it takes extra money to be able to stock pile like that. We don't have extra money. We barely make due with the $200 per month food budget we have now.
I like this post very much and it does have very good points.
However, if you are in a certain field with nearly unlimited specialties, say Tech. How do you narrow it down?
I think that question may be harder to answer than saying, you need to specialize.
Can't say much changed for me in the bit of life I've lived "debt free." (I have student loans, which are debt, but I'm still in school... And until a few months ago when I got a new itty bitty car loan, I had no debt to make payments on.) Sure, I had at least $300 "extra" that no longer went to loan payments, but it quickly got eaten up by other things that were only too eager to get a bit more. (Namely trying to give my husband the same spending power I had.)
However, even though I don't really have a debt problem, I still enjoy reading stories about people who have overcome it. I realize that, someday, I won't have a pile of student loans to think about, and I might have a car loan on something else because it makes more sense to me that way in that particular situation. Debt is a nice tool, until it becomes the leverage for our entire lives.
My only "dream budget" includes me graduating from school and getting an "adult job!" :P And then, life without student loans and all that jazz.
Bit crazy if you ask me... Sure, it might be a good idea to some, but two to five years? Surely that's just way excessive?? I mean, maybe a month or two, depending on family size, types of imminent disasters, etc I can see. Anything else and you're kinda leaning towards apocalyptic delusion...
I mean, I can hardly keep a couple of weeks' worth of appetizing food around. I can't imagine any more food laying around this house!
I have a reasonably good stock of food for the family. There are toiletries around and sufficient cleaning goods as well. I found that the more important thing to do is learn new to me skills. I have learned to can. I can sew and crochet. I am pretty good at gardening and I am working on bread baking from scratch.
Slowly I am working on self sufficiency. I like the fact that I can make more food for my family and not buy a lot of pre-prepared it gives me the good feeling that maybe I am not feeding so many preservatives.
My husband took me to meet one of his firends and we get along real well and he told us about a few thing that no one thinks of and now we are all on the same page and every week we give him at least 25 dollars and he goes and get stuff that has a long shelf life and we stock pile all kind of food so far i think he has a total of 3 or 4 months of food stred away the next thing is we are working on getting thing to have a huge garden at his house as i had my mother in law teach me how to pressure cook food and now i can do it by my self so when the time comes i will be able to do it with out any problem and i help my in laws with there garden every year i think it was last year we canned over 50 cans of green beas and then we had to bag like 20 as we ran out of jar
I first learned about bulk buying as a frugal tip from the Tightwad Gazette years ago. Whenever something we use regularly goes on sale, I buy as much as I can, up to dozen. So whenever I make spaghetti, sloppy joes, noodles or rice, I am always serving a very low-cost meal. I buy meat in larger packaged quantities when it is on sale and freeze it in portions we would cook for individual meals, such as three pork chops to a freezer bag. By combining this with a flexible monthly menu, we eat pretty inexpensively. If something is always on sale that I use only on occasion (such as $1 cake mix), I no longer stock up on it. If something is always on sale that I use frequently ($1 brownie mix) I keep about a half dozen on hand and replenish as needed.
With SoCal on fire seemingly everyday these past few years, it's been important to stock up on canned, dried, and boxed food. More importantly has been keeping large portable jugs of water in case we have to throw everything into the car and take off for safety. Keeping a backpack full of supplies has been a key to success.
I normally "save" because the food that I have in my house isn't what I'm craving at the moment so I go buy something different, leaving me with way more food stocked in my pantry. Not always a good thing. Gets a bit expensive after a while.
@Craig - You hit the nail on the head with the concept of building a brand. That's exactly what we do when we specialize! Thanks.
@Kevin - Good point about getting pigeon-holed with a market that eventually finds your product passe. It is good to test drive target markets if possible first. See what works, and try to be timeless!
@antor - You said it; dedication and hard work abound with your own business.
I just got $25 certificates for $1. each. Coupon code NINETY
I used paypal and didn't see anything about signing up for Shopping Essentials or another company. Not sure if that's different if you're using a CC v.s. Paypal. (anyone know?)
Anyhow, I don't know how long the NINETY discount is available for but if this works out well I may go back and get some new ones for some of the other restaurants listed. :)
Thanks for all the feedback here. I was concerned about a scam so I'm glad I found a site w/ some info on it all.
would love to have more, but the apartment has limited storage space. i buy grains when they are on sale and try to keep some basic beans and veggies in the pantry, too. i'm with the amazon grocery shopper above - buying in bulk and saving money = win/win.
