Received an e-mail from Jeffrey and Christina (I changed the women’s name to give a little OPSEC to the writers) who wrote: ”We absolutely are on board with this website and others as well. Don’t want to really put this out on a forum with some of the people are radical. But just how do you get prepared for all of the possibilities without money? My wife is a stay at home mom with our 3 years old and I bring home $830 every two weeks. After our rent, car payment, insurance, light bill and buying food we barely make it, let alone have money to spend on items for survival. I know our duplex isn’t a safe place to be with marauders in the streets shooting people and stealing things. We live in the suburbs and don’t have any place to go. I can’t help but think there are many people who are like us and maybe they have just quit trying to prepare and maybe I would too but for my 3 years son. Any advice would be well received. Thanks for all the free information you have for us. “
UrbanMan Replies: Jeffrey and Christina, I am not trying to lecture you about financial matters, but there are ways to be frugal so that you have more disposable income, whether than is just $5 a week or more. One of the things I did is to shop around and get the cheapest house phone; re-negotiated my cell phone plan; instituted a soup and sandwich dinner four nights a week; changed my vehicles insurance to carry more risk in lieu of a cheaper premium; and have been buying cheaper generic brands, usually at Costco, Wal-Mart and the Dollar Store as we can. That has actually freed up over $200 a month for me.
Just because your wife is home with the baby does not mean earning an income, especially with a home based business, is out of the question. You just have to get into the right business. Have her take a personal inventory and see what her skills, knowledge and aptitude is, in the categories of Products, Services of Information. There are many no to low costs startup type businesses available, but look carefully. Some people hire writers on-line to research and write papers. This is another method of earning extra cash.
I know of one gent who went to yard and garage sales, bought old crap, then sold it on e-bay for a large profit – gotta know what your doing though.
Think multiple streams of income. A little bit coming in from a lot of different sources generally makes good sense.
A final word: Don’t really know what you meant about ” Don’t want to really put this out on a forum with some of the people are radical.” There are preppers from many different schools of thought, prejudices’, bias’, etc. The survival forums are good about cleaning up the real kooks, but it is much better have kooks and various opinions, even if they are “radical”, then not to be allowed to have different, albeit, kooky and radical thought. This may be a good example of survival team building and the necessity of attracting people and building a solid team of people who think similar to you.
Think outside the box. I'm pretty sure you can free up and earn extra money to subsidize your preps - after all your survival may depend on it. Good luck.
Friday, February 24, 2012
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For what it's worth, my wife and I just started prepping about a year ago & based on what we make, made good headway (and have paid off a good amount of debt also). I'm a working stiff, but got overtime the last half of the year. Urban Man gave some great tips but I would say for us there are several things we did. One, Dave Ramsay's Financial Peace class. Not trying to preach at all &I Dave is a Christian; however, the course offers rock solid & down to Earth instruction on managing your money. I was $15,000 in debt with credit cards. We've paid them off & only spend what we have in the bank account. We live below our means, create a plan -on much like your survival planning - tell our money where we want it to go (again, the plan), and have been able to purchase much of what we need (almost $9 grand). Two, we've also sold stuff we don't need anymore to finance purchases. Three, we shop sale for groceries. If you have a freezer, you may be able to stock up on sale items. Four, we've also fixed up stuff to sell. Hope this helps, brother!
ReplyDeleteI recently retired, and while the retirement income is adequate, barely, there is not much left over for anything. My wife does e bay, but the items have to be bought.I reverted to something I did for years, between other occupations: I started rebuilding and repairing alternators and starters, the heart and soul of cars, trucks and equipment. While almost all parts suppliers are selling items from China, at a much reduced price compared to American and even Mexican parts, I can still offer quality rebuilds at a lesser price! I do the work in my garage(low overhead) I pick and choose my customers, and I offer custom rebuilds and repairs.I stay as busy as I want, and I can easily beat the prices offered by "parts houses." While I realize that this is a skill that requires training, I learned it by my "bootstraps." The financial and barter freedom is phenomenal, it gives my wife and I space, and it keeps my mind and body active. And what a skill to have in a post TEOTWAWKI! Just some random thoughts.....
ReplyDeleteSurvival knowledge is far more valuable then any 'things' that you can buy. That being said, certain things can be made at home for less then it would cost to buy.
ReplyDeleteI make my own whistles, signal mirrors, fire starters, knives... to name a few examples.
There are few low-cost substitutes for firearms, but there are less expensive options. A Hi-point or Cobra instead of a Glock...
Some schools of thought on the subject suggest that looking less prepared is far better than walking out of your house in a tactical vest with a high powered rifle. If you look like you have things worth taking, you're walking around with a target on your chest.
There's an incredible new opportunity that is now available online.
ReplyDeleteBig companies are paying regular people for simply giving their opinions!
You can make up to $75 per survey!
This is available to anybody in the world!