Monday, September 3, 2012

Lessons Of Prepping And The Unemployed

Back in May I was layed off from my job, which in Michigan is no surprise. While my previous employers haggled about who was going to pay my unemployment, I was left hanging with no income.

Thank God I'm A Prepper

I went for 6 weeks with no money except for the occasional cash job and thank god I have a medical background so I was able to pick up a shift here and there at the local assisted living home. So there I am hitting my prepping stores hard. These are the lessons that I learned:

Diversify

You hear this term all the time when it comes to a stock portfolio but never when it comes to your skills. In my life I have been blessed to have lived about a half a dozens lives. I have a medical background, real estate, farming, marketing, sales, and title work. In January I took some of my tax return and received my commission as a Notary Public which landed me the job I have now. I am currently saving to take my pharmacy technicians course.

Always move forward to better your skills.

Addiction And Comfort Foods Are Essential

Now I know you are looking at that sentence and the one word that jumps out is ADDICTION. I am addicted to coffee and I really went thru it. I also like my wine at night and thankfully I have been making my own for about year and have been tweaking the recipe. As far as comfort food I love my peanuts and peanut butter and I went thru that too.

As preppers we concentrate on the beans and rice. Let me tell you I learned that the addiction and comfort foods are HUGE! When everyday is survival and stress these will be a small comfort which can mean the world to your sanity and how you face the next day. I really urge you to take a step back and re-evaluate your skills and your prepping stores.

Are you a smoker?

Love chocolate/sweets?

Potato Chips?

These are things that you really need to evaluate and make a commitment to put them away just like you do any store.

Be prepared, not sorry

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Being a person of several addictions I totally relate to this post and now I know I also have to treat my addictions as important to my sanity. I am new to prepping and I live on a fixed income which compels me to use my imagination to find ways to store up supplies. I can only do so much, but it can be done and I like the challenge. I recently stopped smoking so that is one less thing for me to worry about and it also gives me extra money for prepping. I am new to your site and I will be checking out the rest of your articles. Thanks for the good advice.

Terri said...

Thank you Susan. I am so glad that I provoked thought! I hope you continue to enjoy the posts!

Scott R said...

Terri, good post and you are right the little things such as your coffee can make all the difference in the world, most people have a very hard time making an employment adjustment and it is made all that much harder when you have nothing put back, either by way of money or supplies.

Scott

Terri said...

yes Scott I believe the spiral of this country has begun and the time before the collapse is not far away.