Third Step in Preparing (It's Not What You Think)...

There really is no secret on how to prepare, it just a matter of actually taking the first steps and staying focused.  
Even our government recommends being prepared. They have lists that you can print out or download. Last week I shared what I consider the first steps...
Step 1) 72 Hours of Water
Step 2) 72 Hours of Food

I would recommend after water & food, start gathering the other items listed: 

Starting with cash on hand. 

Now we didn't start with this amount, we had to diligently save. Personally, from the very start we quickly established using 10% each payday to start our purchases, then increasing another 10% of our earnings for saving for our on hand cash & that is after personally tithing. 



While this is a silly video, I think it illustrates how people often think. If you start with disciplining yourself to set aside real money for your purchases, you will be way more prepared than most. A lot of these items are items you should already have because you are using them. I found that I just centrally located all my items we might need for an emergency. Then you are able to start purchasing the other items with cash:

Recommended Items to Include in a Basic Emergency Supply Kit

This first group are items that I actually carry every day and has come in handy several times. 

Prescription medication & extra glasses 3 days worth stashed. 

Matches in water proof container or lighter(s)

Flashlight and extra batteries

Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation

Feminine hygiene and personal hygiene supplies

Paper plates, cups, utensils, paper towels, mess kits

Wrench or pliers to turn of utilities

Can Opener for food

First Aid Kit

Whistle to signal for help

Face mask, to help filter contaminated air and plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter in place

Local Maps (we keep ours in both cars)

Additional Items to Think About:

Sleeping bag, blankets

Battery powered or hand crank radio NOAA Weather Alert Radio. I would highly recommend the hand crank radio, that way you don't have to depend on having fresh batteries.

First Aid book

Documents

Activities

Change of sturdy clothing, shoes. Cold weather clothing

Just take these steps and establish your 72 hour kits. Then you will be able to breath easy as you continue on your journey of being prepared.
Next, it's time to look at tools for preparing.
The first tool I would consider getting is the FoodSaver and here is why:
Why the FoodSaver is the First Tool I would Buy

What you see here, is what I actually do. If you liked this article, please feel free to join our community (Perky Prepping Gramma) on facebook & keep up to date on things posted.  Thank you. ~Perky Prepping Gramma~ 

Also I participate in Amazon's associate program, where I receive a small percentage of recommended purchases. I only recommend things that I have used and like. There is no additional charge to you.

Budgeting, paying cash....

Know your needs when looking for your next property. We had a specific list of basic amenities that we considered a necessity in our new home location.
When we purchased, we were very aware that we would need to add a new roof (still has the original roof from the 70's) & we need a garage.
Mr. Perky does car repairs and has a huge amount of tools of the trade. We have multiple vehicles (very typical for a mechanic), plus he wanted to have an extended garage so he could wall off a portion for teaching classes (he teaches Utah Concealed Carry).

He did all the research and opted for a company out of North Carolina to save us about $4,000. Again we paid cash.

They made the trip up to Virginia twice. Once to pour the concrete slab and the second time to build the structure. 

Another step completed on our journey. Mr. Perky is pleased.

For more information...
I am currently adding more blogs posts to explain a little more in detail about how we got to this point in our journey. These posts are listed here under"Financial".

Romans 13: 8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. (NIV) Note that the previous chapter is talking about actually paying what our owe.

Want to increase your situational awareness? A challenge...

I believe I maintain a strong situational awareness in my everyday life. This week, I experienced an even higher level of awareness when I withdrew a very large sum of cash (all in $20 bills) from my bank. Actually I had to smile when the cashier at the bank when she reverified that I wanted that amount in $20 bills. Needles to say she was a little surprised. 

As with all skills I believe it is important to practice. What I am able to share, is that for the short time I was carrying this cash, I was still doing the same things I normally do. But I waited longer to assess my location before walking about, I held my purse closer, I made sure I had access to my defense readily available.
Most people I think will assume they are at the peak of their awareness and won't give this a second thought. I want to encourage you to challenge yourself.

