WHEN TIME AND MONEY IS SHORT 2
The most common objection I always
get with Frugal Survivalism is along the lines of wanting to thrive rather than
survive. I’ve read “he who makes it to
the apocalypse with the most savings isn’t the winner”. There is the ever standard “what is your life
worth?”. I’m kind of confused, because
no one is telling you to buy a bunch of crap, then simply stop. You are actually allowed to proceed
afterwards with better, prettier, sexier preparations. Will the lesser quality items be a waste of
money? Of course not. Do you track insurance costs?
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Did you stop at the end of the year
and say, gee, what a waste of $843 since I didn’t use my insurance ( obviously,
that doesn’t include medical, now reaching Rich Bitch status as a consumer item
)? Preps are insurance, period. They are not investments, except perhaps for
that off grid retreat that saves you rent should you live on it. High price preps are high price expenses,
they are not “better investments”. I’m
sorry, but only a moron thinks money is what will save your life. THAT is free, the lifesaver. It isn’t
hardware, but software.
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You deciding to leave the city and
move away from crowds? That doesn’t take
money-it takes willpower. Staying in the
city costs so much more, most times the extra income doesn’t much
compensate. And you don’t need to get a
mortgage. If you have money, buy a pull
behind trailer and live in it in an RV park.
If you don’t have money, trade in the car for a van or truck with a
shell on the back. Move, and you have
shelter at half the price of renting an apartment. It took some up-front cash but that’s paid
back plus quickly.
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Move someplace that has some jobs,
without too much hassle about zoning, and in theory with dirt cheap lot for
sale where you can eventually move the RV to.
If you are living in town in that trailer park, and have a job, you have
time to find a county tax delinquent lot or, one of the minion recommended sites:
( the link is the setting for land
under a grand. You can tweak by price
and location over on the top left side controls ). Do trailers suck? It doesn’t have to be permanent.
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And junk land doesn’t have to be
where you live the rest of your life.
Duh. It is insurance. It can be a rent free spot to squat
legally. It can be a vacation spot. It can be sold later as unemployment spreads
and affordable land shoots up in price.
You can use it as your hours are drastically cut, and camping is better
than car occupancy. You can will it to
your kids. Why should you view it as a
waste of money you could put towards something “better”. Ever hear of the saying, “one in the hand is
better than two in the bush”?
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Even if you hate RV living, or can’t
relocate to cheaper land, wouldn’t having a travel trailer be good to have just
in case? Not that I think gasoline will always
be available to tow it. The thing is
only for as long as Business As Usual.
And it isn’t for everyone. But it
is ONE plan, and you do need a plan where you can ease out from under rent and
a job in a dangerous city. I wonder how
many folks in Caracas, Venezuela wish they had the means of getting out of that
place.
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Again, you are not limited to cheap
ass preps. You can move up in Prepper
Peacock Feather status after you have secured the basics. Ask yourself how many people, even preppers,
actually thought the 2008 real estate bubble would be so bad as to
fundamentally change things like they did.
You could easily have forecast a recession. A downturn.
But to triple property taxes, wipe out the retail industry, turn a huge
fraction of buyers into renters, and triple debt all across the board? I doubt any of you saw that one coming.
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So how are you going to time the next
big collapse? You can’t. You must prep yesterday in case tomorrow you
hang up your framed pink slip inside your cardboard box under the
overpass. Or if the entire financial
system freezes and has about the same effect as an EMP. Or Yellowstone does actually blow. You cannot know the future, so assume the
worse. Your fat ass can dream, or you
can leave the couch and start doing. Do
whatever it takes, and that isn’t money.
It is accepting that you won’t be judged by money.
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Females do that. Don’t be a little bitch. You can go down to the store right now and
for $33 have three months of food. One
pound of white flour is 1500 calories.
White flour is Crap Food. That is
the food Uncle Sam gives to Indians on the Rez to kill them off quicker ( Hell
hath no fury like a Puritan scorned ).
But flour can be the base calorie food to get you through to
finding/growing other, better food. It
is food you can have today ( Allied POW’s died from eating just white rice, so
plug that in to your calculations ).
