Living Life in Rural Iowa

We talk a lot about what we need to acquire and purchase as people who live the various lifestyles of prepping, homesteading, and the combination of the two. We talk about what we shouldn't buy as frugal people and sustainability learners. Somewhere in the middle though, we need to understand that we need to get back the phrase that most of us should live by.

"Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without."
That phrase hangs on the wall of my office in the form of a printable. I look at it almost every day and sometimes I still forget to apply it. However, the kids were gone for two and a half weeks on vacation with their father's side of the family this summer. I found myself unconsciously living that phrase.

I only bought groceries once while they were gone. I went back to the store the day they came back. Otherwise, I was going through our food stores and seeing what needed to be eaten. I would set those items on the kitchen counter in an effort to remember to make …

Many preppers have some kind of fuel as part of their short-term and long-term preps. For many short-term situations and crisis, fuel can be a good idea to include in your preps. A fuel like propane can last longer than other refined fuels due to its nature of being used a vapor in some applications and a liquid in other applications.

I deal with propane every day. I work for an agricultural cooperative, but my primary responsibility is dealing with propane and other refined fuels. We advise customers every day on uses of propane, safety procedures, and general maintenance. We set tanks, deliver fuel, service systems, perform leak checks, and install some heaters and small appliances. We all have to take classes on handling propane safely as well as being able to respond to emergencies. We are not only accountable to our customers, but insurance companies as well.

For this post, I am concentrating heavily on propane. However, this advice and information can be applied to other refined f…

This spring's weather conditions have been anything but ideal. The weather is too hot already in some areas, too cool in other areas, and the rain has been unrelenting. Many, many conventional crops are not being planted due to flooding and unworkable fields. Many experts are already predicting food shortages due to flooding, livestock lost, and crops not being planted.

While all of that is pretty bad, gardens are taking a hit this year too. The naysayers will say that gardens aren't as important as crops because you can just buy your food at the grocery store. However, many of us rely on our gardens for reducing our food bills, putting nutritious food on our tables, and providing food with no chemicals and bacteria. For most of us, gardening is not a hobby but part of our overall food plan to provide for ourselves and to know where our food comes from.

Therefore, what happens when you have a bad gardening year and how can you plan around that?

Bad gardening years can happen to a…

Cookbooks are invaluable. They teach us so much about cooking, baking, canning, butchering, and more. They give specific instructions on how to do anything with cooking and the kitchen. They can really help the experiences and the novice alike.

While nothing really replaces the experience you get by doing and learning, having resources like cookbooks and cooking manuals is very important. You should have a good variety of cookbooks and manuals. Whether you are a canner, a preserver, a carnivore, a vegetarian, a hunter, or a gardener, you need to be well-rounded about you keep on your shelf.

In a crisis or a disaster, you may like to eat meat but meat may be scarce. Having some vegetarian recipes may mean you can have a filling meal with what you have on hand. You may not be a hunter, but you may need to know how to butcher your own meat. You may have a lot of produce from the garden or from gleaning and need to preserve it in a variety of ways.

You will notice that not all of these are c…

I like saving money. I like it a lot. I also have some quirks and one of those quirks are challenging myself to find new ways to do something cheaper. I also think reusing items is cool and recycling items are the best.

Those closest to me will just tell you I am weird and they look for opportunities to tell me when I go too far. Apparently, it isn't cool to take the Sunday coupon flyers out of the county recycling bins to see if there are any coupons you can use. I have also found out that it is better to say you got something from a free pile at a garage sale rather than say you trash picked an item.

I don't have a lot of shame in my money saving game. However, the ways I save money and live frugally are not glamorous. They will probably not wow you or anything like that. These hacks are probably more along the line of "Why didn't I think of that?!?!".

My Top 10 Frugal Living Hacks

1. I reuse plastic bags of every size and shape. Yes, I have a drawer dedicated to p…

While preppers can be some of the most positive people you could ever meet, there are some really hopeful preppers that need a reality check. A lot of people in forums and in groups talk about prepping for their bug out location or when they move to a rural location. While that is all fine and good, the problem is that they are prepping for a place that does not really exist at the moment.

Unless you live in your bug out location, you run a high risk of not making it to your bug out location. If an SHTF event really does happen, you may not be able to make there unless you have a fair amount of advance warning. You may have all the routes mapped out to get there and have many different plans with contingencies built in to get there, but you still run a high risk of not making it to your bug out location.

The same goes for a rural location. A lot of people say they will be ready or prepared once they move to a rural location. While people should move to a rural location if they want to, …

(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…