Are you able to pretend? Either carry something of great value with you for a day and see if your situational awareness level changes. Or print out this picture and pretend it is real and carry it with you.

(Image from Wkipedia Commons)

If you decide to accept this challenge, afterwards please post on the wall what you observed.
We will see...

The Best Gift...

As you may know from all the holiday decorations that have cropped up, Christmas is on it's way. 
What you won't see here is a list of things to consider buying for the holidays.
I grew up with the pressure of giving gifts to EVERYONE.
Staying out of debt is our new choice. 
A few years ago we started on a different journey for the holidays. I started with the things that created stress and guilt in my world.
Christmas Cards: I really was bad about sending Christmas cards anyway, so this one was fairly easy to eliminate.  Do you still have cards you didn't send out from last year? Anyway, I only send a card to my mother & now I send a couple to the Angel Card Project. 
I actually chose to support this project, because I do remember spending years alone at Christmas. Including the year I had hotdogs for Christmas dinner, because I was working on Christmas Day in the military and nothing was open for dinner. I had missed the mess hall dinner. 

Decorating the House: Again another project that simply caused stress in my life. After my son left home, I eventually cut back drastically on decorating. What I found again was I often working up to the last minute.
This year I may put up a small tree I have: 1) Because we will be going through the attic and seeing what we are going to move & what we are getting rid of and 2) My mom is coming to visit us this year. Other than that we focus on what we really like: Putting up some outside lights and lighting a candle on Christmas Day.

Cooking: Christmas Eve we have our "Favorites Banquet". We get foods that we don't normally get through out the year, usually because of cost. I started this when my son was little & we were so broke. It's a tradition that he really wants to share with his family.  Christmas Day we order Chinese food & stay out of the kitchen. LOL.

Gifts: This has been the biggest change recently. 
For us, we give gifts to my mother (the only living parent) and our grandchildren. We request that no one gives us gifts.  

Pay Cash Only: This is the big deal here. Be intentional with your plan. Don't go into debt for the holidays. It really isn't necessary. 
Don't get caught up in the hype and guilt of buying.

Forgive Yourself: I think often people harbor a lot of guilt during the holidays. Take a day to forgive yourself.  Take day to remember things that are painful and sorrowful. Take a day and do something for yourself. 

The added benefit is now I have far less stress during the holidays. More time to focus on what I believe is more important. 
At the very least, take the time to really evaluate what is truly important in your world and work towards that. 

We received our clear title Deed in the mail!

One of the most interesting comments made when I posted about paying cash for our property was “don't know how anyone but the rich can do this “. Actually, I just smiled.

As you now know from reading the financial posts, we are both blue collar workers by choice. We work multiple jobs between us. We just got very serious, stayed focused and made some uncommon choices.

Below is Forbes' 2014 list of the richest counties in America:

1. Falls Church City, Va.
2. Loudoun County, Va.
3. Los Alamos County, N.M.
4. Howard County, Md.
5. Fairfax County, Va.
6. Hunterdon County, N.J.
7. Arlington County, Va.
8. Douglas County, Colo.
9. Stafford County, Va.
10. Somerset County, N.J.

Read more: http://www.wtop.com/41/3594972/Americas-wealthiest-counties-Six-of-top-10-richest-counties-in-DC-area#ixzz3H3W5QaMy

While we do live in one of these counties, that doesn't mean that we are rich. What that means for us is the cost of living is higher, especially properties. We chose to move out of this area to find a more affordable property and we looked religiously for over year. While this property was really nice, it still needs a lot of work. We are adding an entire new roof, building a garage and fixing it up.

One thing that worked in our favor was standard bank financing was unavailable for this property. Having the ability to pay cash gave us a slight advantage.

What worked for us was we were willing to change our habits, stopped making excuses and recognized that debt was not working for us. This isn't easy, but it is a choice. I have also shared stories of others that are in the process and some even working with far less than we had.

