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What Never Spoils Could Never Hurt You

Today’s tool recommendation? How about honey? Sweet…of me, I know. But I’m serious. Here’s what my honey can do.

Honey never spoils…you could eat thousand-year-old honey if you found it. Why is that, you ask?

The reason is simple …honey has amazing antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties…so nothing can really grow in it and hence it does not spoil. And that is one of the reasons it is so good to use on wounds. The Romans were masters of practicality…they did incredibly well with what little they had.

Physicians in the Roman army routinely slathered honey on all those nasty wounds their troops had after battles. They did not have the luxury of modern antibiotics and so they used honey and herbal treatments.

I have used honey in my practice for over twenty-five years with great success. Wound clinics routinely prescribed ridiculously expensive creams and salves for my patients, and many times with little success. I routinely intervened and told them to buy a jar of raw local honey at the farmer’s market or the local grocer. After using my honey treatment they returned to the wound clinics and repeatedly astonished the doctors and nurses there with their speedy recovery and lack of infections.

Honey and Wound Healing

Here’s the science behind honey’s amazing properties.

  • Honey is very viscous (thick) and therefore has a very strong osmotic effect (think of osmosis as gravity).
  • Honey is very osmotically active so like gravity, it has a strong pull, so it pulls or draws fluids out of the less osmotically active wound, carrying debris, dirt, and bacteria, etc. away from the wound onto the dressing.
  • That is why it is good to apply the honey directly to a wound dressing and then apply that to the wound. This way you can change the dressing each time it is soaked with fluids from the wound.
  • This osmotic effect also helps keep the wound moist, preventing premature scabbing and aiding in healing.
  • Honey also has a very strong attractive effect upon water, which it will combine with and make it unavailable to thirsty bacteria, fungi, and viruses. As the bacteria in a wound feed on the glucose in honey they will produce lactic acid. This will also prevent the foul smell of many wounds.
  • As honey gets combined with water it will produce hydrogen peroxide. This is the same substance that your body’s white blood cells produce to destroy foreign invaders. This is why hydrogen peroxide has a strong antiseptic effect. This also promotes wound healing. The hydrogen peroxide in honey is steadily produced and hence has a long-term positive effect on the wound.
  • Honey also causes the chelation of iron, thus binding it to proteins and rendering it unavailable to bacteria, which need iron to reproduce. Therefore, whenever you bind iron up and make it unavailable to bacteria, you are producing an antimicrobial effect.
  • Honey also helps promote granulation of wounds. at is the step after the production of a clot to close a wound.

Note: Granulation tissue is the yellow tissue in the base of a wound. I have found that even by nurses it is very often mistaken for pus. is is your body’s way of filling in a wound gap and allowing normal tissue to grow into that from all sides and heal a wound. You can tell the difference of it from pus because it is nice and uniform, lining a wound with the look of a thin layer of lemon pudding and without any foul smell that pus usually produces.

Honey for Burns, Skin Ulcers, and Dry Skin

Honey also works very well on burns;

  • use it the same way, covering the burned area with a large gauze soaked with honey.
  • Change it just like the wound dressing, whenever it is soaked with fluids that it has drawn out of the burn. It will prevent the major problem with burns, infection.
  • It will also produce better healing and less scarring, which can be critical in treating burns.

Honey also works very well in skin ulceration. I have treated many patients with large, deep decubitus ulcers (bed sores) and they have healed remarkably well. Honey applied to a dressing along with proper positioning of the patient to alleviate those pressure points will work wonders for patients with bed sores.

Honey has also been used to treat dry, parched, or injured skin of any type. Women as far back as Cleopatra have used raw honey for face masks and to beautify their hair and skin. The great moisturizing effect of honey on dry, ageing skin is due to its ability to attract and retain moisture in the skin without making the skin too oily. For this reason as well as raw honey’s antibacterial effects, it works very well in cases of acne.

Raw honey has been used for every conceivable kind of skin problem, including athlete’s foot.

Honey for an Upset Stomach

  • Raw honey, when combined with ginger and lemon juice, makes a very potent treatment for nausea and vomiting as well as gastric distress of any type, including ulcers.
  • Raw honey also contains large amounts of amylase which is concentrated in the pollen of flowers. Amylase is a digestive enzyme that digests starches such as bread, pasta, potatoes, and rice, thus it aids in digestion and is an excellent treatment for indigestion.

I think I made you consider at least getting some to just eat it, for now.

Question is – What Type of Honey Should You Buy?

Dr. La Guardia tell you all about it in his book; the community is already referring to it as The Bible of Survival.

Are you ready to finally make the switch from surviving to thriving?

Get this book today.

Honey never spoils

Prepping is not something you postpone for the future. It is something you design for the present.

They say never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today. Well, why won’t think the same about prepping? This is something I keep seeing all over the community or even during conversations with other like-minded people. 

“When SHTF” I’ll do this or that.

“What gun are you planning on carrying … when SHTF?”

“When SHTF, I’ll go to my ranch/homestead/bunker/friend’s house”

These are precisely the people that end up not being ready when it counts because they keep waiting for some kind of invitation, email or notification so as to official know that as of right now, shit has indeed hit the fan. So here’s a letter you’ll never receive:

“Dear Sir, we are contacting you in regards to recent events and would like to inform you that as of right now shit has officially hit the fan. Remember where you put that survival medicine book? Get it out now. And yes, start reading the “when SHTF”chapter. You can’t find the book? What? It’s underwater? Along with your gear and food? Oh… Good luck and enjoy the end of the world!”

It just doesn’t work that way. In places where shit has very much hit the fan there’s people with this mentality. I still see if from people living in true hell holes, places like Venezuela, still talking about what they will do when it gets worse.

Get this book to prepare and act now. 

Arm yourself as well as you can now and learn how to defend yourself if you don’t already know how. Not looking after your health will get you killed SHTF or not, so get that blood test you’ve been postponing NOW, not after SHTF. Put that fire extinguisher in your car now, keep one in your kitchen now. Have a kit in your vehicle now because you can still get stranded on the road.

As rare as home invasions are around here, a while back someone broke into a neighbor’s house. His teen daughter was home alone when it happened. She locked herself in the bathroom. She called her father who was abroad at the time. Whomever broke in tried to force the door open, failed, so they took a few things quickly and left. Teach you family how to defend themselves now.

Believe me that when there’s not a drop of water coming out of the faucet, that’s not the time to go fill up that empty “water bob” you were supposed to fill … when SHTF. Have enough water for a week now. Learn to cook with your food stash now. 

Store what you eat, eat what you store so if there’s ever riots, looting, food shortages or if for whatever reason you need to dig into your food supplies there will be no hard learned lesson or adaptation period.

Whatever important change in your life or idea you have on what you would do, do it now. Trust me on this, if you can’t pull it off today, you won’t when things get worse.

Stop thinking in terms of “when SHTF” and thing of how you will act if things make a serious turn for the worse tomorrow, or right this moment. That’s just life and that’s how real SHTF, the kind that change your life in an instant, hit you when you least expect it.

You Don’t Have To Wait For a Crisis To Use This Book.

As a Prepper you automatically are someone who is realistic by nature and as such a person you surely will come to the realization that no matter how big a supply of antibiotics you have stockpiled currently, they will either run out or be compromised in some way. 

That being said, you will need alternative means of treating any infection that may arise. There are several multi use items that can be stockpiled in your home. The cheapest and most effective must be vinegar.

We could never store all the cleaners that we use on a weekly basis in quantities that would be effective for long term disaster or self-sufficiency. Instead, you can dilute and fortify vinegar to become the base of many cleaners. It can polish glass as well as disinfect.

  • Vinegar can be used to affect pests both in your home and in your garden. It can be used to take care of fleas on dogs, catch gnats and it can be added to a spray for your garden. 
  • Without any special gear, tools or even fuel, you can turn fresh food into preserved food with vinegar. Of course, a little sugar and some onion might make it even better, some salt would help. However, just vinegar will pickle foods and extend their life.
  • You can take care of bothersome moss and weeds by spraying them with vinegar. 
  • Got tools and things that have rusted or rusted together? A few soaks in vinegar can deal with that trust. Just be sure to refresh the vinegar after 8, or so hours. 
  • Vinegar can help with sore throat. You can use it with some salt as a great gargle.
  • For a long time, people drank things like balsamic vinegar after dinner as something that would help with digestion. The added acidity can help break down your food.
  • On the culinary side of things, you can use vinegar as a meat marinade that will help break down tougher cuts of meat and impart flavor.
  • If you use our method to make your own vinegar you will have a raw apple cider vinegar that contains healthy probiotics to improve things like gut health.
  • While the most popular base for tincture is alcohol, you can create tinctures for healing and natural remedies with vinegar, as well.

 

What if I told you this is just one example out of many from a 800+ page book filled with medical, herbal, and traditional treatments in one easy reference? 

Ready to take over, Dr. House? You continuous education is waiting for you here

 

The information in this book can be used immediately to improve your health, and expand your treatment options in many areas even if there is never a crisis event for you and your loved ones.

Get this book nowAnd put it into practice today.

 

P.S. – This is NOT a limited edition. Also, we are not here to scare you with stats. Just remember that your time is limited. So don’t waste it. 

Prepping is not something you postpone for the future. It is something you design for the present.

Bear with me here. Before you start to think you mistakenly bought a gardening manual, know this; you and your family and survival group’s destiny depends on your soil. If you want to not only survive but be healthy, free of chronic diseases, infections, and reproduce healthy robust children, then you had better pay attention to what I am about to say, it all starts with your dirt.

Your soil, if properly nourished and maintained, will prove to be the “goose that laid the golden egg”, and will feed you through its plants with an unending stream of essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, protein, healthy carbohydrates, vitamins, enzymes, minerals, trace elements, and phytonutrients. God made it possible, our job is to take all of his blessings and use them as they were intended for us, return to the garden.

