Posted on 01/17/2015 3:33:54 PM PST by Kartographer
So true. We have gone through our Berkey black filters and we are ordering new ones to the tune of $100. But we also have a backup filter that Mr. GG2 made from a kit he ordered online from internetprepper.com for $29.99 plus the two 5 gallon buckets you have to buy from Lowes. Check it out.
Another good article posted by Kartographer!
One benefit of prepping is that it often is a hedge against inflation.
We are still eating brand name tuna fish that we bought way back at 3 cans for $1.00.
And we still have bacon in the freezer that we bought for $1.59 a pound.
And there is the convenience of not having to spend money driving to the store so often and being able to wait to buy needed food items until they go on sale.
You guys are overexplaining. Why would anybody want to eat bacon that’s been sitting in a freezer for years? Or canned tuna that’s been around since the Reagan Administration?
My family jokes about my (our) preps. We call them
“Food insurance “ , zombie preps, all the funny names. We joke about it but only to each other. There is food, water, meds, fuel, candles, lighting, generator, guns, ammo, .... All the things a good country boy needs to have. We run a garden, have chickens, goats, .... He’ll i even have bio Hazard tape, bio hazard bags and pre printed CDC isolation orders to scare off the curious passer by.. We all joke about how Mylar bags,O2 and moister absorbers get me excited. Maybe we even make much cruder comments than I can even mention here but it’s just jokes. But do You know what? My family doesn’t even blink over a power hiccup, snow storm tornado that takes power out for 2 weeks.
They joke buy they know it’s covered. Strep on Christmas Eve - no problem. We got z-Pak and steroids. Need a 2 week vacation due to major power outage due to tornados taking power plants offline - no biggie. He’ll i can even help friends and extended family in that situation with food and fuel. Your waiting in line at the gas station, ATM, grocery store we are eating good and enjoying time together like family.
If the SHTF - they know a sheep dog is here. A whole pack of them really. I hope to God its never needed and I die an old man but if .... If it’s needed then im pretty sure its covered. 95% anyway. That other 5% is with God.
It's at least a 20% saving in the food bill. But try to convince someone who hasn't tried it!
I also have a Berkey. Should I still add a drop of bleach, as in so many drops of bleach per gallon of water into 16 ounce bottles. I worry about the bottles being stagnant for a period of time. Example, I refill my seltzer water bottles with My Berkey water?????
Great idea re: the straws
In my experience, it’s often much more than 20% - especially if you take advantage of BOGOs, and use coupons.
It may take some real discipline to start, especially if you’re on a small budget; but after a few months, you’ve got the necessities to last a few weeks, at least; and then you can build from there. You can pick and choose among the sales/deals. You wind up saving ‘big-time’.
The one thing I’d like to get away from, is relying on the deep freeze so much. We have canned meat, but most of our meat is in the freezer. A few days of power outage in summer, and that stash would be mostly gone...and wasted money...
It’s silly to me, that some people think that it’s ‘weird’ to prep. It’s what our ancestors did routinely - including near-in-time ancestors. It’s just common sense.
-JT
Yes Mr. GG2 has made them for his sister, my sister and one of our best friends and then a back up for us. They work great.
I grew up around neighbors who bought groceries once a month who also bought sides of beef from local farms, took them to a butcher and froze them. Relying upon a freezer can be problematic if power outage is ever a concern. Get a generator panel installed for the freezer and just a few other things that would make your residence habitable in a lengthy outage. Hot water if it’s electric, well pump if you have a well, freezer, fridge, a few electrical outlets and a few lights. Climate control bumps it up to expensive as far as fuel consumption and the size of the generator, so it would be good to avoid if you can. Fireplace, wood stove for heat. Cooling, open windows like our ancestors did way back in the olden days of the 50’s, lol.
It can’t hurt. We have not done it at this point but the Berkey does not filter out virus so if things get bad you can drop a few drops of chloxox in the top of the berkey and then it will kill the virus and the filter will filter out the chlorox. We have put some chlorox in our large 65 gallon water containers.
You would eat it because you have it and it is still good.
When we thaw out frozen bacon after a few years it is indistinguishable from freshly purchased.
The canned tuna we bought on sale about 4 years ago and it too is indistinguishable from freshly purchased.
I’m so screwed. My husband and myself were prepping. However, he passed away on Oct. 1 of 2014. He was a prepper till his last breath. Now I’m in a situation where I may not be able to remain in our house for too much longer. We live in Massachusetts so it would not bother me in the least to move out of state, but I have no idea where to go. Vermont was our favorite place, however, I don’t think these old bones can handle the cold weather any longer. I would like a piece of land and a mobile home if need be or a foreclosed property. When my beloved husband died the kids laughed and joked about our preps. However, what my husband and I prepared for is no joke. We only know MA, NH AND VT. Any suggestions for the warmer climes on the cheap? The cost of Cancer treatment almost completely dissolved our life savings. any suggestions would be most appreciated. I refuse to give up on what my husband absolutely knew is heading our way. i just want a couple of chickens, some rabbits a little plot of land and the right to bear arms. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
Thanks, makes perfect sense.
Well, we are currently suburbanites living in an apartment building. We have a wood-burning fireplace, which we figure could be useful; but everything else here is electric.
My husband grew up in what was then the ‘wilds’ of PA, and it’s still pretty rural there. The house his father built was wired for electric heat, but the electric heat was never used. The place was always heated by the wood stove. Before my father-in-law died, he told me that over the years he had saved tens of thousands of dollars, by using only the wood stove for heat. He split and stacked the wood himself, every year; many years sawed it down, too. My ‘Husband Unit’ helped, from a very young age (and has the scars to prove it - one day a chain saw went awry...but that’s a whole ‘nother story ;-)
I went there once, when it was absolutely frigid in January; and that home was so warm and toasty that we threw off the covers at night.
Bottom Line: My retirement home WILL have a wood-burning stove for heat. (You can heat up soup and water, and scramble eggs on it - all kinds of things!)
-JT
You know, you can buy canned bacon, and people rave about it:
http://www.amazon.com/Cans-full-Yoders-Canned-Bacon/dp/B0039LDMV6
You can also buy canned butter and cheese, from New Zealand and Australia...
It’s expensive; but may be worth it, for a little treat in bad times.
-JT
The far Upstate of South Carolina, up against the NC border, has some beautiful rolling foothills switching over to mountains that you’d feel right at home with as far as appearance and the lay of the land. Considerably warmer winters than New England, high enough that the summers aren’t brutal. Avoid the pricey summer home areas and you’ll find it very affordable, 3 br manufactured homes in good condition on small acreage can be found in the $50s. To give you some idea of the general level of affordability, here’s a nice-looking brick ranch over 2,000 sq ft on over 6 acres in Sunset, SC, in need of renovation but livable as is, $99,000.
Taxes are low there, too. Same goes for across the border into NC but that becomes purely mountainous on that end of the state. Affordability is more of a challenge too, but does exist. Just dodge the summer home areas and you’ll want to avoid Asheville, too. Pretty city, Asheville, I love it, but the leftists have discovered it as they do all the beautiful places eventually. I’d suggest Brevard in Transylvania County, it’s a very nice town in a broad valley, there are affordable properties there, pretty views and waterfalls surround it within an easy drive.
Just go to http://www.realtor.com and enter Brevard, NC or any other town you see on a map that looks interesting in the vicinity. Very scenic area, renowned for mild four season climate, they call it a “thermal belt.”
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