Sunday, June 15, 2014

import shopping


IMPORT SHOPPING

Okay, we now know that it is probably a good idea to go ahead and shop as much as possible for those imports we are really going to miss.  My top three are solar panels, vitamin C and underwear ( I might or might not add another pair of boots.  I have so many trash picked, on-sale stockpiled and bought-from-Payless-before-their –quality-went-to-absolute-crap pairs of boots and shoes that I’m not sure they are really a priority item right now ).  I swear I just saw a 20 watt solar panel for $55.  Was it Lehman’s?  Or Sportsman’s?  Anyway, you can’t go wrong right now buying panels.  My first three I ever bought were $99 each plus shipping.  I’m sure it wasn’t much more than $325.  They weighed about the same as I did.  I barely got it across the street ( this was in Carson City where I was lucky to have a Wal-Mart, my private post box service, a gun shop, two thrift stores and a discount grocery all within a few blocks.  Biking was never mandatory but intermittent.  Not much else good could be said about the place ).  Now, for half that price I can get all that without the weight AND an extra 25% of watts.  Vitamin C mega dose regimens I swear by.  And China makes 90%+ of the globes supply of ascorbic acid.  I’ll eventually run out, but I want to postpone that as long  as possible.  And they control a manufacture monopoly at about the same rate on both underwear and shoes.  I’m so paranoid about running out of skivvies after the Apocalypse that I save my old ones.  Washing laundry in cold water, eventually your whites get so dingy it is embarrassing to wear them ( “change your underwear.  What if you got in an accident” was really a Momism that stuck with me for some reason ).  So they go into the holey sock and thread bare shirt stockpile. I call it the rag pile.  What it really is is the Apocalypse undergarments stockpile ).

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Now, after the big three, it is going to be important to have a LOT, and I mean more than your house should really hold, a LOT of small consumables.  Go to your Dollar Tree and spend a hundred bucks minimum.  It isn’t an extravagance- you will be using the crap on a daily basis.  Just keep replacing it and rotating it to keep the quantity up ( some items will be a one off purchase.  You only need a few jugs of ammonia for cleaning up after corrosive ammo.  I use vinegar for cleaning now, not bleach or ammonia ).  They still have liquid laundry soap ( I prefer liquid because of the cold water washing ).  I buy six to eight a year and use slightly less so my stockpile is growing.  Dish soap is good there- not TOO thin.  In a pinch you can use it for wool, but they also carry generic Woolite.  They have decent plastic containers ( for when you run out of ziplock bags ).  I use one for my flour every day for my nuke bread.  There are plenty of butcher knives there.  Good trade items ( I have a buttload from thrift store trash picking ). 

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And you will go down in the post-apocalypse chronicles as the biggest dumbass alive if you don’t stock dozens of the kitchen round knife sharpeners.  They work better than $50 specialty kits I’ve bought.  Toothpicks, to make that dental floss last longer.  Dozens of toothbrushes.  I don’t know if they still have them, but at one time they carried baby cloth diapers.  Do NOT buy can openers- most places, even at higher prices, carry really poor quality ones.  Get the church key type for emergency can surgery.  Lots of toenail and fingernail clippers.  Hard to improvise those.  Playing cards are still a two-pack.  You will need a book on all the card games.  Download or get one in a thrift store cheap.  And buy plenty for barter.  The Sudoku game books might be needed for boredom relief, and then the pages can be TP.  Batteries are getting scarce at bargain prices, but occasionally you find six rather than four packs.  LED lights- not great, but BTN.  Shoe laces, shoe polish, needle and thread kits.  Going down every isle, you can find literally dozens of post-apocalypse goods or everyday use goods ( or both ).  Put a regular Dollar Tree spree in your budget.

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11 comments:

  1. A few thoughts James. I buy black and grey Hanes underwear as it won't easily look dirty. I buy Vitamin C in the chewables because I read that the others don't always dissolve completely. Gummies would probably be ok. I just read something you should consider, Michael Bunker's Surviving Off Off-Grid. Pretty interesting once you learn to ignore the preaching. As you have just pointed out, having electricity is not sustainable long term. You have mentioned that ammo will not be sustainable and so will be the case with electric. Worth an article.

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    1. I've read it-very good. I think pills would last longer than chewables. Bunker wrote a good fiction account that talked about the devolution to non-firearms.

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    2. A friend of mine swears by the twinlab labs super ascorbate c powder James. I'm personally not familiar with it, but it's one of the few supplements that he claims that you can actually feel if you take it on a regular basis?

      Wayne

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    3. I'm sure I'm not absorbing most of what I take. I'll look into your product.

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  2. Add:

    Hand lotion (working in dirt dries your hands big time)
    Gloves (protect hands from splinters, cuts)
    Heavy bottom stainless steel cooking pans (for cooking over a fire)
    Cast iron (cooking over a fire and adds iron to your diet)
    Matches (easy, portable, last forever, cheap)
    Buckets (can't have too many)
    Blankets (no central heat = more blankets, also use for doors and windows)
    Tarps (emergency roof repair, rainwater collection, wrap dead bodies)
    Socks (can't have too many. Get good quality -- summer and winter weight)
    Bar Soap (stores forever, cheap, help you stay clean and healthy)
    Shampoo (you want to have a harem when TSHTF? -- stock shampoo)
    Hand tools (shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows, hoes, hammers, pry bars, bolt cutters)

    Idaho Homesteader

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  3. Sometimes I like reading your works just to get myself overexcited and therefore feeling justified about dropping cash on a shopping spree. Dollar store here I come.
    Unbreakable AZ

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. I justify most of my extra spending because of the apocalypse

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  4. Don't buy dollar store dish soap. It is crap (too watery). Go to Wal-Mart and get some of the 97 cent bottles of Ajax dish soap.

    YKW
    MM

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    Replies
    1. Makes sense. Thank you. See, you don't ALWAYS have to be mean

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