The biggest moment happened yesterday (Oct. 23, 2014) when we received our clear title Deed in the mail. Mr. Perky & I looked at each other and smiled. We accomplished something really big!

To round this out, these are many related posts linked below that show other steps we used to get where we are on our journey. Know that we continue to tithe, still maintain several months of living expenses/emergency fund and we continue to use a certain percentage of all money we earn to keep preparing. Next step - to sell our current home. We still are on a journey...

For more information...
10/10/14 More blogs posts to explain a little more in detail about how we got to this point in our journey. These posts are listed here under"Financial". This will take some time to read.

Romans 13: 8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. (NIV) note that the previous chapter is talking about actually paying what you owe.

Understanding the Credit Game

Have you been tracking your expenses as requested in last weeks post? Any thoughts to share so far? I wasn't restricting my spending and we were purchasing more than usual because we are doing things at the farmstead. Spent a little over $400. Paint & painting supplies, food, gas & N100 masks with filters. No credit used.

Nancy Thormann's got me thinking about how much you are able to save if you get yourself out from the credit game.
While I have technically known that you really pay a lot to borrow to purchase a house, I went to a mortgage calculator and discovered:

How much you pay $300,970.80 (total amount you pay) – $165,000 (loan amount) 

= $135,970.80 (your cost to borrow that money). 

Every time you are using accumulated credit debt, you are paying back much larger amounts of money. 
And this my friends, is the envelope that arrived with the Deed to our property, instead of a coupon payment book.

Not so smart way to pay off your credit cards...

I do not recommend this next step. At this point we refinanced the house to pay off our credit card debt. We were still on the brink of financial toxicity in our thought process. But, we wisely started using cash only from that point.

We focused on three points

1) Not using our credit cards. Basically we got rid of them, with the only exception for one card for online purchases. With this card, I immediately go to my bank account and pay the amount to the credit company. You should actually think about that too. Decide if having your information out there is worth the risk.

2) Using cash only. If we didn't have the money, we just don't buy it. Once you get the credit cars payment eliminated, you might be surprised how much more money you have to spend. Suggestion: Why not add up how much you are paying in credit card debit each month? Are you only paying minimum payments?

3) Building up an emergency cash reserve to pay for those things that you need. We are dedicated to this principle.

Honestly, I haven't read or taken the Dave Ramsey financial courses, but I know somethings we do fit into that system and it is one I would recommend highly, particularly how to pay off credit cards, budgeting with envelopes and prioritizing the establishment an emergency cash reserve.

Lastly, Peter Bendal Kear had some excellent suggestions I wanted to make sure everyone got a chance to read his thoughts.

"A couple things I would like to add. A bank is not a good place to store all of it keep an emergency fund on hand. Along these lines realize that paper and even hard currency will lose it's monetary value when the system crashes (Perky's emphasis added). One words about debt and bills which comes in 2 types IMO. Things like electricity, phone, food, etc. which are either the same or variable monthly charges can be budgeted for but hey if you don't pay and something is shut off be able to do without are not something to worry much about. Budget for them and well if you can't afford them or the system goes down be ready to do without. Other things like mortgages, car loans, credit cards, etc have a set monthly payment on a debt you owe. All of these things can be paid with 10% added to the payment (less or more is okay I make 20% on our vehicle) in order to pay them off and get out of debt quicker. This also has the advantage in some cases depending on your financial institution of being ahead in payments so that if you say had to stop paying for a time you would be covered. Now keep in mind secured loans are ones that they will take the collateral (home, vehicle) so in my mind part of prepping is making sure that does not happen thus the extra payments. Thing is if the system crashes who is to say I owe this and force payment as well so I guess I could put that same 10% into a savings but then what do I know my house is paid for and I am about a year ahead on my only vehicle loan."

Next Friday, The Big Hairy, Scary Step...

For more information...
10/10/14 I am currently adding more blogs posts to explain a little more in detail about how we got to this point in our journey. These posts are listed here under"Financial".

