When the SHTF it's unlikely that the big box store from which you buy your pants and shirts is going to be open for business. I strongly feel that in order to be a well-rounded prepper you need to learn the the basics of sewing. This is the story about how I got on the road to learning the absolute basics.
I started off buy making patch work quilts by hand. Patch work quilts are easy because they only involve straight lines. You can use just about anything to make a patch work quilt - old work shirts, old bed sheets, clothes the kids have outgrown, etc. Start small so you don't get overwhelmed or frustrated. Make a patch work quilt that would fit a twin size bed. If that sounds like too much work think about making a lap quilt. Curtains are also a great project for beginners because they usually need only simple stitches and straight lines. Curtains can be made in an afternoon.
The next thing I did was buy an old Singer sewing machine and I made patch work quilts on the machine. I bought a sewing machine that only had the easy and basic stitches. There are a lot of sewing machines on the market ranging from a $125 (for a used one) up to several thousand dollars. I suggest putting off a purchase of an expensive sewing machine until you feel comfortable on a basic model.
My next step was to buy sewing "projects" that came in boxes. For example, I made two teddy bears from a sewing kit that I bought at the fabric store. The kit was inexpensive and the instructions told me exactly what to do. The kit allowed me to understand the importance of patterns. It also helped me to understand how sewn objects are put together. As silly as it sounds that teddy bear kit was a real confidence booster for me.
Another great way to understand how clothes (or other sewn items) are put together is to take them apart piece by piece. Learn how they are constructed by deconstructing them.
A few days ago I bought another sewing kit with instructions and material for an apron inside. My confidence waxed and waned as I worked through the project. The lady at the fabric store told me that it only took her an hour to complete the project. It has taken me a day and I'm still not done, but I must admit that the apron looks pretty good. By using this kit I was able to learn even more about patterns and sewing techniques such as how to sew on a ruffle. My confidence is slowly rising even further.
My next (and last) step will probably be to buy a simple pattern to make a shirt or maybe a skirt. I'm excited because it's taken me a while to get to this skill level.
I began sewing about 3 years ago. Sewing is part art, part science, part skill, and part luck. It is not something you can learn overnight!!! Start small, stay within your skill range, don't give up, go slow, and only work on projects that look fun so you will stay interested.
If TSHTF and the big box store and the local seamstress is AWOL it's important that you be able to know how to make basic clothing. Food and firearms are important but clothing to brave the elements is essential also.
by Sam In The Trailer Park
TOR HERE: I just want to thank Sam for the post. On another note I am pleased to announce that her trailer park still hasn't been wiped out by a tornado.
Showing posts with label trailer living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trailer living. Show all posts
Friday, December 17, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
How To Make Questionable Water Drinkable
There are several ways to make questionable water drinkable. Below
are just a few well known methods. I am NOT an expert on this topic.
Entire books and websites could be devoted to this one topic. The
purpose of this article is simply to give people a very quick overview
of what options are available to make questionable water drinkable. I
encourage people to click on the links I have provided to read more in
depth about this topic because it is incredibly crucial. Now is the
time to educate yourself, your family and your loved ones on this
vitally important topic.
1.) SteriPEN www.steripen.com
The SteriPEN uses ultraviolet light to destroy viruses, bacteria, and
protozoa. The SteriPEN can purify 16 oz. of questionable water in 48
seconds. According to their website, "SteriPEN utilizes C wavelengths
UV (ultraviolet light). UV-C light is a short wave light, between
x-rays and visible light wave lengths, which destroy the DNA of
microbes in seconds".
Advantages to SteriPEN:
a.) lightweight
b.) compact
c.) you can use a container made of glass, ceramic, metal and nearly
any plastic with a SteriPEN
Disadvantages to SteriPEN:
a.) requires batteries
b.) does not filter out debris
c.) depending on your budget this can be expensive - the price range
seems to be between $60 - $100 or so
d.) will not decontaminate threads in your screw top water bottle
e.) you can only use clear water with a SteriPEN because cloudy water
inhibits its effectiveness
2.) Boiling Water www.epa.gov/safewater/faq/
Boiling water kills most types of disease causing organisms. Boil
water for one minute, let cool, and then drink. At altitudes above 1
mile, boil water for 3 minutes. Some websites suggest boiling water
for up to 10 minutes. Again, now is the time to start doing research
on this topic so you can decide for yourself how long you think it is
necessary to boil water to make it safe.
