Living Life in Rural Iowa

(I will be reviewing books as I read them this year. I have either purchased these myself or were given them for review. As always, I have affiliate links attached to this post to help make a little extra for my family and support this blog.)

I have been working through my stack of prepping books to be read. The Penny-Pinching Prepper: Save More, Spend Less and Get Prepared For Any Disaster by Bernie Carr has been one of the best comprehensive preparedness books I have read in a long time.

Truth be told, I usually go for specific preparedness topics in my reading because I always need to learn more. However, this caught my eye because it was frugally minded and written by a fellow blogger. We bloggers usually like to support each other whenever possible.

I started this book and could not believe all the information inside this book! She literally covers it all! Every area of prepping is covered in this book with tips, tricks, and ideas for being as frugal as possible. It is like she took…

Being a prepper and being way more interested in self-reliance, I have become a lot more interested in items that can be reused time and time again. I would not have bought most of these things fifteen years ago, but now? I couldn't imagine life without them.

These things I think are important for home and possibly your survival. They are things that should stand the test of time, but we all know that can't always be true. You should be able to use these things over and over again. They are the most basic things that I think should be in every home, but I have found out that they are not.

16 Reusable Practical Items You Should Always Have:

1. Hand Tools. While I love my battery powered drill, hand tools can be used anytime and anywhere. If you keep them clean and in good condition, they will last you a very long time. Besides that, can you think a time when you will not be fixing or building something? I can't.

2. Clothespins. Clothespins are just handy to have. Besides hangin…

As preppers and survivalists, we like to think we have an idea of what will happen after an SHTF happens. We all have ideas of what can be and how horrible it will be. However, we cannot really know what will happen after an SHTF event occurs.

Unless you have lived and dealt with the aftermath of a terrible natural disaster, you cannot really understand the magnitude of the damage and rebuilding that needs to take place. Unless you have lived through an extended power outage, you cannot understand just what you will need exactly to survive the situation. Unless you have survived political unrest, military actions, and war, you will not understand what you need to do in order to survive.

For most of us, we like to fantasize about what will take place and what we will need to do to survive and rebuild again. However, we don't understand the scale of the reconstruction that will need to take place. We don't understand the deconstruction that will happen and how rebuilding may be im…

I am going to preface this post today for you. I wrote this about four months ago. I have sat on this post since then. I am usually a pretty positive, fairly practical person. Not much really gets me down on a normal day. However, the state of our economy along with the financial situations of a good deal of Americans have gotten me fairly worried with a good dose of being angry.

This is me being angry after receiving my paycheck one day and realizing that between bills and groceries, there would be very little left over for anything else. I don't blame my employer for this. I consider them a fair employer who pays me fairly for my level of work. I actually enjoy my job, but enough is enough.

You have all heard the phrase, "Every day you can get up, go to work, and pay your bills is a good day" (or something like that). I suppose that is true, but wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to pay bills or work incredibly hard just to pay them?

Most people with a family…

When you first start prepping, you become a little bit obsessed about obtaining your preps. You never know when you will need it, but you think you need to build up your stockpiles rather quickly.

I thought I needed to get my stockpile built as soon as possible and as much as the budget allowed! However, I couldn't just throw money at my stockpile. I didn't have a lot of extra money left over at the end of the paycheck to spend like a lottery winner. I needed to be smart with my money - down to the last penny.

I want to share with you how I built my stockpile quickly and frugally while still paying all my bills. These are still the same techniques I use to maintain and further build up my stockpile. This covers mostly my food stockpiles, but I did use some of these techniques for my non-perishable stockpiles too.

8 Ways To Quickly and Frugally Build Up Your Food Stockpiles and Pantry

1. The Grocery Store. This is the first and best way I have added to my stockpiles. I used to be a…

Most people use their vehicles a lot. If you live in a rural area, it is your main transportation to anywhere. If you have kids that drive, you have vehicles going at all times of the day.

That being said, there are certain things you should always have in your vehicle. Whether you are a prepper or not, you should always be prepared for emergencies with your vehicle. You could leave home and run into bad weather. You could be stuck on the side of the road with a broken down car or the weather is so bad you can't see.

The following list of items are things I regularly use, couldn't live without, and have found myself needing when something goes wrong. I am actually surprised that people do not have them in their vehicles and just think that AAA or their paid roadside service can save them. Not every place in this fine country gets cell service...

10 Things You Should Always Have in Your Car

1. Jumper cables. This is an absolute must-have in a vehicle. I have jumped vehicles who own…

Are you stocking up because you need it or because you want it? Do you really need it? How much of it will you use? How important is this item? Should you be spending your money elsewhere?

So many questions.

Stockpiling can seem so easy and so hard all at the same time. You know you should stock up on the necessities, but what are the necessities?

The necessities really depend on what you are preparing for. You may be worried about just short term events which would make your preparations look differently than your long term events. You may be just preparing for weather events as opposed to job loss. You may be preparing for a long term grid down situation.

If you are preparing for short term events (weather, etc.), your list may look like this:
Water (3 gallons per day per person)Food that can be easily eaten or heated (1500-2000 calories per day per person)Matches and lightersCandlesFlashlights and lanternsCamp stove and fuel (usually propane)Charcoal for the grill or fire pitPropane cyl…