Hmmm. A package of four Lifestraws for $35. That’s..uhm…carry the one….$8.75 ea. Thats not a terrible deal for something that you should have in your truck, go-bag, hunting pack, and elsewhere. My local CostCo also had some Goal0 stuff, but I was more interested in the deal on the LifeStraws. If I didnt already have a dozen of these I might pick up a package of these to use as Paratus gifts.
Monthly Archives: July 2022
Article – Zimbabwe debuts gold coins as legal tender to stem inflation
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe has launched gold coins to be sold to the public in a bid to tame runaway inflation that has further eroded the country’s unstable currency. The unprecedented move was announced Monday by the country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, to boost confidence in the local currency. Trust in Zimbabwe’s currency is low after people saw their savings wiped out by hyperinflation in 2008 which reached 5 billion%, according to the IMF.This would, I think, actually make Zimbabwe’s currency more stable than the dollar. Economics and goldbugging are two flavors that are tough to get into one candy. There’s a line in the book The Mandibles where the character is talking about how the independent nation-state of Nevada is on the gold standard..he says something along the lines of ‘Gold is useless..can’t eat it, can grow it, but for some reason it works as money…even if no one seems to know why.’ I’ve often that that gold is about as close as you’ll ever come to a global currency. According to the article, Zimbabwe will sell you all the minted coins you’d like as long as you pay in foreign currency. I wonder how Zimbabwe will acquire enough gold to make a difference in their economy..I wouldn’t want to be paid for my gold in those crappy Zimbabwe dollars. Theyre gonna have to pay in other ways…foreign currency, military land leases to the Chinese, oil, etc. I’d be curious to see where this goes. I suspect what will happen is that this plan, like every other great idea in Africa, will fizzle out from mismanagement and the resources (gold) will disappear into some general or prime minister’s pocket. And the Zim gold coins will become collectors items that are seen ore outside Zimbabwe than in.
Pantsless
I was out in the world doing Stuff and, somehow, tore my pants. Not just tore them, but I mean a gaping hole from the base of the crotch all the way up to the beltline, running parallel to the fly. In short, if it wasnt for the fact I was wearing a very long t-shirt, I would have been running around with Commander Seven-and-a-half snorkeling for air like an asthmatic elephant. To compound matters, there was no place nearby to purchase another pair of pants.
So..I dealt with it. But then I kept having a nagging thought in the back of my head….don’t I have an extra pair of pants in the vehicle? So, I checked the laminated card in the glove box that details all the gear I keep in the truckbox and…yes….a vacuum-sealed pair of jeans was, in fact, part of the loadout. Dug through the backpack, found them, retired the destroyed pair, and got back to business.
Preparedness for the win!
As an aside, I apparently keep, individually vacuum sealed: jeans, t-shirt, heavy shirt, boxer briefs, long underwear, and socks. Essentially, one complete change of clothes suitable for any season. Theres also a winter coat, gloves, scarf, hat, etc in there. The vacuum sealing helps keep the space requirements down.
Moral of the story: A spare change of clothes is a good idea because you never know when you might accidentally wind up ruining whatever it is you’re wearing.
And I pat myself on the back for my tremendous foresight.
Article -In Remote Alaska, Meal Planning Is Everything
An interesting read on what you have to deal with when the nearest Trader Joe’s, HEB, or Safeway is hundreds (or thousands) of miles away.
Have you actually done menu planning for The End Of The World? I mean, I know you’ve got all sorts of stored food, but have you actually thought about what a particular meal, say breakfast, would look like? I have. For me, breakfast looks like the following:
- Oatmeal, Cream of What, Cornmeal porridge
- Scrambled eggs
- Hash browns
- Corned beef hash
- Pork chops
- Orange drink
- Biscuits
- Strawberries, blueberries, bananas
- Instant milk
Thats actually a better breakfast than what I eat now. See, it isn’t enough to just throw back an assortment of storage food. You have to give some thought to what sort of menus youre going to be looking at. How many different breakfasts can you do? Lunches? Sinners? Snacks?
