consuming to invest 10

CONSUMING TO INVEST 10

Canning Goods

Canning foods may or may not be ideal for you.  If you envision a relatively benign decline, canning allows bulk shopping and a self-reliance off the grid.  If you envision a complete Malthusian Dark Ages as the oil supply craps out, canning is too dependent on modern manufacturing.  Even if you get the re-useable lids and the gasket-less canner, the glass jars will NEVER be duplicated on a cottage industry level and without a precisely joined jar and lid you can’t properly seal air out.  There absolutely needs to be a replacement of the refrigerator to protect meat in the future.  Drying would be ideal but meat is the one thing that method does poorly ( preserving for weeks, usually, or months at the most,  rather than years as canning does ).  If canning is not in your future, research the old timey-as in pre-Industrial- meat preservation methods.  If canning is something you think is viable, there is no time like the present to commence preserving your meats ( I’d advise drying everything else, both to save on costs and to reduce storage space ).  The whole “we have a bomb in the kitchen” danger myth is largely a result of old wives tales, too many lawyers roaming the countryside hungry, and probably a little hysteria from the Boston Marathon false flag event thrown in for good measure ( a pressure cooker or canner was supposedly used as a bomb.  I’d advise buying with cash and NOT using a customer rewards card for both the canner and the jars and other supplies if possible.  Not that you can stay off a Honky Mo-Fo Terrorist List, as breathing the rarified air of our betters on Capital Hill is itself a crime along with everything else, but you should try anyway ).

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For all intents and purposes, if you just follow the paragraph or two in the Ball Jar instruction book ( or similar ) on safety, canning should be much safer than driving on any macadam  roadway.  You make sure the safety valve is clear, and time the process to assure completion, then check the seal.  And not much more.  Now, once again, saving money here is a bit difficult and a bit of a stretch.  But it is still more than a mere Bean And Bullet Buy that traditional prepping preaches.  In the long run, not having a freezer will save a little more money than what the canning uses.  If you take into account that grid kilowatt hours have easily doubled in cost in the last ten years, it isn’t a stretch to see in the near future where even the most energy efficient electrical appliances are going to be beyond the average ( declining purchasing power ) persons ability to run.  Then canning really pays off as it allows you to still buy bulk meat, or shoot it, and preserve it cheaper ( a caveat- make sure you either have plenty of stored propane or make sure you can use wood to pressure can, in the event of natural gas disruptions ). 

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If you are lucky enough that you haven’t bought a freezer yet, just that cost alone saved will pay for your canner and plenty of jars/lids.  And the savings from not running the freezer buys you another case of them every month.  Yes, chump change.  But you are learning to de-couple and even if it doesn’t save a lot, it is still something.  The fastest way into severe debt and bondage is to take the attitude, “well, we are broke this month so a little luxury won’t hurt”.  And the fastest way to get independent is by worrying about every single penny saved ( watch the pennies and the dollars take care of themselves ).  I know, I’ve lived both lifestyles.  And penny pinching wins hands down.  Even now, no debt and no bills except the grocers and the bike shop, being able to save over half my income, I still sweat over those pennies.  I NEVER want to go back to the alternative.  A buck here, a buck there, it does indeed add up ( of course, pinching pennies and staying in debt is the worst possible combination-don’t do that ).

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