First of all this entire process by necessity needs to be organic, meaning no artificial fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, or fungicides of any type. No man- made chemicals are to be added to the soil at any time, recognizing that these are poisons and kill the extensive web of life contained in the soil. A soil devoid of life is worthless for nutritional purposes. In lifeless soils it is impossible to grow healthy plants.

SOIL LIFE

Healthy soil is alive and teeming with life of all kinds. Healthy soils contain large amounts of bacteria and fungi that help convert inorganic minerals (which plants cannot utilize) into organically chelated minerals that plants can readily uptake.

That is an important distinction to understand; plants and animals (including us humans) cannot absorb inorganic minerals, except for a very small amount that can be made by the intestinal bacteria.

We can, however, readily absorb organic materials, since they are usually wrapped in proteins that we can absorb; that process of enclosing the mineral in a protein or humic acid matrix is called chelation.

We absorb organic minerals and other organic compounds by eating plants that have absorbed those organic minerals and trace elements from the soil. If soils are deficient in any mineral or trace element, then it is impossible for the plants to obtain them for their needs, and in turn the animals that eat the plants, including us humans, will not be able to get the minerals and trace elements that we need to correctly construct our complex bodies.

ORGANIC MATTER AND SOIL PH

The bacteria and fungi in the soils live by virtue of the organic content of the soil; in other words they live by eating the decomposing organic matter in the soil such as decomposing plants and animals and other microorganisms. If the bacteria and fungi did not do this we would have mountains of dead and decaying plant materials.

You need to supply lots of organic material to help these microorganisms flourish. Other living organisms in the soil such as nematodes, protozoa, mites, springtails, and earthworms also need this organic material to flourish and add to the goodness of the soil.

Some excellent sources of organic matter can readily be made by composting.

As Preppers we should try never to waste any materials, including food that we do not consume, or parts of food discarded from food preparation. All the vegetable matter should be put in a compost bin or compost pile.

These do not have to be elaborate store-bought contraptions. You can easily make a compost bin as I have done with a handful of old wooden pallets and some wire.

Learn to improvise if you want to survive, learn to think outside of the box and you can come up with some wonderful, simple solutions for not only composting but many of the problems that will inevitably arise.

Another easy way to increase the organic content, especially the carbon content of soil, is by making Biochar.

Biochar is made by partially burning vegetable matter of any type then putting out the fire when it is only partially carbonized (looking like coal). This is an ancient method of fertilizing soil that was used by Native Americans to increase the fertility of their soil. It creates a finely grained, porous charcoal that is home to many soil microbes and increases both fertility and water retention capacities of soils. It is a wonderful way to convert garden and woodland waste into a valuable soil amendment.

Biochar is made when wood, bones, leaves, or manure (or any vegetable matter) is heated or burned at low temperatures in a kiln, this is done by limiting oxygen to the process and keeping the temperature below 700 F. The resulting half-burned charcoal-looking material is biochar, and is ready to be added to your soil.

Biochar like wood ash is alkaline and works best when used as a soil amendment on acidic soils. Mixing biochar with compost works best by helping to properly age the biochar and add the fertility boosting effects of compost.

As with any composting system, you cannot use meat, fats, or dairy products, which will ruin the compost and attract insects and mice and other vermin as well as stinking up your house. You can use newspaper, cardboard, fruit, vegetable matter, bread, teabags, and coffee grounds.

Soil can be improved by using a variety of readily available organic materials. As mentioned above, composting is a wonderful idea and will provide you with a steady supply of “ black gold” for your garden.

Other sources of organic materials are

  • coffee grounds (I go to my local Starbucks and they are very nice about providing buckets of their coffee grounds);
  • cover crops such as legumes, buckwheat, and cereal rye can be grown and then gently turned under and buried in the top layer of soil (it is a good policy never to leave your soil bare and open to the elements);
  • dried manure (you cannot use fresh manure, it will burn your plants).
  • Peat moss, wood chips, sawdust, grass clippings, leaf mold, and shredded and composted leaves are all wonderful sources of organic material for your garden; these all will lower your pH and make your garden more acidic.
  • You can raise your pH by the addition of crushed rocks (rock dust), ashes from your fireplace or any wood burning, bone meal, and crushed oyster shells.
  • If you live near the ocean, lakes or any body of water that can be used for fishing you can use dead fish to improve your garden soils. Salt water fish are better than fresh water but both will suffice. Bury any fish or fish parts that you are not eating into your garden; they are wonderful sources for many minerals and trace elements and have been used for centuries to enhance garden soils.
  • Dried seaweed such as kelp is also an excellent source of minerals, nutrients, and phytonutrients such as growth hormones.

The ideal pH of your garden should be between 6.5 and 6.8, which is very mildly acidic. That pH range has been found to be optimal for plants to be able to uptake minerals and other charged particles from the soil. Lower or higher pH levels result in a binding of the nutrients and results in them being unavailable for uptake by your garden plants.

Growing plants in the wrong pH will result in disaster.

Simple soil pH kits are available in any garden center and I would buy several of them to have on hand.  Most soils found east of the Mississippi river are slightly acidic in nature.

Soils that are too acidic can be sweetened by the addition of

  • powdered limestone (lime), which is alkaline and will raise the pH into your target range of 6.5 to 6.8.
  • you can also use wood ashes from your fireplace if no lime is available, which also contains potassium and many trace elements. Do not use more than 2 pounds of ashes per hundred square feet of garden (for those of you who are math-challenged, this means a ten foot by ten foot garden space, or twenty feet by five feet, etc.).
  • Another formula to use to sweeten your soil is to add 4 pounds of lime per one hundred square feet for every one point of pH below 6.5.
  • If you have alkaline soils (which are much less common) you can use sulphur on it to make it more acidic and you can also use pine needles or other acidic materials. e formula for the addition of sulphur to alkaline soils is 1 pound of sulphur per one hundred square feet per each point of pH above 7.5.

And this are just some of the ways of doing it. If you want to find out how to build a healthy soil using:

  • EARTHWORMS
  • HUMUS
  • MYCORRHIZAL FUNGI
  • MINERALS AND TRACE ELEMENTS

Get The Doomsday Book of Medicine today. Just don’t be fooled by the title.

The word doomsday only refers to its size.

Over 800 pages full of practical advice just like this one.

 

Before you start to think you mistakenly bought a gardening manual, know this; you and your family and survival group’s destiny depends on your soil.

Editors Note: This post is from Gaye Levy. Gaye was nice enough to share this with our readers here. Backup power is one of the most fundamental preparedness items you should have at the near top of your list. This article demonstrates her and her husbands experience with one option that might work for your family.

 

When it comes to understanding electricity, my mind tends to blank out when it gets to the point where I have to determine volts, amps, amp-hours, voltage under load and other terms that are second nature to the electricity savvy.  Let me make it clear that this is not a girl thing or a guy thing.  It is simply that some of us are better at understanding how power and electricity works than others.

In all fairness, in my boating days I was quite familiar with the operation of our house batteries and the inverter.  Using this set-up, I had fresh coffee in the morning and power for my laptop.  Life was sweet.  Although that was almost ten years ago, the lessons learned were simple: don’t discharge the batteries more than 60% and don’t mess with a working electrical system unless you know what you are doing.

Given my own thick head when in comes to all things electrical, I have always considered the prospect of installing a small solar system in my home a bit daunting.  I should not have worried.

HARBOR FREIGHT TO THE RESCUE

A few months ago I was contacted by Harbor Freight and asked if I would like to try out one of their Thunderbolt Solar Kits.  This was not the time to be bashful so of course I said yes, as long as they understood there would be little or no sun in the Washington State for a month or two. Having set the stage, I was sent the following items for testing:

Thunderbolt Magnum 45 Watt Solar Panel Kit
Thunderbolt Magnum 15 Volt Solar Power Panel
Cen-Tech 750 Watt Continuous/1500 Watt Peak Power Inverter
Thunderbolt 12 Volt, 35 Amp Hour Sealed Lead Acid Battery

Harbor Freight Solar Kit (4)

So how did it go?  The first thing I did was recruit the Survival Husband to do the heavy lifting.  Then, together, we decided that we would install the solar kit on the roof of our garage which was angled just right and facing the south.  During the summer months, we should get six to seven hour of sun a day in this location.

We also agreed that climbing the roof was a task for someone younger – a lot younger – so until my brother and my electronics wizard nephew come to visit, we set things up on our upper patio and to heck with the patio furniture.

TIPS FOR INSTALLING THE THUNDERBOLT SOLAR KIT

The Thunderbolt solar kit comes complete with three 15 watt solar panels for a total of 45 watts.  It also includes all of the parts you will need:  a mounting frame, controller box, cables, connectors and even a couple of 12 volt lights that plug directly into the controller box.  Everything is included for a ground level installation.  On the other hand, a roof top installation will require some brackets – something we have not purchased yet.

The installation was simple.  We just followed the instructions in the manual and things worked.  Okay, truth be told, Shelly (the Survival Husband) does not always read manuals thoroughly so he put the frame together goofy and had to start over.  And then he could not find the power switch on the inverter and thought it was defective.  I found it, turned it on and had immediate power.

He did offer up some tips:

When assembling the frame, make sure the top bar marked front actually faces front.  Otherwise you cannot install the legs.

Harbor Freight Solar Kit (7)

There are two sizes of screws with wing nuts.  The bag with eight screws are shorter and are the screws to be used when assembling the frame.

Harbor Freight Solar Kit (8)Harbor Freight Solar Kit (9)

When attaching the three panels to the frame, it is easier to attach the middle panel first.  Other than that, just follow the instructions.

After completing the frame and panel setup, follow the directions by attaching the 3 leads from the panel to the splitter cable.  Add the extension cable and plug into the charge controller.  Next attach the battery terminals (on the battery) to the charge controller to confirm that you are receiving voltage from the solar panels.  There is a large LED display on the front of the charge controller indicating the voltage so that you will know right away if everything is working okay.

You need to use an inverter to convert the power to AC.  In that case, you need to attach the included cables from the inverter to your battery terminals.

