Have you noticed that your money just doesn’t seem to go anywhere
these days? You get paid, same as last year and the year before, but you
cannot make the ends meet no matter how hard you budget? It’s because
no one is telling you the truth. This IS the new norm. We ARE in the 2nd
Great Depression and you will need to be very creative and readjust
your thinking in order to get through these times with any sanity left.
The problem is that there are these financial bubbles that have popped or are getting ready to pop but you think it’s your fault. I spent that money on McDonald’s the other day so I must just be spending extra and not paying attention! No… the problem is that several years ago food, gas, housing, credit, interest rates, EVERYTHING was less expensive. It was easy to use your credit card because paying it back had low interest rates and low monthly payments. Not anymore! Now you are paying triple for that shirt you charged a few months ago even though it was on sale. You will now have to change your mindset and think about your life and financial situation quite differently. This IS a bad economy, it’s not getting any better, and you MUST take control of your future NOW or you are going to lose everything you have ever worked for! Ask me, I already know because I have been there and am now trying to rebuild my life through self-reliance and serious budgeting tactics.
I was already learning self-reliance when the the Great Recession occurred in 2008. I heard from non-mainstream media sources that it would happen and I wanted to learn how to protect my family and be able to provide for my family with some food security. The only reason why no one has actually said this is the 2nd Great Depression is because the long food lines are masked with EBT cards with free money from the government that will eventually run out. This will leave millions of people starving and rioting and begging the government for help. It is not a good situation at all. However, it is important that despite what the government says our economy looks like or what I say is going on, you must take some control of your financial future now. Don’t wait until another bubble bursts and you are left with little food or money to survive!
What you must do NOW to save money and start taking control:
1. Plant a garden. Any garden. Any size. I don’t care if you are working and going to school and are gone 150 hours a week, you have got to start growing some of your own food. There are crops that grow best in all types of climates and you can easily find those with quick internet searches. You can buy seeds for very little and with a few hours of elbow grease, you can have a garden planted with nutritious food for you and your family. A family in California provides for 90% of their own food on 1/10 of an acre! Don’t give me the excuse that you do not have enough space. I can prove you wrong.
2. Unplug your dryer. I mean it. Go do it NOW! Hang a clothesline. Somewhere; ANYWHERE! It will save money and your clothing will not wear down as quickly. Over the course of the year, this will save you hundreds of dollars.
3. Look locally for free or cheap food. Forage for food. In Maine, we have fiddleheads, wild blueberries, wild raspberries, and many more options. Last week, I picked dandelion greens to mix in my lettuce for salad. They are best when they have not yet started growing the flowers. Stop spreading that “fertilizer” with weed killer and consider the fact that some of those weeds are edible! Look at local small farms, look for warehouses that may sell food cheap, ask neighbors or coworkers about food options!
4. Don’t be too proud to beg. Some grocery stores will just throw away produce that may not be worth selling. Ask the produce manager if they have this food available before they throw it away. Tell them it’s for your backyard chickens EVEN IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANY. You may get some food that you wouldn’t want to eat. But some of it is perfectly fine and worth putting aside your pride for.
5. Look into bulk buying coops. There are several and I know of a few that will go to any city with a minimum purchase requirement. You can have bulk organic staple foods for a fraction of grocery store prices because you are skipping having to pay the grocery store the additional cost of having this food conveniently displayed.
6. You will no longer buy new items from the store. You will have to buy all your clothing and shoes from thrift stores. You can buy used kitchen appliances for 90% off the cost. Get a breadmaker. Make your own bread for 80% less than store prices. If you go to a retail store to buy clothing, only go after the season has ended to buy discounted clothes. I got shorts and tank tops for my daughter for $1 each. I even bought some smaller sizes and sold them a few months later on Ebay for 5 times what I paid and yet the buyer still received a good deal!
7. Group your outings to save gas. I mean it. Wait to go to the stores and only go out once per week or when you are in town for work or other necessary trips.
8. Be OK with the new norm. It stinks that we are not in the prosperous times we once were in but we are no longer able to live that way. Period.
9. Don’t be afraid to ask around. I found out that I could get broccoli frozen from local growers for $6 for a case, or $2 for frozen french fries for huge bags. Dont be afraid to use connections and look for new ways to save money even if it costs time and energy.
