(This book was sent to me to review. I am not being paid to review this book, however, there will be affiliate links attached to this review. There is no pressure or expectation to purchase anything unless you feel like this book would be an awesome addition to your library!)
One of the major areas of food storage is dehydrated food. Dehydrated food lasts a long time stored properly. However, this area of food storage can be a little tricky. Can you dehydrate that food? For how long should it be in the dehydrator? How do you store it once it is done? How do you use it again?
Those are some good questions, but my friend Shelle Wells has the answers for you in her book, Prepper's Dehydrator Handbook: Long-Term Food Storage Techniques For Nutritious, Delicious, Lifesaving Meals. She covers all areas of dehydrating food. She tells how to dehydrate food even if you do not have a dehydrator (but you should have one!).
She covers all sorts of foods to dehydrate in this book too: herbs, vegetables, fruits, meat, frozen fruits and vegetables, and more. She covers how to make your own fruit leather. She also tells you how to make your own powdered soup that you can just add hot water too for instant soup! She also gives you great recipes to use your dehydrated deliciousness to make some great dishes and desserts.
This book will be a very important book in my cookbook collection as well as a great reference book for my food storage. I found this to be one of the most complete books on dehydrating that I have seen or owned. I think you will find this to be a very important part of your food storage books too.
In addition to this book, Shelle also offers a free three-day mini-challenge so you can master the three fears of dehydrating! I suggest you check it out!
Thanks for reading,
Erica
Finances are a hot topic any day. We are all looking for ways to save money and ways to better spend our money. With daily and monthly expenses threatening to overwhelm us, who wouldn't be interested in how to make our dollars go further?
Financial preparedness is just as important as emergency preparedness. We need to be ready for anything. Making a dollar go further, saving money, and getting out of debt should be at the top of our prepping lists.
So we all need good frugal living/financial books around to give us good tips and advice. I love to give these books as gifts when I can. Just like preparedness minded books, these books only serve to help people live a better life and be prepared for whatever hits them.
These books have all been read by me personally, either as a paper copy or on Kindle, and would be books I would read over and over again if I can.
My 10 Favorite Frugal Living/Financial Books to Read and to Give:
1. The Tightwad Gazette: Promoting Thrift as a Viable Alternative Lifestyle by Amy Dacyczyn (My favorite frugal living book, hands down!)
2. America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money: Your Guide to Living Better, Spending Less, and Cashing in on Your Dreams by Steve and Annette Economides
3. Be Thrifty: How to Live Better with Less by Pia Catton and Califia Suntree
4. Meet the Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living by Elizabeth Willard Thames
5. The No Spend Year: How you can spend less and live more by Michelle McGagh
6. The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey (okay, just about anything from Dave Ramsey is recommended reading. I don't totally agree with him, but if you need your finances put on the right track, he is the one to read.)
7. How To Manage Your Money When You Don't Have Any by Erik Wecks
8. Living Well, Spending Less: 12 Secrets of the Good Life by Ruth Soukup
9. The Homemade Housewife: The Last Book You Will Ever Need on Homemaking and Frugal Living by Kate Singh (Kate Singh has a few books on saving money and being frugal - they are all good!)
10. Why Did They Teach Me This in School?: 99 Money Management Principles To Live By: Cary Siegel
These are ten of my favorite frugal living/finance books, but there are so many more to read. I have plenty of them loaded onto my Kindle or in a pile of books to be read.
What are some of your favorite books in the frugal living/finance areas? Please list them in the comments below!
Thanks for reading,
Erica
Related Posts:
20 Books To Give Your Favorite Prepper (And Non-Prepper) for the Holidays!
The Prepper's Canning Guide Book Review
When you first start prepping, you are just focused on accumulating the goods. You think you need so much stuff and there is a lot of advertisements that will convince you that you need a lot more.
You know you need to focus on skills, but in the course of learning the skills, you still need the stuff to learn them. Everywhere you turn, you need things to be prepared.
However, you are not always sure what to have on hand to be prepared and what not to have on hand to be prepared. As we become more experienced preppers, our tastes and needs may change too. We end up having even more things on hand to be prepared. More things than we need or even want to have on hand.
In the course of time and experience, we find out what not to have in our preps. We learn what things are useless or could be replaced with more suitable and better items. Sometimes we learn this the hard way in a crisis or situation and sometimes we have the chance to learn before that happens.
