recession-proof-household

Recession Proof Sewing Kit

When our world changes due to some SHTF scenario, one of the kits you want to have stocked is a sewing kit. How detailed you get is up to you, but even on a tight budget, you can put together a decent recession proof sewing kit.

Why should you have a sewing kit in your preps? Even during a crisis situation, you will need to repair items via sewing tools. What if your tent gets a hole in it or your backpack gets a hole in it? They will need to be repaired. Articles of your clothing may also need fixing as well as one of your tarps. Being able to repair and salvage many of these items can be a real help in a survival or bug out situation. You probably won’t be able to get another tarp, tent or pair of socks.

A good place to start is with a travel sewing kit. If you buy one at your local dollar store or grocery store, I believe the most you might pay for one is just a few dollars. You can also purchase them at craft fairs or your local sewing/craft stores. For a small kit, they provide you with some of the basics. You will get several ‘spools’ of thread in different colors. They are not the size of a regular sewing spool, but you will be able to make repairs. You will also get a thimble, a needle threader, usually several needles, some spare buttons and a measuring tape. All of this is usually stored in a small plastic case.

If you choose, you can expand this into a nice lightweight sewing kit, by just adding a few inexpensive items. Adding heavy duty thread
will be a good idea. Patches, or repair tape are great items to add too, like these nylon repair tape patches where you just peel off the backing and stick them in place for your repair job. They would make nice patches for a tent or any outside material. I would also add several packages of heavy duty hand needles and variety package of needles. They are not expensive. And don’t forget those safety pins!

Adding a larger pair of scissors and regular spools of thread would extend the life of your kit for only a few dollars. Again, all of these additions will help to make you a nice lightweight sewing kit. Ladies, if you already have a wooden sewing kit filled with just about everything you will need, then I recommend you think about ‘heavy duty’, and having extras.

Also, for those of you that are not ‘fluent’ in sewing, I recommend you add a good, all-purpose sewing book. Hand Mending Made Easy: Save Time and Money Repairing Your Own Clothes

Sewing tools will grow in their importance the longer a crisis lasts. And remember they will also make great barter items, so stock up!

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How To Make Laundry Soap-Detergent

Make your own natural, non-toxic homemade laundry soap and save lots of money! There are lots of laundry soap recipes online, many of them identical and many with slight variations. The fact is, soap is soap. For doing laundry, using just the following three basic ingredients will be plenty to achieve great results.

BORAX
Borax is a natural mineral. Borax also is known as sodium borate. Borax has many beneficial uses and is found in laundry booster, certain hand soaps and in some toothpastes. It can be found at many stores as ’20 Mule Team Borax’ (pure borax). Buried deep in the Mojave Desert is one of the biggest and richest deposits of borax on the planet in Boron, California.

Washing Soda
Also known as sodium carbonate, or soda ash, is produced in large quantities from common salt. In domestic use, it is used as a water softener during laundry and it effectively removes oil and grease stains. It is not toxic and does not contain harmful detergents or chemicals.

Bar Soap

You know what it is… your typical ‘Ivory’ bar soap, or other. ZOTE or Fels Naptha or Octagon are purpose made bar soaps for laundry.

Homemade Laundry Powdered Soap Recipe

2 cups of shaved bar soap (Ivory, ZOTE, Fels-Naptha, Octagon)
1 cup of Borax
1 cup of (Arm & Hammer) Washing Soda

Shave the bar soap with a hand shredder/grater. Then combine all ingredients into a food processor. Mix until well blended together.

It seems too good to be true, but that’s it!

Use 1 tablespoon of this homemade laundry detergent per load. Up to 2 for a heavy load.

If you are unable to finely blend the ingredients (the shaved bar soap) together with the rest in a food processor, you can simply stir well in a bowl. If you have not used a food processor, the bar soap shavings will not have been reduced more finely. So when using in the laundry you may want to first dissolve the 1-tablespoon of powder mixture into a cup of hot water to avoid clumping on clothes. Or add to laundry water after it has been filling, rather than just sprinkling on the clothes.

If you don’t have a Food Processor, you can try using a blender.

Who needs all these expensive brand-name detergents? Just make your own for cheap!

Now that you know how to make your own laundry detergent, you may consider a backup plan for washing your clothes using a washboard.

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Pre-Made Soup Mixes Save Money And Time

In today’s hard economic times, it can be relatively simple to keep your grocery store spending low. How? Making your own pre-made food mixes will help you achieve that goal. I am talking about food mixes that you can make now and can be used for the short term. A pre-made mix is when all of your dry ingredients in a recipe are combined and sealed for later use.