Advantages to boiling water:
a.) no special equipment or skills needed
b.) currently relatively inexpensive (so long as fuel is inexpensive
and plentiful)
Disadvantages to boiling water:
a.) water must be filtered first if filled with debris
b.) water may have flat taste after boiling (if it's a TEOTWAWKI
scenario then who cares)
c.) requires fuel (wood, propane, electricity, etc.)
d.) boiling water may give away your location especially if you are
doing it outside with a wood fire
e.) you may lose precious water during boiling process because of evaporation
f.) may be time consuming (especially if you need to build a fire)
3.) Potable Aqua Iodine Tablets www.potableaqua.com/faq.shtml
Iodine tablets kill bacteria, viruses, and giardia. Iodine tablets
work by "penetrating the cell wall of the microorganism, therefore
rendering it inactive".
Advantages to iodine tablets:
a.) relatively cheap (approximately $6.50 for 50 tablets). Two tablets
treat 1 quart of water.
b.) lightweight
c.) portable
d.) can be used to treat cloudy water, low temperature water, and
water with extreme PH
Disadvantages to iodine tablets:
a.) must wait at least 30 minutes before drinking
b.) not effective against Cryptosporidium or chemical contaminants
c.) should not be used on a long term basis (6 weeks is the limit)
d.) opened bottles of tablets go bad after one year
e.) tablets may add strange taste to water
f.) must filter water to remove debris
e.) women who are pregnant or people who have thyroid problems should
consult a doctor before using iodine tablets (this may be impossible
in a TEOTWAWKI situation)
4.) Chlorine www.epa.gov/safewater/faq/
Use non-scented household chlorine bleach to treat water. Chlorine
kills microorganisms. (I was unable to find out exactly what chlorine
does/does not kill and it how kills it. If anybody knows, please
post.) Click on above EPA link to view the chart regarding how much
chlorine to use to treat water. Mix water treated with chlorine,
cover, and let stand for 30 minutes before drinking.
Advantages to using chlorine:
a.) relatively cheap
b.) fairly easy
Disadvantages to using chlorine:
a.) water may taste strange
b.) must filter out debris
5.) When there is nothing to treat water, but water is still available
then try to gather fast moving water rather than stagnant water. Stay
away from water that has floating debris, an odor, or a dark color.
WARNING: Do this only in a TEOTWAWKI situation. Even clear water
with no debris can be contaminated with nasty stuff.
Like I previously stated, I am NOT an expert on this topic. If anyone
has anything to add to this post (i.e. corrections, clarifications,
personal experiences, etc.) then post away! Today is the day to talk
about this topic before TSHTF.
P.S. Once my Go Berkey Water Filter arrives then I'll do a review of
that. Can't wait! :)
Sincerely, Samantha In The Trailer Park
are just a few well known methods. I am NOT an expert on this topic.
Entire books and websites could be devoted to this one topic. The
purpose of this article is simply to give people a very quick overview
of what options are available to make questionable water drinkable. I
encourage people to click on the links I have provided to read more in
depth about this topic because it is incredibly crucial. Now is the
time to educate yourself, your family and your loved ones on this
vitally important topic.
1.) SteriPEN www.steripen.com
The SteriPEN uses ultraviolet light to destroy viruses, bacteria, and
protozoa. The SteriPEN can purify 16 oz. of questionable water in 48
seconds. According to their website, "SteriPEN utilizes C wavelengths
UV (ultraviolet light). UV-C light is a short wave light, between
x-rays and visible light wave lengths, which destroy the DNA of
microbes in seconds".
Advantages to SteriPEN:
a.) lightweight
b.) compact
c.) you can use a container made of glass, ceramic, metal and nearly
any plastic with a SteriPEN
Disadvantages to SteriPEN:
a.) requires batteries
b.) does not filter out debris
c.) depending on your budget this can be expensive - the price range
seems to be between $60 - $100 or so
d.) will not decontaminate threads in your screw top water bottle
e.) you can only use clear water with a SteriPEN because cloudy water
inhibits its effectiveness
2.) Boiling Water www.epa.gov/safewater/faq/
Boiling water kills most types of disease causing organisms. Boil
water for one minute, let cool, and then drink. At altitudes above 1
mile, boil water for 3 minutes. Some websites suggest boiling water
for up to 10 minutes. Again, now is the time to start doing research
on this topic so you can decide for yourself how long you think it is
necessary to boil water to make it safe.