Five Types of Items You Should Not Have in Your Preps
1. Anything you do not know how to use or will not use now. So many preppers have items in their preps that they have no clue how to use. This can be anything from a crank radio to small solar panels to weapons to generators. You need to be familiar with and know how to use your preps. If you don't know how to use it now, how will you be able to use it in an emergency?
The same goes for any preps you will not (or refuse to) use now, but have just in case you might be forced to. What is the point of having them then? You should be familiar with and ready to use anything you have in your preps. If you will not use them now because you are not comfortable with them, then why have them?
I see this a lot with the weapons that preppers possess. They have guns that have never been fired or even loaded. They have no idea how to load, shoot, or clean the gun, but they have a gun just in case. It will not do you any good if you don't know how. That goes for all your preps. You need to know how to use them and practice using them. Otherwise, don't have them because you or they will be dangerous without the knowledge and practice of that item.
2. Anything that is single use and not imperative to survival. A lot of prepping items are single use: food, soap, bullets, etc. Those things are also important for survival. However, a lot of new preppers accumulate gadgets that are cheaply made or are only single use. In a short-term situation, that would be fine, but in a long-term situation that could be disastrous.
Your tools in prepping should have more than one use if at all possible. You should be learning about all the different ways to use those items. Preppers should also carefully consider whether the items they have set back for preparedness are really essential to survival. Many things can be used in a pinch, but they are not really preparedness items.
An item I see a lot in preparedness lists are solar lights. I have even included them in lists, but here is the thing about solar lights - they need the sun to power and charge them. They are worthless during a snowstorm because there is no sun to charge them. They may provide some light, but they will never be better than a good lantern or a candle. They also do not get a good charge in the winter which will shorten their light life on days when the dark is longer than the light. So solar lights are not really essential to your prepping items because there are better items to replace them.
3. Anything with a short shelf life. This applies to mostly food storage but can apply to more. A lot of food storage should be food with long shelf lives so you can have plenty of food on hand and not have to worry about spoilage. However, I see a lot of people include what they have in their fridge and freezers as part of their long-term food storage. That is okay to do, but when the freezer quits running or the power is off for an extended period of time, your freezer food just became perishable. You might have a generator to keep it running, but for how long?
Your long-term food storage should be items that you can keep on the shelf and be able to store for at least a year, but 2-10 years is better. If you are planning on the meat and vegetables in your freezer to be part of your long-term food storage, you need to can them. If you can them, they just got an extended shelf life that will not depend on whether you have power or not to stay edible.
4. Anything electronic or relies on electricity to run. A lot of preppers use electronic means to store information, important documents, and reference materials. While that sounds like a good idea, in theory, most preppers lack the long-term abilities to charge and maintain those electronics. You may not think about long-term power outages or a power surge taking out your electronics, but when it does, you will be out of luck.
Print out and purchase paper reference materials. You can still store your information on flash drives, SD cards, ebooks, and tablets, but keep a paper copy as a back-up. Keeping some basic reference books on hand will also give you a peace of mind.
The same goes for tools and other items you have as part of your preps that require electricity. If your drill requires an extension cord to run, it should not be part of your preps. A battery powered drill is better, but will still need electricity to charge the batteries. Unless you have a solar panel to charge those and adequate sunlight, your drill should not be part of your preps. A hand powered drill would be a better option, but you need to use it to understand how much work it will take to power it.
5. Seeds and roots. Survival seed banks are very popular items for sale online nowadays. They are usually a good purchase for the price, but there is one thing they leave out in the advertising. They are usually not good for longer than a year or two. Most seeds lose their rate of germination after a year or two. Even if the seeds are stored in mylar with an oxygen absorber, they will not last any longer. While having one or two of these packets on hand is not a bad idea, you should be learning how to save seeds yourself so you can continue to plant a garden for the next year.
While some seeds do last for longer than a year, you need to be aware of what seeds those are. Most seeds need to be planted and replaced in your stash every year. I also see people keep roots and tubers in oxygen absorbers and mylar bags in their preps. This also does not usually work out because they will either rot or dry out and will not produce when planted. If you want to plant items that need roots or tubers to get started, plant them now. Most of those items are perennials anyway so you can plant them now to get them started. You can always save a few potatoes back every harvest to start the next year's crop. Just don't try to save them as part of your preps.
Honestly, the most important prep you need in your preps is common sense. With common sense, you will be able to understand what you need and don't need in your preps. In addition to common sense, gaining and having knowledge will improve your ability to decide what you need and don't need.
