rally Point helps reunite the family.