Starting with the weekly sales happening at your local grocery store will be a great place to start. For example, our stores will run sales on dried beans, $1.00 for a 1 pound bag. Buy plenty of bags when these are on sale and now you can make your own soup mixes. They are easy to combine as well as easy to cook when you are ready.

Let’s say you purchase a one pound bag of navy beans, kidney beans and pinto beans. When you get home, make several batches of pre-made soup mix.

Pre-made mix for Bean and Veggie Soup

1 cup dry navy beans

1 cup dry kidney beans

1 cup dry pinto beans

Dehydrated veggies:

1/2 cup celery

1 cup tomatoes

1/2 cup broccoli

1 cup squash

1 cup small soup pasta (e.g. orzo, small shells or rice etc.)

Mix all ingredients together. Basically, you can add whatever veggies you had left over from your garden bounty which you had dehydrated. Whatever dry ingredients you have on hand that will go nicely in soup, throw it in! Small pastas will make a nice addition to the soup too.

I seal mine in Food Saver bags so the machine vacuums out all of the air. You can use Ziploc bags or Tupperware containers if you like since this is for current use.

When you are ready to make a batch of soup:

Bring 6 cups of broth (or water) to a boil. Add your dry soup contents from above and simmer until the beans are tender (about an hour to 90 minutes). And you can add whatever spices you like to the soup. Depending on what you and your family like, you can make it cajun flavored, chili flavored or Italian flavored by adding basil and oregano. It’s up to you. Simply add a teaspoon or two of the spices you like.

The other advantage to this type of soup mix is that when it comes time to making the soup, you can spice it the way you and your family enjoy. You can use chicken broth or vegetarian broth or beef broth. Which one has been on sale recently? When it is, you should stock up.

Some more money saving ideas to feed your family is by using some of the whole grains you’ve purchased for your long term storage. You can pre-assemble some pancake mixes or hot cereal mixes by mixing things like oats, flax seed, dried cranberries, quinoa etc. It’s easy to mix a large batch, then divide that into smaller batches, and store for your family. This will save you more time when your busy life is pulling at you, just grab a bag of mix and add water! Family is served. And money is saved!

Pre-Made Mix for Oatmeal Pancakes

1/3 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup oat flour (you can make this by placing oatmeal into your food processor)

1/3 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon grated orange zest (optional)

You can package this recipe into smaller portions, or you can seal the whole recipe together.

When you are ready to make pancakes:

After you have placed your dry ingredient mix (above) into a mixing bowl, then add 1 cup vanilla soy milk (you may also use regular milk – or mixed powdered milk), 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/4 cup egg whites (2 or 3 large egg whites).

Preheat your nonstick griddle on medium heat. When it’s preheated, use a large spoon or ladle to place batter on the griddle. At this time, you may choose to have some fruit in your pancakes. After you start to see small bubbles appear on the pancakes, then place some banana slices or blueberries on your pancakes. Wait about 30 seconds, then you can flip your pancakes and finish cooking. Serve with honey or maple syrup.

Ladies, these pre-made mixes also make nice inexpensive gifts at Christmas or for birthdays. Especially if you are ‘known’ for your cooking or baking, this idea will be a winner for you.

Remember that storing pre-made mixes is best in air-tight containers (especially good in vacuum sealed bags like the FoodSaver Vacuum Food Sealer) because ingredients like flour and others may lose their shelf life when always exposed to air.

Also remember to take advantage of the sales your grocery store runs and use your coupons!

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Need Lots Of Money To Live Comfortably?

The average income for American workers was about $40,000 during 2010 while the median income was only $26,400 (meaning half of Americans made more and half made less). I’m sure it’s fairly close to the same today.

For those living in major metro areas, this may sound unbelievably low and unimaginable to be able to live on. For others, this may not be a surprise at all. Having myself had the good fortune of having earned the gamut of wages from low to quite comfortable to in-between, I can tell you that generally speaking, we are all trained that the more you earn, the more you will spend. At the end of the day someone earning $40K may have the same amount saved for a rainy day, as the guy making $140K. People tend to spend what they have. I am guilty of having fallen into that trap for years of my career, until one day I figured it out and plugged the holes where the green stuff was flowing through. It’s amazing how quickly the reservoir will fill back up if there’s no way for the water to get out.

You could argue that often times the person making $140K is actually worse off than the one making $40K because the higher wage earner will have his income leveraged with higher loans than the other. The $140K earner may owe $400K to various institutions for his McMansion, Mercedes, college loan, credit cards, ski boat, and RV. The $40K earner may only owe $8K on credit cards or a used car loan. If the $140K guy loses his job, he’s royally screwed. If the $40K earner loses his job, well, as you can see he will be less screwed than the other guy.