Thanks for reading,
Erica
Related Posts:
Prepping Is About The Little Things
10 Ways You Can Be A Self-Reliant Prepper
The day after Black Friday is Small Business Saturday. Why do corporate businesses come before small businesses? Because they have the money for advertising and mind control. They have bigger budgets, more staff, and more time to infiltrate your consciousness and convince you to spend your hard earned money on them.
However, small businesses should be taking precedence this holiday season and all year round. Why? Because small businesses are the backbone of this country. We couldn't live without them. All corporate businesses started out as small businesses and grew to be bigger than they should have been. Now a lot of them are failing to leave small businesses to pick up the slack.
Small businesses provide quality products and personal customer service. Small businesses provide attention to detail that corporate stores don't take the trouble to provide. The biggest reason of all to support a small business is because that money is going directly to the person providing the product or service which in turn helps support their families.
How can you support small businesses? By being a customer and becoming a loyal customer. By telling your friends and family about them. By providing top reviews on social media sites to draw more people to their business. By doing what you can to help them flourish.
I am going to provide several small business links below. If you know of any others that would be of interest, please provide a link and a name in the comments so we can all check them out! Thanks!
1. The Organic Prepper Bookstore - Daisy has her own printable and downloadable books in this collection of books as well as a book by yours truly, Selco Begovic, and Lisa Egan.
2. My Amazon Store - While Amazon is a big corporate company, they support a lot of authors, small business owners, and bloggers. They provide a place for them to sell their products on a much larger scale to provide a better income. My store has links to a lot of these people as well as some items that I find invaluable. (If you sell items on Amazon, please let me know so I can link to them!)
3. Customized Food Storage Plans by The Merrill Project - Charisse will help you put together a food storage suited to your family needs and tastes. She has a seven, fourteen, and twenty-one recipe plan that can help anyone!
4. Build Your 72-Hour Kit for $95 by The Merrill Project - This $7 PDF will give you a complete list that you can take to the store to purchase items for your 72-Hour Kit. This is an excellent resource to have on hand and to be more prepared!
5. Electronic Emergency Binders by The Merrill Project - These electronic binders would be a great addition to anyone's preps. You can customize them for one person or six people. They can be stored on an SD card for easy transportation or printed out if you wish.
6. eBay stores - honestly, most eBay stores are small businesses. Most of them are supporting families or are a side hustle to make some extra money. A lot of the sellers sell things that are brand new or are in excellent used condition. Consider them in your holiday shopping this year. The link to my eBay store is https://www.ebay.com/str/ericasbooksandmore. Another great eBay store is https://www.ebay.com/sch/farmhousefavorites.
7. Never Buy Bread Again by Laurie Neverman - The woman behind Common Sense Home has a great cookbook on baking bread with twenty in-depth recipes to make you a more confident bread baker. Pair this with a loaf pan and a bread knife and you would have an excellent gift!
8. By Robin - Robin is an excellent artist and designer who makes one of a kind cards, jewelry, glass etchings, and anything else you may want to be designed. Take a look through her pictures for samples of what she can do.
9. Abby's Elderberry - Want to really support a small business and a family? Abby's Elderberry Syrup is the business of a young lady who dreams of buying a horse! Elderberry syrup is a powerful immunity booster for colds and cases of flu and would be a great present for anyone!
10. Madelyns Wreaths - Madelyns Wreaths makes wreaths, quilts, and other crafts. They make some very neat one-of-a-kind items that would be lovely gifts for anyone!
11. Simplicity Soaps - Everything is made by hand in her own kitchen. Soaps and lotions make an easy present for almost everyone on your list. They also make great additions to stockings and gift baskets!
12. Nomadic Knot Designs - She makes crochet items that are always appreciated. You can purchase crochets stocking hats as well as the popular messy bun hats!
13. From Dirt to Dollars: A Guide to Selling at the Farmers Market by Annie Coombe - Know someone who may be interested in selling their products? This very informative book would be a great gift for someone who gardens a lot or always seems to have extra produce. Selling at the farmers market should not be scary and Annie helps you do it the right way!
14. Joyful Aprons - An apron is a delightful present for almost everyone! Joyful Aprons makes really cute, really fun aprons at a reasonable price. They even offer maternity aprons!
15. 4 Cross Stitch Needle Minders/Needle Keepers - Do you have someone who loves to sew on your list? These are great for keeping the needle from getting lost! These would also make a great stocking stuffer or part of a gift basket.