Interesting post. I never considered looking for a job in China. Very cool suggestion, and interesting information to boot!
One additional consideration: You may want to think about relocating cost. If you hope to keep any of your posessions, that would be expensive shipping. Moreover, a plane ticket is pretty expensive if you're traveling overseas. That said, new college graduates don't have that many posessions anyway, so the ticket might be the only relevant factor there.
FYI: I accepted this article to the second Carnival of Economic Fun. It will appear on Wednesday, September 16. Thanks for submitting.
Just IT has hit it on the money: we could tell people to do a million other things to make their PCs faster, but are they really going to do them? SHould they even try?
THe article was meant to provide a nice, quick, easy method of boosting performance on their PCs with minimal technical expertise.
Like most any other field of business, if you want to excel in your craft you need knowledge. You get certified to become a teacher, a mechanic, an architect. Why not a mystery shopper? You would be surprised to see how many people can't pass a "common sense" exam. I have an example that just happened to me this week.
I have be a MS for 5 years. I accepted a few bank jobs and was supposed to do an inquiry for Business Checking. I didn't read the guidelines, as common sense would dictate and now I have to redo them over. I have been doing Personal Banking for a month and "assumed" it was the same.
I personally am not certified, but I don't see a problem with the MSPA charging a fee. It's just another business expense for my taxes.
Food storage is just one part of provident living (see http://www.providentliving.org). Here in Utah I am surrounded by neighbors who have food storage and are prepared for emergencies. We are helped by having Home Storage Centers (see http://www.rickety.us/2008/08/our-home-storage-center) that are also open to non-Mormons. They are located throughout the United States.
Your blog does a great service in generating interest in preparedness.
I have been slowly building a backstock of grocery supplies and other items for the last several months as finances will allow. I am stocking up on foods that will last a long time (rice, beans, etc.), as well as some shorter term foods that we enjoy (such as cookies and crackers). I have also started canning, dehydrating, and trying, not very successfully, to garden. My goal is to eventually have at least a 6-12 months supply of food for us. I also plan to get laying hens soon.
I live along the southeast coast (hurricane zone), so we have always kept emergency supplies during hurricane season. However, with the state of the world these days, I feel absolutely compelled to stock much more and to try be prepared for anything.
I am surprised at reading the comments how many people do not take preparing for emergencies more seriously. Our national grain stock is now kept at lowest levels per person ever, grocery stores operate with "just in time" shipping and will run out quickly, our food supply is in danger from drought & other weather events, shipping breakdowns, hybid seeds (totally another discussion), animal diseases, and the list could go on.
I have worked as a post-disaster responder for many years, and have seen heart-wrenching situations where people did not have food, water, clothes, hygiene necessities, or even food & milk for the baby after a disaster. There were times I've had to share my own resources (I've learned to take extra along with me on the road by now), or go find people help, or tell them where to go to get a meal or supplies, or help them communicate with others, etc. Do you want to be that person relying on someone else's good heart to help you out? (That being said, thank God there are still some good people in this world that are willing to help.)
Have supplies stocked in both your home & in your car. If you're short on space, stock them under your bed, behind or under your couch, in your closet, wherever you can stick them. A "go bag" in your car for quick getaways is essential. Don't forget the toilet paper (as mentioned above), hygiene items (include baby wipes, great for adults too, and hand sanitizer), a few changes of clothes, necessary items for baby, something for kids' entertainment, pet food (starving animals thrown out to fend for themselves are not a pretty sight), any special items for the elderly in your family (throw in a few cans of Ensure as well), essential medicines, contacts or glasses, and food & water.
Have your important papers ready to pick up and go if need be, as well as some cash (put some away in the house & in your go bag in the car & don't touch it for anything else).
One of the MOST important things in emergencies or disasters is preparing your mind *beforehand*. Instead of being one of the masses who are freaking out (for lack of a better term) and are non-functional because they are in shock, you will have already walked through various scenarios in your mind and prepared yourself. You will know how you will respond to a given disaster & you'll be ready to take care of yourself/your family, as well as help others when you can. Know what you have on hand, know what you are lacking, know what you can spare to share with others, and have some plans...plan A, plan B, etc. If you stay in your home, how long will your supplies last? Do you have people that you can trade with? How will you warm yourself & cook? What about water? What about light to see by? How will you get news? If you have to leave, where will you go? What route will you take to get there? How will you communicate with your loved ones? A preplanned map of your evacuation route in the car is also a good idea. If you have children, according to their age, think how best to prepare their mind and share some of your plans with them. I could go on, but you get the picture.
