After my recent post "I can't afford to prepare" I got to thinking of ways to prepare yourself that cost little to nothing. First we will talk about free ways.
1.Physical fitness. Start a running program. Put on your ruck and do some marching. Do body weight exercises like pushups, situps, pullups, planks, dips and plunges. Lift heavy things because well, it makes you stronger and more awesome. If you cannot wrangle free access to weights (or theoretically other good heavy things) to lift I recommend that you check out Beast Skills and Convict Conditioning (brief description, you tube channel, I have heard you can find a PDF of the book online if so inclined) for some ideas on serious body weight training.
2. Dry fire practice. Do it. Drawing your pistol, ready up drills for the rifle, mag changes and trigger squeeze drills. Somewhere awhile back John Mosby talked about this if I recall.
3. Planning. Put thought and research into things that worry you.
4. Organize your stuff. Build thought out systems to suit your needs using things you already have.
5. Cross training, If you are a skilled mechanic the other members of your group or family should be also. Same if you are an MMA guy or a competitive shooter or an ER nurse.
Revenue neutral ways to prepare. These ways are not free but are ways to get more out of things most folks already do.
1. Shooting. If I had to guess about a quarter of the US based readers of this blog shoot monthly. Probably half (50%, not half of the remainder) shoot at least quarterly. Be intentional about this shooting. Don't get me wrong dumping mag after mag into empty beer cases and such is fun. Plinking is one of my favorite things to do. However if money is tight (and probably anyway) you need to really get something out of shooting. Shoot to zero a weapon, improve or test a skill, not to destroy cheap pumpkins you got the day after Halloween. Again I have to refer you to John Mosby's excellent site for specifics, half because he talks it better than me and half because I don't feel like working hard enough on a post at this time to do the topic justice.
2. Food Storage via normal food purchasing. This takes a few bucks to get going but is definitely worth it. By purchasing THINGS YOU NORMALLY EAT in quantity when they are on good sales you can then wait until they are on sale again. Thus you can eat stuff at sale prices (almost) all the time. Also by not needing to purchase baked beans (or whatever) every week it frees up dollars to buy extra peanut butter when it is on sale. By dropping the average price of much of the food you eat it lowers the cost though that money will likely be sitting in the pantry, not the checking account. You can eat better and increase food storage without spending more. Talk about a win.
Working coupons helps a lot also. So many folks talk this better than I do. Also learning which sales are when helps a lot. This is best when you can work 2-3 big stores. Buy meat once a month at the big sale at store A, canned goods when store B does BOGO, or whatever you can work.
I noticed that the sidebar with my links, ads and such was gone from the main page. Since I didn't change anything I am going to wait a couple days in the hope that the problem is a glitch that will correct itself.
Anyway I hope you all enjoy the post.
1.Physical fitness. Start a running program. Put on your ruck and do some marching. Do body weight exercises like pushups, situps, pullups, planks, dips and plunges. Lift heavy things because well, it makes you stronger and more awesome. If you cannot wrangle free access to weights (or theoretically other good heavy things) to lift I recommend that you check out Beast Skills and Convict Conditioning (brief description, you tube channel, I have heard you can find a PDF of the book online if so inclined) for some ideas on serious body weight training.
2. Dry fire practice. Do it. Drawing your pistol, ready up drills for the rifle, mag changes and trigger squeeze drills. Somewhere awhile back John Mosby talked about this if I recall.
3. Planning. Put thought and research into things that worry you.
4. Organize your stuff. Build thought out systems to suit your needs using things you already have.
5. Cross training, If you are a skilled mechanic the other members of your group or family should be also. Same if you are an MMA guy or a competitive shooter or an ER nurse.
Revenue neutral ways to prepare. These ways are not free but are ways to get more out of things most folks already do.
1. Shooting. If I had to guess about a quarter of the US based readers of this blog shoot monthly. Probably half (50%, not half of the remainder) shoot at least quarterly. Be intentional about this shooting. Don't get me wrong dumping mag after mag into empty beer cases and such is fun. Plinking is one of my favorite things to do. However if money is tight (and probably anyway) you need to really get something out of shooting. Shoot to zero a weapon, improve or test a skill, not to destroy cheap pumpkins you got the day after Halloween. Again I have to refer you to John Mosby's excellent site for specifics, half because he talks it better than me and half because I don't feel like working hard enough on a post at this time to do the topic justice.
2. Food Storage via normal food purchasing. This takes a few bucks to get going but is definitely worth it. By purchasing THINGS YOU NORMALLY EAT in quantity when they are on good sales you can then wait until they are on sale again. Thus you can eat stuff at sale prices (almost) all the time. Also by not needing to purchase baked beans (or whatever) every week it frees up dollars to buy extra peanut butter when it is on sale. By dropping the average price of much of the food you eat it lowers the cost though that money will likely be sitting in the pantry, not the checking account. You can eat better and increase food storage without spending more. Talk about a win.
Working coupons helps a lot also. So many folks talk this better than I do. Also learning which sales are when helps a lot. This is best when you can work 2-3 big stores. Buy meat once a month at the big sale at store A, canned goods when store B does BOGO, or whatever you can work.
I noticed that the sidebar with my links, ads and such was gone from the main page. Since I didn't change anything I am going to wait a couple days in the hope that the problem is a glitch that will correct itself.
Anyway I hope you all enjoy the post.
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2 comments:
Good call putting fitness first. It's something a lot of people put off, but it is free and it pays big benefits both now and later. Running may not be my idea of a great time, but it's a lot easier to get up and do it when I can categorize it for myself as a prepping activity!
Ryan,
Good call on Convict Conditioning. A second volume is out, focusing on "other" muscle groups. Good stuff.
BTW- I have 40 miles to go, will do another 4 tonight.
AP
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