Harbor Freight Solar Kit (12)Harbor Freight Solar Kit (14)

The controller box itself, without an inverter, has a 12V cigarette lighter socket, 5V USB, 3-6-9V DC outlets and two 12V sockets for the included light kit.  Note that the USB port is only 5 volts, okay for cell phones, Kindles and tablets such as an iPad but not for devices or electronics that require higher voltage.

The battery is not waterproof so you will need to keep it covered and protected from the elements.

The Quick Start guide is well laid out and intuitive with accurate, easy to understand diagrams.  Plus, all of the manuals are available online so that they will always be handy, even if you lose the originals.

BUT DOES IT WORK?

The first thing I tested was my crock pot.  If the grid was down and I wanted to eat but I did not want to build a fire, a working crock-pot would be a godsend.  It uses just a modest amount of steady power and can be used for soups, stews and even for baking quick breads.  I ran the crock-pot for quite some time with no problems.

Harbor Freight Solar Kit (16)        Harbor Freight Solar Kit (17)

My next test was more challenging – a hair straightening iron. If my hair iron worked, then I not only would look good, but I would be able to re-seal the Mylar bags I opened to get to my stored food items.  Again, no problem.  From there I moved to lighting and to my alkaline battery charger.  Again, everything worked perfectly and I was pleased.

Using the Harbor Freight solar system was almost to easy – definitely a set it and forget it operation although the directions indicate you should not leave a charging battery unattended.

I am not done testing yet. The way these things work is that more batteries equals more amp hours equals more current.  Or, in plain English, more battery juice means you can run more stuff for a longer period of time.  We plan to add some marine deep cycle batteries and a large watt inverter to the basic set up so we can run more stuff.  But for the basics and for now, this system works just fine.

THE FINAL WORD

This Thunderbolt Solar Kit from Harbor Freight is inexpensive if not downright cheap.  But do not let the price dissuade you.  For lighting, small appliances and laptops, this system works great.  It would be even better with a larger battery.  You do not need to be an electronics genius to set it up but if you need help, you can find it online, especially at the New World Solar/DIY Solar Energy Forum.

It is my understanding that folks have tied two or three of these systems together for even more power.  As good as that sounds, it is beyond our technical capability at this moment but we are learning and just might get to that point.

Our goal for now is the get the complete system installed on the roof and to add some additional batteries, probably the marine deep-cycle type.  We will then use the solar to kit to power all of our outdoor security lighting as well as our power tools and and everything else that we have running off of our garage and outdoor receptacles.

This does not apply to us, but I think this would be an ideal backup power source for a well.

 

What do you think? Any of this applies to your household? Let us know if this works. And how it changed your life.

This is just another effort to find the best ways to go all independent and self-sufficient. Your answers or notes are helping all of us to move forward. I hope you understand that.

God Bless.

Among all the benefits of solar panels, the most important thing is that solar energy is a truly renewable energy source. And there's more.

I know it’s tools day, but if you think of it, so is Epsom Salt. Here’s why.

The wonders of Epsom salt have been well known for hundreds of years and, unlike other salts, has beneficial properties that can soothe the body, mind, and soul.

When applied to the skin via a hot bath or a poultice, the magnesium and sulfates in Epsom salts are readily absorbed through the skin and into the blood and distributed throughout the body. In the brain they will raise the level of serotonin in the same way Prozac and other antidepressants work, but by a different mechanism. This in turn helps elevate moods and leads to calm and relaxation.

Magnesium given at bedtime will lead to a nice, deep, restful sleep. In the cells of the body magnesium helps increase ATP, which is the substance via which the cells produce energy. It will therefore increase energy, stamina, and endurance. Magnesium will help patients who are suffering with stress lower their high levels of adrenaline and thereby decrease the irritability induced by stress. In other words, magnesium helps you chill out and be calm.

How To Use Epsom Salt in a Bath

Fill a bath tub with the hottest water you can stand without burning yourself and then stir in two or three cups of Epsom salt. You must remain in the water for at least a half hour to get the full effect. That is how long it takes for the magnesium sulfate to penetrate your skin and enter your blood.

Note: Be careful on exiting the tub, your legs will be very rubbery due to its relaxing effect. You will feel like you are Gumby! I would also do it right before bed, you will sleep like a baby. Sore feet can be soaked in a bucket with a half cup of Epsom salt, it will soothe aching feet just as it does other muscles. It will also remove foot odors and help athlete’s foot. You can eliminate calluses by using a pumice stone after soaking your feet.

Daily baths will also help lower blood pressure, help migraine headaches, and will help relieve the bronchospasm (tight airways) of asthma. The same baths will also help eliminate harmful toxins from the body. It does this by a process known as reverse osmosis, where it actually draws these toxins out of your body through your skin.

[See: If your meds need refrigeration, read this!]

Any help we can give our overworked livers in detoxifying all of the dangerous toxins that we are constantly exposed to is a big plus for your health. Your body only has a few options for dealing with toxins. It can excrete them by various means such as urine, feces, sweat, and breathing. It can package them in lipids and store them, or it can detoxify them by various biochemical means in the liver.

The longer these toxins wreak their havoc on your body the more harm they will cause. Your body is also more efficient at functioning at its peak when you are well hydrated and well-nourished with the full spectrum of minerals and trace elements, vitamins, and plants chock-full of a whole array of phytonutrients for your body.

You also need to be alkaline. Acid is not your friend; it has to be excreted by your body just like a toxin, or it has to be neutralized. Either way, it is a problem that your body has to deal with. When your body is alkaline rather than acidic, its full complement of enzymes and chemical reactions will work optimally and your body will not have to lose calcium and other minerals in an attempt to help rectify its acidity.

How To Apply Epsom Salt as a Poultice

First you need to fill a large container with Epsom salt and add water slowly to it until you have a paste-like consistency. Then soak a small towel or rag in it and wrap it around the muscle or area of the body that is in harmed from an injury. Leave it on overnight and remove it in the morning, or soak it for an hour or two.

How to Take Epsom Salt Orally

For Adults: Mix two to four level teaspoons of Epsom salt in 8 ounces of water.

For children use half this dose for ages six to twelve.

If no satisfactory bowel movements, repeat the dose in four hours. is will generally produce a very good bowel movement in thirty minutes to six hours.

Do not take Epsom salt orally if the patient has stomach pain, nausea, or vomiting or if the person is under six years old. Also do not use it in someone with renal (kidney) failure. If several doses of it do not work, or if any rectal bleeding occur, discontinue its use. Do not use Epsom salt as a laxative for more than one week’s time.

[See: Treating illness is not for physicians only. Not anymore.]

Using Epsom Salt in Your Garden

Epsom salts will help your garden by providing magnesium to plants.

If you see your plants’ leaves fading yellow, this will help them. Mix two tablespoons of Epsom salt for every gallon of water you use. You can spray it on plants as an insecticide or water plants with it and this will help your plants absorb many of the minerals and fertilizers they need to properly grow.

I also recommend adding liberal amounts of rock dust and/or Azomite to your garden soils.

Some gardeners recommend adding a half cup of Epsom salt for every 500 square feet of garden (a 25 ft. by 20 ft. garden for example). By mixing it in water and adding it to the soil in early spring, this will keep your soil nice and “sweet” or alkaline.

Some plants require more Epsom salt than others. Nut trees such as walnuts, hazelnuts, butternuts, pecans, and others use a significant amount of magnesium and thrive on its addition to their soil. Simply add two tablespoons at the base of each fruit or nut tree in spring and several times during the growing season. is will help them absorb other vital minerals and nutrients and increase their vigor and fruit set, with no harmful side effects.

Some garden plants such as tomatoes and peppers will benefit from two tablespoons of Epsom salt added to each planting hole. You can also add it liberally by adding it to water at two tablespoons per gallon of water and either water the soil or putting it in a tank sprayer and spraying it on the plant leaves themselves through which it will be absorbed readily and utilized by the plants. Later in the growing season you may notice tomato or pepper leaves fading yellow and diminished fruit set; both can be improved by additional feedings.

 

What do you think? Pretty rich right? It is only but a tiny chapter of a whooping 800+ pages book, researched and written by Dr. Ralph La Guardia. If you wish to find out more about the medical powers of epsom salt and way more others common household items that are all a prepper needs to survive when there’s no doctor around, make sure to get this book – an encyclopaedia for the modern prepper, put together over 30 years of direct experience. Get yours here!

The wonders of Epsom salt have been well known for hundreds of years and, unlike other salts, has beneficial properties that can soothe the body, mind, and soul.

I am finally able to open my eyes. My husband is still sleeping next to me. This is already a special day. Being a doctor, he is usually, well, fighting different stages of bodies giving up on their people. So yes, I am grateful.

What time it is? Did we oversleep? Thank God is Sunday. The church bells helped. Weird to think they do it now with the push of a button. Even Father Jones makes fun of it. Not to mention the kids. Of course, my rebel daughter, going on 17, had to ask – When are they going to replace the priests with robots? And now my 4-year-old wants to go to the church today to check is Father Jones is human or not. Jesus!

Right. The kids.

I hear them going through the kitchen. Fridge door. Microwave. Music on her phone. A game on his. I told them, no phone play before breakfast. I feel like grabbing my phone and sending them a text message, but this would make them win.

Lazy Sunday mornings are the best. I need to get up. Oh, how I wish my kids would already be aware of this world. Or at least aware of themselves. They do not want to hear about prepping. That’s what happens when you take everything for granted. But their morning would look totally different if their batteries were dead. And so was the internet.

But we all know the aftermath of a blackout would be way more terrible than that.

[See: How a simple blackout can disrupt our lives.]

Sounds like a nightmare scenario, doesn’t it? It absolutely is. Yet prolonged power outages are becoming more and more frequent across the United States. Why are power outages on the rise? Because our electrical grid is weak. Weaker than you might think.

I don’t even dare to ask my kids what would they do if there was no more electricity. They would probably tell me that they would be killed by boredom, not by the different diseases that would flourish during such an event.

We got into prepping without even knowing we were doing it. Is started when my husband came home one day and said: “Perhaps it’s time for doctors to start prescribing more produce than pills.” Weird, huh? Coming from a doctor. And he was not the only one thinking this thing should change before it got out of control.