Planning for yourself or your family could get much more involved, but these are the essentials. Encourage others that you know to be prepared as well. After a disaster/emergency, supplies get tight very fast, then they are gone.
You and your family's survival is up to YOU! Don't count on FEMA or Red Cross or anyone else for your survival. That's who the masses are counting on, and as we can see from Katrina, that's not a very reliable plan of survival.
Don't neglect your faith. It is sheer faith in the almighty GOD that has seen many people through disasters.
Wishing you all peace and joy in these troubles times.
I never stockpile food. I have always lived very close to many grocery stores. I do live in a very snowy climate, but there has never been a blizzard bad enough where I couldn't get out if I absolutely had to (even in a foot or two of snow!).
It must be in the air, because I posted about this to my own blog just 2 days ago.
Briefly, I've concluded that I need to keep only 1 week's worth of stuff on hand. This is because after 1 week either the emergency will be over, or I will have left town.
For just about everything, though, I end up keeping more than that, because it's more cost-effective to buy things in larger quantities. Also, if you wait until you're really close to being out of something, or until you have absolutely none of it in the house, then you risk paying a premium for it. In supermarkets, stuff goes on cyclically, and the cycles don't necessarily jibe with my rate of use, but I'll follow the supermarket cycles when I can.
One last comment: like some other posters, I have a hard time prioritizing water storage because of space limitations. It can be helpful to remember that just about everybody does have a pretty large "store" of water already: in the water heater! Teach yourself how to tap it and you're set for at least a couple of days.
In this environment I think you have to do both, kind of like a blogger who writes for both repeat visitors and new ones. You have to keep an eye on both.
The specialization is where you ultimately build your brand and make your money, but the general market is like a sports farm system where you test for new markets (you can't get pigeonholed, just in case your product falls out of favor).
Good post Nora! It gives us plenty to think about.
Robots are awesome!
http://vimeo.com/2165451
Dave Ramsey people.... if nothing else, listen to one of his archived shows.
www.daveramsey.com
it takes extra money to be able to stock pile like that. We don't have extra money. We barely make due with the $200 per month food budget we have now.
I like this post very much and it does have very good points.
However, if you are in a certain field with nearly unlimited specialties, say Tech. How do you narrow it down?
I think that question may be harder to answer than saying, you need to specialize.
Can't say much changed for me in the bit of life I've lived "debt free." (I have student loans, which are debt, but I'm still in school... And until a few months ago when I got a new itty bitty car loan, I had no debt to make payments on.) Sure, I had at least $300 "extra" that no longer went to loan payments, but it quickly got eaten up by other things that were only too eager to get a bit more. (Namely trying to give my husband the same spending power I had.)
However, even though I don't really have a debt problem, I still enjoy reading stories about people who have overcome it. I realize that, someday, I won't have a pile of student loans to think about, and I might have a car loan on something else because it makes more sense to me that way in that particular situation. Debt is a nice tool, until it becomes the leverage for our entire lives.
My only "dream budget" includes me graduating from school and getting an "adult job!" :P And then, life without student loans and all that jazz.
Bit crazy if you ask me... Sure, it might be a good idea to some, but two to five years? Surely that's just way excessive?? I mean, maybe a month or two, depending on family size, types of imminent disasters, etc I can see. Anything else and you're kinda leaning towards apocalyptic delusion...
I mean, I can hardly keep a couple of weeks' worth of appetizing food around. I can't imagine any more food laying around this house!
I have a reasonably good stock of food for the family. There are toiletries around and sufficient cleaning goods as well. I found that the more important thing to do is learn new to me skills. I have learned to can. I can sew and crochet. I am pretty good at gardening and I am working on bread baking from scratch.
Slowly I am working on self sufficiency. I like the fact that I can make more food for my family and not buy a lot of pre-prepared it gives me the good feeling that maybe I am not feeding so many preservatives.
