In the twenty-plus years of paying utility bills and growing up in a house that was very conscious of its water and electricity use, I have learned some tips and tricks to reduce those costs. Some of these tips will not cost you a thing and will provide immediate results. Some results will not be immediately seen. For some of these tips, you will need to pay to save. You will need to purchase items that will pay for themselves over time.
In other words, you will need to practice a level of frugality that most of us don’t want to think about. I call this poverty living. We are all living (or should be living) at a level of frugality that seems a little tight, but sometimes we need to get a lot tighter.
Right now, food seems to be plentiful in America. There is plenty of it in the stores and you hear stories of how much food is wasted in restaurants and grocery stores. However, there are some factors that could lead us to a rationing system in a hurry if something happened. Those things do not even have to be catastrophic for us to be rationed. In most natural disasters such as hurricanes and flooding, Red Cross and FEMA dive right…
There are some modern conveniences I would not want to live without: running water and a washing machine for starters. There are some modern conveniences that are not really necessary, but they make life easier. I lived without a microwave for over four months until someone took mercy on my children and bought one. I was fine without it. Another appliance I lived without is a clothes dryer. I lived for over two years without a clothes dryer and I…
Long before thrift shopping was cool, I was doing it to stretch my budget and because I just couldn’t afford new things. In fact, my parents did the same thing! I grew up on hand-me-downs until I outgrew my cousin’s clothes. Almost all my books came from used bookstores and the library. We went to auctions and garage sales. My parents needed to stretch their pennies too! Now thrift shopping is cool. Thrift stores are gaining popularity as are the…
Habits can be good or bad. They can be a wonderful thing or a curse. However, I believe in having good habits as a prepper. We need to be diligent in our personal growth, as habits do this for us. Habits keep us accountable and help us to become better preppers. Some of these habits may seem a little different, but I see prepping as a personal practice to improve us and make us better people in general. Ten Prepping…