My husband has a doctor friend called Ralph. I’m kidding, he has more than just one friend. And I’m not referring to his Facebook followers. But Ralph happens to be a very respected doctor who recently published a book regarded as The Bible of Prepping According to La Guardia.

He gave us a copy. And just told my husband it was some medical research he was working on for some years now. I later found out it took him 30 years to complete. And once you see the book you’ll understand why. It is a whooping 800+ pages filled with practical advices for the common folk, prepper or not.

I say give this book the chance it deserves. And get ready to change your perspective on plants, soil, health, nutrition, and everything you think you know about prepping.

What if you would have the tools to make your life even greater? What if you could be able to survive and even thrive if suddenly, one segment of our reality would be gone? Let’s take electricity for example. My day would look totally differently without it. What about yours? What would you do if the grid went down? No terrorism, no war. Just no more power. How would you feel?

You can only get this book here. Like really.

Final Prepper is the only distributor. So, you’re in the right place.

It’s your turn now to make the right move.

My day would look totally differently without it. What about yours? What would you do if the grid went down? No terrorism, no war. Just no more power.

In modern war, you would die like a dog, for no good reason.

Hemingway said it. And he was not far from today’s reality.

We are already at war. We are at constant war. If not with another nation, then we are at war with something else. Since we’re fighting in 7 different countries in this very moment, would you be surprised to find out that the number of fanatics hating us grows exponentially?  

So then it is logic that we will be hit when we least expect it. And where we least expect it. For we are too busy planting our seeds of democracy someplace else, while our own country turns into a demo-crazy.  

Fighting terrorism with real weapons begins to sound a little outdated right? It’s like we discovered solar power but we continue to dig for coal. We could maybe end terrorism online if we really paid attention to how things evolve outside the US. Instead of financing useless wars trying to change people that maybe don’t want to change, maybe we should invest in new technologies. Cyber terrorism is the real threat.

When we used the military, they used some planes. When we used drones, they used busses and trucks. When we close the borders they use the internet.

This is not about Putin. Or the dictator in Syria. This is about the rage of the common radicals. And you should fear people who have nothing else to lose.

We fight them abroad. But they are already here. Remember where the 9/11 hijackers trained? On US soil. Remember what airplanes they used? American. Who’s grid is going down if they succeed? Ours. We are not the only ones taking advantage of technology..

And with the help of our own technology, what they’re planning now is going to destroy our infrastructure, our power supply, and the quality of our water. Imagine how easy would be to kill an entire city if you get access to the grid. And it’s all online now.. So everything that is connected won’t start anymore. Because a blackout interrupts more than the grid.

[See: What to do when there are no doctors around.]

Hard to imagine? You better. For time is running out for all of us.

War is something people used to engage in back in the days, when they didn’t know better. When they were still burning people for not believing in God. Did anything change? How come we ask for maturity and understanding and empathy when we have none?

Do you at least care for yourself and your family?

The time has come! This is not a drill.

Want to stay alive? You need to make an effort.

[ See: How to survive a blackout on your own.]

Truth is, a blackout could happen anyways.

Our grid is older than all of us. Remember the March Venezuelan blackouts? It was like living in the Apocalypse.  And it all started because of the Guri hydroelectric plant, which serves 70% of the country. So you do the math. Three major blackouts in one month. Venezuela was crumbling.

For days and nights, unruly crowds sacked 523 stores in Maracaibo as residents stood on their porches wielding weapons to guard against looters. Dozens died in hospitals. Bodies decomposed in the morgue. And what little food remained in refrigerators rotted away as the nation went hungry.

Should we even dare to imagine what if it was us? Are you ready for such a scenario?

Prepping is not about running to the store in the day disaster starts. On the contrary. Prepping is making sure we have a Plan B, C, etc.

Learn here how to become the household healer when a simple blackout disrupts your life.

There are always solutions for the ones who chose life. 

What are you going to do about it? How prepared are you? Let me know in the comments. We can only do this thing together.

Prepping is not about running to the store in the day disaster starts. On the contrary. Prepping is making sure we have a Plan B, C, etc.

As Final Preppers, we need to be ever resourceful, and growing our own food and making our own medicines certainly is part of that mindset. Here are some simple instructions in making two things – first, hard apple cider (cider with alcohol) and secondly, further fermenting the hard cider to make apple cider vinegar.

Making Hard Apple Cider

The first thing you need, naturally, are apples. Not just any apple will do, you will need apples that ripen in the fall or winter. These apples contain more sugar than summer and green apples, which don’t make good cider. In a pinch you can use any apples; you might just have to increase the sugar content of your ferment, more on this later. Let us begin:

  1. Gather up the fruit you need and wash it to remove any dirt and debris from the skins of the apples.
  2. Now, take the fruit and crush it into pulp, if you have an apple press it will be much easier.
  3. Drain off the juice from the pulp. If you don’t have an apple press, use cheesecloth to strain the juice and separate it from the pulp.

You can also make your hard cider from apple cider that you have bought. It can be from commercial ciders because they are usually pasteurized and this will ultimately affect the flavor.

There are two kinds of pasteurization, cold and hot.

Cold pasteurization is done with ultraviolet light to kill o the microorganisms and this is the preferred method because it impacts the flavor less than heat pasteurization.

At this point you have two choices.

You can put the juice in a large glass bottle and cover the top with a double layer of cheesecloth and secure it with a rubber band and place it in a dark, cool place for several months, the ideal temperature being around 60 degrees F. Natural wild yeasts in the air will enter the juice and start the fermentation process. Is slower than the second method of adding active yeast cultures to your juice.

Note: Bread yeasts are not good for this. You can use dry wine yeasts that work fine; these can be found online or from any home-brew store. Dry wine yeast packs are very inexpensive and work just as well as cider yeasts.

You can also make your own starter. This is your own active culture which you can add to lots of batches of cider. The formula for your own starter is:

  • First, pour out about one-fifth of your cider out of its bottle; you will need this room for fermentation.
  • Crumble one cake of cultivated yeast into the remaining one quart of cider.
  • Reseal the bottle and shake it vigorously for a few seconds and then reseal the bottle.
  • Within five or six hours you should start to see bubbling in the bottle; now fermentation has begun.
  • Once you see this, lift a corner of the bottle’s lid to release the pent up gases within the bottle and then reseal it and put it in the refrigerator.
  • To use it as a starter you will need to take it out of the refrigerator again and let it sit at room temperature for a few hours before you add it to your next batch of cider.

This will make enough starter for approximately five gallons of cider. Doing this step is optional, but I recommend doing it because if you have a bad batch of yeast then you have not ruined a large bottle of cider. You will know if it is a bad or dead batch of yeast because it will not begin the bubbling signifying that fermentation has begun.

Only use glass, ceramic, or stainless steel to make cider, do not use other metals or plastic which will react with the ferment and leach out toxins into the cider. The acid in the cider will also corrode most metals except stainless steel.

It is best to sanitize your container or vessel. This step is not critical but highly recommended or you could possible spoil your cider. Sanitizing your container is relatively easy; here is how I recommend it:

  1. Pour a cup of bleach into your vessel or container
  2. Fill it with cold water
  3. Swish it around
  4. Let it sit for about a half an hour
  5. Then pour it out and rinse thoroughly with cold, clean water.
  6. Repeat this process one or two more times to get any smell of bleach out of the container.

Now take your cider and add either your starter or directly add your yeast.

  • Stir the mix with either a plastic or stainless steel spoon for several minutes to mix it well and then seal the lid.
  • Place your container in a room, closet, or basement.
  • The ideal temperature for fermentation of cider is about 60 F, but anywhere from 60-75 degrees F will work.
  • If the room is too cold it will stop the fermentation and if it is too warm it will speed it up too much and will change the flavor.
  • The temperature is very important for proper fermentation and you should make every effort to keep it as close to 60 degrees F as you can; doing this correctly now will really pay off in the end.
  • Within a few days, you will see gas bubbling from the airlock. This is great news; that is carbon dioxide, a by-product of the fermentation process. We are now on our way to making some great cider.
  • This bubbling will subside after about two weeks, signaling the end of the first step or primary fermentation.
  • Now let the cider sit for a few more weeks to allow the yeast in it to settle out.
  • At this point, you can pour the cider off into smaller bottles or jugs that have been sanitized
  • Reseal them and allow them to sit for a week or two and then they will be ready to drink. When performing this step be careful not to slosh around the large container as this will raise the yeast sludge from its bottom and cloud up your cider. This is only cosmetic and does not affect the cider in any other way.
  • Keep in mind that your cider will most likely be “still”, meaning it is not fizzy.
  • However, if you let it sit for several months the fermentation will produce some fizz. Cider is like wine, it does improve with age.
  • The alcohol content of your cider can be raised by raising the amount of sugar that is in your cider for the yeast to ferment and change to alcohol.
  • To sweeten the cider, add either honey or brown sugar before you add the yeast or starter to it. This will raise the sugar content of the cider and once fermented will raise its alcohol content as well.

Now you have completed the first step in making hard cider. This step is also known as yeast fermentation for obvious reasons, and is done anaerobically or without oxygen. If you want to drink some of your cider, now is the time. Usually the alcohol content of most ciders is about twice that of beer, so enjoy yourself.

Making Apple Cider Vinegar

Now if you want to go on to make apple cider vinegar, this involves changing the alcohol of the cider to acetic acid of vinegar.

This step is known as “acetic acid fermentation” and is carried out by the acetobacter bacteria and unlike step one, this is done aerobically or in the presence of oxygen. The production of apple cider vinegar from apple cider involves two critical factors; temperature and oxygen content.

The temperature has to be as close to 60 F as you can get it and you have to stir your brew daily to introduce oxygen into the mix. Also covering the brew with cheesecloth will allow oxygen to enter.

