These will squeeze the last bit of power out of AA batteries that might be too weak for other purposes.
Posted on 04/12/2022 9:45:41 AM PDT by Tilted Irish Kilt
The practical Way to go :
At a minimum, frugal financial planning for preppers simply means living within your means so that you are able to build yourself a financial cushion.
For beginning preppers, this is important to ensure that you can build sufficient emergency reserves of supplies and cash (cash on hand, not at the bank).
In addition, you will want to gradually reduce your reliance on things that may not be available to you, such as utilities and fuel.
(Excerpt) Read more at survivalist101.com ...
Thrift Shopping :
It’s not at all uncommon to find high-end, lightly-used clothing, kitchen goods, and other household items.
And, if you shop at the thrift stores located in the more affluent areas, the quality goes up.
Warehouse Stores:
A membership to a warehouse store always pays off, and if you are buying food items for both current consumption and storage,
it is the best way to stretch your dollars. (Especially if purchasing large quantities)
Coupon Clipping :
The key, of course is to use the coupons in conjunction with sales to maximize savings.
Clippers will tell you that the savings are greater than what you can get from the warehouse stores.
While that may be true, coupon clipping does require good organization and dedicated effort
in order to maximize your savings but it can make a HUGE difference in financial planning for preppers.
Drive Less :
There’s a possibility that you may not have access to a car or fuel following a disaster, and that’s not the time to start figuring out
what alternative means of transportation to use.
Bikes will likely become the primary mode of transportation in that situation, …
Invest in DIY : (Do It Yourself – learn Skills )
Learning essential skills is not only crucial for survival, it can save you money today.
Skills such as car repair, sewing, first aid, home maintenance, gardening,
fishing, and hunting would be invaluable in survival mode, and they can all be learned inexpensively …" ( Develop essential skills)
nice article
Thrift stores are great....I don't buy clothes there but I have found great dishes, pots, pans, gardening supplies, and all sorts of things....
That’s one of those things that I can confirm from observing the local homeless. And with it, comes a black market in stolen bikes and bike parts. If demand got bikes skyrocket, expect to have to take precautions...maybe traveling in pairs.
By prioritizing your overall budget and cutting back on non-essential items (entertainment, unnecessary driving, dining out, etc.)
most people can find between $200 and $300 a month to apply towards prepping on a budget. ( Understanding your needs)
FOOD : Record the amount spent weekly/ monthly on food . Plan accordingly .
Creating a food stockpile is more easily achievable when you purchase items that you would normally eat so that you can consume what you need now and store the excess.
How much excess food you buy will depend on your budget,
but you should shoot for buying two extra of every item you expect to consume now.
Buying items on sale, using coupons and sticking with store brands will help you save money that can be applied to extra purchases.
The food items you store must have a long shelf life and you need to take into consideration that you might not have electricity which might preclude storing frozen items.
WATER : Water is no less important than food when prepping on a budget, but it should cost you far less to accumulate a good supply.
Each month you should shoot for buying three or four gallons of drinking water and a case of bottled water.
The cheapest source of gallon jugs are the water dispensing vending machines you see at grocery stores.
LIGHT : If you ever spent a night through a power outage, you know how important it is to have a light source.
Your first priority is accumulating a supply of quality LED flashlights.
Bulbs and batteries last much longer with LED. For every flashlight you buy, pick up several packs of alkaline batteries.
MEDICAL SUPPLIES : Keep up to date with your prescriptions and, if you are able, ask your doctor for an extra 30-day supply. ( Or Longer, depending on need)
Invest in a good first aid kit
and begin to accumulate additional supplies of band-aids, aspirin, antibiotic ointments, cold medicines, and diarrhea medicine.
HOUSEHOLD AND HYGIENE SUPPLIES : You will need sanitation and hygiene items, so when buying disinfectants, cleansers for clothes, deodorant,
shampoo, razor blades, etc., add one or two extra just as you do with your food items. (Also , soaps, disinfectants, toilet tissue, etc.)
I’m patting myself on the back for refinancing our mortgage out for another 30 years at 2.5%. With 7.5% inflation, the value of my loan dropped by 5% without me doing a thing.
True that it may create a black market.
Prepare accordingly with strong security tools and/ or chains that can't be cut by 'bolt cutters'.
Nowadays, some bike frames currently cost in the thousand dollars range and require adequate consideration;
I know of people who disassemble their bikes after usage in order to protect their expensive purchase.
The main theme of a prepper is to 'blend in' and become the 'greyman' rather than draw attention.
If everyone in the neighborhood owns a wreck, your bike should be a wreck too.
Two things...if you use distilled water...refill them with tap water and mark with date and source...second...has no one here ever lost a prescription?
That is the idea about figuring out how much you use per week/ month and then purchase for you need; that's a form of 'food budgeting'.
Prepper Mantra :" Store what you eat, and eat what you store" which means an honest assessment of use frequency, and keeping then keeping it in rotation.
Agreed, a bargain isn't a bargain if you end up throwing a good potion out. (I have done the same, myself ;-) )
Better to grow you own. If in an apartment, plant some around the residential landscaping, it will grow in partial sun, but thrives in fun sunshine.
An excellent point !
I have even had tap water go bad as it occasionally caught a bit of sunshine in the pantry due to seasonal change.
If you keep graph paper on the clipboard to record the date and the food product,
you will know exactly what you have on hand, and possible expiration date, or date it should be checked for freshness.
Peeled garlic freezes really well and lasts a long time.
Bikes are being used in our little town to traffic drugs by the homeless. My son is an officer and the local department got laughed at for stopping people on bikes until the community found out that was how drugs were being moved around the small town.
Now if there is no lighting in the proper locations or reflectors the cops pull them over and cite, question and ask to search the always present backpacks. Sometimes they have to call a drug dog to sniff the backpacks. Most of the time though the person has an out standing warrant for failure to appear, thus arrest and they search and find more drugs.
Most of the time they seize the bikes depending on the amount of drugs taken and they give them to a local guy who refurbishes the bikes and gives them to poor kids for their birthday or at Christmas.
Why is is that prepping authors assume everyone who preps is a poor person or on fixed incomes? Prepping is for everyone including wealthier people with the means to do whatever they choose.
For every flashlight you buy, pick up several packs of alkaline batteries
There are so many solar rechargeable options out there, I don’t often use battery powered lights. Batteries don’t store all that long.
Under the DIY - canning.
You can chop up the garlic in a food processor and freeze it.
That’s what I do with my garden grown stuff when it starts to look suboptimal about Jan/Feb.
These will squeeze the last bit of power out of AA batteries that might be too weak for other purposes.
Yeah. It further increases the value of stolen bike parts if you can trade them directly to a dealer. I was walking back home through a wooded area last week, and a guy was walking out of a homeless camp area with a half dozen mountain bike tires and inner tubes over one shoulder, and a soft guitar case in his other hand. I’ve heard reports of cars sitting with their motors running a couple of blocks away. Probably a pick-up system working. It’s a problem that the thieves now have communications equal to the cops.
I like ‘em! A good tool to have.
Free propane bottles. I frequently pass people who put their old BBQs with a “free” sign not realizing the tanks are still fine. Fill up in the summer when it’s cheap. Of course Propane in my neck of the woods has gone up over $3 a gallon thanks to Chomo Joe.
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