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Four bags of flour, twenty-five
pounds each, and a mice resistant plastic tote, cost you $33. Care to guess how much three months of freeze
dried costs you? The point is not that
you should stock up on White Foods. The
point is, stock calories. Calories first
( because, fundamentals ). Nutrition
second ( because you can supplement, at least in theory ). Taste and preference third. Most preppers reverse that. Believe me, you are starving, a white flour
paste is going to be pretty tasty. And
it will give you the strength to search for more food.
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You need proof that empty nutrient-less
calories keep you alive? The typical
American diet ( with even the healthier choices grown in depleted soil. Which is the best argument for growing your
own. Not calories, but actual nutrients
). Cheapest and quickest first, better second. And if you get to “best” after that,
groovy. Same with firearms. $600 in savings, with only $400 more to go to
buy that perfect AR-15? That money won’t
protect you very well. Not as good as a
$100 Wal-Mart single shot break open 12 gauge will ( look on YouTube for simple
improvements on that model ).
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You can’t argue with instant peace of
mind, can you? These instant/cheap preps
are NOT what you strive for. They are
merely the first step in the journey.
But they immediately make you feel better, because they are better than
nothing. When you are feeling extra
randy since it has been too long between loving, do you go to a bar and only
pick up on the best looking females? Of
course not. You take home some equally
horny fat chick. Well, at least I
would. I like plump. But you probably would too.
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All these barely adequate compromises
for preps are your 2 AM Hog Humping.
They are far from the best but they are available. Hell, you might even get to like the gal for
her personality. I started with wheat
when I was dirt poor, as well as old war surplus guns ( believe it or not, they
used to be unloved and dirt cheap. Thank
you, Semi Simians for that financial assist ).
And I have never switched even as my fortunes improved. I just went for Soviet levels of
Quantity. But Frugal Prepping also allows
Instant, if not yet Quantity.
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Sweating the inability to prep, with
time obviously running out? No
worries. Go Frugal.
( .Y. )
( today's related Amazon link click here )
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Please
support Bison by buying through the Amazon links here ( or from http://bisonprepper.com/2.html or www.bisonbulk.blogspot.com ). Or PayPal www.paypal.me/jimd303
note: snail mail donations. Thank you, JRG, for another regular generous donation. TWFFatTAA, too generous by far-many thanks. Sam, you da Mac Daddy.
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* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there
I started out buying rice and beans. Then added some wheat. Made several trips to the LDS pantry and got oats, onions, powdered milk and carrots. I have a number of cans of food that I have added but even after the first purchase I was ahead of bunches of the other folks. I also have guns and ammo. SG ammo has a good deal on federal 525 bulk pack ammo. $177 for 5250 rounds, good enough for a forever gun supply!
ReplyDeleteMidway also has super cheap rimfire.
DeleteMuch of the stuff you write about is considered BIG steps for most people. To you it seems normal, doable, but to others not so much. To normal everyday people the idea of buying "junk" land is so far out there as to be totally unrealistic. I believe a conversion must take place inside each persons head before they are intellectually and emotionally capable of grasping your subject matter.
ReplyDeletePrior to say, 15 years ago, I was one of those normal people. If I had happened upon your blog then I probably wouldn't have read much. I wasn't yet ready for it. I was heading in that direction but there was still a vast chasm between us. It took a couple more years of being horribly injured by society for me to get to the intellectual and emotional point in my life that I said "Enough is enough", and start finding an alternative. It was the asshole people that pushed me over the edge. I literally cannot stand them and spent a third of a million dollars creating as much space as possible between them and me.
After 35 years my wife is now an appendage of mine, like another arm or leg. She will never live on junk land so there is no point in even thinking about it. Rural? Yes. Junk? No. She will not eat raw wheat, lard, and the other food stuffs you mention, so why even bother to address it? Knowing her is like knowing me. So I prep accordingly.
