The List

As we continue on in our prepping foray's we are slowly making a list of things that we have not done and need to address. 

Our biggest vulnerability at this point is water.  We have very little water storage, and no way to purify water if we need to other than boiling.  So what we have decided to do it to save our empty gallon milk jugs each week - sterilize them with boiling water and fill them up with our filtered water to store for 4-5 months (after that the plastic in the milk jugs start to break down and leach into the water).  We also have a couple of big water storage jugs that will we be filling with emergency water and I am currently researching long term water purification options (although we do have an R/O filter on our sink which runs without electricity that I may also figure out how to convert for water purification since we carry about 2 years worth of filters int he house because it is cheaper to buy them in bulk.  

As much as it pains me I also need to learn to can food and spend some time throughout the summer canning and putting up some food for use each year.  I want to learn how to can meat as well as fruit and vegetables.  We need to step up the drying as well, shortage of cheaper produce through out the winter has kept that down other than jerky, which we eat faster than we can seem to store it. 

Food wise we need more coconut flour and cream, and we could use another gallon or so of the oil as well.  I want to find a recipe for some good energy bars that have no starch in them so that we all have an option for a high calorie food - maybe pemmican like made with coconut cream and oil.  Being limited to no starch or wheat or corn products is a huge challenge, it basically means that we can buy little to no prepared food to store because EVERYTHING has wheat corn and starch in it that you can buy on the reg store shelves.  It means a lot more making things ourselves and having single ingredients instead of easy prepared food to live off.

Back on the kitchen list of things to do are making homemade vegetable stocks and sauerkraut and have that on hand to store and eat continually for the health benefits.  This is not a prepping thing so much as a personal health thing but I think we can incorporate it into our food stores as well.  We also need to do an inventory of our freezer and probably buy another beef quarter in the next month or so.


On the personal protection front we are taking a CPL class next weekend and saving up our pennies to buy 2 hand guns and practice with them regularly at a shooting range.  We have several ranges nearby, we just need to choose an affordable one or look at the cost of the range vs driving to some personal property we have been offered to use for target shooting.

That is just the beginning of our list of things we have not done, but int he interest of keeping this in nice small bite-sized packages to prevent burnout and getting discouraged it seems enough for today!

The Financial Side of Preparedness

One of the things you do not see addressed very often is the financial aspect of being prepared.  I have been working on learning financial self sufficiency for years using debtproofliving.com.  The truth is that credit and living in debt is taken for granted in our society and used as actual income by many people, and but our government as well (trillions in debt anyone?).

The fact related to this truth is that as long as you are in debt it is very hard to be prepared for emergencies, because if something bad happens you could very well lose everything to your creditors.  Not to mention being in debt reduces the amount you can spend on preparedness supplies because you have to spend that money to pay back your creditors.  Mary Hunt has become my financial preparedness mentor and I am using her books, newsletter and daily emails to become better at managing our money and get us out of debt and into the realm of real self sufficiency.

Growing up I learned a little bit about money management from my grandmother and my mother but for the most part I was influenced by the credit companies and loan givers and stores that told me I deserved everything I wanted right now.  I fell slowly and continually into debt.  I got married in debt, and he had debt too.  Then I quit to stay home and left behind half of our income and we got into more debt.  Then I got sick and the idea of me being able to go back to work suddenly disappeared and we needed to get serious about learning to manage our money.  Back then this website was called Cheapskate monthly and had a mailed out newsletter of tips along with her books.

Time has gone by and we are finally living on our income and not credit and slowly climbing out of the debt hole we are in.  We are teaching our kids about budgeting for what you want and not living off credit, and I read the newsletter every month and still learn something new about being prepared. Check it out - it might help you in your quest for preparedness as well.

www.debtproofliving.com