Why You DO Have Money to Prepare

Just two years ago I told others and myself that I didn't have the money available to prepare for a collapse and would have to be content with being one of the masses who are looting and rioting for food. I said it, I thought I meant it, but realized that I actually do have more than I think. There is one undeniable, rather simple fact we cannot ignore: If we don't have it now, we won't ever have it period.

It will get a thousand times more difficult to survive once the collapse occurs, and if we haven't prepared, we are screwed.



But this is America. We DO have money to prepare. Here are the top ten things we can do to save and prepare.

10. Cigarettes. Really do we need them to survive? No. Even if you just cut back by one pack a day, that's an extra $35 a week or $140 a month.

9. Eating Out - It's fast, easy and seems cheap, but in reality a weekly or daily breakfast, lunch or dinner at McD's or another fast food place costs more than it's worth. Pack a lunch, eat before you leave home. If all you get is a sandwich and a drink, that's still another $30-35 a week.



8. Picky Eating - No not dietary restrictions, but those of us who always insist on brand name foods pay more for the name than for the actual food. For those that shop at whole foods stores for health reasons, keep in mind during the SHTF event, you won't have that option. What foods can you purchase at a more reasonably priced store? Get them.

Organic food is great if you raise it, grow it, kill it and cook it yourself, otherwise you are paying out the nose for food.



7. Movies and Entertainment - $9.00 a ticket? $12.00 for popcorn? I LOVE movies, but haven't seen one in a theater for more than a year now. If I must be entertained with comedy or action movies, hello Redbox. If I must be entertained with a horror, I just go to Walmart on Black Friday.



6. THINGS - I love shopping. But there are some THINGS I want, that I don't need. I don't need Taylor Swifts' new CD. I don't need that new bread machine. I WANT them, but unless I have the food, water and more stuff I need, Why would I get these THINGS first?



5. Newspaper and Magazine subscriptions - Hello, internet?



4. GAS - we can't control the price of gas, but we can control how much we use on the "Extra" trips we take each week. Do we really need a second and third run to the grocery store? Can we carpool to work with a friend? (Not to save the planet, but to save our dollars.)



3. DIY - Our family began making our own laundry detergent a while ago now. We were spending $30 every three weeks for a gallon jug of Tide or a little less for an off brand detergent. DIY it costs us .95 cents for two gallons of detergent and takes maybe 20 minutes of our time to do it. Other things you can make yourself include charcoal, dish soap, deodorant, bisquick, on and on.



2. Couponing - link to the Fabulously Frugal web page or the Krazy Koupon lady page and save money on your weekly shopping budgets.



1. Absolute Wastes We Don't Want to Get Rid of - Do you rent a storage unit to keep stuff you don't know where to keep or what to do with? Do you have extra space in your home taken up with junk or sentimental treasures like Rub a Dub Dolly Dolls and Tickle Me Elmos? Consider for a moment how much all that stuff is worth when you have no food, hold a yard sale, storage unit sale save that money up for prepping and food storage. Yes You DO have money to Prepare. What you don't have right now is a lot of time.