My husband took me to meet one of his firends and we get along real well and he told us about a few thing that no one thinks of and now we are all on the same page and every week we give him at least 25 dollars and he goes and get stuff that has a long shelf life and we stock pile all kind of food so far i think he has a total of 3 or 4 months of food stred away the next thing is we are working on getting thing to have a huge garden at his house as i had my mother in law teach me how to pressure cook food and now i can do it by my self so when the time comes i will be able to do it with out any problem and i help my in laws with there garden every year i think it was last year we canned over 50 cans of green beas and then we had to bag like 20 as we ran out of jar
I first learned about bulk buying as a frugal tip from the Tightwad Gazette years ago. Whenever something we use regularly goes on sale, I buy as much as I can, up to dozen. So whenever I make spaghetti, sloppy joes, noodles or rice, I am always serving a very low-cost meal. I buy meat in larger packaged quantities when it is on sale and freeze it in portions we would cook for individual meals, such as three pork chops to a freezer bag. By combining this with a flexible monthly menu, we eat pretty inexpensively. If something is always on sale that I use only on occasion (such as $1 cake mix), I no longer stock up on it. If something is always on sale that I use frequently ($1 brownie mix) I keep about a half dozen on hand and replenish as needed.
With SoCal on fire seemingly everyday these past few years, it's been important to stock up on canned, dried, and boxed food. More importantly has been keeping large portable jugs of water in case we have to throw everything into the car and take off for safety. Keeping a backpack full of supplies has been a key to success.
I normally "save" because the food that I have in my house isn't what I'm craving at the moment so I go buy something different, leaving me with way more food stocked in my pantry. Not always a good thing. Gets a bit expensive after a while.
@pp - The big question now is, will you make the leap from health care to finance? (It's easier said than done, but if your heart sings to you....)
@Craig - You hit the nail on the head with the concept of building a brand. That's exactly what we do when we specialize! Thanks.
@Kevin - Good point about getting pigeon-holed with a market that eventually finds your product passe. It is good to test drive target markets if possible first. See what works, and try to be timeless!
@antor - You said it; dedication and hard work abound with your own business.
I just got $25 certificates for $1. each. Coupon code NINETY
I used paypal and didn't see anything about signing up for Shopping Essentials or another company. Not sure if that's different if you're using a CC v.s. Paypal. (anyone know?)
Anyhow, I don't know how long the NINETY discount is available for but if this works out well I may go back and get some new ones for some of the other restaurants listed. :)
Thanks for all the feedback here. I was concerned about a scam so I'm glad I found a site w/ some info on it all.
would love to have more, but the apartment has limited storage space. i buy grains when they are on sale and try to keep some basic beans and veggies in the pantry, too. i'm with the amazon grocery shopper above - buying in bulk and saving money = win/win.
Debt-free living sounds nice, but I don't think I can avoid going into debt to buy a place. How do people save for a home while still paying rent?
So the answer to the "what would I be doing without the debt payment?" question would be "Paying rent!"
It feels good to be the owner of your own business. but sure not without dadication and hard work
http://www.onlinefinancemarket.com/
Interesting post. I never considered looking for a job in China. Very cool suggestion, and interesting information to boot!
One additional consideration: You may want to think about relocating cost. If you hope to keep any of your posessions, that would be expensive shipping. Moreover, a plane ticket is pretty expensive if you're traveling overseas. That said, new college graduates don't have that many posessions anyway, so the ticket might be the only relevant factor there.
FYI: I accepted this article to the second Carnival of Economic Fun. It will appear on Wednesday, September 16. Thanks for submitting.
Just IT has hit it on the money: we could tell people to do a million other things to make their PCs faster, but are they really going to do them? SHould they even try?
THe article was meant to provide a nice, quick, easy method of boosting performance on their PCs with minimal technical expertise.
The Writer's Coin | Follow me on Twitter
Like most any other field of business, if you want to excel in your craft you need knowledge. You get certified to become a teacher, a mechanic, an architect. Why not a mystery shopper? You would be surprised to see how many people can't pass a "common sense" exam. I have an example that just happened to me this week.
I have be a MS for 5 years. I accepted a few bank jobs and was supposed to do an inquiry for Business Checking. I didn't read the guidelines, as common sense would dictate and now I have to redo them over. I have been doing Personal Banking for a month and "assumed" it was the same.
I personally am not certified, but I don't see a problem with the MSPA charging a fee. It's just another business expense for my taxes.
Food storage is just one part of provident living (see http://www.providentliving.org). Here in Utah I am surrounded by neighbors who have food storage and are prepared for emergencies. We are helped by having Home Storage Centers (see http://www.rickety.us/2008/08/our-home-storage-center) that are also open to non-Mormons. They are located throughout the United States.
Your blog does a great service in generating interest in preparedness.
I have been slowly building a backstock of grocery supplies and other items for the last several months as finances will allow. I am stocking up on foods that will last a long time (rice, beans, etc.), as well as some shorter term foods that we enjoy (such as cookies and crackers). I have also started canning, dehydrating, and trying, not very successfully, to garden. My goal is to eventually have at least a 6-12 months supply of food for us. I also plan to get laying hens soon.