10. Turn off lights. Disconnect your cable. Get rid of extra TVs in your house. Go down to 1 or 2 TVs. Cancel your smartphone. Share a cell phone with your husband. I cancelled my cable and cell phone and now save over $250 per month. What else can you turn off? Can you live without internet because you are close to free Wi-fi spots? Do it! If you can’t get rid of your cell phone than cancel your internet and use your cell phone internet for a wi-fi hotspot. A $20 rabbit ear antenna for your TV can provide as many as 50 channels for your TV. We can still watch many of our favorite TV shows for free.
11. Get off your medications. Eat better and improve your health through free exercise. Those medication prices will continue to get higher with Obamacare and all that government foolishness.
12. Talk to your grandparents or other older generations that lived through the Great Depression. They used newspaper for toilet paper and managed to live with very little money. We aren’t quite that hard up for money, but you better believe that I save old newspapers that people give me for free.
13. Look at cheaper methods of heating and cooling your home. Or live with the temps at lower or higher settings than you did last year. Use a woodstove and forage for free wood. We go to the local garbage dump and sign a waiver to scavenge through the wood pile and take free pallets and other non-treated wood sources. We also use this wood to make tables or other projects in the house. We aren’t necessarily super handy but you learn really quick when you have to.
14. Start prepping. Yes, I mean prep for economic collapse or natural disasters or whatever you want to tell your friends and family so they won’t laugh at you. Store extra food. Learn how to can. Do whatever it takes to store extra without jacking up your electric bill. If you get hurt at work or lose your job, you will have stored food and money that you would not have otherwise have had. Look into “doomsday prepping.” For $5 extra per week, you can buy a few extra cans of food that may keep you and your loved ones from starving if the economy gets worse. AND, yes, I do believe it will
15. PAY ATTENTION TO THE NEWS. Yes that means you! What is going on in the world will affect you! Millions of pounds of beef were recalled, pork was recalled… all going to jack up your meat prices! You may be able to stock up on food items before this if you are paying attention to the news.
16. Hunt and fish. Yup I said it. You can get meat for the cost of the supplies for fishing or hunting. Don’t know how to process it? Look on Youtube or the Google and find out. It really isn’t hard and who cares if it doesn’t look like store bought? Unless you plan on becoming vegetarian, I suggest you look at becoming a hunter/gatherer real quick!
There are many more ways to save money but I will touch on that in upcoming posts. Start with these 16 ways and let me know how much money you save because of it!
Blessings!!
The problem is that there are these financial bubbles that have popped or are getting ready to pop but you think it’s your fault. I spent that money on McDonald’s the other day so I must just be spending extra and not paying attention! No… the problem is that several years ago food, gas, housing, credit, interest rates, EVERYTHING was less expensive. It was easy to use your credit card because paying it back had low interest rates and low monthly payments. Not anymore! Now you are paying triple for that shirt you charged a few months ago even though it was on sale. You will now have to change your mindset and think about your life and financial situation quite differently. This IS a bad economy, it’s not getting any better, and you MUST take control of your future NOW or you are going to lose everything you have ever worked for! Ask me, I already know because I have been there and am now trying to rebuild my life through self-reliance and serious budgeting tactics.
I was already learning self-reliance when the the Great Recession occurred in 2008. I heard from non-mainstream media sources that it would happen and I wanted to learn how to protect my family and be able to provide for my family with some food security. The only reason why no one has actually said this is the 2nd Great Depression is because the long food lines are masked with EBT cards with free money from the government that will eventually run out. This will leave millions of people starving and rioting and begging the government for help. It is not a good situation at all. However, it is important that despite what the government says our economy looks like or what I say is going on, you must take some control of your financial future now. Don’t wait until another bubble bursts and you are left with little food or money to survive!
What you must do NOW to save money and start taking control:
1. Plant a garden. Any garden. Any size. I don’t care if you are working and going to school and are gone 150 hours a week, you have got to start growing some of your own food. There are crops that grow best in all types of climates and you can easily find those with quick internet searches. You can buy seeds for very little and with a few hours of elbow grease, you can have a garden planted with nutritious food for you and your family. A family in California provides for 90% of their own food on 1/10 of an acre! Don’t give me the excuse that you do not have enough space. I can prove you wrong.
2. Unplug your dryer. I mean it. Go do it NOW! Hang a clothesline. Somewhere; ANYWHERE! It will save money and your clothing will not wear down as quickly. Over the course of the year, this will save you hundreds of dollars.