16. Scott Family Farms Honey Bees and Christmas Trees - You really need to check this site out! They have honey products, bath and body products, homemade soaps, home items and more. So many products! If you live in Georgia or near their farm, they also have Christmas trees for sale.
17. River Botanicals - They also have some great bath and body products that would make great presents. You definitely could purchase one of each and have a very cool gift basket for a loved one.
18. Busy Hands Quiet Hearts Knitting Patterns - Pia has six wonderful knitting patterns for any knitter to try. With yarn and needles, you could have a lovely present for the knitter in your life.
19. 3 Children's Books by Kat Mendenhall - These excellent children's book by Kat would be a fun gift to give to a child and nurture their minds with books. They are stories about her goats and her dog. The titles are Moo Moo Sue, Howdy Howdy My Name is Rowdy, and How Buddy Found His Bark. They are $10 each or $28 for all three plus postage if mailed. You can contact Kat at katmartywrite@gmail.com for ordering or any questions.
20. Lilla Rose - Leah Terry - If you are looking for well-made, cute hair clips, pins, and headbands, this is the place for you! They have some really good deals and a lot to choose from. From thin hair to thick hair, they have you covered!
21. The Productive Gardener E-Course - Dana from Piwakawaka Valley has developed a great e-course to help you or be a great gift for a gardening friend. This is a twelve-month course that gives tips, tricks, and lots of advice to become a better, more productive gardener.
22. Artisan Bread - The Art of Sourdough Ebook - Dana from Piwakawaka Valley has also written a wonderful book about starting and making sourdough bread that also features a troubleshooting section. This would be a good present for the baker in your life!
23. Artsy Inspirations by Tina Tompkins Ames - She has a delightful collection of cards, adult coloring books and pages, gift boxes, soaps, and more. There are neatly boxed sets to give to friends or something small for stockings and gift baskets!
24. Ready Gardens - Ready Gardens has a variety of garden items and seeds for the gardener on your list. You can get seed kits, survival seed banks, seeds, and free growing guides. They also have a Little Gardeners Starter Kit for the child on your list to get started on the wonders of growing a garden!
This is just the tip of the iceberg for small businesses and authors. There are so many more out there. Like I mentioned earlier if you have a small business or have a product you want others to know about, drop the link and a description in the comments below. (If it appears to be spam or just plain nasty, I will delete the comment.)
(This post contains some affiliate links, but mostly just direct links to the businesses. I am only profiting from three of these links which help to support this blog and my family. The rest of the links is supporting their own businesses and their families.)
Thanks for reading,
Erica
Related Posts:
Stay Home on Black Friday. Shop Small. Shop Local.
20 Books To Give To Your Favorite Prepper (And Non-Prepper) For The Holidays!
(Originally posted in 2013. Revised and expanded for 2018. The views of the author haven't changed!)
Black Friday shopping can be crazy. Stores opening at midnight if they even closed at all. Standing in line and getting a ticket to buy an item at significant savings. Most of the time people are buying things they don't really need. They are missing out on time with family and friends to go shopping. Employees are missing out on time with family and friends on a holiday to satisfy a corporation's greediness.
No, I don't agree with stores being open so early on Black Friday and even on Thanksgiving Day. It is a holiday after all! Just because someone works retail doesn't mean they need to pay the price of missing out on sleep and time with loved ones. I don't agree with stores opening at ungodly hours to satisfy their bottom lines while offering deals that are supposedly irresistible to shoppers. I don't like the whole craziness of these shopping days and what they stand for. I personally try to never participate if I can help it. A few years back, I got one thing online and regretted it because, despite the reviews, it was cheaply made and only lasted three months.
The problem with Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday shopping is that the public is feeding the problem. The stores are offering these deals and opening at ungodly hours. The public flocks to these sales forsaking their families, work and sleep. The workers are scheduled and, in a lot of cases, forced to work on the holiday because they are told they cannot take those days off or call in sick.
Quite frankly, the public is a huge part of this problem. If they would not shop at the sales, the stores would not feel the need to be open. Standing in lines for hours, collecting a ticket, rushing the doors, and rioting just brings out the ugliness of the whole situation. Stores make everyone stand in line if they want the item and get a ticket so they can purchase it. When did honor and morals go out the window while shopping? Just ridiculous.