For some ideas, I have always recommended this website and it’s very impressive list of ‘storage food recipes’: http://safelygatheredin2.blogspot.com/2008/11/alphabetical-recipe-list.html
But the important thing to take away from the article listed above is that you have to plan out what your meals will be if you have any hope of efficiently and economically getting your food storage squared away. Go plan a weeks worth of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. How many ingredients ‘cross over’ to other meals? Figure it out, get the most variety and utility from the least amount of items. Its a good exercise.
Bargains — $5 AK mags
You know I love you crazy, prepping deplorables, right? Well, I do. Most of you, anyway. But…as much as I love you, I need to put my needs first. Thats why when I come across a bargain I don’t share it until I’ve taken my bite. Once thats done, its a free for all. Case in point:
A Friend of The Blog ™ and fellow blogger tipped me off to this deal:
AC Unity (Bosnia and Herzegovina..screw it, just call them Yugoslovian) AK mags in 30- and 40-rd capacity for a mere $5 ea.
20-PACK GERMAN MARKET AC AK47 30RD MAGS, UNDER $5 EACH
20-PACK GERMAN MARKET AC AK47 40RD MAGS, UNDER $5 EACH
While I respect the AK platform, I’m an AR guy. And, somehow, I’ve managed to wind up with a handful of AK’s as of late. Well, might as well get mags for them, right? I ordered a hundred of these, a mix of 30- and 40-rd, and they arrived today. They seem to fit well enough, and they have metal reinforcements at the magazine contact points (nose for the ‘rock in’, and rear for the magazine latch.) For $5 a mag, theyre a nice hedge against the looming bans.
I went long on AK mags a few years ago when those Korean-made AK mags were coming in. Good mags, although the metal was thinner than youre average Chinese mag. Worked fine though and the price was right. These are even cheaper. Go grab a few and tuck ’em back in the attic or basement for that rainy day. Or buy a bunch and resell them for a couple hundred percent profit. Either way, not a lot of reasons not to drop a hundred bucks (or more) on this.
When it rains it pours
I have said it over and over, and I know you guys are tired of hearing it….but it’s Truth: You will need $50 bills far more often than you will need .50 BMG.
I finally(!!) got the water heater issue resolved and it was not cheap. But, thats what a grossly overfunded emergency fund is for. I just jumped on the computer, moved money to my personal account, gave the guy my debit card, and it was a done deal. Finito. Time for a hot shower!
And…just in time for a dental emergency that also is not going to be cheap. Fortunately, I have an overstuffed HSA that I keep for just this sort of thing.
And…my homeowners and auto insurance come due this next month.
Thats a buncha cash outlays to be facing all at once.
Am I stressed? Am I concerned? Am I worried?
No.
I’m not even giving it a second thought. Know why? Because every single paycheck I put a percentage into my emergency fund (water heater fix), into my HSA (dental fix), and once a month I put a chunk into my insurance account (homeowners and auto), And I do this faithfully, religiously, without fail. Every month, every paycheck.
As a result I wind up with some increased resiliency. Yeah, I’ve got a basement full of guns, food, ammo, and a safe full of silver. But those stashes of cash, for specific types of emergencies/expenses, has streamlined my life a lot more than the cases of 5.56mm have. But…play it safe, have both.
Compromise
Unfortunately, the environment I work in is full of ‘woke’ types who believe that the answer to every problem is solved by .gov spending money it takes from its citizens. As such, I was subjected to listening to two coworkers in the break room discussing why no one needs an assault rifle to hunt deer and how reasonable compromises need to be made.
Funny thing about those compromises…theyre kind of a one-way street, and not in my favor. In a compromise, no one gets everything they want but everyone gets something, right? So in ‘compromise gun legislation’ what do I get that I don’t already have? Let me give you an example – the lefties will say that they want to ban all assault weapons, nut they will compromise by allowing grandfathered weapons to remain. Okay, so they want a full ban but will compromise on a grandfathered ban. Thats them getting something they didnt have before even though its not exactly what they wanted at the start…thats the compromise. So, where’s the part of the compromise that benefits me? They’ll say the part where I get what I want is where I get to keep my old AR15 instead of having to run it in. But…I already had that benefit before the compromise.
