Warning - long post. For me, prepping is both about the big things that might happen and the things that happen every year without fail. I layer my "WWIII" (or fill in huge disaster) preps to be useful in daily life (i.e. as much as I wanted it, I bought canned food instead of the belt fed Browning) and I have had situations come up where I needed to use them.
How did your "normal" life run into a circumstance where your prepping helped you get through a rough patch? I'll admit a couple motivations with this thread. First I hope that "normal" people who run across this may just see how common sense prepping is. Second - I'm hoping for is that some stories here of what happens in "normal" life may get some folks off the fence and into prepping so we don't have to carry their bum arses if something does happen.
1. After my divorce wiped me out, I moved to Indiana to take a job that I was let go from after 5 weeks (no notice). I had about $1,000.00 in the bank. After being let go, I found out I didn't qualify for unemployment because I wasn't a resident of Indiana long enough to qualify and was literally out of any income for 6 months after being let go. Luckily I had brought my food prep stash with me to Indiana and survived on that while looking for income. I sold all but 2 of my collection of guns to pay electrical bills and the part of the rent I could. I kept the .22 rifle and the 12 gauge shotgun but got rid of everything noncritical. I also sold off a ton of personal property, eliminating everything that wasn't critical to survival. Survival really puts your priorities into perspective. Anyway, I've since restocked the food stash to replenish what I took out but that was so key. Lucky for me I was single at the time with no kids. But if I had kids I would have multiplied the food stash to feed them as well. Also since then I busted some tail and bought a cheap house in Mishawaka for cash (12.5k). No matter how much I make or how cool I think I am, I'm going to always have a house that I own outright so I have a place to do. You wouldn't believe how much of a difference that makes. If there's a way for you to get into a cheap house in your neighborhood (even a fixer upper) I highly recommend it. It's a lot easier now since the out of state investors defaulted on half the houses in the state. You can always rent it out when times are good. If everything else falls down and you lose your primary home, you have a place to live.
2. I do contract seasonal work that pays big bucks in the summer and very little in the winter. I still break into the SHTF supply in winter months to stretch between bills. That pantry is a beautiful thing.
3. About a year or so ago I walked into the utilities office to pay a bill and lo and behold my debit card didn't work. Went to the bank to find out my accounts were completely cleaned out by some Russian outfit that hit the FirstBank's atm system in Mishawaka (some of you may remember this). So here I am suddenly penniless. Sure I filed a claim for the money stolen from my account and in 30 days I would be told how that would pan out. Terrific... Luckily I owned some rental property at that point and would be getting a couple rent checks in 2 weeks. To last that 2 weeks I sold a portion of my SHTF silver stash. Silver's not only good for the fall of civilization. It's good for the regular, day to day B.S. you encounter. After that I learned my lesson and kept money in multiple bank accounts. I held off on replenishing the silver stash until prices went down a little. Glad I did.
What have you experienced where your normal, day to day life has been in need of your SHTF preparations? I know I'm not the only one.
Tim
How did your "normal" life run into a circumstance where your prepping helped you get through a rough patch? I'll admit a couple motivations with this thread. First I hope that "normal" people who run across this may just see how common sense prepping is. Second - I'm hoping for is that some stories here of what happens in "normal" life may get some folks off the fence and into prepping so we don't have to carry their bum arses if something does happen.
1. After my divorce wiped me out, I moved to Indiana to take a job that I was let go from after 5 weeks (no notice). I had about $1,000.00 in the bank. After being let go, I found out I didn't qualify for unemployment because I wasn't a resident of Indiana long enough to qualify and was literally out of any income for 6 months after being let go. Luckily I had brought my food prep stash with me to Indiana and survived on that while looking for income. I sold all but 2 of my collection of guns to pay electrical bills and the part of the rent I could. I kept the .22 rifle and the 12 gauge shotgun but got rid of everything noncritical. I also sold off a ton of personal property, eliminating everything that wasn't critical to survival. Survival really puts your priorities into perspective. Anyway, I've since restocked the food stash to replenish what I took out but that was so key. Lucky for me I was single at the time with no kids. But if I had kids I would have multiplied the food stash to feed them as well. Also since then I busted some tail and bought a cheap house in Mishawaka for cash (12.5k). No matter how much I make or how cool I think I am, I'm going to always have a house that I own outright so I have a place to do. You wouldn't believe how much of a difference that makes. If there's a way for you to get into a cheap house in your neighborhood (even a fixer upper) I highly recommend it. It's a lot easier now since the out of state investors defaulted on half the houses in the state. You can always rent it out when times are good. If everything else falls down and you lose your primary home, you have a place to live.
2. I do contract seasonal work that pays big bucks in the summer and very little in the winter. I still break into the SHTF supply in winter months to stretch between bills. That pantry is a beautiful thing.
3. About a year or so ago I walked into the utilities office to pay a bill and lo and behold my debit card didn't work. Went to the bank to find out my accounts were completely cleaned out by some Russian outfit that hit the FirstBank's atm system in Mishawaka (some of you may remember this). So here I am suddenly penniless. Sure I filed a claim for the money stolen from my account and in 30 days I would be told how that would pan out. Terrific... Luckily I owned some rental property at that point and would be getting a couple rent checks in 2 weeks. To last that 2 weeks I sold a portion of my SHTF silver stash. Silver's not only good for the fall of civilization. It's good for the regular, day to day B.S. you encounter. After that I learned my lesson and kept money in multiple bank accounts. I held off on replenishing the silver stash until prices went down a little. Glad I did.
What have you experienced where your normal, day to day life has been in need of your SHTF preparations? I know I'm not the only one.
Tim
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