I live along the southeast coast (hurricane zone), so we have always kept emergency supplies during hurricane season. However, with the state of the world these days, I feel absolutely compelled to stock much more and to try be prepared for anything.
I am surprised at reading the comments how many people do not take preparing for emergencies more seriously. Our national grain stock is now kept at lowest levels per person ever, grocery stores operate with "just in time" shipping and will run out quickly, our food supply is in danger from drought & other weather events, shipping breakdowns, hybid seeds (totally another discussion), animal diseases, and the list could go on.
I have worked as a post-disaster responder for many years, and have seen heart-wrenching situations where people did not have food, water, clothes, hygiene necessities, or even food & milk for the baby after a disaster. There were times I've had to share my own resources (I've learned to take extra along with me on the road by now), or go find people help, or tell them where to go to get a meal or supplies, or help them communicate with others, etc. Do you want to be that person relying on someone else's good heart to help you out? (That being said, thank God there are still some good people in this world that are willing to help.)
Have supplies stocked in both your home & in your car. If you're short on space, stock them under your bed, behind or under your couch, in your closet, wherever you can stick them. A "go bag" in your car for quick getaways is essential. Don't forget the toilet paper (as mentioned above), hygiene items (include baby wipes, great for adults too, and hand sanitizer), a few changes of clothes, necessary items for baby, something for kids' entertainment, pet food (starving animals thrown out to fend for themselves are not a pretty sight), any special items for the elderly in your family (throw in a few cans of Ensure as well), essential medicines, contacts or glasses, and food & water.
Have your important papers ready to pick up and go if need be, as well as some cash (put some away in the house & in your go bag in the car & don't touch it for anything else).
One of the MOST important things in emergencies or disasters is preparing your mind *beforehand*. Instead of being one of the masses who are freaking out (for lack of a better term) and are non-functional because they are in shock, you will have already walked through various scenarios in your mind and prepared yourself. You will know how you will respond to a given disaster & you'll be ready to take care of yourself/your family, as well as help others when you can. Know what you have on hand, know what you are lacking, know what you can spare to share with others, and have some plans...plan A, plan B, etc. If you stay in your home, how long will your supplies last? Do you have people that you can trade with? How will you warm yourself & cook? What about water? What about light to see by? How will you get news? If you have to leave, where will you go? What route will you take to get there? How will you communicate with your loved ones? A preplanned map of your evacuation route in the car is also a good idea. If you have children, according to their age, think how best to prepare their mind and share some of your plans with them. I could go on, but you get the picture.
Planning for yourself or your family could get much more involved, but these are the essentials. Encourage others that you know to be prepared as well. After a disaster/emergency, supplies get tight very fast, then they are gone.
You and your family's survival is up to YOU! Don't count on FEMA or Red Cross or anyone else for your survival. That's who the masses are counting on, and as we can see from Katrina, that's not a very reliable plan of survival.
Don't neglect your faith. It is sheer faith in the almighty GOD that has seen many people through disasters.
Wishing you all peace and joy in these troubles times.
I never stockpile food. I have always lived very close to many grocery stores. I do live in a very snowy climate, but there has never been a blizzard bad enough where I couldn't get out if I absolutely had to (even in a foot or two of snow!).
It must be in the air, because I posted about this to my own blog just 2 days ago.
Briefly, I've concluded that I need to keep only 1 week's worth of stuff on hand. This is because after 1 week either the emergency will be over, or I will have left town.
For just about everything, though, I end up keeping more than that, because it's more cost-effective to buy things in larger quantities. Also, if you wait until you're really close to being out of something, or until you have absolutely none of it in the house, then you risk paying a premium for it. In supermarkets, stuff goes on cyclically, and the cycles don't necessarily jibe with my rate of use, but I'll follow the supermarket cycles when I can.
One last comment: like some other posters, I have a hard time prioritizing water storage because of space limitations. It can be helpful to remember that just about everybody does have a pretty large "store" of water already: in the water heater! Teach yourself how to tap it and you're set for at least a couple of days.
In this environment I think you have to do both, kind of like a blogger who writes for both repeat visitors and new ones. You have to keep an eye on both.
The specialization is where you ultimately build your brand and make your money, but the general market is like a sports farm system where you test for new markets (you can't get pigeonholed, just in case your product falls out of favor).
Good post Nora! It gives us plenty to think about.