To give a better example: I want to cut off your hand. You, naturally, are opposed to this idea. I say that you should be reasonable …I’ll just cut off three of your fingers and that’ll be the compromise. See the point? You are giving up something without getting anything back that you didnt already have.
To the left, a compromise is great…they get something they didn’t already have…all they have to do is lower the expectations. They want a total ban, they’ll settle for a grandfathered ban. They want a total magazine ban, they’ll settle for grandfathering magazines. They get something they didn’t already have before. But…what do I get? Why, you get to keep your old rifles and your old magazines, they’ll say. Well…I already had those, so what do I get out of this compromise? Nothing, it appears.
Sidestepping the whole of issue of not compromising on the restriction or elimination of a fundamental right, a compromise is supposed to be about both sides getting something they want. If they’re going to take my ability to buy a Glock happystick away from me, they should offer me something I want in order to facilitate my cooperation. Thats how compromise works.
So when some lefty starts saying the ‘gun nuts’ need to compromise, be sure to ask them what they’re willing to give up on their end.
Are you better off now than you were four years ago?
In a case of wanting it both ways, the Biden admin says to ignore inflation numbers because that date is from June and outdated..BUT…embrace the employment figures which are..uhm…also from June and equally outdated.
Can’t make this stuff up.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, inflation continues its march. What is interesting is that precious metals prices are down. Gold and silver are down to some pretty attractive prices if you can get past the premiums. Why so down? Dunno. The cynic in me says ‘market manipulation’ but it could be other things…cash strapped entities may be dumping their metals to raise cash. Who knows? I just know that this might be a good time to sink some of your devaluing dollars in bargain-priced metals.
Food prices are definitely on the upswing and you can’t convince me otherwise. Fortunately I have the pickiness of a stray dog, so I don’t mind eating the same thing over and over (if I like it) and i don’t need the top-of-the-line brand for most things (really, any pasta is just like any other brand…and rice is pretty hard to distinguish between brands unless you have epicanthic folds.)
I’m usually pretty cautious with my spending because I’ve been in some ugly situations, but as of late. In this economy (or any economy, really) you can’t take anything for granted. You have to be very aware that every day is possibly your last day at your job and handle your finances accordingly…because one day that is exactly what is going to happen. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
Reagan ran on the slogan of “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Someone should bring that back. A couple years ago under the Other Guy gas was two bucks, I didn’t have to worry about ‘supply chain issues’, the market was doing well, and I didn’t feel like Ragnarok was right around the corner.
But…thats what being a survivalist is about, I guess. Stock it away during the good times so it’s there for the bad. I used the Trump years to clean up finances, buy guns and ammo, and improve my position. As a result, I’m probably well situated to ride out Bidenflation and the other lunacy him and his fellow travelers bring…but that doesn’t mean I’m okay with it.
2024 can’t get here fast enough.
Answering an email
This came in email today;
I was wondering how you came to decide on your quota/budget/allocations you do for things like gold, silver, ammo, IRA’s, cash, storage food etc. You just figure a percentage of income to each category or? Was wondering if you did some research to arrive at your system or perhaps you have tweaked it over the years?
So, really, a couple questions there…how do I decide on quotas, budget, and allocations.
Well, there’s a ‘baseline’ level.. I want to have X amount of food on-hand. I want X amount of money in the bank. I want X amount of silver set aside. That process is pretty much a “sit and think, then guess” sort of affair. Food? I’d like at least a years worth, right? Okay, so think about what I like to eat and how much a years worth of it looks like. There’s your quota, or total. Same for everything else. Establish a baseline amount and then add to it.
Example: I wanted the ‘Dave Ramsey’ style emergency fund. Started with $1000 in the bank. Ok, that covers most small immediate emergencies. Now what? Well, I’d like to have $5k by the end of this year, $10k by next year, $15k the year after that, and I’ll call it ‘fully funded’ when its at $20k. Alright, that looks like $416 a month to put away for emergencies. So..I do that. Extra money comes in, I put it towards that, which reduces the amount I need to come up with each month. If I get a windfall..say $2000…and finish my goal for the year early, great…now I can use the resources that would have gone towards that for other things.
