This article first appeared in Preparing with Dave
Article by Dave at preparingwithdave.com
Can you afford not to?
Sadly enough, I feel like most of my time is spent trying to convince even preppers to prep. I hear many times that people cannot afford a necessary prep. A necessary prep means that if you don’t have it, you risk death in a survival situation. How could anyone not afford it? The answer lies in prioritizing one’s life and future. Many people are not fully internally aware enough of the seriousness of needing to be seriously prepared, thus not taking it seriously enough.
We make sacrifices to put money away for retirement, and call it an investment. Preps are investments, too. Water filtration devices are investments on life-saving hydration. Security devices and self-defense tools are investments to protect our lives from harmful people that said they couldn’t afford to prep, or just didn’t see it as important, which is kind of the same in my opinion. Their actions to aggressively acquire what they need will be the same.
Most of every item in my Emergency Survival Pack or Bug-Out Bag, is under or around $20.00 in cost of investment expenditure. Therefore, I will base some examples I offer you around that dollar amount of investment. Here are some examples of sacrifice to secure “Necessary Preps“.
Example one:
Some people drink two sodas per day. That’s around sixty sodas per month. Cost is around $20.00 to $40.00, depending on their favorite brand and flavor. That equals the cost of one to two Sawyer Mini Filters that filter 100,000 gallons of life-saving water each. Just cutting consumption of soda for one-month, and someone can have 100,000 gallons or more of water filtration prepped.
Example two:
The average lunch or dinner in a restaurant is $10.00 to $25.00 per person, depending on whether it is a fast-food or sit-down meal with tip. This could buy a couple of inexpensive packs on sale to start sticking preps in, to grab and go in an emergency situation. Skip these meals and go simple at home, and this prep is taken care of now. Add number one and number two example together, and you’re on your way to some good preparedness.
Example three:
Any service you have someone else do for you, like nails, hair, car wash, taking care of your yard, changing your oil, etc. These services add up to a healthy sum of money in a year’s time, or even just six-months. Actually, having all of these done in one-month adds up to over $100.00. That’s a lot of preps if you do a few simple tasks on your own, instead of paying someone else to do it for you. $100.00 dollars could buy eight fire starters, a family water filtration four-pack, 140 Mylar blankets, ten emergency shelters, ten emergency two-person sleeping bags, five Life Straws, ten containers of waterproof matches (250 matches), five WaterBobs, one high-quality crank emergency radio/flashlight ($30.00 leftover), and more. Get the idea?
Affording To Prep
These are just a few examples of what I call monetary maneuvering to acquire necessary preps. It takes sacrifice to have anything that is important enough. We have made many sacrifices around here to have what we need for our survival investments. We have a very nice “grid-down fund“, or “convenience-lost fund“, that is not monetary. It’s all in preps, since in SHTF, money isn’t worth anything and banks won’t be open to access the worthless notes anyway. You can do this too, if you prioritize your preps versus whatever else you are spending money on.
We have skipped favorite meals here and there, we do most everything ourselves, and we don’t buy frivolous items or services. We also prepare our owns meals that are healthier and actually much tastier, because we don’t use cheap food sources to cut costs and raise profit margins like restaurants do.
Do this or not, because it’s your choice and your life that’s at risk if you don’t…NOT MINE!”
About the Author: Dave writes preparingwithdave.com. He created this page to share his experience, knowledge, actions, and continuing path with others. He hopes your tour around the website is informative and you continue to visit for updates and sharing of your comments. Please visit Dave, on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/preparingwithdave
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Very valid points. Not only does doing all of those things (car wash, yard work, ect.) save you money, it can invoke a sense of pride and you will know that whether or not it’s done right is all due to you. Another way to sort of save money for preps is to take up a prepping hobby, camping requires much of the same gear as prepping so what’s spent on it can many times be beneficial to your preps.
This is true, camping gear serve a double purpose, as you can use them for your hobby as well as for emergencies-cost effective! Thanks for the comment.
Alright, I was checking in because I haven’t been here in a while. Great and valid points in this article. If you aren’t doing them get started. But what’s a gal to do when these budget wise ideas are already a way of life? Well, lets kick it up a notch. I’m a middle class hardworking person. I put a little away every check towards retirement. How about towards silver instead? Now I need to squeeze out a better water filter and some more food storage out of a tight budget (Growing family = need for more food in the larder) Well I just want to add a little and $200-$500 would add some long term preps to ensure that the year supply is still a year supply. An extra job? Got one. How about selling some rarely used items. I have some items that my kids haven’t used and would also serve the purpose of emptying out the “Closet” as well.
HI countrygirl! Being middle class myself I understand it is hard to find that extra amount in the budget while still meeting needs. Frugality is key, as well as prioritizing expenses. A no spend week worked for us as well. Sounds like you are already doing all you can to prep. Glad you stopped by!