Simpler, Cheaper, Independent and Calm

That’s right, not only will life be more secure as a prepper but it can also become cheaper. I started prepping because I wanted to be ready for financial hard times, or disasters, but as I became more prepared I found that I was spending less on the necessities of life. This article will outline some, but not all, of the reasons I live cheaper as a prepper.

To understand this, you would have to understand how I prep. I focus mostly on food storage end of prepping. As part of my food prepping I have acquired 100’s of pounds of whole grains, dried beans, rice, dried corn, and bulk sugar. At first I bought it because it was suggested to but then I realized I didn’t even know how to use any of these items, except the rice and sugar. I decided I need to learn how to use these items and that is when life started to get cheaper.

At first, becoming a food prepper is an investment but it will start to pay off soon enough. I first started to learn how to use my whole grains, since that is what I had the most of in my food storage, and I decided that I needed a grain mill to utilize them better. This was a bit of an adventure to learn how to use whole grain flours but I am becoming quite good at it now. I even found a mixture of whole grain flours that works very well with treats like cookies, cakes, and so forth…

I then learned how pressure cookers can help with dried grains, beans, and rice. So I bought one of those and started learning to make recipes, this again had a bit of a learning curve but I am much better at it now. Not only can I make delicious meals from my dried storage items but I could do it fast and with very little power usage, or very little alternative fuel for power out situations.

In this learning process I have found that I had started cooking more and I was cooking healthier foods for our family. I also found that I was making more foods from scratch instead of using packaged meals. I started to compare the price of the meals I was making now compared to the dinners we used to eat and I was saving anywhere from $3 to $7 per meal for our family, this gave me good feeling inside. This has significantly helped us on our goal to pay off all our “stupid debt”, as Dave Ramsey would call it, that we acquired as a young irresponsible couple.

Another part of my food storage has been storing plenty extra of the items we use all the time. This has also helped in the long run because I wait for these items go on sale and then buy them in bulk. I am still getting better at this one, it takes some couponing skills, but my goal is to get to where I will never pay full price for items that we regularly use in our house. When you have a stock pile of the things you use most, you are able to wait until the next discount price to buy instead of having to pay full price due to needing it now.

Once our debts are paid off, we hope to build up a stock pile of, enough to live off for 3 months plus if needed. Being debt free and having cash can help you not pay interest on the items you buy, which is one of the things that has our countries economy in the death grip.

The more independent you become the easier and more calming life feels.

B.A. ID