Posted fifeen minutes earlier, a guest article.
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As usual, today we talk about me. I know, I know, it should all be about YOU. But until you’ve spent countless hours bringing up your writing skills from ‘sucks elephant ass’ to a bit better, or, ‘less sucky’, and pretty much begging people to read your drivel, actually losing money in the process, well then, you don’t have your own successful blog and no one wants to hear about you. Not that they want to hear about me, but I throw in a reference to assault carbines and MRE’s once in awhile and am able to sucker everyone in. I received my order of Cal-Shock 65 today from http://www.inyopools.com/ ( only four work days to deliver ). You had to order six pounds at a time and there was a $5 handling charge on it but I am pretty happy about it. I now have the means to produce thousands of gallons of bleach for a measly three hours of wages. Talk about peace of mind. And, yes, I already have two Berky ( Big Berkey with (4) 9" British Berkefeld Ceramic SuperSterasyl Water Filters
) type home-made filters ( rather, I have the elements and buckets on hand when the need arises ) for a good 25k gallons of filtered water there. As long as the snow pack in the nearby mountains doesn’t disappear I will always have water ( I’m one mile from the river, itself a good reason to buy an extra lot even if it is overpriced ). I bring all this up in response to a comment. Let me copy it here, as it is a good question. “I've been reading up on food storage techniques and twice now I've come across statements that garbage bags have pesticides added to the plastic. This is in addition to the problem with the non- food-grade plastics which also have cadmium usually (a poison)used in the plasticizer. I'm mentioning this because you said something about putting wheat in a garbage bag to protect it from the bucket but my research shows that adds to the risks.”*
The above statement is probably correct. So let me clarify my thinking. Out-gassing from buckets is a risk. I don’t think it is a guarantee of poison, but it is a risk. As I’ve pointed out before, not having the food storage because your buckets added forty or fifty percent to the cost of your grain ( my cheaper method is still 30% ) and so you only bought six months or whatever instead of double that, that is a worse risk. It is your decision. I’m just pointed out options. As for my putting a trash bag in the bucket, this has no basis in logic or science and honestly is more of a psychological crutch on my part. It might act as a barrier so I use it. Or, it might not. I don’t worry about the pesticides in the trash bags because I worry more about insects than pesticides. For goodness sakes, we live in a world of poison and corporate profit generated toxins. I can’t imagine a trace more of pesticides is any worse for me than sucking on some fresh produce. And I don’t think washing will take off the poison. I’m sure it soaked in. Yes, certified food grade buckets with diatomaceous earth ( Diatomaceous Earth-Food Grade-10 Pound Bag
) added is far better for you. I’m more concerned with rapid unavailability of grains and so I go with the increased risk of some poisons. I’ll die an extra ten years early if I survive the stewpot. As far as tying this in with the powdered bleach, the crap has 35% inactive ingredients. I don’t know what they are, or if they are toxic. But I don’t care. A far worse problem is going to be dysentery. I’ll take my chances. Remember, frugal survivalism ( THE FRUGAL SURVIVALIST disaster preparations under $500
) involves the 80/20 rule. 80% of the benefits for 20% of the cost. It isn’t perfect. It carries more risk. On the upside, it provides instant protection now, verses a dream of protection in the future.*
I can’t believe it, but I’ve finally gotten a benefit from our socialist nanny state ( Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and other Boneheaded Bureaucrats are Turning America into a Nation of Children
) rather than another screw job. Inflation has finally started to work for me. And without the risk of home ownership ( those gains were always illusionary, but they are what most of us are familiar with as far as fighting inflation ). I’ve already been helped somewhat. My child support was based on a managers salary. If I didn’t work as a retail manager I had to struggle by on an assistant managers pay. That was when I started practicing frugal living ( you can read about it all you want but it doesn’t really sink in until you real life practice it ). At its worse, with federal taxes, child support and mandatory family medical ( used or not ) I paid out 73% of my gross income before I saw any of it. After all these years, I can now do all that on only 45% gross. At minimum wage. Inflation has tamed my child support obligation almost to the point where I can afford it. I was able to stop working as a manager and go to minimum wage, freeing my mind for entertaining my minions. As a manager, the stress kept you up at night. As a monkey boy, you don’t take home any stress ( in comparison ). *
Now, an added benefit. In the state of Nevada, minimum wage was just raised to $8.25. It took me by surprise, I had no idea they had passed a law tying minimum wage ( Minimum Wages
) into inflation. Which might underline the lies by the Feds about inflation, but we won’t get into that. I was able to voluntarily take a 10% cut in hours and still make an extra ten bucks or so a week take home. Now, granted, there is the food price increase issue. I am behind when all is said and done after grocery shopping. But food will go up yearly. We don’t even have Wal-Mart to keep down those costs anymore ( only shop Wal-Mart for the loss leaders, go elsewhere when possible- when they screw over yours truly then they are evil ). There isn’t much we can do about it. It is now a given. I just look at it as a ongoing chore to try to reduce its effects. And I now have 10% more time to devote to that struggle. I never thought I’d see a workweek under forty hours. Go!!!, me!*
Now, to tie this in with survivalism real quick so I can claim this is real advice rather than blathering. Your student loans ( How to Wipe Out Your Student Loans and Be Debt Free Fast: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply
) should fall under the same benefit. Over time, they are less and less of a burden. You won’t get many raises, you will fall behind in purchasing power, but at least your number one debt ( assuming you weren’t silly with a mortgage ) will hurt less every year. Enjoy the limited benefits of inflation while you can. Once it goes hyper, everyone loses. If I can survive a 50% pay ex-wife penalty and still prep like mad, you should be able to do the same even with student loans. This is the magic of frugal prepping. And the magic of mild inflation.END
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6 comments:
just let me say that I really enjoy your blathering. (sometimes more that your actual attempts at teaching us something).