The first step in the conversion of hard apple cider to apple cider vinegar is to pour off the cider into the containers you want to use to ferment your cider. These have to be sanitized as explained above. Only fill the containers about three-quarters of the way, and cover it with cheesecloth and keep it out of direct sunlight and as mentioned at as close to 60 F, but no warmer than 80 F. Take a large, stainless steel or plastic spoon and stir the contents daily to introduce oxygen into your mix.

Each time you are finished stirring, replace your cheesecloth cover. This will allow oxygen to continue to enter your mix and will allow the bubbling off of carbon dioxide from the fermentation. A mat of what is known as mother will develop at the bottom of your mix. This is harmless and is a natural part of the fermentation by the acetobacter bacteria.

Full fermentation will take about three to four weeks. As the vinegar is maturing, the mix will get a vinegar smell. This is from the acetic acid formed by its conversion from alcohol. The taste will mature over time. You should taste your mix periodically to see how far along you have reached.

When your vinegar is fully fermented you can filter it through either several layers of cheesecloth, or a plain coffee filter will work just fine. The filtering will remove the “mother of vinegar” or the cloudy sediment that has accumulated from the fermentation process. This does not have to be done and is only a matter of preference. Personally, I prefer the mother in my vinegar. However, if you choose to remove the mother this will prevent further fermentation and will prevent the vinegar from ultimately spoiling.

Another method to prevent spoilage and ensure indefinite storage of your vinegar is to pasteurize it. Pasteurization is done with heat and you have to do it at just the right temperature. This requires a minimum of 140 degrees F and a maximum of 160 degrees F. This will kill off the acetobacter bacteria and allow the vinegar to be stored indefinitely.

You do this by placing the bottle of vinegar in a large pan of water and bringing the water to the 140 to 160 F range as stated above. You should use a cooking thermometer to ensure the proper temperatures. As soon as this level is reached, remove your vinegar bottle from the pan of water and allow it to cool. Store it out of sunlight in a cool area at as close to 60 degrees F as you can. Remember, the vinegar reacts with its container and can only be stored in glass, ceramic, or stainless steel bottles.

Flavoring Your Vinegar

You can also flavor your vinegars if you like. This can be done with a variety of items including garlic, green onions, ginger, and various herbs. is will also boost the nutritional content and allow you to make some delicious vinegar that is also very nutritious.

Flavoring your vinegar with plant parts whose molecular size is too large to normally use in essential oils is not a problem, and they can easily be introduced into vinegar. The reason this can be done is because vinegar is being ingested, broken down and absorbed by your intestinal tract.

This will also allow you a method to introduce larger plant molecules that can be ingested and absorbed in the intestines that otherwise would be too large to cross the skin in an essential oil. To flavor a vinegar, suspend the vegetable or herb that you want in a small cheesecloth bag and leave it in the vinegar, usually for four days with the exception of garlic, which is only one day. Make every effort not to overload the vinegar, too much vegetable matter will ruin the acid and ruin the preservation of the vinegar and ultimately cause it to spoil.

A good rule of thumb is to mix as follows:

For every two cups of vinegar add the following for each flavor:

  • Fresh Herbs
  • use half a cup Dried herbs,
  • use one tablespoon Garlic,
  • use two large cloves Green onions, use eight small

What do you think? Still here with me? Would you surprised to find out this recipe comes from a book that has it all? Written by real doctor? His name is Ralph La Guardia. And the book is The Doomsday Book Of Medicine. And you can only find it here, at Final Prepper. Like, really.

I’m just saying.

You do the math.

Until next time, God Bless. And don’t forget to tell me when I’m right or wrong, good or bad…

As Final Preppers, we need to be ever resourceful, and growing our own food and making our own medicines certainly is part of that mindset. Here are some simple instructions

I never imagined that there’s anything better to start a fire than char cloth. Well, times have changed, and so have I. At least about the fire-starting bit.

Ever heard about steel wool? Yes, I know it sounds rather contradictory, but this thing which, by the way, our grandparents used to scrub clean all those pots and pans, is everything a prepper may expect to find when reading our articles.

Apart from the fact that steel wool goes up in flame like its gasoline or something, it has tons of other uses around the house and, of course, in survival-type situations.

Fascinated by this – I don’t know how to call it – a byproduct of the metalworking industry, I spend a couple of hours searching for ways preppers utilize this stuff. What can I say, other than the fact that I struck gold? So, without further ado, here are 6 ways to use steel wool in a shit hits the fan situation, both in and out of the house.

Prevent drain clogging

I’ve always hated the idea of playing repairmen around the house (at least in rooms that have nothing to do with the bedroom). You want to know why? Because everything can be avoided if everyone around the house would exercise a quint little thing called common-sense. Recently, I had to unclog the bathtub’s drain two times because my wife has this thing about washing the dogs more often than necessary.

Anyway, I found out that a great way to prevent these mishaps would be to put some still wool around the drain before taking a bath. That thing sucks up every lock of hair like it were a sponge or something. You should also try using it in your kitchen’s sink, especially if you don’t have a garbage disposer.

No more loose screws

You probably know how frustrating it can be to try and drive a screw through a piece of wood when the hole’s too big. Well, you can try your luck finding a screw to fit the hole (pun intended), or you can use this simple prepper’s trick – wrap some steel wool around the screw and give it one more twist. If you don’t have any, take rip a small piece from a match, and stick it in the hole.

No more mice around the house

If you’re having critter trouble, snoop around a bit to see where they’re coming from. Once you find the mouse hole, cover it with a big piece of steel wool. Don’t worry about the mouse chewing through it – never going to happen!

Keep things sharp

If you ever run out of sharpening stones (true story here), you can use a wad of steel wool to keep your tools in working conditions. Works great on knives, but steel wool really works wonders on blunt scissors. Just take a big piece and snip it a couple of times with your scissors. You’ll get that thing sharpened in no time.

No more critters in the exhaust pipes

Winter comes, many people allow their cars and motorcycles to take a breather until spring. Nothing odd about this. However, what about them critters which tend to crawl into the exhaust pipes and air intakes? Apart from the fact that you end up gassing them to death once you start the engine, the stuff they bring along with them can clog the exhaust, resulting in engine damage and, possible, carbon monoxide poisoning.

Plugging the exhaust is the most obvious. Still, you don’t need to buy something very expensive to get the job done. Take a wad of steel cloth and shove it inside the air intake and the exhaust. You can wrap a bright-colored cloth or take around the pipes which you’ve stuffed with steel wool to serve you as a reminder to take them up before using the car.

Make rusty tools shine again

While searching for some stuff around the attic, I stumbled upon a small toolbox with several rusty tools inside. Asked my dad about them, and apparently, they belonged to my grandfather. Seeing the state they were in made my heart bleed, which meant I had to do something about it. Luckily, I had a pack of steel wool in my garage which made my job a lot easier. If you have rusty tools, try giving them a good scrub with a wad of steel wool. Works like a charm.

Now, if you really want to restore them to their former glory, you can try this trick – fill a tub with Coca-Cola and put every rusty tool inside. Let them soak overnight. Early in the morning, take them out and use a towel or cloth to remove the excess liquid. After drying them, scrub them with steel wool. You won’t find shinier tools anywhere. By the way, this method works on chrome surface as well.

Remove persistent wood stains

I’ve never seen true Hell until my wife put her coffee mug on the small living room table I just bought. You know those rings on the bottom of the mug that usually form when the coffee goes over the edges? They never go away. And, no matter how hard you scrub that wood surface, you won’t be able to remove it.

Well, least I thought before using steel wool. Encouraged by the kickass results I had with restoring grandpa’s rusty tool, I attempted to apply the same method on the wood table. Wouldn’t you know it? It worked! I had my share of doubts about using something as abrasive as steel wool on a fine surface, but, apparently, it didn’t leave any scratches. If you’re having the same issues, try a wad of steel wool.


Well, that’s about it for my uses of steel wool around the house. Sorry for not writing a word or two about its fire-starting abilities, but it seemed like self-implied. Anyway, hope you liked my article. As always, for comments, additions, rants or all three of them, hit the comments section.

Apart from the fact that steel wool goes up in flame like its gasoline or something, it has tons of other uses around the house and, of course, in survival-type

How come today’s subject is money, when is Tools Day here, at Final Prepper? Well, simply because starting today, I want you all to refer to money as the tool that it is. Come on now, isn’t that the truth?

I mean, money, as an object, won’t make you happy. But what you can do with it, definitely will. Try and look at it from this new perspective, and things may change sooner than you think.

Cash reserves are as necessary to survive in our modern world as beans, bullets or band-aids.

Many survivalists prophesy that cash won’t be any good in a disaster. I try to stay out of the business of predicting the future. Instead, I just try find fragility and root it out. If the past is any guide, cash has been supremely useful in most disasters, so it’s high on my list of “must-have” emergency preparations.

I use the term ‘cash’ loosely in this article. Consider it to refer not only to banknotes, but to any form of wealth that is easily portable and widely valued. “Cash is King!” is a phrased used to emphasize the importance of maintaining sufficient cash reserves. Unfortunately, the term is most often used when analyzing business or personal financial failures and keeping enough cash on hand is as relevant to survivalists as it is to finance.

I should point out that I’m not recommending that you covert all your investments to cash and store it in your bugout bag. What I am recommending is simply that you not put all your eggs in one basket.

Cash Can be Held in Your Possession

Money in bank accounts or investments may be impossible to access without electricity or access to the internet. If storage media is irretrievably damaged, accurate and timely records could be lost. If you can’t get at your money, it won’t do you any good. Cash doesn’t have these drawbacks.

Cash is Portable

$100,000 in $100 bills is about the size of a large book. Needing to hide a lot of wealth in a small space is a good problem to have, as problems go. If you’re lucky enough to have this problem, you might consider 500 Euro banknotes, gold or similar forms of portable wealth.

Cash is Liquid

To spend precious metals, they must first be exchanged for cash at a bullion exchange. Accessing bank accounts or investments without electricity or the internet may be impossible.

Most people entrust nearly all their wealth to bank accounts, CDs and certain types of retirement accounts that are FDIC insured. For most types of accounts, this insurance has been reduced to a maximum of $100,000 per account, per bank and stocks, bonds, annuities, mutual funds and many other types of investments are not covered at all.