Romans 13: 8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. (NIV) Note that the previous chapter is talking about actually paying what our owe.

Let's have a chat about finances....

After posting about paying cash for our new home, a few people were asking about how we were able to accomplish that feat. I am going to start posting on Friday's about how we got to where we are at in our financial journey.

Before we started on our journey we were very much in debt. About four years ago (2010) we became very concerned about the economy and our impending retirement.

First, there is a difference between actually owning something and having something.

The realization hit there is a fallacy in thinking that “we owned our home”. At that point we owned three vehicles, which were paid off. That is what owning something means to me. We had (have a house) a house, which we were in debt on, i.e. mortgage, which actually means the bank owns the house. There is a distinction there.
We had built a “craft room” onto our home, which was where my mother in law lived until she died. That was a wise choice in my opinion. After she passed away we earned additional income by having people live there.

The "craft room" has a bedroom, bathroom, living room & kitchen

We are not rich. Though I often find people never define themselves a rich. Rich is what people are who make more money than you do. We are well educated, but both of us have chosen to work blue color, service industry jobs. DH does several things to bring in additional money to include teaching Utah Concealed Carry courses and fixing vehicles.

Today's focus point is understanding your why?

We realized we really needed to get out of debt. At that point we didn't even have a thought about paying cash for another house. For some reason it finally clicked we were committed to getting and staying out of debt. 2010, that was the year.

Why do you want to get out of debt? Really think about it. How serious are you? What are you willing to give up to attain that goal? Write that reason down, post it on your fridge or carry it with you in your wallet. Wrap it around your credit cards.

We are all at different points in our financial journey. Only you are able to make the decision to change your thought process and take the first steps to get out of debt. You can use any excuse you want to, but the reality is you got yourself into debt (there are few true exceptions), only you can get yourself out of debt.

I want you to feel free to chime in and share your “why” if you want to.

Next week I will talk about how important is your why...

For more information...
10/10/14 I am currently adding more blogs posts to explain a little more in detail about how we got to this point in our journey. These posts are listed here under "Financial". 

Purchasing a home without debt...

This is what it looks like to purchase a house and land for cash. Yes, cash.

We got up early this morning and are traveling for about two hours to do our final walk through & purchase our new home. We have cashiers checks ready for the settlement. Some cash wired into the escrow account and cold cash. We will own this house immediately. What I want to tell you is that it is possible. Really.

About four years ago we started on the journey of getting out of debt. Started preparing about three years ago. Our main reason for preparing is we are concerned about economic collapse, so shortly after we started preparing, we pulled money out of our 401 accounts. We socked it away...

First I must say I am grateful that both DH and I have jobs. DH also has several side jobs. He does car work for others and he teaches a monthly Utah Concealed Carry Class with friends. I am grateful that DH has mad skills and I am very proud of him! We add any extra to our “sock”.

We have slowly been adding it up and here we are today we are able to buy our property.

We are not a financial planners, we just applied common sense. While I haven't specifically used it, what we do is similar to Dave Ramsey's approach, including the envelope system as you can see from this house envelope.

Got out of debt
STOPPED using credit cards

Paid off credit cards (car were already paid off)

Live with our means, cut back on our living expenses.

Start using cash.

Basically if we don't have the cash, we don't buy it.

NOTE: We each have one credit card for online purchases. But, we are extremely strict about usage and as soon as we pay for something with the card, we immediately pay the card off. And I mean immediately. For example, when I make an Amazon purchase, as soon as I get the confirmation and total I open up my online banking account and pay that amount on the credit card. O.k. I guess in reality, it takes two business days for the transaction to complete.
For more information...
10/10/14 I am currently adding more blogs posts to explain a little more in detail about how we got to this point in our journey. These posts are listed here under "Financial". 

A Real Life Cautionary Tale...