Not sure how to say this. Is there a way that you can make your point to noobs in such a way as to avoid the culture shock? Just thinking out loud here. A way to broaden your base without coming off as extreme. As you well know, in comparison to all the other prep sites out there your stance is much more severe, and rightly so. Only the truly hard core preppers that aren't afraid of the cold truth stick around. We have scaled your learning curve and are here for the long haul. I'm guessing that about 80% of the civilized world's population "...can't handle the truth!", in the words of Col. Jessup.
Hmmm. I see what you are saying. I get being extreme on the car thing. Past being a teenager, once I saw how hard it was to work for such an item, I always have hated them. I was looking for affordable land since I was working, and to me junk land IS normal. Manna from heaven, really, compared to all the prices from birth to about 2005 I ever encountered. To me, I'm sharing a gift I discovered, as it were. Same with wheat-it was my ticket from hunger, and prior to that is was the Kurt Saxon miracle answer for food storage ( he made it affordable ). I'd say, 99% of the world can't handle the truth. Whenever I step away from the minion circle, I'm shocked how pigheaded everyone is to the simplist suggestion. Not sure how to "normalize" frugal prepping but it sure is worth pondering. I guess I always assumed the truth would set everyone free :( As always, you have a way with explaining things so even I can understand. No sarcasm. I do tend to exist in my Happy Place of theoretical perfection.
DeleteFrugal is great but maybe you should stop at mud huts.
DeleteI believe your experience at living in a 5th wheel translates to the average Joe better.
Most everyone loves camping.
2:48
I completely agree. Mud huts and similar is simply good info to have in extreme cases. Say, you had to bug out from your bug out from your trailer, from zombie motorcyclists. Then primitive shelter might be nice. Just contingencies. Or, really Po Boy options.
DeleteMost people live in a popsicle stick and beer can and tarpaper shack that is decorated to look nice. It also has a 360 month mortgage, so you have to love it to not kill yourself with each payment. 5 acres that you own free&clear for 6 months pay and annual taxes of 2 days pay is great. You are almost free. With a little cash, there is a guy with a backhoe to level out a piece of the property and pre-dig some of your desired 2-man bunker holes. You can build the concrete forms, or go temporary with 6mil plastic and pressure treated wood. A truckload or four of 2" minus round river rock will improve the drainage and reduce the mud near the dwelling. Know how to weld? Build a frame for solar panels that is also most of a battery/tool shed roof.
DeleteRV's suck when you turn off or run out of propane and genset fuel (assuming off-grid, 30A of grid-electric is also nice). They go from cozy to icy-tomb in minutes.
A half-buried well-insulated 200 square feet is cozy with a tiny fire every few hours, even in winter. It's also going to be okay in the summer with just ventilation. Not dark, because you have LED's and solar pv! If you spend a little more and fuss more, you can have small refrigeration on solar. About what you spend on normal city apartment electric bill now will pay for everything.
Use technology designed for African and S. American mud huts (CIA remote outpost, like USAID): Morningstar fanless controllers/inverters. Their gear can live in an unheated shed bolted to the wall as long as the roof is okay. Water will be DIY, because a pipe brings a bill and a tax inspector. You just need drinking water anyway. We are comparing to living in a tent in a FEMA camp, just in case people are confused. All those sick and unprepared people are dangerous to be around.
pdxr13
Damn, where can you find a mortgage for just $360? I'm kidding. Although that is low compared to my neck of the woods. If you are going half buried, ALWAYS have a window or three. LED's are fine, but stay too long in there and you crave natural light. At least have a "porch" section with a window, and a recliner/rocker. Or you will get cabn fever quick.
DeleteFolks really need to have a phsycological or physical cleansing by fire event to flush out their helmets and get the thinking right regarding "true" prepping and survivalism. It takes some tough job lossess, economic shocks, screwed over by the systems (corporate h.r. courts, leo, ex spouses, etc) to shock the system into changing in that direction. I am getting older and try to make some form of accomplishment in that direction every day or so incrementally. Over time and by applying self it is easier to become that 3 percenter of preppers that is nearly ready for anything that comes up. In effect a Minion becomes a Macgyver or Bourne type that sees everything around him in a prep and surviving optic. A great state of mind to be in.
