I was just watching this YouTube video from Prepper Princess and it made me think that we need to become even more prepared than we already are! I've been feeling the same way as she has--that something big (and bad) may be coming--but then I thought maybe I have just been doing too much doomscrolling and watching too much news. So here are the tasks I am going to be working on in order to become even more prepared...
- I'm going to buy a battery power bank with a solar panel. This can provide free electricity from the sun to charge up a battery bank which can then be used to run small appliances/laptops/TV/etc. if there is an extended power outage. Note that since we live in the desert, and I don't want to spend the huge dollars needed for a whole-house generator, we would be pretty screwed if we don't have air conditioning for an extended period of time (although people did live in this area before air conditioning was invented but how they did this I have no idea).
- Since we live in the desert, we do not have any real sources of water if the municipal system goes down. Currently we stock small and large (5 gallon) bottles of water but there is a limit to how many we can store and how fast we can use it. Water would be our biggest problem if there was total societal collapse.
- We stockpile food every week. We try to rotate through our stocked food regularly but since we stock so much, we usually end up sending big boxes of canned and packaged food to family in the Philippines (which they greatly appreciate!). This week Albertsons had tuna for 50 cents a can which is a great price so now we have 20 extra cans of tuna in our pantry...this is pretty much how we can afford to stockpile food, by buying up loss leaders and sale items as they are posted in each week's sale ad.
- We are still debating about whether or not to pay off the house since the payments are so small and the interest rate is just below 3%. Dave Ramsey says to pay off the house ASAP which is what we may do but currently my investments are bringing in much more than 3%.
- We stash some cash at home but I am afraid that if the house catches fire, all of our money would go up in flames if we keep too much cash at home. We do have a fireproof safe but I have no idea how fireproof it really is plus, for safety reasons, we don't want to keep too much cash at home.
- I hadn't thought about stocking up on vitamins but I probably should do that.
- We don't have much reason to stock up on firewood since we don't have long cold periods here, plus we have no fireplace to burn it in. I think I will buy another propane tank for our outdoor grill in case natural gas is cut and we need to cook on our outdoor stove.
- We generally keep the gas in our car topped off but trying to flee our city, which is located in the middle of the desert, along with several million other people would be futile (just watching the news show 20-mile backups on the freeway when everyone is heading back to California after a holiday weekend looks pretty crazy).
- We do keep a good stock of hubby's necessary medications by ordering/picking them up the moment they are available. He could probably go an three extra months without getting his prescriptions if necessary.
- I have a HAM radio and a HAM radio license (which was required for a job I used to do), but I have very little experience or knowledge of using a HAM radio so this is something I need to work on.
- We definitely need to acquire/stock up on non-electric types of entertainment. Pretty much all of our entertainment revolves around online stuff--hubby plays online poker, I read library books on my Kindle app, and we both like to watch TV--so next time we go to the Goodwill I am going to buy some hard copy books, maybe a few board games, buy some DVD movies, etc.
- I need to buy more ammo. We have guns but haven't been shooting in ages. The last time I was thinking about stocking up on more ammo, the prices were crazy high because of demand so this is something I need to look into also.
- I need to go through all of our preparedness supplies and see what we need/what is expired/what is missing/etc. The last time I did this was right after the pandemic began so it is about time I do this again!
I think this is a good starting point for us. How prepared are you for total societal collapse?
I've thought about this some, &, this is no offense to anyone who chooses otherwise at all, but I don't want to live my life in fear of societal collapse. Because for me personally, it would color every choice & decision in everything I do, and would just not be healthy for me. So, I keep a reasonable amount of supplies on hand, we have a generator that we keep stocked in case of a natural disaster, we have a large emergency fund, etc. But, that's it. In the case of a societal collapse, I suspect being able to leave the country would be our biggest asset, and my husband is a Canadian citizen. Or, having enough money to go to another country & relocate.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, I focus on my physical health & mental resilience, both of which feel like they would be really important in the time of any crisis. (Hawaii Planner)
I definitely think a lot of people go full-on prepper but they are in such poor health-- and don't exercise or eat well--which is the most important part of prepping!
DeleteI have been reading/listening to people who have a 'feeling' about a total collapse just like i have heard for 70 years that Christ's coming is imminent. Things will happen but, no one can have a 'feeling' that I can rely on to be true.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do believe that being prepared as you can is prudent. I read about bugging out, on foot if possible and carrying supplies. Since I cannot carry a water bottle and walk up the ramp from the car, I won't be going anywhere.
All your plans sound wise.
Purifying water using the sun may be your superpower. Read up on that. A generator that runs your ac may be the best use for solar power. You can also cook with your abundance of sunlight.
We have food, bottled water, but no generator. I had one at my house. Even if a person is not totally self-sufficient, any preps are good, especially water preps. Do you have a Berkey filter? If you keep any amount of money at home, don't advertise. Good luck and thanks for the reminder.
I have been hearing about "the world ending" for decades too. I think our preps are good (unfortunately we don't have enough cash on hand to be very exciting to anyone--I'm afraid a fire would wipe all of our savings out so we keep most of our money in the bank. But now that I just checked our banks ratings, I am suddenly not so confident in banks either!).
DeleteWe are as prepared as we can be but I'm not sure about a whole societal collapse. I've been reading a lot about bank closures again. I checked our bank and credit unions Weiss score and was a little concerned. Our local bank received a C and our credit union is a B-. We also have a fireproof safe with cash but like you, I'm not sure how well they work so I don't have as much on hand as I would like.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, I didn't know about the Weiss score so I checked and my banks have a B+, C+, C-, and a C...now I am a little concerned too!
DeleteI'm so glad you've been nudged a little in the preparedness area! As a native of that area I would suggest investing in a small swamp cooler--one that could be ran by your solar-powered power box. Also, we have a sun oven that is incredible. While they are pricy you wouldn't need a huge supply of wood, propane etc in order to cook. And with that Nevada sun you could cook in it most days of the year. Water . . . now that is a problem. It's an issue for us even in Northern Utah. Wish I had the funds to sink a well. Hopefully someday soon! Best of luck to you!!
ReplyDeleteI will definitely look into a solar oven. I would love to have a private well but it would cost a fortune (and our HOA would probably throw a fit over such a thing too!).
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