Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Here’s a quote from our compatriot at TSLRF:

Maybe the way we live is strange to people but I don’t need to check which day of the month it is to go buy milk, cereal and eggs.

This is part of the statement that preceded it:

They have a young kid and passed some baby clothes onto us. Actually a lot of baby clothes that Wifey offered to pay for but she just wanted to get rid of them. Wifey asked if she could do anything at all like a ride to the store. The gal said maybe next week after they get paid a ride to the grocery store would be nice.

I remember a time when life was very much like that. I also remember I started thinking ahead more and started doing the things to put me in a position where I (and now we) won’t ever have to defer something like buying food. We’ll either have the cash to buy it, the gold/silver to barter for it, or the guns to kill it (and keep it).

But the notion that someday we’re going to be looking into an empty fridge? Not gonna happen.

As an aside, dissect that statement: Maybe the way we live is strange to people but I don’t need to check which day of the month it is to go buy milk, cereal and eggs.
The notion that living in such a manner as to not be so constrained as to have to defer the purchase of essentials like food …is a strange concept to people. I was talking to the missus the other day and she commented that our household income is a hair under the national median….and we live “like kings”. What does that mean? We always have food. We always have heat. We can afford modest entertainment (like Netflix, Internet and WoW), and we can put away ‘just in case’. And we’re happy with it. We don’t have credit card debt, student loans, car payments or anything except a small (<$50k) mortgage. That means that pretty much any money that comes in can go wherever we want. I agreed with her and told her that when this Recession/Depression/Stagflation/Whatever is finally over we'll probably be in the small group of people who didnt really have to change much of their lifestyle or have their lifestyle impacted too badly. Why? We've always lived within our means. And thats what Ryan at TSLRF is saying...that living within your means seems weird to some but the alternative is pretty ugly.

Im not normally someone who drinks self-help KoolAid but…..we read this guy’s book, listen to his radio show and it makes a difference. So much so that the missus has, when his book is on sale, bought extra copies and given them to her coworkers. Its a very simple message – live within your means, get out of debt, stay out of it, invest and save. Some of those coworkers she gave books to took the advice to heart, some didnt. Go listen to the guy’s shows (or podcasts) and if you can pickup a used copy of his book, read it. might not work for everyone but it works for us.