The world is changing. We need to be more aware each day. This is from a person you know in our community. I am proud this person is willing to share their story, so we all are able to learn a valuable lesson. I am sharing this tale in it's entirety, because this is their story to tell. Please listen. ~Perky~

“Good morning. I just wanted to talk a minute. Monday evening my husband and kids came to pick me up from work. When we got home our door was open. Now I've lived in this small town all my life.
We live on the back of 5 acres in a forest. You cannot see the house. We lock our door occasionally. So we found our safe open and all the belongings on the floor and our money was gone along with a gun and some small items. They had moved over our window unit to throw out the goods.
We called the police. I had to go to the end of the driveway to flag them down as they didn't even know there was a house back there. They took pictures and dusted for fingerprints. They found no prints. I find that odd because they should have found my husbands at least. The police did not even do a perimeter check. Around 1am that night, since I could not sleep, I woke up my husband and told him that I think they dropped our stuff in the pasture and will return later to get it and we should go look.

Sure enough! They dropped the belongings by the gate. They took the money, coins and a nice antique pocket watch though. I was so mad that the police did not find this when they were out initially. This stuff was only 20 feet from our window!!!
Since then my husband has been so mad at himself. He got complacent and did not lock the safe nor the house door. I explained to him if it had been locked they would have destroyed the door to get in and took more belongings than what they had gotten out if the safe. You can replace money but not sentimental guns, jewelry etc.

Yesterday he installed a couple cameras in the house, new dead bolts and now the safe is locked. I don't like putting my money in the banks for fear of bank holidays etc. So I think we will be hiding stuff all over the house in weird places. We will have a code as to were it is so we don't forget.
There is a message here that God was telling us. I'm thinking He was telling us to depend on Him more than our money. I did not realize the comfort I felt knowing we had some cash to depend on when times got tough when all along I should have had comfort in Him knowing he is always there in tough times and good times. Now we are lost. We have to adjust to REALLY depending in Him. We should have been focusing on God the whole time. We did not even realize how we had gotten far from Him. We are active in our church and do our home bible studies etc. We love our church family.

Our money security blanket is gone and we HAVE to depend on Him. Funny how He makes us listen. I'm not mad at Him. I'm grateful. He has opened our eyes in a creative way. I love Him so much. I'm thankful that our family was not home and could have gotten hurt. It will take about a year to save up what we lost in money but our focus is different now.

I encourage your followers to not trust anyone. Use your locks, lock your safes, purchase a security camera.

They are out there and will steal from you.
Our pastor came out that evening for support and said a prayer. It was pretty powerful. All I can say is I'm glad I was not the thief who stole from us. Gods wrath will get them. It's not up to me it's up to Him Please, in your new home don't get complacent. Get a camera and lock your doors. Just because you are in the country doesn't mean those thieves will not find you.”

Do YOU Want to Save/Earn Money with Zaycon?

What is Zaycon? 
Today is Zaycon Chicken Event Day in my life. I just recently ordered my 40 lbs. of boneless, skinless chicken breast. 

When I first heard about Zaycon foods, I went to their site and read everything about them. Then I registered. I understand that forty pounds is a lot of meat and even with a decent per pound price, it is still a big chunk of money to lay out. Thankfully, I started saving up money each month & was able make the purchase from my saved money. 

     

Then initially they didn't offer any “events” remotely close to my area. But, I registered anyway & I have encouraged others to do the same. I learned that from Zaycon that the more people that register and share, the better chances of creating a new event location. It really did work. Now if you really live in the boonies, you may have to travel more. As LeAnn knows they don't ship to Alaska yet.

After you register, you then look for events that are close to you. I was willing to drive about an hour to be able to pick up my chicken. It is worth the drive for me, especially for the quality and cost of the chicken.

Honestly it took me awhile to decide that I was going to purchase from them. But I finally decided I was going to order. I talked to a friend and the first time we split a case of chicken (20 lbs. each) and we pressure canned the chicken breasts together.
There are Zaycon support Facebook sites in some areas. Mine is Zaycon Fresh of Virginia. These sites, if available allow you to find other people what are will to share an order with you. 

