Why Good Personal Finance Management and Prepping Go Hand in Hand

Posted on March 18, 2020 at 10:43 AM By dan njoroge thumbi Category FINANCE 39 Comments

Are you a prepper?  Or are you more of the camp that prepping is for the wackos and the conspiracy theorists?  Or maybe you’re somewhere in the middle.  We like to consider ourselves thoughtful observers, although we’re more on the side of the preppers than the non-preppers. 

Whatever your thoughts on the whole issue, the facts are that preppers are making money for America.  Numbers on guns, ammo and survival products are up as much as 40% in the last 5-8 years.

SO, what does this have to do with you as a lover of all things frugal?

Actually, quite a bit.  You see, much of what preppers are preparing for has to do with unexpected natural disasters, such as Hurricane Sandy.  Last July, for instance, a plethora of thunderstorms, tornadoes and unbearable heat pounded the East Coast and some Midwestern states.  Remember?  Although there were lots of terrible tragedies and horrible things resulting from the power outages that followed the storms, what also stuck out to me was that those who weren’t prepared spent a TON of money simply to feed and shelter their families, when, if they’d done some basic preparation, they could’ve saved LOTS of money.  Here are some news excerpts:

 

“Today makes seven days without power since last Friday, and we don’t have water either,” said Tammy Pickles, a 40-year-old convenience store manager waiting in line with a dozen other people under a hot midday sun for a meal.

“Money is really tight,” said Pickles, who has a 12-year-old daughter at home. “I’m not sure how many more trips I can make out here to get a hot meal. I’m not sure I can afford the gas.” 

A Safeway supermarket tried to remain open with a limited power supply and handed out free bags of dry ice. But the air inside was stale. Shopping carts with spoiled food, buzzing with flies, sat outside the store.

In this heat, ice has become the most valuable commodity. Pinehurst Wine Shop in Maryland is buying extra ice just to give it away at the end of the night.

That ice may salvage a few more perishables. Families have lost food and have to spend money on eating out.

“We can’t afford to go out every single meal, so we’ve been bringing some stuff home, using the grill, used up everything we could possibly use up in the first 48 hours,” one woman without power said. CBN.news

She said she had lost $400 to $500 worth of food from her freezer and refrigerator when the power went out. 

The stop lights were out, the streets were blocked off, gas stations across this area were lined up all the way in one block. Fast food restaurants were packed including the drive thru. Surviving a Derecho Wind Storm    (Can you hear their money flying out of their pockets??)

The lack of power completely upended many daily routines… People on perishable medication called pharmacies to see how long their medicine would keep. 

Baltimore County, Eveena Felder, a registered nurse, had been relying on air-conditioned public areas to keep cool during the day and a fan to help her family sleep.

“We’ve purchased a ton of batteries, that’s where most of our money has gone,” Felder said. “Turn the fan on and keep still, don’t move, less energy.” 

Brooks will likely fork over more cash for a hotel room rather than sit and bake inside his Woodlawn home.  “It’s rough. It’s wiping out my account,” he said. CBS News