Budgeting is easy….You know youre going to make, say, $3000 this month. Spend it all on paper at the beginning of the month. $1000 rent, $400 food, $300 utilities, etc, etc. until you’ve spent all $3000 on paper. Thats your budget. Every greenback has an assignment or mission. There shouldnt be any money that doesnt have a task assigned to it…even if that task is just ‘fun’ or ‘preps’ or ‘hookers-n-blow’.
Allocations are very haphazard. Once I write out my budget, I know I’ll have, say, $375 available to me each month for prep-related stuff. Ok…15% to silver, 15% to gold, 40% to food, 15% to gun stuff, 15% to other gear. Its arbitrary but thats the numbers I choose…you can choose whatever you want….50/50 guns and food. Or 20/80 food and gold. Only you know what your goals are. Unexpected windfall? It gets spent to the same allocation.
My budgeting and allocations are based on a yearly budget. If I want to have $5k in the emergency fund by the end of this year, and I get that $5k in the bank by September. Do I put those resources to next years emergency fund budget and get an early start on getting next year done? Not usually. I treat each year on its own. If I finish early for this year, then I work on one of the other goals for this year.
I can’t tell you what to do, I can only tell you what works for me. But if you want my suggestion, I’d tell you exactly how I do/did things:
1) Establish a baseline amount of the item you want. It could be a period’s worth of food, a dollar value of cash, a weight of silver/gold, a quantity of ammo. Whatever. Just get a number to start shooting for as a goal.
2) Figure how much you need to do of that thing each month to get to the end of your yearly goal. X ounces each month, X dollars each month, X gallons each month…whatever.
3) If those amounts are do-able, do them. Follow your plan as religiously as possible. If the amounts aren’t do-able, revise your end-of-year goal so that the monthly contributions are do-able.
4) Set the goals for several years out. I go two years out past the current one. Life happens, you may not meet your goal in a particular year…carry the unfinished parts through the next one and try harder.
5) Decide what happens when your goal is met. I met my emergency fund goal a while back. Do I stop contributing? I could…I met my goal, the amount in the bank is good enough to cover 99% of any emergency. But…you can’t have too much money, so my modest goal is to increase it by 10% every year. An easy enough goal. Some things, like certain guns for instance, when I hit my goal I’m done. Divert the resources elsewhere. Only you can decide what items are ‘enough is enough’ and what items are ‘at desired level, now just maintaining and slightly growing’.
Thats really it. Just open a spreadsheet, make a list, and start budgeting. Once you’ve got your budget, You’ll know how much you can spend on a particular need. Stick tot he plan, stick to the budget. Sometimes you gotta go off-script, but if you can stay on the plan, stay on the budget, it makes life a lot easier.
First World to Third World
I noticed that silver was below $20 for the first time in quite a while. I’ve already purchased my quota of silver for the year so that money is going to other things….but even with silver at $20, the premium is dang near 23%. Look, I know that the premium is what the store makes money on, but, dammit, $4.50/oz seems a bit high for silver that, pre-covid, was a buck and a half over.
A better question is why, during inflationary times, precious metals are hitting such lows? The easy answer, of course, is that ‘the markets are being manipulated’. Maybe. I honestly haven’t examined it. But I do know that I feel a bit more secure with a bunch of gold and silver sitting in the bottom of the safe.
Which reminds me, my water heater puked it’s guts out last night. now, since I have a pretty healthy emergency fund I can literally just write a check and not lose any sleep over it. In fact, this happened several years ago with a different water heater I had. The difference now is that after calling several plumbing outfits here in town, the earliest they can get me in is in two weeks. Two weeks???? They blame ‘staffing issues’. When the heck did the US become a Third World country? This is a country where it used to be you could order anything you wanted and it would done in two days, tops. Now its “staffing’ and ‘supply chain issues’ and ‘nobody wants to work’. It’s a slow descent into Third World-ism, but its a descent all the same.
While I fully agree that the news cycle brings us a lot of things these days…Supreme Court decisions, ‘mass shootings’, etc….don’t take your eye off what impacts you the most: this economic donkey show that the Biden people have foisted upon us.
About the only glimmer of hope seen lately is that gas prices are, a smidgen lower than what they were a week ago. Speaking of market manipulation, how much do you want to bet that gas prices will miraculously decrease just in time for the elections?