Trust me, I understand the lure of the sale. I understand why shoppers do go to get a good deal on an item. If the shopper really needs the item, it would be very difficult to pass up the good deal. I usually advocate saving money any way you can, but for some reason, I can not condone Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday shopping. I see a lot of people going in debt and using credit cards to pay for items they cannot afford. People buy gifts for their families and friends that will be played with or used a few times and discarded. They bought the item for that person just because they were able to get that gift at such a "great" price.
Do yourself and your family a favor. Stay home on Black Friday. If you feel the need to be out on Black Friday, do so at a reasonable hour. Camping out at a store, battling others for the sale items, and spending you do not have is not the way to make great memories. Send the stores a message that their early sales and being open on a holiday is just not what consumers want. Send an even bigger message that they can run these sales on a reasonable timetable and stop the craziness of Black Friday.
Better yet, shop small business owners and local businesses. Shop your friends' items for sale. Shop on Etsy. Even on eBay, most of the sellers are selling for a side hustle and could use the extra love.
Take the money away from corporate greed and give to someone who needs the money for their family, home, and business. There is a lot of excellent products available and always something for everyone. You may spend a little more money, but you will be knowing where your money is going and you will have a quality item to give to your loved ones. Most people love a good story behind the gift and would love to know that the item came from a small business or a local artisan.
In the next few posts, I hope to give you ideas and promote products from other small business owners and bloggers. We all have great products and items that will be a lovely and thoughtful gift to give others. I also hope to give you a list of ideas that you can make yourself (Yes, you still have time!). A handmade gift says a lot about the people giving it as well as the person receiving it.
I will also be posting links in social media to my Amazon store. While this may seem contradictory, I hope to promote primarily other bloggers and other small business owners' products who happen to sell their items on Amazon. Sometimes, Amazon is the only viable place to sell most of their products. I will add items that I find to be very beneficial in my life, but not many as of right now.
This holiday season, please be conscious of how your money is spent and where it is spent. Keep it away from corporate greediness as much as possible and keep it small and local.
Thanks for reading,
Erica
Related Posts:
20 Books To Give Your Favorite Preppers (And Non-Preppers) For The Holidays!
10 Money Saving Hacks for a Happier (and Cheaper) Holidays!
One of my favorite gifts to give and receive for any holiday is books! Almost everyone reads books. Beyond that, reading increases knowledge, brings pleasure, and is generally a good way to relax.
These are my favorite prepping fiction and non-fiction books to read and to give. You can give most of them as an e-book, but I recommend a hard copy to keep in the home library. If you can give the e-books as a downloadable book, this would be good too so the recipient can download and print the book.
You will see fiction and non-fiction on this list. While most preppers like non-fiction, non-preppers will enjoy fiction books more. Sometimes the fiction books do more for opening the eyes of non-preppers than any talking to them will do!
20 Books To Give Your Favorite Preppers (and Non-Preppers) For The Holidays!
1. How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times by James Wesley, Rawles. (This is my favorite prepping book ever!)
2. Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse by James Wesley, Rawles (Fiction and the first book in a fantastic series!)
3. Going Home: A Novel (The Survivalists Series Book 1) by A. American (Fiction and another great series.)
4. One Second After by William R. Forstchen (Fiction and the first book of another great series)
5. CyberStorm by Matthew Mather (Fiction and being developed for a movie)
6. 36 Hours (The Blackout Series Book 1) by Bobby Akart (Fiction and an author with at least four great series)
7. The Longest Walk by Ron Foster and Pat Lambert (Fiction and very eye-opening!)
8. Prepper's Long-Term Survival Guide: Food, Shelter, Security, Off-the-Grid Power and More Live-Savings Strategies for Self-Sufficient Living by Jim Cobb (Non-fiction and another fantastic resource to get better prepared)
9. Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath by Ted Koppel (Non-fiction)
10. The Prepper's Pocket Guide: 101 Easy Things You Can Do to Ready Your Home for a Disaster by Bernie Carr (Non-fiction and this would make a great stocking stuffer!)