ReplyDeleteYa know, when you think about it, prepping is the normal lifestyle. Always was in the past, but it seems that as society has cultivated over the last 100 years, being prepared for most people has taken a backseat to all of the things that society at large provides. So far, it has worked well with only minor disturbances along the way for the most part.
DeleteBut prior to the creation of the gov't safety net people HAD to prep, or starve. I just finished another British Farm series titled "24 hours in the past" where they took a group of about 8 people from 20 to 65 years old and placed them in an environment from the mid 1800's. Work, play, food, clothing, mannerisms, everything. They did not respond well. All of them got fired from their assigned jobs due to unacceptable work and ended up in a "Workhouse" where conditions were even worse. It was either that, or starve. Society today has created a "Matrix" mindset in people that is hard for them to break free from. So as Anon above said, a terrible experience will have to occur for them to see the light. Many of them will be in the 80mil I believe will dissipate in the first 3 months. I mean, you can't reduce population, and therefore expand existing resources, unless you do just that, reduce.
Government safety net existed way before the modern welfare state, in the form of granaries.
DeleteGreat article.
ReplyDelete:)
DeleteIn case minions haven't been paying attention Lord Bison isn't a fan of Rice :-P
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, I'll keep reminding them in case they forget :)
DeleteI write an article, then pre-post. I add the link that day, with whatever phrase stuck in my head from writing. In this case, the 2AM closing pick of the pigs at the bar ( not intended as an insult. Everybody needs to get laid, and every species has its environmental niche. I personally enjoy desperation in a woman ). I searched "2 AM" and that is what came up. Cool, I think, nobody is going to confess to liking Barry, so it ironic or cute. Or insulting. Either way, it sticks in your mind and you can't wait to see the next Amazon pick of the day :) Yes, I'm too clever by half.
ReplyDeleteThanks for finally writing about >"when time and money is short 2" <Loved it!
ReplyDeleteThat could be a movie plot, in a horror subgenre.
ReplyDeleteWheat has 10 gm. protein, and white rice has has less than five gm. protein...so there is that. White rice has a long shelf life, and has a quick and easy cooking (hydrating) method.
ReplyDeletePut the rice/per recipe/in boiling water, stir, and let it sit for 30-40 minutes. It is like a white bread. Calories.
The rice can be mixed with just about anything, (think vegetables-a meat-and seasoning/sauce),and it forms your base for a great "meal."
Wheat/flour does not have to be a microwaved lump (sorry
Bison) but can be made into all sorts of "breads." My
favorite would be a pancake (not plain with syrups) but
a soft thicker savory pancake. Put whatever you want into
the batter. Vegetables, meat or fish, onion, mushrooms...
slowly "fry" or bake with incorporated fat and an egg or 2,
and you can eat it hot or room temp. Fabulous.
Just two ideas gentlemen.
Got to know Bison first through the books...then ideas
started perking. I am more frugal than the Mr. He shared
his income for the "household" and I had enough dough with
my income to save. One day the upscale suburb and the high
taxes bummed me out to the max. Plus rude and crazy neighbors.
We found an old farmhouse on a couple of acres with a stream
and wood stoves. I paid cash (the savings) for the place
before we sold the city house. No boring long story...let me just share the property taxes. We went from 7-8K/yr. to
<1K per year. After building a 40'x30' garage taxes went to
$1200/year. It isn't unimproved junk land with an mobile,
but the total population (village and township) is about
1500 people. I listen to birds rather than sirens. That is
golden.
Thank you for all your work. Excellent teaching and ideas
from you Bison. I owe (in part) my lifestyle to you Mr. Bison.
Regards,
Suzanna
Well bless your heart. Much appreciated. My caterwauling is not in vain. And someone likes my books! Yeah, nuke bread is pretty bad. If I called it McNuke Bread, as nuke bread is to bread, McDonalds hamburgers are to hamburgers, that might put it into better perspective. A convenience food. Bachelor food.
Delete