3. Look locally for free or cheap food. Forage for food. In Maine, we have fiddleheads, wild blueberries, wild raspberries, and many more options. Last week, I picked dandelion greens to mix in my lettuce for salad. They are best when they have not yet started growing the flowers. Stop spreading that “fertilizer” with weed killer and consider the fact that some of those weeds are edible! Look at local small farms, look for warehouses that may sell food cheap, ask neighbors or coworkers about food options!
4. Don’t be too proud to beg. Some grocery stores will just throw away produce that may not be worth selling. Ask the produce manager if they have this food available before they throw it away. Tell them it’s for your backyard chickens EVEN IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANY. You may get some food that you wouldn’t want to eat. But some of it is perfectly fine and worth putting aside your pride for.
5. Look into bulk buying coops. There are several and I know of a few that will go to any city with a minimum purchase requirement. You can have bulk organic staple foods for a fraction of grocery store prices because you are skipping having to pay the grocery store the additional cost of having this food conveniently displayed.
6. You will no longer buy new items from the store. You will have to buy all your clothing and shoes from thrift stores. You can buy used kitchen appliances for 90% off the cost. Get a breadmaker. Make your own bread for 80% less than store prices. If you go to a retail store to buy clothing, only go after the season has ended to buy discounted clothes. I got shorts and tank tops for my daughter for $1 each. I even bought some smaller sizes and sold them a few months later on Ebay for 5 times what I paid and yet the buyer still received a good deal!
7. Group your outings to save gas. I mean it. Wait to go to the stores and only go out once per week or when you are in town for work or other necessary trips.
8. Be OK with the new norm. It stinks that we are not in the prosperous times we once were in but we are no longer able to live that way. Period.
9. Don’t be afraid to ask around. I found out that I could get broccoli frozen from local growers for $6 for a case, or $2 for frozen french fries for huge bags. Dont be afraid to use connections and look for new ways to save money even if it costs time and energy.
10. Turn off lights. Disconnect your cable. Get rid of extra TVs in your house. Go down to 1 or 2 TVs. Cancel your smartphone. Share a cell phone with your husband. I cancelled my cable and cell phone and now save over $250 per month. What else can you turn off? Can you live without internet because you are close to free Wi-fi spots? Do it! If you can’t get rid of your cell phone than cancel your internet and use your cell phone internet for a wi-fi hotspot. A $20 rabbit ear antenna for your TV can provide as many as 50 channels for your TV. We can still watch many of our favorite TV shows for free.
11. Get off your medications. Eat better and improve your health through free exercise. Those medication prices will continue to get higher with Obamacare and all that government foolishness.
12. Talk to your grandparents or other older generations that lived through the Great Depression. They used newspaper for toilet paper and managed to live with very little money. We aren’t quite that hard up for money, but you better believe that I save old newspapers that people give me for free.
13. Look at cheaper methods of heating and cooling your home. Or live with the temps at lower or higher settings than you did last year. Use a woodstove and forage for free wood. We go to the local garbage dump and sign a waiver to scavenge through the wood pile and take free pallets and other non-treated wood sources. We also use this wood to make tables or other projects in the house. We aren’t necessarily super handy but you learn really quick when you have to.
14. Start prepping. Yes, I mean prep for economic collapse or natural disasters or whatever you want to tell your friends and family so they won’t laugh at you. Store extra food. Learn how to can. Do whatever it takes to store extra without jacking up your electric bill. If you get hurt at work or lose your job, you will have stored food and money that you would not have otherwise have had. Look into “doomsday prepping.” For $5 extra per week, you can buy a few extra cans of food that may keep you and your loved ones from starving if the economy gets worse. AND, yes, I do believe it will
15. PAY ATTENTION TO THE NEWS. Yes that means you! What is going on in the world will affect you! Millions of pounds of beef were recalled, pork was recalled… all going to jack up your meat prices! You may be able to stock up on food items before this if you are paying attention to the news.
16. Hunt and fish. Yup I said it. You can get meat for the cost of the supplies for fishing or hunting. Don’t know how to process it? Look on Youtube or the Google and find out. It really isn’t hard and who cares if it doesn’t look like store bought? Unless you plan on becoming vegetarian, I suggest you look at becoming a hunter/gatherer real quick!
There are many more ways to save money but I will touch on that in upcoming posts. Start with these 16 ways and let me know how much money you save because of it!
Blessings!!
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