Just look at the size of this chicken breast. These are really cage free chickens, the super size comes from what Zaycon specifically orders from the farmers.

Most retailers & restaurants order smaller sizes. I called to ask them.

So, how do you save on your purchase? 

The power comes from sharing with your friends. 

1. Now please allow me the honor of being the person that introduces you to Zaycon. click this link & Register. This is my unique link: https://www.zayconfoods.com/refer/zf144734
2. After you register you will receive your unique referral link & SHARE YOUR REFERRAL LINK with your friends. This is a really important step. When people you know register and purchase, you will receive $1 credit each time that person purchases - to apply to your purchases.
3. Then subscribe to an area (or two, depending how far you will travel) under the location tab.
4. Order your chicken or other product.
5. Then the day of your local event, you drive up, hand them your confirmation, they load it in your car. 

Back to my friend, as I mentioned we split our first case. We were so impressed with the quality of the chicken, she registered and the next time we bought 3 cases (60 lbs each). I got a credit of $1 for her purchase.

40 lbs. of chicken ya'll

Even if I didn't get referral $1's, I still wholehearted believe that this is an excellent deal. The quality alone is worth everything.
I know several of you already do Zaycon, please feel free to share your thoughts.

Tasty bacon from Zaycon: baking

for Pasta Carbonara from 100% from storage

Zaycon really does offer a great deal on fantastic products. The food is superior and I have been so very happy. Why not hop on the Zaycon band wagon today?

Glad you visited today & would love it if your joining our community in Facebook at Perky Prepping Gramma.

P.S. I almost missed the fact that we will be living in our new house, 90 miles away from our current location. Glad I caught that before I ordered. 

What do I do on payday towards prepping?

It's Friday! I'm off & it is payday...

What do I do on payday towards prepping?
I mostly deal with a cash envelope system in my life.

On payday, first I check my account (direct deposit) and see how much I received in my paycheck. I am am hourly employee, so this changes. I jot down the amounts.

SHOPPING CARTS: Between paydays, I add items to my Amazon & Walmart shopping carts. On payday I just review my carts & then purchase. I will add things I need or that are next on my list of items to purchase for preparing.

(Photo credit gojiggy)

USE ONE, BUY TWO: When I use up a regular item & pull one from my stock, I add two to my shopping cart(s). For example today my shopping cart has 2 of each of the following: deodorant, toilet paper, chili powder, toothpaste & cotton swabs. Honestly by now, I barely even think of this back stocking. It is just a habit, I really don't consider this part of my prepping $$.

After I make my online purchases, I recheck my balances, take my shower, I hop in the car and head out to the bank. I withdraw most of my money out of my account (restricted by their cash limits), to take home and divide up among my envelopes. If I happen to need to go to the grocery store, I will do that and get an additional $100 of cash. My goal is to get as much cash out of my account s possible.

WAYS I SAVE:

For Walmart I actually go through a service called shopathome.com. I can get 3-5% back on purchases. This takes awhile to accumulate. But for me, every little bit helps. About having my information out there; unfortunately that boat sailed a long time ago. I will be reevaluating this after I move.

For Amazon I save in a couple ways.

I actually have an Amazon credit card (the only card I own). You also get cash back from that. As soon as I purchase something, I immediately go to my banking account and pay that amount off. I never have a balance on the card.
I also save by having Amazon Prime. Honestly the only thing I care about is the free two day shipping. It has come in really handy when I needed items really quickly (like, oops :D a birthday party)

They have two free trails running all the time. One for students (½ price) and one regular.

Also I have an associates account with Amazon. I receive a small commission when people purchase items that I recommend. I only post things I am confident in and actually remove items if I don't like them. Since I don't receive the commission on my own purchases, I actually gift them to another blogger.

