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My name is Jackie. I am a wife, mother, outdoor lover. I have 3 young children who just love to help me learn how to be ready for anything. Prior to 2009 I thought I had life pretty figured out. I had a few things on hand for emergencies. I made sure when we went camping I was diligent to have stuff in case something unexpected were to happen. I mean after all, I learned to be ready for anything when in September of 1997 I was in a small truck that crashed over a cliff and landed 86 feet down. I survived that accident minus a few months recovery, so I can handle anything right? Then I experienced, like most, the horror of September 11th, 2001. The stock market changing in 2000 and 2001. Following that was Katrina. So, sure I felt pretty prepared. I knew what I needed to do to survive. Or so I thought. In 2009 I had to make a really difficult decision. Do I continue to work and take a pay cut, have a longer drive to work, step backwards from all I worked so hard to have in my career, just for the sake of health insurance? My husband owns his own small business and insurance costs seemed so insane. This was one of the most difficult decisions I had to face in a long time. The company I worked for was changing right in front of my very eyes. There were cuts coming and I had to play a game of do I opt out and take a package, become a stay at home mom? Or, do I take a chance, a leap of faith, that I may get to advance again and keep my job and insurance. I have always worked since I was 14 years old. I always had a job. Now I was faced with not having that independence and depending on my husband in a time of huge layoffs, job cuts and foreclosures. What did I decide? I decided to take the package, take a leap of faith, and become a stay at home mom. My children were going to be starting into school, and the schedules would have been a nightmare. I decided to stop living the way I and learn how to really save more money. I learned and, I am still learning, how to make my money go farther. Insurance cost me what my daycare cost per month. Even though that is a lot, at least my family has it. My husband works 6 days a week on his business so that we have all our bills paid. We don’t take extravagant vacations. In stead, what we do is spend time together, real time. We go camping on weekends when we can. We have even camped in our back yard or living room. Just to have time together. Something we took for granted as a family prior to me being home.
Right now you are most likely saying, what the heck does this have to do with prepping? Let me tell you what it has to do with it. Because I made a choice to stay home, I had to make a choice to live differently. I was in the financial industry and I saw things starting to unravel before they did. My job had to do with security and regulations on the deposit side of things. I also had to work on projects that dealt with pandemics, robberies, fraud and more. So my mind was already in a mode of “what if this happens”. What I did not realize is that I was not ready for how to prep for the unexpected at home. I began by just clipping coupons and watching store ads for items marked down. I started buying things in bulk that were on sale. A family of 5 eats, drinks and does a lot of laundry! So every thing mattered. I was no longer going to have my paycheck every other Friday to count on to help meet our needs. I needed to spend less than I did when I worked. So I had to find a way.
What I found I was doing was prepping. I was thinking about what do I do if my husband loses some of his accounts? What do I do if my husband gets hurt working and he can not go out each day. What do I do if I get hurt or one of the kids? Then one night as I was performing my new found career of reading store ads and clipping coupons, a show came on in the background. It made me stop in my tracks! My jaw hit the ground and I said to myself, “I am not alone”. The show was “Doomsday Preppers” on NatGeo. Now I don’t care for the title of the show, but I do watch to get ideas. It has helped me, shoot it is one of the reasons I found this blog to find this contest, to share with others; How I found out I was not alone! There were people out there that had concerns like myself. There is a name for us, WE ARE PREPPERS! I felt so relieved to know that my concerns were not isolated. Being a stay at home mom with only 2 of my 3 in school right now, kind of makes you feel isolated at times. It is a life change when you go from working outside the house to working harder being home raising your children and running your home. But, that is another story for another time. My purpose today is to tell you that even if you don’t have the same concern for what could happen in the world as myself, of a global financial collapse, we have a common goal.
What is that goal? It is get back to what our country was founded on. A place where the average man can do what they need in order to live a decent, simple and fruitful life. See we are a long way from where the survivors of the depression came from. Most of us grew up during the 1970’s, 80’s, or even the 90’s. I grew up knowing about the “cold war”. Watching the movie “RED DAWN”, great movie I still say personally. Anyway, we grew up going to the grocery store and picking up anything and everything right off the shelf. We grew up going to the clothing stores and having overwhelming choices of clothes, shoes, coats, hats and so on. Shoot, plastic became space age and very few of us remember the rotary telephone or that TV’s did not come with remote controls and a WALKMAN was a portable music device that was almost as big as a brick. My point is simple. When I chose to let go of my job I was afraid and I had to change my view of my world. I had to begin to think of how did my grandmother, grandfather and great grand parents lived on so little? Now, back to our common goal, our goal is to live on what we have and teach our kids how to do the same. Because the major change may not happen in my lifetime, but it will happen in my children’s. Our world, our planet, can not take much more. Something will change, change is the only constant thing. I have challenged myself to learn how to preserve my food, cook on an open fire, wash my clothes (sometimes) without my washing machine *sigh*, that is exhausting work. I have challenged myself to teach my children to live with what they have. Save for the future, prepare always for what they can and hope for the best always! I have done this with resistance from some close members of my family. I hear all the time “I worry to much”, ” I need to find something positive to focus on”. To that I say, this is not fear on my face or in my voice, it is concern. Concern that “WE”, as a people, have become to use to just having these things like electricity and police, fuel, air condition, heat at the click of a button. To that I shout out to everyone, “PREPARE FOR YOUR NEEDS FOR FOOD, SAFETY, WATER AND FIRST AID LIKE YOU PREPARE FOR YOUR RETIREMENT”. Because for all you know what you set a side now will be your retirement!