11. Survival Mom: How to Prepare Your Family for Everyday Disasters and Worst-Case Scenarios by Lisa Bedford (Non-fiction)
12. A Year Without The Grocery Store: A Step by Step Guide to Acquiring, Organizing, and Cooking Food Storage by Karen Morris (Non-fiction)
13. Just in Case: How to be Self-Sufficient When The Unexpected Happens by Kathy Harrison (Non-fiction)
14. Prepper Supplies Checklist: A Simple Guide to Emergency Preparedness by Nettie David (Non-fiction)
15. The Prepper's Canning Guide: Affordably Stockpile a Lifesaving Supply of Nutritious, Delicious, Shelf-Stable Foods by Daisy Luther (Non-fiction)
16. Holding Their Own: A Story of Survival Book 1 by Joe Nobody (Fiction)
17. Going Off The Grid: The How-To Book of Simple Living and Happiness by Gary Collins (Non-fiction)
18. Prepare Your Family for Survival: How to Be Ready for Any Emergency or Disaster Situation by Linda Loosli (Non-fiction)
19. Making the Best of Basics: Family Preparedness Handbook by James Talmage Stevens (Non-fiction)
20. The Prepper's Yearbook: Prepare for Emergencies Large and Small with 5 Budget Friendly Tasks Per Month by Erica Nygaard (Yours truly! Download and print!)
There should be something for everyone on this list. From the non-prepper to the experienced prepper, you should be able to find something for the special people on your list!
(This post is riddled with affiliate links that support many authors who also happen to be friends and associates of mine! Please consider supporting one of these fine people who do this for a living and with the purpose of wanting you to be better prepared. Thanks!)
Thanks for reading,
Erica
Related Posts:
Prepper's Total Grid Failure Handbook: Book Review
The Survival Savvy Family: Book Review
Prepping can seem like such an expensive adventure. Many people think that in order to be a good prepper you need the big things: a whole house generator, a safe room, a bug out shelter in a hidden location, every gun known to man with several hundred rounds for each gun, and more. With that thought, we scare away more people from prepping or feeling like they are prepared because they don't have the biggest prepping ticket items.
In fact, I don't have any of those things. I wish I had a generator. Truth be told, a couple of different guns too. However, I don't have them and I still am considering myself a prepper.
You will hear plenty of "experts" tell you that you need to be able to be off-grid and be able to completely unplug from the grid if you can at a moments' notice. That can be very expensive also considering most people either need to purchase a new house, build a home, or retrofit their current dwelling. Most of those experts do not exactly admit to the fact that it took them years to become off-grid and the amount of work it takes to be off-grid.
Admittingly, I would love to have an off-grid home with solar panels and a wood stove/boiler system. However, again, I don't and I still consider myself a prepper.
You will also hear a lot of preppers telling you that you need to be homesteading in addition to preparedness. The reasoning behind this is so that you are not suffering much when the food supply is interrupted and you can be self-sufficient. You need to be growing your own food, raising livestock, and living on an acreage somewhere.
This one I am guilty of. I have been homesteading and do so in addition to my preparedness. However, this may not be a possibility for a lot of people who want to prepare. While it is a great addition to my preps, I have no illusions that I can supply all my food needs with what I raise and the eggs my chickens lay. I would need to grow a lot more and get a rooster so I can repopulate my chickens.
Having the big ticket prepper items is not what preparedness is all about. Being off-grid or being a homesteader is not what prepping is about. Being a survivalist who can live in the woods for weeks at a time is not what prepping is about. They are nice things to learn, practice, and live because they are things that will enhance your preparedness.
Prepping is about the little things. Prepping is about the skills you learn, the items you need to have in an emergency, the knowledge of what to do in most situations, the daily habits, and the life you live in general.
Prepping is about having plenty of food and water on hand to take care of your basic needs. Prepping is about having a shelter, being warm, and having some light to see by. Prepping is about being able to fix and mend most things. Prepping is about being to thrive and survive with what you have and making the most of what you have.
The reality for most preppers is that they cannot afford the big things. They cannot afford to move. They can not afford to build or renovate a home. Most of us are still living our normal lives with our regular bills, family expenses, and other daily living expenses. We cannot afford the big things. We can try to save up for them, but we also need that savings for any emergencies that may come up (which is prepping, by the way).
Prepping is 100% personal effort. You get to make prepping as big or as little as you want it. You get to explore what interests you and you get to do what is best for you and your family. If you are happy and comfortable with having two weeks worth of supplies on hand to withstand most emergencies, great. You are still way ahead of most people when it comes to crisis time. If you want to go further and prepare for more, you have the right to do.
However, prepping is about making sure the basics are covered. We may call it little things, but they are the things that will save your life and keep you out of the FEMA/Red Cross lines.
So they aren't so little really. They are more important than having all those big-ticket items that most prepping "experts" will tell you need to have.
Thanks for reading,
Erica
Related Posts:
10 Totally Free Prepping Things To Do
10 Prepping Goals You Should Be Setting For The New Year