Unless you own your home outright, if you miss a payment, you set the eviction process in motion. If you live in an apartment, do not expect your landlord or the bank to take pity on you if the banking system goes down. With sufficient cash reserves, you can keep making payments if the banking system goes down.

Unfortunately, even if you own your home, you don’t really own your home. Miss a property tax payment and you set a process in motion that allows the government to sell your home to recoup the unpaid taxes.

One solution is to set cash aside cash to pay your rent, mortgage or property taxes in case you lose your source of income. When allowed, sometimes the better option is to prepay. Prepaying future expenses that you will almost certainly have to pay anyway also protects you in the event of hyperinflation, which could drive up the price of housing, but not if you have already prepaid.

When calculating how much cash you need on hand, consider mortgages, leases and zoning laws. You may be required to pay for power, gas, parking and other services to keep your residence, even if you don’t use those services or they are on again, off again. If sheltering in place is figures into your plans, you had better have cash reserves.

Major Disasters

In my line of work, I get to talk to a lot of survivors and a Hurricane Katrina survivor I spoke with was a good example of the need for cash in emergencies. His household was more prepared than most. In particular, he had a generator. Because his generator was the sole source of electricity for their family, and eventually for all the neighbors who could hear it running, he ended up running more than he planned. As time went by, gas usage increased, gas became harder to find and gas prices soared. When gas could be found, lines were long and vendors only accepted cash.

Since his generator ran on unleaded instead of propane, it cost upwards of $400/week to feed it. One week turned into two, and then two weeks turned into four, and they had not planned on an extra $1,600 per month above and beyond what they spent on hotel rooms and travel expenses to house family members who had evacuated, and nobody was getting paid. In serious disasters, money becomes very useful, while bank cards often become useless.

 

Stability to Face an Uncertain Future

With few exceptions, disasters and emergencies cannot be predicted. If we could predict them, they wouldn’t be emergencies. They’d just be one more thing to plan for, like a house payment or saving for college. Because we can’t predict them, emergencies seem to materialize out of the blue and our best plans often fall short. Cash reserves give you the time and resources to respond to volatility whether it takes the form of job loss, a large-scale disaster or some threat you haven’t even considered yet.

Deflation

Inflation and hyperinflation are not the only risks. In deflation, investments in the stock market lose value and banks go bust. Cash reserves ensure that you can weather the storm because, while investments like stocks and bonds will lose money, the value of cash will increase. This increase can help offset your losses if you possess enough cash.

Minor Emergencies

Small fires, medical emergencies, loss of employment, car accidents, robberies, vehicle theft, home invasions, vandalism, identity theft … these events result from the low order volatility that is life’s soundtrack. Lesser ups and downs happen all the time, so be ready for them.

Supply Your Own Credit

Cash in reserve means you do not need to use credit and do not miss payments, which means no interest, NSF charges, late fees or penalties. I have not used a credit card in almost fifteen years now. I also haven’t paid a dime of interest. People who understand interest collect it. Those who don’t, pay it.

Privacy

Privacy has become mighty expensive for a human right. The costs of separating your mailing address from your residence address, separating your name from your vehicle registration and license plates, buying burner phones and other privacy tools can really add up. Survivalists wanting to maintain personal, group or operations security would be well advised to save up a few thousand dollars in cash before attempting to drop off the radar because it can get expensive.

The first step to making yourself hard to find is to move and sell any vehicles. You’ll need a ghost address or two, mail forwarding, PO Boxes, some computer and phone hardware and you’ll probably have to set up a few LLC’s. You’ll also want to stop using credit. Each of these steps costs a little money up front, but not using credit is likely to save the average American more than they’ll spend on the whole shooting match.

Self-Recovery

Always carry money, even in the wilderness, because you’re not planning to stay there forever. When you do make your way back to civilization, you’ll need cash. Should you make it out of the wilderness under your own power, you can buy food and a drink and go to a hotel or go home. Otherwise, you’ll be a refugee or a victim staying in a shelter if you’re lucky.

Because self-recovery takes money, cash, local currency, gold coins and gold rings are sometimes issued to military personnel who operate in or fly over enemy territory. It’s cheaper and puts fewer lives at risk than a rescue mission.

 

Cash Makes it Possible to Invest

Investors play the long game. Without enough cash in reserve, you can be pressured to sell at the worst possible moment. Buying low and selling high is easier said than done when your investments tank and you do not have sufficient cash reserves to weather the storm. Without those cash reserves, you may be forced to sell low just to pay your bills.

Money is Multi-Use

Effective survival planning and equipment must be versatile, adaptable and multi-use and few pieces of survival equipment are as multi-use as money. Properly used, it is hard to equal the utility of cash anyplace you deal with other people.

Although operatives do not normally carry firearms on foreign soil, they do carry money. They can lay hands on firearms, when necessary, but carrying a firearm in a foreign country can create more problems than it solves. They don’t just dole out money to make people like them, but it’s easier to like someone who is generous, and pays their own way. Keeping commitments, especially financial commitments, is the key to building relationships of trust.

Don’t Put All Your Eggs in the Same Basket

How often do monetary systems collapse? It depends what part of the world you live in, but even in most of Africa and South America, most people still do business in the local currency most of the time.

I do not advocate keeping all your assets in cash. That would be putting all your eggs in one basket. I don’t advocate putting all of your money in the bank. The safest strategy is to diversify. Leave some money in the bank, invest some, put some in precious metals, put some in local currency and some in a stable foreign currency. Invest some in hard assets like food storage and other survival stores. Just don’t store them all under the same roof.

If someone tells you to put all your money into any one place, I would view that advice with a healthy dose of suspicion.

Detachment

It may be because you house is on fire or due to some other disaster or due to a threat to your security, but independent of the “why”, some day you may need to walk out the door and never come back. If that day ever comes, having sufficient cash reserves tucked away gives you the option to walk away.

Survival Uses for Cash

  • Use a pay phone – Cell towers are often overloaded during emergencies but pay phones use land lines, which are a completely different system that sees comparatively less use due to the popularity of cell phones. Carry lists of pay phones for areas where you spend time.
  • Transportation – Use cash to take a taxi or a bus if they are functioning.
  • Social Engineering – Getting people to do what you want is easier when you have money to obtain needed resources.
  • Communicate without being Tracked – Use cash to buy a burner phone and an airtime card.
  • Air up a tire – Every driver has needed to air up a tire at some point and only been able to find places that require quarters.
  • Pay for internet access at an internet café – Believe it or not, there are still airports without WiFi. I found one while I was in a rush to buy a ticket online so I wouldn’t have to pay an arm and a leg.
  • Rent a Room – It’s harder to make money when you are living out of a backpack in a campsite and chances are that you’ll need to make some money at some point.
  • Last Minute Purchases – There are some things that may be difficult to stock up on, like certain prescription medications. Even the most prepared of folks might benefit from a few “last minute purchases.”
  • Last Minute Purchases – Some things are tough to stock up on, such as prescription medications. Even the most prepared of folks would probably benefit from a few “last minute purchases” when disaster strikes.
  • Car Parts or Repairs – Finding parts or repairs can be difficult off the beaten path. I have run into folks on backroads trying to bargain combinations of cash and property for a full-size spare tire or something else they needed. Most of the time, they end up having to offer a whole lot more in even a partial barter than they would have in cash, so be sure to bring enough cash that don’t wind up trying to scalp deer tags on the side of the road due to a blowout.

How to Start Saving Cash

I did this and am a much happier person for it. Give it a try and you’ll get out of debt and have more discretionary income to invest in becoming more self-reliant.

  • Visualize Why it’s Important to Save Cash – Before you start, visualize your reasons for wanting to do this. People think they fail due to lack of willpower, but that’s not why they fail. They fail because they don’t sufficiently commit themselves to their cause. One your vision changes, your attitudes and behaviors will naturally fall in line because they are functions of vision.
  • Save Enough to Pay Your Expenses for a Month – Have a month’s expenses on hand gives you 30-days to create a plan and then act on it. Once you have a month of reserves on hand, then go for two, then three and so on.
  • Stop Using Credit – When I was a young man, if I wanted something, I had to set to work and save up enough money to buy it. Today, credit offers a quick fix, enabling young people right out of college to buy everything their parents accumulated over a lifetime of hard work. The truth is that they don’t need it, they just want it. They swipe their plastic and start making payments, much of which is interest. The solution is to stop using credit.

Not using saves big money in interest and pays dividends in increased privacy. You can even pre-pay rent. When you prepay, you aren’t asking the vendor, bank or landlord to loan you money, so there is a whole lot less paperwork, which protects your privacy. So, pay cash.

The other side of not using credit is to stop buying things you don’t really need. Most people pay for all sorts of things they don’t really need. If you’re in debt, cut out everything you don’t absolutely need and use debt stacking to get out of debt. That means no cable TV, no new clothes, cancel all your subscriptions, cut deep. In the end, Diversify Your Cash Reserves – If all the cash you have on hand is in US bank notes, you could be hard hit if the dollar loses much of its value. Splitting those reserves between more than one currency and precious metals ensures that you won’t lose everything if the dollar takes a hit.


If Cache Valley Prepper’s Article is not enough, here are two different ways of making the extra money we all need in order to prep like there IS tomorrow. First comes from #1 Best-Selling Author Zach Scheidt who shows you 47 life-changing income “tricks”. And the second teaches you how to understand the government-issued Social Security handbook. In case you didn’t know, this is a whopping 835 pages. Inside, there is some info that could work in your favour, money wise. And even if you do find it, it is confusing… loaded with big words… and saddled with bureaucracy. Get here the done-for-you help you need to make it worth your while and your money.

Starting today, I want you all to refer to money as the tool that it is. Come on now, isn't that the truth? Is not money making us happy, but all

Sometimes in the preparedness folds, we really get wrapped around axles. We have so much that we’re learning and trying to do, and we’re regularly doing it on a budget – which is just one more thing that circles around our heads and beats us up.

