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Prepping Holiday Gifts
5
1

Go, Corrina! Welcome. The lessons that I wish I’d better understood and acted upon at 18yo are financial preparation. It’s not sexy but underpins everything including prepping. I also personally find it very uninteresting. Basic financial knowledge for how to budget, save and invest to make those savings grow is the most advantageous at this point in your life. It will also help you not have to learn lessons the costly way (like I have). In our recent shared event of the pandemic, having savings and manageable debt as well as stores of essentials correlated to how well one weathered it (excluding one’s employment status – it was definitely a different experience with or without an income). Having said that, I’ve found that this site provides really reasonable guidance and advice on where to start: determine the most likely scenarios for you and start there – or what you’re most worried about. These may or may not be large scale disasters like earthquakes or hurricanes. Think when you last needed or provided help – a car’s flat tire, a minor medical need at work or school (cuts, headaches, stomach issues), needing to use the bathroom while stuck in traffic, injury while playing a sport (sprained or broken ankle, concussion), fire in the kitchen, car accident, being followed (while walking or driving). I’ve had all of these occur at some point to myself or people around me. These are also prepping opportunities that can become prepping victories (see thread here). As for how to afford what will be effective. There are a lot of recommendations in a lot of places on this site including reviews of common prep items like knives, backpacks, lights, etc. The bottom line is to put your funds towards quality and durability. One way I’ve lowered the cost is to seek used quality items from army surplus, ebay, Patagonia (yes, they sell repaired gear) and other second hand sources – sometimes free on Facebook marketplace groups or similar at my workplace. If you know the brand, model and/or size, you can usually find it if you’re patient enough.  Learning the brand/model/size takes time and effort.  I’ve done it on clothing items as well as hard goods like  multi-tools.  


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Prepping Holiday Gifts
5
1
Lessons from the Great Shakeout
19
15
Brushfire information resources
9
14

Go, Corrina! Welcome. The lessons that I wish I’d better understood and acted upon at 18yo are financial preparation. It’s not sexy but underpins everything including prepping. I also personally find it very uninteresting. Basic financial knowledge for how to budget, save and invest to make those savings grow is the most advantageous at this point in your life. It will also help you not have to learn lessons the costly way (like I have). In our recent shared event of the pandemic, having savings and manageable debt as well as stores of essentials correlated to how well one weathered it (excluding one’s employment status – it was definitely a different experience with or without an income). Having said that, I’ve found that this site provides really reasonable guidance and advice on where to start: determine the most likely scenarios for you and start there – or what you’re most worried about. These may or may not be large scale disasters like earthquakes or hurricanes. Think when you last needed or provided help – a car’s flat tire, a minor medical need at work or school (cuts, headaches, stomach issues), needing to use the bathroom while stuck in traffic, injury while playing a sport (sprained or broken ankle, concussion), fire in the kitchen, car accident, being followed (while walking or driving). I’ve had all of these occur at some point to myself or people around me. These are also prepping opportunities that can become prepping victories (see thread here). As for how to afford what will be effective. There are a lot of recommendations in a lot of places on this site including reviews of common prep items like knives, backpacks, lights, etc. The bottom line is to put your funds towards quality and durability. One way I’ve lowered the cost is to seek used quality items from army surplus, ebay, Patagonia (yes, they sell repaired gear) and other second hand sources – sometimes free on Facebook marketplace groups or similar at my workplace. If you know the brand, model and/or size, you can usually find it if you’re patient enough.  Learning the brand/model/size takes time and effort.  I’ve done it on clothing items as well as hard goods like  multi-tools.  


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