"Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor." --Samuel Johnson
The Frugal Prepper
Photo credit: Grant Cochrane
The word 'frugal' springs from the Latin word for fruit, frux, which first meant the produce that springs from a tree, and evolved over the eons and several passes through various languages to mean 'useful', then 'profitable' before becoming 'economical'. The current dictionary definition is: 1. practicing economy; living without waste; thrifty and 2. not costly; meager.
If ever there were a word that perfectly describes my spending habits, it would have to be 'frugal'. I have this odd dichotomy going on: I love to shop, but I hate to spend money. "Never spend a dollar where a dime would do," is my motto.
Therefore it always irritates me when I hear people say, "I would be a prepper, but I can't afford it."
Several years ago I began to track my prepper spending habits in a Doomsday Diary of expenses. Over the years, I've held out pretty steadily at a regular rate of about $20 a week spent on preps. I have managed to amass a glorious stockpile with that amount of money, just by sheer thrift, dogged determination, and consistency.
I think that there's a major misconception that prepping is an expensive hobby, and that you must be rich to be a prepper. Don't you need to spend huge hunks of money on guns and gadgets? Survival retreats and bug-out locations? Underground bunkers and Hummers? Electrified fences and solar panels? Well, you can if you want to. But you can still be a prepper even if you can only afford to budget as little as a dollar a day on the project.
I do not buy expensive MREs or freeze-dried foods or dehydrated meals for my prepping pantry; I simply buy normal, regular every-day non-perishable foods that I can often get for free with coupons. I don't buy top-of-the-line camping gear or James Bond-style survival equipment; instead, I stick to whatever useful items I can glean from flea markets and thrift shops.
If you're a person of limited means, then it's crucial that you become a prepper. As we learned in Katrina, the rich folk will be able to fend for themselves by simply vacationing in the Hamptons until the worst is over. But is there going to be anybody lining up and fighting for the chance to defend and assist the poor and disadvantaged people? If you have a chronically empty cupboard now even when all things are normal, just think of what it might be like when all the stores are closed, everybody's defending their stash, and you're caught short with nothing. Do you really think FEMA, the National Guard, and the Red Cross are going to be rushing to the rescue? Are you willing to be your life on that?
If ever there were a word that perfectly describes my spending habits, it would have to be 'frugal'. I have this odd dichotomy going on: I love to shop, but I hate to spend money. "Never spend a dollar where a dime would do," is my motto.
Therefore it always irritates me when I hear people say, "I would be a prepper, but I can't afford it."
Several years ago I began to track my prepper spending habits in a Doomsday Diary of expenses. Over the years, I've held out pretty steadily at a regular rate of about $20 a week spent on preps. I have managed to amass a glorious stockpile with that amount of money, just by sheer thrift, dogged determination, and consistency.
I think that there's a major misconception that prepping is an expensive hobby, and that you must be rich to be a prepper. Don't you need to spend huge hunks of money on guns and gadgets? Survival retreats and bug-out locations? Underground bunkers and Hummers? Electrified fences and solar panels? Well, you can if you want to. But you can still be a prepper even if you can only afford to budget as little as a dollar a day on the project.
I do not buy expensive MREs or freeze-dried foods or dehydrated meals for my prepping pantry; I simply buy normal, regular every-day non-perishable foods that I can often get for free with coupons. I don't buy top-of-the-line camping gear or James Bond-style survival equipment; instead, I stick to whatever useful items I can glean from flea markets and thrift shops.
If you're a person of limited means, then it's crucial that you become a prepper. As we learned in Katrina, the rich folk will be able to fend for themselves by simply vacationing in the Hamptons until the worst is over. But is there going to be anybody lining up and fighting for the chance to defend and assist the poor and disadvantaged people? If you have a chronically empty cupboard now even when all things are normal, just think of what it might be like when all the stores are closed, everybody's defending their stash, and you're caught short with nothing. Do you really think FEMA, the National Guard, and the Red Cross are going to be rushing to the rescue? Are you willing to be your life on that?
Even if you budget a mere dollar a day for prepping purposes, you can gradually create a survival kit that will keep you on your feet while others are being knocked down. For a buck at any dollar store, you can buy a two-pound bag of rice, a one-pound bag of beans, or a pound of spaghetti noodles, which would keep you fed for a week. You can buy a package of 250 coffee filters which you can use to filter rainwater to prevent dehydration. You can buy 1,000 matches to light a cookstove 1,000 times. Repeat 365 times, and you've got 365 items that might help you through a tough time one day. A dollar a day can go a long, long way towards improving your possible future, even if you don't have a Hummer or a bug-out location in the Hamptons.
Read through the suggestions on the following pages for ideas on how thrift, commitment, and perseverance might one day make the difference - if not between life and death - then at least between comfort and misery.
Read through the suggestions on the following pages for ideas on how thrift, commitment, and perseverance might one day make the difference - if not between life and death - then at least between comfort and misery.