We can limit some of the pains of preparedness by changing how we look at things, but also how we do things. Gardening and larger-scale growing is routinely on our to-do list. It’s something that’s going to come as a shock for those who don’t practice ahead of time, no matter how many tricks get applied. However, we can save some time and stress on our bodies with a few low-cost and low-skill tricks and tools, and see increased yields. Bigger yields means lower dinner costs and potentially some increased food storage, letting us expand our preparedness in other ways.

Here are a handful of quickie, usually highly inexpensive – easy garden hacks to save time, money and labor. As you read them, don’t forget: paper products are compostable.

Mulch

Mulch makes life easier.

In some forms of mulch gardening, the mulch stays right there year-round. Some styles use a mulch that in hot, damp climates rots enough during the off-season and is tilled in that winter or early in spring. In others, we scoot aside just enough to drop seeds or transplants in during succession plantings, add amendments like cured manure or compost or pH-raising pine by raking it just into or over the surface, and add mulch more slowly.

Mulch can be straw or wood chips, lightly soiled animal litter, mown or whole leaves, the tips of branches we’re pruning, or shredded white paper. Shredded paper will settle into a mat that makes it tough for weeds, but “loose” mulch routinely does better with a weed suppression barrier down first.

We can use newsprint, cardboard, or phone book pages as a weed suppressor and to keep small plants free of dirt kicked up by rain. We won’t get the same moisture-holding and soil aeration improvements, we will still have to weed some, especially if we already have beds that are weed prone, but it lessens our time spent sitting or crouched and bent over.

Mulch lessens the pains of gardening. We don’t weed as much, our plants do better, and we don’t have to water as much.

Plastic bottles

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Sub-irrigated planters for buckets and storage tubs and conventional planters can be made using bottles for the tubes instead of aquarium or garden hoses or PVC.

We don’t store water or foods in milk jugs because they’re porous and can leach previous content out slowly, but they have their place among soda and juice bottles in the garden.

Various bottles can be used to make mini-greenhouses, cloches, scoops, and seed spreaders, as well as mouse and rat traps (2Ls can work for small squirrels and chipmunks, too, or slow them down enough for the garden terriers to get there). They’re great for vertical strawberry and herb and lettuce towers. We can use them to keep cord from tangling, and punch various holes to use for spreading amendments and treatments. Whack them in half, use sourdough starter and water or beer, and they catch horrific numbers of slugs.

For time savers and back savers, though, bottles really excel at helping us water.

Sub-irrigated planters for buckets and storage tubs and conventional planters can be made using bottles for the tubes instead of aquarium or garden hoses or PVC.

Whether we grow in raised beds or tilled rows, mulched beds or lasagna beds, we can use bottles as a spin on irrigation, too. We can drill holes all over, bury it near our plants, and use a hose to fill it quickly.

A similar version plants the bottle cap-down, with holes drilled in the cap and the sloping neck, and the inverted bottom cut entirely or with just enough remaining to make a flap. Those are even easier and faster to fill, with less aim needed.

The water from those will then sink out slowly, watering deep at the roots and watering our plants, not the weeds or walkways. Less water is lost to evaporation, and we don’t have to deal with timers or hose connections, or PVC to avoid standing out there forever to slowly sink in water. We pour it in, fill it up, and move to the next. If it’s really hot and dry, we might need to repeat, but it’s a low-tech, low-expense way to work faster than standing there with a hose or moving hoses back and forth so we can mow.

Maybe that means less time on our feet overall, or maybe that lets us progress to our weeding and suckering or the next round of planting.

Seeding time – The Dibble

A dibble is basically just something that makes a hole for us. Usually, it’s a somewhat shallow hole and it’s usually intended for seeds but we can work with that. There are two general types, rolling or boards, although with leek dibbles (which work with any transplant), you walk around with a rake or double-handle tool poking your holes. Boards are typically set up with dowels that will poke holes, or come as cutouts and we use something to poke holes to our desired depths. Rolling dibbles tend to be drum or wheel style.

drum-or-rolling-dibbler-and-dibble-board-www_ncat_org

There are two general types, rolling or boards.

Plans are out there for dibblers that can run from almost nothing if you salvage parts or make minis out of coffee cans and 12” PVC or make a single, double- or triple row dibble wheel out of bikes from Craigslist. Drum styles can cost as much as $100-200 to make at home if you’re inclined to go that route instead. Some of the really fancy board dibblers even get marked in colors so one board can be used for spacings from 1” to 6”.

In no-till schemes where you drag a pointed hoe to clear a spot for seeds, dibble wheels tend to be handy. In tall raised beds and window boxes or trays, a board dibbler may be more beneficial.

Using dibbles at whatever scale we choose to lets us quickly mark the space for seeds and transplants. Even if we have to go back with a post hole digger for some of those transplants, time spent upright instead of crouched tends to make for happier backs.

Seeding time – Furrowing rake

A furrowing rake is the simple DIY result of adding tight, relatively stiff hose or PVC to an ordinary hay or garden rake, and using it to drag lines along a prepared bed. It’s typically done so that the extensions are movable, letting us go as tight as the 1-1.5” gaps of the rake tines out to the full 1-2’ width of that rake.

We can get as complex as we like, adding marker lines to tell us how deep we’re aiming, or using multiple depths so we can plant cutting salad greens in the shallowest grooves and have deeper grooves for our peas. We can drag it both down and across a bed to create a grid, with seeds going at the cross points.

rake-with-hose-for-seed-spacing-1-themarthablog-dot-com

A furrowing rake is the simple DIY result of adding tight, relatively stiff hose or PVC to an ordinary hay or garden rake, and using it to drag lines along a prepared bed.

Taking a few minutes to prep some moveable rods or pipes and lay out our grid – while standing – limits how much measuring we do while we’re bent or crouched, saving time and pain with a very quick and low-cost trick.

Seeding tubes or pipes

Dibbles and furrowing aren’t the only way to limit how much time we spend crouched over during seeding time. Even a congestion-planting scheme that calls for under-seeding doesn’t have to be done from a stool or our knees.

All you really need is a pipe smooth enough for seeds to roll through cleanly and sturdy enough to stand up straight.

If you want to work with tiny seeds as well as larger ones, maybe you lay on skinnier aquarium tubing to attach to a tool handle or yardstick (with rubber bands, even), and make yourself a pasteboard, tin-can or paper funnel and tape it in place. Use the back-end of a teaspoon or the little measuring spoon from somebody’s aquarium chemicals to fish out 2-5 seeds at a time.

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Seed tapes and mats

If we’re not digging the various seeding tubes, we can also use our rainy days or blistering hot days to make seed tapes out of strips of paper, or larger seed mats out of unfolded paper napkins and paper towels. We don’t have to mix up some kind of funky glue like with some of the DIY-ers show. The toothpick dab of white Elmer’s the first site shows is water-soluble and works just fine.

When we’re ready to plant, we just zoom along exposing our soil or following her mix, lay out our mats, and cover them again. We can work in fair-sized lengths that we roll up around an empty tube and then just nudge along using a broom or hoe, or use a square or two at a time that lets us stagger our planting for a staggered harvest or interspersed companion flowers.

Seed mats and strips can also be made out of a single thickness of newspaper pages for larger seeds like peas and beans as well, although we’ll want to make a small 1/8” slit or poke a pencil-tip hole through to give our seeds a head start on busting through the heavier paper.

Since we’re planting 3-6” or as much as 8-12” apart in those cases, whether we do rows or congestion beds, working with a larger paper size makes sense. The newspaper sheet will decay over the season, but being thicker, it does offer a nice head start for our seeds over the weed seeds that may be lurking below. Being thicker, it also does better if the seed gets that head start of a slit.

No more removing gloves. No more exposing seed packets to dirt and moisture, or unfolding and refolding and sticking them in a pocket as we try to keep track of where exactly the tiny black seeds landed in our bed. And since they’re evenly spaced instead of scattered in lines and areas, it’s minutely easier to tell which tiny baby dicot we should be plucking when the weeds start – at least we can work quickly in some of the gaps.

In the garden – Avoid the crouch-ouch

So why the focus on things that improve soils without hauling lots of bales, limiting all the bending, limiting the bending and time we spend watering (or pumping water), collecting trash to make all kinds of weird contraptions in the garden?

Especially for seniors and those with nagging pains and injuries, the ability to work standing upright or from a chair without leaning over or reaching far can not only increase the joy of gardening, but in some cases go as far as making gardening possible again.

Arthritic hands, shaking from an injury or age, and loss of full motor function from an accident can make it frustrating and painful even to fetch out and drop a lima or pea, let alone broccoli and spinach, and unless they’re willing to just punch some holes in a baggy and shake, just forget about iceberg and romaine and strawberry spinach.

The ability to work slowly over winter or summer to prepare for spring and autumn leaf and root crops, the ability to use a tube and funnel, then shake or scoop seeds using something they can actually grip is enormous.

Reexamine how you garden

Even for those in good health or who just like to be out there, some simple and inexpensive DIY projects and some trash collection and reuse can save a lot of time.

That might make a difference in garden size now, while we’re working and balancing families. It will definitely make a difference later, when we’re depending on those gardens to feed us or add a little forkability and crunch to our starvation-staving diet.

Saving backs and creating easy-to-use tools can also let us involve our parents and kids a little more in some cases, giving them independence and sharing the satisfaction that comes from a meal we procured for ourselves. There’s little better in life than seeing that pride returned to your parents and grandparents, or watching it bloom in your children.

It also sucks to fail, especially when we have a lot of time invested in something.

Water reservoirs, reduced weed competition, proper seeding coverage, and workload-friendly seeding methods can help increase our rate of success, which encourages us to do it again.

Saving backs and creating easy-to-use tools can also let us involve our parents and kids a little more in some cases, giving them independence.

I will start by complaining, since it’s Monday. Whenever I talk about a solution to our financial problems, some of you ask me what’s prepping got to do with learning how to make an extra buck. Are you for real? Do you really think the rich don’t prepare for what’s to come? The only difference is the money you invest in it. While we are able (and forced) to build a root cellar for as little as $400 bucks, the people who can afford it, are building entire mansions underground.