Perky Prepping Gramma's Store

Then I start the rest of my weekend list of things to do. Sunday I will be sharing another older post with more details on how I manage the cash system, taking challenges and goal setting.

As always, if you found your way here from another location, please feel free to like Perky Prepping Gramma on facebook. Thanks, ~Perky~

Taking charge of our financial journey...

I have prayed long & hard about sharing this. Please note, I am not a financial adviser, I am just sharing our journey. Our first step was to eliminate all debt. It took us a little while (we were already on that journey) and by the time we purchase our new place and sell our current home we will be completely debt free. We are continuing to look for a new place over the next few weeks. Something that is in our price range (very firm on that). 

We started our preparedness journey when a friend shared a couple books with us. “Aftershock”& “Inflation Deception”. Thankfully DH & I have been on the same page from day one. We are not comfortable with the state of the economy, the banking system or the Federal Reserve. So we are opting out with our biggest decision yet.

So the biggest step in this journey is that we have cashed out our 401k's and my “bean” stocks. We agreed to take the tax hit and liquidate our assets. We are currently discussing just how we will be “storing” these assets. I probably won't be going into a lot of details about this for obvious reasons. I will say it will be building self sufficiency and hard commodities.
As for our monthly goals, I am changing how I look at that for the time being. While I strongly believe in setting goals, adding more to storage, etc.; we are seriously looking at a purchase of another place in the country within in the next couple months. That is if we find something that will work.

Because of that, I am focusing my monthly goals more on adequate storage for the new place. I realize that we will need to move everything that we have stored, which will be a journey in and of itself.

Of course I will continue to “use one, buy two”.

Many of you are able to attest, getting out of debt it one of the most important steps.
I know how hard it is to do, but I want to strongly encourage you to take the steps to eliminate your debt. I had started a post on personal fiscal responsibility and getting out of debt. I made this graphic. It made me laugh.

I realized that I was just saying the same thing over and over. Get out of debt and don't incur any further debt.
If you think back, it seems everyone and their mother was saying buy this or that for Christmas on their facebook page. While I don't judge them, I simply couldn't do it. Instead I want to encourage you to save and then make purchases. Don't go into debt.

So, on that note...

We have discuss debt before. How do you feel about the state of our economy? 

UPDATE July 2014: As you may know we are currently have a contract to purchase our new home. This will be paid for entirely with CASH. Now that, IMHO, is a "hard commodity".
PROTECTION: A Real Life Cautionary Tale...
While I was editing this for reposting, I received this information from a loyal person in our community. please take time to read this. I will be sharing this again soon.

"Mining" for silver...

We are still converting the master bedroom closet into a controlled storage area.
This weekend we removed these two cabinets. I cleared everything out of them & will be selling them on a "re-use site" locally. 

This was a big task, considering that the item on the right was my mother-in-laws jewelry case. The older bother got his pick of jewelry when she passed away & some was given to the grandchildren & we got the left overs.
MIL spent a LOT of money on jewelry (clothing and shoes), but she had a preference for silver.
Anyway, this weekend-I went though and sorted all the remaining jewelry to see how much "silver" we had.
DH did some research and we decided to use a neodymium magnet to sort thought the jewelry.
Here is an article that will give you tips on how to test for silver.
3 Quick ways to tell if an item is made from silver
We also plan to get some bottled test kits to do a second verification. 


My guess was these were all silver & I was correct.

These are the two neodymium magnets, DH just happened to have on hand. It always amazes me what he has hanging around.

So, you hold the magnet close to the piece and if it is not silver, the magnet sticks to it. This earring isn't silver.

If the items is silver, the magnet will not stick. This necklace is silver.

You can also find "junk silver" in old coins. The value of the precious metals in the coins before these dates (below) is worth way more than the face value of the coins. 

Pennies minted in 1982 or earlier.

Nickels minted in 45 or earlier.

Dimes & quarters minted in 1964 or earlier.

Take the time to check your change. 

So, all of that to make more space in the closet to add another shelving unit. More on that later.