What does frugal living and preparedness have in common?

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I am sure a lot of you are wondering why I have had so many preparedness articles here lately when I am a frugal living blog.

Empty store shelves

Well, part of frugal living is being prepared for whatever may come. If you have a sudden job loss or an emergency are you are prepared to weather it? If you have a deep pantry and a little money put back you are not going to be in such a panic as you would if you didn’t.

Building a deep panty by buying things on sale not only gives you peace of mind, but you have saved money over having to run to the store for an item that you are out of and need. I try not to buy anything now that isn’t on sale. Plus I live 15 miles from town so it isn’t just a quick run around the block.

When my girls were very little (newborn and two) we lived paycheck to paycheck when their dad lost his job I only had about a week’s worth of food in the house. You can never know the feeling of despair of not knowing how you are going to feed your babies. And having to go to the food pantry was the worst thing ever I felt so defeated. What kind of parent was I that I couldn’t feed my children. ( Just a little side note I know there are a lot of people who have to use the food banks to feed their children and themselves through no fault of their own). We got through it with the help of the food bank, the church, and family but what if that help hadn’t been there, what would I have done. He eventually found another job and it was a paycheck to paycheck situation again but I started shopping smarter and with a purpose that I would never be in that position ever again if I could help it.

I started shopping sales learning how to make my own of pretty much everything. I was able to build a deep pantry with things that I knew I could use to feed my family no matter what happened.

A little later on I was a single parent and money was really tight I didn’t get any child support well a few dollars once or twice a year nothing I could count on.

By having a deep working pantry I was able to feed my girls and not have to worry. I did this by shopping sales and stocking up when I could even if it was just a couple of cans or an extra bag of sugar or flour. Shopping in season and canning what I could, And being very careful with my money. Shopping for clothes at 2nd hand stores and sewing some of them. I even made their jackets one year. And mending what needed mending instead of throwing out. Hanging clothes out to dry a lot of little things that added up. So by living frugally I was able to have a deep pantry and the security of knowing I could feed my girls.

By having the skills such as canning, sewing, mending cooking from scratch you can live frugally and be prepared for what life might throw at you.

As an example say the water in your area is contaminated or a water line has broken. You have water put back that you bought on sale a few months ago. Now you don’t have to go pay full price or even a hiked up price, you don’t have to fight the crowds to get water, and you don’t have to worry that there won’t be any when you get there you can sit at home knowing you have water and are safe at home away from the crowds. Just look at the TP run last year.

Inflation is another example. If you have bought a year’s worth or 6 months’ worth of something you have paid the lowest price and when it goes up because of inflation or shortages you have saved a ton in the long run. 

And speaking of inflation and shortages we a starting to see massive inflation and shortages so now is the time to start if you haven’t already because it is only going to get worse. Buy the sales, all that you can, and start learning to cook from scratch. . Learn some skills such as sewing, canning, etc. Start working on the mindset and doing everything you can now to prepare and learn to live frugally because you may very soon not have a choice and if you are prepared now it will make it so much easier in the future. The above was from someone on FB showing the increase in the last few months.

I will start putting more MYO and frugal living things on now that we have discussed the preparedness and the whys of it. I will still have a few preparedness articles. I will also try to start doing some things on learning some of the forgotten skills.

Go back and read NRP’s article on getting a plan to better understand and how to get started. 

Please share with your family and friends the more people who are prepared and already living frugally will have an easier time with the upcoming inflation and shortages.

One Reply to “What does frugal living and preparedness have in common?”

  1. NRP & Blue

    Not to worry folks:

    The grumpy old fart is done with the “What/If” doom and gloom stuff. I believe the idea has been hashed over enough. Maybe to much, but it was important.

    Time to move on to the fun things like building the Deep Pantry and how to fill it. BTW Connie is doing a great job on this.
    Also stuff about a Garden and Canning, Dehydrating, Vacuum Sealing stuff for long-er term storage.
    Maybe touch on some lost, very VERY important, Skills like Connie mentioned.

    So hopefully y’all have thought about the need for putting a few things back and are working on that “One Month Usage” list.

    One last thing….
    The word “Prepper, er, ing” have gotten a bad reputation lately, so I’ll not be using those henceforth.
    I really do like the idea of living a “Lifestyle” that is self supporting to one’s wellbeing.

    Again Thank You Connie for the opportunity to share a few thoughts with others.

    NRP & Blue