The only thing we have in common with the 1% is the fact that they are also aware the future is not so bright. Not for all of us, anyway. You don’t believe in global warming? It’s ok, something else will get you – the national economic collapse. So maybe now you understand why, from time to time, I want you to also consider our financial products.

With all that is being written about the national economic collapse, people seem to be waiting for some huge event. I don’t want you to wait until it’s too late. And isn’t that the whole purpose of prepping? To be prepared? So please remember that next time you’re on Final Prepper – we are here to help each other. Because it looks like no one else will.

For many people who were formerly financially comfortable, the economic collapse has already happened, in the form of a job loss, hours that have been cut back due to new requirements for employers, an exorbitant medical bill or other crushing debt, or simply an inflation rate that has outstripped your pay increases.  Despite all of the warnings, many people are still going to be absolutely blindsided. Today, it is still a choice to survive the coming crisis. There are always solutions. You just need to broaden your perspective.

Otherwise, we’ll soon be left to make terrible choices:

  • Which utility can I live without?
  • Should I walk away from my mortgage?
  • Should I eat something so I can work harder or should I skip meals so my kids have food?
  • Should I use the grocery money to take my child to the doctor or should I wait and hope he/she improves without medical intervention?
  • Do I risk the IRS-enforced penalties or should I skip that whole grocery shopping thing so I can pay the monthly premiums and enormous deductibles in order to stay in the government’s good graces?

These are the kind of decisions that people across the nation are grappling with every day.

I’m talking about good people, hardworking men and women who have always been employed and paid their bills. A personal financial crisis does not just strike those stereotypical “welfare queens” with the long manicured nails, Gucci knock-off purse, and a grocery cart full of EBT-funded lobster.

I’m talking about the person next door, who seems to have it all together. I’m talking about that quiet family that sits two rows in front of you at church. I’m talking about that two-income family with two children and a car in the driveway that takes them to work and school 5 days a week. I’m talking about people just like you and me.

What is a personal economic collapse?

A personal economic collapse is a little different than the major crises you see all over Europe right now, where huge segments of the population can’t feed their children or stay employed. It is a crisis that just hits your family due to a given set of circumstances.  (In actuality North Americans are on the brink of the kind of collapse that is occurring in Europe, but because of easy access to credit and a buy-now, pay-later society, many of us still have the appearance of prosperity.)

Here are some signs that you may be in the midst of a personal economic collapse:

  • You can only afford to pay the minimum payment on most of your bills.
  • The same dollar amount you used to spend on groceries doesn’t buy enough food to feed your family for the week.
  • You can’t afford to go to the doctor when you’re sick.
  • You are taking dangerous steps to “stretch” needed medications because you can’t afford the prescriptions.
  • Your utility bills are past due and your power is in danger of being cut off.
  • You skip meals in order to save money or to have enough food for your kids.
  • You’ve lost your job or had your hours cut.
  • You have lost property due to foreclosure or repossession (such as your home or your vehicle).

Surviving the crisis

Times are tough but you can survive this.

1.) First you have to see exactly where you are.

It’s time for a brutally honest assessment of your finances.  If you use your debit card or credit card for most expenditures, you’ll easily be able to see what you’re spending and bringing in.

Print off your bank account statements for the past 2 months.  On a piece of paper, track where your money is going.  List the following:

  • Rent/Mortgage
  • Utilities
  • Car payments
  • Vehicle operating expenses (fuel, repairs)
  • Insurances
  • Credit card and other debt payments
  • Telephone/Cell phone
  • Cable/Satellite
  • Internet
  • Extracurricular activities for the kids
  • Extracurricular activities for the adults
  • Dining out
  • Groceries
  • School expenses
  • Clothing
  • Recreational spending
  • Gifts
  • Miscellaneous (anything that doesn’t fall into the above categories gets it’s own category or goes here)

Don’t say to yourself, “Well, I usually don’t spend $400 on clothing so that isn’t realistic.”  If you spent it, then it’s realistic.  You are averaging together two months, which should account for those less common expenses.  Brutal honesty isn’t fun, but it’s vital for this exercise.

So….what do you see when you look at your piece of paper with your average monthly expenditures for the past two months?  Are there any surprises?  Did you actually realize how much you’ve been spending?   Most of us will immediately see places that we can trim the budget.  Those $1-$5 purchases can really add up.  Reining them in may just allow you to take care of an important need that you thought you could not meet.

It can’t continue like this.  The economy will not withstand it.  Step one is to see where you can cut things out right now from the above expenditures.  Can you reduce your grocery bill?  Slash meals out?  Budget more carefully for gift-giving and school clothes?

2.) Rethink necessities.

If your finances are out of control, the best possible reality check is a stark look at what necessities really are.  It is not necessary to life to have an iPhone, a vehicle in both stalls of your two-car garage, or for your children to all have separate bedrooms.  People in Southern and Eastern Europe right now will tell you, as they scramble for food, basic over the counter medications like aspirin, and shelter, that necessities are those things essential to life:

  • Water
  • Food (and the ability to cook it)
  • Medicine and medical supplies
  • Basic hygiene supplies
  • Shelter (including sanitation, lights, heat)
  • Simple tools
  • Seeds
  • Defense Items

Absolutely everything above those basic necessities is a luxury.

So, by this definition, what luxuries do you have?

3.) Reduce your monthly output

Reduce your monthly payments by cutting frivolous expenses. Look at every single monthly payment that comes out of your bank account and slash relentlessly.  Consider cutting the following:

  • Cable
  • Cell phones
  • Home phones
  • Gym memberships
  • Restaurant meals
  • Unnecessary driving
  • Entertainment such as trips to the movies, the skating rink, or the mall

4.) Waste not, want not.

We live in a disposable society.  Food comes in throw-away containers.  People replace things instead of repairing them.  If you throw out more than a couple of bags of garbage each week, that’s a very good sign that you may be wasting resources.

Before throwing anything away, pause and think about how it might be able to be reused.

  • Food

Many times small amounts of leftovers can be recycled into a brand new meal. Meat bones can be used to make broth or stock.  Small amounts of veggies or grains can be frozen and added to a future soup or casserole. Leftovers can be frozen in meal-sized portions to take to work for a brown-bag lunch.

  • Clothing

Clothing that is torn or damaged can often be repaired with only rudimentary sewing skills. If it has been outgrown or cannot be repaired, often the fabric or yarn can be reused for other purposes, from cleaning rags to fashionable accessories like scarves and headbands, or home items like throw pillows, potholders or rag rugs.  When all else fails, the fabric can be used for cleaning rags or patches to repair other items. Keep jars full of buttons, elastic, and other notions that can easily be removed before you throw  a clothing item away or relegate it to the rag bag.

  • Electronics

Obviously, initially you should attempt to repair (or have repaired) electronic items that are not working. If this is not feasible, are there components of the item that can be reused, either now or in the future? What about hardware such as screws or fasteners?

  • Containers

Most food comes in a container of some sort.  Before throwing the container away, consider whether or not it might be useful. Glass jars, plastic tubs, and plastic bags can often be reused to store food in your refrigerator or to contain food in brown bag lunches.  Clean aluminum cans can hold all manner of items, from hardware and tools in a workshop to sewing and craft supplies. Use your imagination.

5.) Take control of your food budget.

The price of food is skyrocketing.  Who hasn’t been to the grocery store recently and been shocked at the high price of that cart full of groceries or at the mysterious shrinking food packages that are the same price as yesterday’s larger ones?

  • Stockpile:  Create a stockpile of nutritious, healthy staples at today’s prices to enjoy when the cost goes even higher tomorrow.
  • Preserve: Learn to preserve food yourself when you come across a windfall.  Pressure canning, water-bath canning, freezing, and dehydrating can allow you to take advantage of great sales or end-of-season scores.
  • Eat less:  This suggestion isn’t for everyone, but many of us could stand to shed a few pounds.  Perhaps now would be a good time to cut back a little and shrink both your waistline and your weekly food bill.  Lots of people eat for the sheer entertainment of it or out of habit.  Next time you’re watching TV, grab some mending or a crossword puzzle instead of a bag of potato chips. Dish out slightly smaller servings at dinnertime to leave enough to stretch the leftovers for a brown bag meal the next day.
  • Drink water:  Skip the beverages and drink water instead. At less than $1 per gallon for purchased water you simply can’t beat the price.  It’s better for you, also, than sugar-y drinks.  If you are lucky enough to have well water or access to spring water, your drinks don’t have to cost you a penny.
  • Focus on nutrition instead of convenience:  Buy the best quality of food you can,  and skip the processed, nutritionless convenience foods.
  • Grow your own.  In the summer, grow the biggest garden you can. In the winter, or if you are an apartment dweller, put some sprouts and greens in a sunny windowsill to add some fresh produce for pennies.

6.) Reduce your dependence on utilities.

Energy rates are skyrocketing. As the prices begin to rise, more and more people will be unable to pay their bills and eventually their power will be shut off.  Check your bill each month and as prices increase, use less power. Try some of these ideas to reduce your reliance and drop your bills.

  • Hand wash your clothing
  • Hang clothes to dry
  • Cook on a wood stove or outdoor grill
  • Can foods to preserve them instead of relying on a large chest freezer
  • Turn the heat down a few degrees and use non-grid methods to keep warm
  • Use rain barrels to collect water
  • Direct the gray water from your washing machines to reservoirs
  • Turn off the lights and open the blinds
  • Use solar lighting whenever possible

How do you intend to weather the storm?

There are bleak days ahead.  Have you planned for this?  What strategies do you intend to use to weather the financial crisis that is coming for all of us?  What suggestions do you have for families who are undergoing their own economic collapses? Please post questions and ideas in the comments section below.

P.S. – You can also check these 47 life-changing income “tricks”.


Part of this article is by guest contributor Daisy Luther.

I don't want you to wait until it's too late. And isn’t that the whole purpose of prepping? To be prepared? So please remember that next time you're surfing Final