I will continue to learn new things, learn to make my family safe, find my bargains, and stock up on what I can, talk to my neighbors and friends about preparing. I will do this all while I help my kids with homework, clean my home, walk my dogs, hug my husband and kids. All of this is my life. You can call me a Prepper and I will say “Yep, All the Way through to my RED, WHITE and BLUE!
Have a great day.
J.K. AZ
29 Comments
Mary · April 13, 2012 at 2:04 pm
Very well written and very true. We can do it,
Jackie · April 13, 2012 at 7:08 pm
Thank you! We CAN DO THIS!
Kelly · April 13, 2012 at 2:40 pm
Amen, I’m with ya, right down to my red, white and blue too.
Jackie · April 13, 2012 at 7:10 pm
🙂 Thank YOu!
Laurie · April 13, 2012 at 2:51 pm
I am a stay at home Mom of 4, going on 15 years now and everything you have written rings true in my life too!
Jackie · April 13, 2012 at 7:13 pm
It is refresthing to know someone else in the world shares same experiences. Then you know someone else can relate. Being a Stay At Home Mom has been the best thing, yet most difficult at times. But, even at the end of my hardest day, I would miss it if I could not be home with my family!
Marty · April 13, 2012 at 7:22 pm
Nice observations.
Jean · April 13, 2012 at 7:39 pm
Very well said!!
lilly · April 13, 2012 at 9:32 pm
Very good..
Cynthia Smith · April 16, 2012 at 11:40 pm
Now I do not feel so alone. There are others out there who believe in being prepared.
Sharon · April 17, 2012 at 3:43 pm
Very well written. Keep up your quest.
pj · April 17, 2012 at 8:18 pm
Excellent!
Jackie · April 20, 2012 at 4:13 am
Deciding to follow my instinct has been really rewarding.
Michone Bowsher · April 20, 2012 at 2:47 pm
Well lady you know how I feel about all this. There is always more to learn when your ready!!!!.. love the story.
Jan · April 21, 2012 at 12:19 pm
Being prepared is always a challenge. What you are doing will make your family strong, no matter what.
Sandy Taylor · April 21, 2012 at 11:07 pm
I agree – and I am really glad you decided to write into the contest. We have been considering having me become a stay ay home mom; and it’s just nice to see other stay at home mom preppers out there. 🙂
~ Sandy Taylor
Jackie · April 23, 2012 at 8:49 pm
Sandy,
It has been hard work adjusting to not working outside the house. But worth it. There are days I feel, well, like a hermit. But then there are days when I talk to someone while I am shopping for supplies, that make it worth it. I have more an more opened up to people about prepping. So that in a way they can take control a little. What has been most rewarding is that my kids are starting to get into being prepared as well. Seeing my oldest daughter grab her Day Pack evertime she is going to explore while we camp. Well that makes me feel good. She checks that she has water and her whistle. It makes a Mom proud.
Cindy Coccioletti · April 23, 2012 at 8:36 pm
Jackie you know I am a strong believer in being a stay at home mom. Better to live without a few items than miss out in our children’s lives. Our household has always been prepared because we have lived in the mountains away from the everyday convenience of a town or city. So even though you are within a city my hat is tipped to you for being aware and prepared for your family.
Jackie · April 24, 2012 at 1:11 am
🙂 Thanks Cindy! I would not change it now for anything.
Linda · April 25, 2012 at 1:52 am
Great piece very interesting!
jean · April 25, 2012 at 12:10 pm
well said!
Kellie · April 26, 2012 at 4:38 am
Thanks for encouraging all of us stay at home moms! Great article.
jean · April 26, 2012 at 1:11 pm
Great article!!
jean · April 26, 2012 at 1:14 pm
You can do it!! Look what you have accomplished so far!!
jean · April 26, 2012 at 1:15 pm
Good job!!!
Sharon · April 26, 2012 at 3:19 pm
Good luck
Sharon · April 26, 2012 at 3:21 pm
Wish you the best, hope you win
Sharon · April 26, 2012 at 3:22 pm
Keep up the good work for at-home moms
Sharon · April 26, 2012 at 3:23 pm
Win, positive thinking.
Comments are closed.