FYI I think wally world sells that cal shock stuff over in pool supplies.
I know that living on less and not worrying about bills is a great way to live.
I see people around me going a little nuts over school supplies.
OH, it's going to be Christmas pretty soon.Halloween,turkey day and Xmas! We can run right out and buy everybody we know a damn present, slap it on the old credit card. When are people going to realize you can't buy love,rent it for half a hour maybe, but buy it, no.
Your blog today did not suck ass. It was prose the equal of which I have not seen since I was forced to study Shakespeare in school.
We're in Deflation, not Inflation. Sure, food's been going up, but as more people produce and realize they MUST make that $3k for their property taxes and their labor is essentially free, there's going to be a huge pressure to sell more eggs or potatoes or whatever to make that $3k.
Student loans used to have really low interest rates, like 2%, 3%. Mine were like that. I still paid them off as quickly as I could, and I feel incredibly lucky I did. Now, the loans are on the order of 10%-15%, and I believe just like credit cards they get reassigned to a different risk bracket or some damn thing, sold to loan sharks, something, and you end up at the standard 30% interest rate. At that rate of increase, you'll never pay them off.
This all besides the fact that a college degree now is next to useless. Actually worse to useless since you pump money into getting one that you'll never get back. College used to be an actual, good, investment. Those days ended a good decade ago and are not coming back.
As for child support, can't help you there buddy, I have no experience. All I can suggest is, wait until DNA testing is again rare and expensive before stickin' that thing in every hole in town. The time will come again, it's just not here yet. I can think of, offhand, a couple of heroes of mine who were never really sure who their father was, Jack London and Louis Armstrong. A couple of the finest human beings ever to walk the Earth. Random seeding by "able-bodied semen" can be a good thing, instilling hybrid vigor in the population and preventing disasters like the British Royal Family. Just wait until it's no longer so severely punished.
Min. wages are keyed to inflation in a lot of states, they also can go down when deflation is afoot. I really hope you really are preparing for when that job goes away.
I went back and read the comments on "To Granny's Place" or whatever yesterday's thread was called.
Some overflow from the local CPUSA meetings it seems.... sheesh. The puke thinks because I state, correctly, that my family's "love" is dependent on my net worth is somehow the fault of the System. Err, No, little comrade, I was pointing out that my family is a bunch of fucked up units. This is not the fault of "society" at all, and no your beloved Revolution won't help things, it will just put a new set of warlords in charge. Top-down systems ALWAYS fail. Bottom-up systems, like our country's founders envisioned, always win.
Now, the reason I brought up my fucked-up family is, to point out that much as this hurts, my Potemkin pal, YOUR family is likely to work this way too. Most American families do and this is because they've been through decades of money == success, and no real hardship. They are truly just groups of people who happen to live together. So Granny's place may be an option, and I hope it is, since Grannies who understand are cool. But chances are, you're going to have to choose your survival-tribe among people you've been through hardships with. People who've come through the fire with you, or at least a gentle toasting, and come through true.
Sorry but your college-student Red Cell, full of whining trust-funders, doesn't qualify. Sticking a safety pin through your nose isn't hardship.
I get food grade buckets from the bakery at my local grocery store for $1.
Mylar bags are fairly cheap and can be reused. I store my mylar bags in 55 gallon steel drums that I pick up at a salad dressing company for $5.
There are ways to store your food for cheap if you're determined enough.
Idaho Homesteader
Absolutely true. Many middle families can't be depended on thanks to Social Security, Pensions, and being used to picking up good jobs for the asking that can support one or even more people in confort and ease.
This has tended to make more people soft and selfish esp since the 60's. It is faith in big government rather then in family, that has broken up first the extended then the nuclear family.
Lucky for me this happened in my family starting in the mid sixties.
Truely trial by fire. Since I could not take food, shelter and transporation for granted, I learned how to think, fight and plan.
Your lucky if you have relatives or people you can depend on in tough times.
No one tells it like it is better then Jim and some of his best minyans. We could yet have a better society when more people realize there best and maybe only way out in some case is working with some select other people
Why haven't you sought to have your child support lowered to reflect your drop in income? Half of my practice these days are fathers who've been laid off or otherwise had their income reduced and they want to lower their child support. In California, where I think you got divorced, it's automatic: lose income, decrease child support.
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