While I’m sure there are plenty of responsible high-wage earners out there, my instinct and life experience tells me that most live it up and buy their toys to the limits of what banks will lend them. Very few actually plan and develop strategy that will enable them to use their bounty to live within their means and one day end up with zero debt, a paid off house, paid off vehicles, and a retirement strategy. Most of them will have gotten themselves in such high debt, that they will be working till they drop, and never pay it all off.

What about the $40K earner? Will he/she be able to live comfortably? Lets define ‘comfortably’ to include not owing anyone anything, having plenty of food to eat, a roof over their head, a reliable means of transportation, being happy with what they have and finding joy in simple things (which is really what happiness is about at the end of the day). This alone will put you in a better ‘place’ than the rich guy who will be a slave for his entire life. Sure, you could live on $40K, and be happy doing so.

After taxes (depending if you are married or not, deductions, etc.) you would end up with ‘about’ $30K, or ‘about’ $2,500 a month. If you resist burdening yourself with debt, you can do quite a lot with this amount of money and set yourself up nicely after awhile.

Here are a few tips…

Buy used things.
Learn to cook your own food.
Clip coupons.
Resist the urge to buy new high-tech gadgets.
Grow some of your own food.
Enroll in an employer-matching 401K fund at work.
Did I say don’t buy new things?
Pay cash for the things that you do buy.
Take enjoyment from the simple things in life.
Resist ‘bigger and better’.
Enjoy your friends boat, not yours…
There are plenty of old used cars that run just fine.
When you must buy, buy on Sale.
Ride a bicycle instead of a car when possible.
Make ‘being frugal’ a fun thing.
Did I say how there’s A LOT of good used items for sale out there?
Check Craigslist for FREE stuff.
Learn ‘do-it-yourself’.

In summary, I believe what I’m trying to point out is that you don’t need to make big bucks to live comfortably. I’m also suggesting that you may be happier than the ‘rich’ guy, so long as you don’t burden yourself to the system and it’s debt-machine. Instead of always striving to make more money, why not strive to release yourself from the system? It seems like a better goal to me…

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Be Smarter About What You Buy

Tightening your financial belt will help you and your family survive. Part of the modern survival philosophy is not only to be prepared for SHTF scenarios, but to also survive life as it is today. Surviving today’s unemployment, hard economic times and rising prices will mean tightening your belt.

Many of us are experiencing, or have experienced a job loss in our family. Perhaps it is not your immediate family, but chances are that someone you are related to, or someone you know, is out of work. Many have had to tighten their belts because of a job loss. I think we all know that your unemployment check doesn’t bring in the cash that your job used to bring home.

Okay, job losses aside, we are having to tighten our belts because of these hard economic times, a.k.a. the recession/depression(?). Butter is now $5.00/lb.! Gasoline is almost $5.00 per gallon and bread is more than $3.00 per loaf. Tide laundry detergent is about $12.00 per jug. But what amazes me is how many women still are not shopping as smart as they can.

I might mention to someone the generic laundry detergent that was on sale for $2.00 a jug and I just bought 8 jugs. The response I might get is something like, “Oh, I saw that but I only use Tide (or some other name brand).” Well, if you are telling me in another breath that you are having trouble making your car payments, or credit cards, or your mortgage, then don’t you think it’s time to switch to detergent X and save ten bucks a jug? But I see this constantly and this is why I believe so many people will have trouble surviving during a real economic catastrophe. They can’t manage their own lives financially. When a real catastrophe happens, they will be wondering when the government will come and bring them assistance.

And speaking of cleaners, ladies, if your budgets are that tight, then stop buying these expensive grocery store cleaners. Buy an equivalent at the local dollar store, or better yet, make them yourself. A jug of ammonia, white vinegar and a box of Borax will make you a lot of great household cleaners for a lot less money. (Never mix ammonia with bleach)

There are lots of ways to be smarter about what you buy. A problem that people have is that they are creatures of habit and will automatically keep buying the ‘more expensive’ things because that is what they’ve always used. Until you break the habit, you should always consciously question what you are buying and why you are buying it. There is often a cheaper way. After about a month of forcing yourself to question everything, you will become more automatic with looking for the deals. You will be amazed at how much cash you can save each month by being a little bit smarter about your purchases.

Getting through these tough times is hard enough as it is. Don’t risk losing your home, your vehicle, or entering bankruptcy by being stupid about what you buy. Shop smart. Save money. Stay well and survive well!

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