Advantages to boiling water:
a.) no special equipment or skills needed
b.) currently relatively inexpensive (so long as fuel is inexpensive
and plentiful)
Disadvantages to boiling water:
a.) water must be filtered first if filled with debris
b.) water may have flat taste after boiling (if it's a TEOTWAWKI
scenario then who cares)
c.) requires fuel (wood, propane, electricity, etc.)
d.) boiling water may give away your location especially if you are
doing it outside with a wood fire
e.) you may lose precious water during boiling process because of evaporation
f.) may be time consuming (especially if you need to build a fire)
3.) Potable Aqua Iodine Tablets www.potableaqua.com/faq.shtml
Iodine tablets kill bacteria, viruses, and giardia. Iodine tablets
work by "penetrating the cell wall of the microorganism, therefore
rendering it inactive".
Advantages to iodine tablets:
a.) relatively cheap (approximately $6.50 for 50 tablets). Two tablets
treat 1 quart of water.
b.) lightweight
c.) portable
d.) can be used to treat cloudy water, low temperature water, and
water with extreme PH
Disadvantages to iodine tablets:
a.) must wait at least 30 minutes before drinking
b.) not effective against Cryptosporidium or chemical contaminants
c.) should not be used on a long term basis (6 weeks is the limit)
d.) opened bottles of tablets go bad after one year
e.) tablets may add strange taste to water
f.) must filter water to remove debris
e.) women who are pregnant or people who have thyroid problems should
consult a doctor before using iodine tablets (this may be impossible
in a TEOTWAWKI situation)
4.) Chlorine www.epa.gov/safewater/faq/
Use non-scented household chlorine bleach to treat water. Chlorine
kills microorganisms. (I was unable to find out exactly what chlorine
does/does not kill and it how kills it. If anybody knows, please
post.) Click on above EPA link to view the chart regarding how much
chlorine to use to treat water. Mix water treated with chlorine,
cover, and let stand for 30 minutes before drinking.
Advantages to using chlorine:
a.) relatively cheap
b.) fairly easy
Disadvantages to using chlorine:
a.) water may taste strange
b.) must filter out debris
5.) When there is nothing to treat water, but water is still available
then try to gather fast moving water rather than stagnant water. Stay
away from water that has floating debris, an odor, or a dark color.
WARNING: Do this only in a TEOTWAWKI situation. Even clear water
with no debris can be contaminated with nasty stuff.
Like I previously stated, I am NOT an expert on this topic. If anyone
has anything to add to this post (i.e. corrections, clarifications,
personal experiences, etc.) then post away! Today is the day to talk
about this topic before TSHTF.
P.S. Once my Go Berkey Water Filter arrives then I'll do a review of
that. Can't wait! :)
Sincerely, Samantha In The Trailer Park
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
The American Dream 2: Opting Out
I intended this to be one post but it got pretty long and I realized that to really hit my main points it was going to have to get broken up. Figured this was the best route so I pushed my other plans to the right a day.
I have been accused of being heartless or inexperienced or otherwise somehow not well informed on this topic. I have said more or less that people are where they are because of choices they made. That elicited a series of unhappy comments. Here is my take on the whole thing. First of all I believe in personal responsibility. Aside from truly freak accidents and blind dumb luck pretty much everything that happens in our lives is a result of some choice or another.
However it seems that maybe some folks see this position of mine as an attack against them or a view on them as an individual. That is not the case. I have a solid measure of respect for people who instead of complaining about this or that come right out and say "I made a mistake and am living with the consequences". Good people can and do often make poor choices. Maybe it is just that my mind is compartmentalized but I can really empathize with someones tough situation without trying to shift blame for it away from them. I can feel bad for someone in a rough spot while completely recognizing they put themselves in that spot.
As I talked about in length yesterday the American Dream is getting harder to achieve. Its price has gone up and the earning power of a lot of folks has gone down. No point in excessively rehashing, read yesterdays post if you need to catch up.
I see two broad reasons people opt out of the American Dream. The first is that they (at least right now) just plain can not afford it. The second is that they want to take another path. We will talk about them in order.
Some folks just plain can't afford the "American Dream". They may have the exact same job their father had (unlikely but lets go with it) however they make less money and stuff costs more. There is a lot of pressure to drive this and live here, etc. It is a hard decision to do something else, like what you can really afford. One of the downsides of the relatively recently passed insane credit bubble was that it was very easy for people to borrow their way into the American Dream. Then their adjustable rate mortgages adjusted or they got cut from 40 hours a week to 35 and their whole house of cards falls down.
Some people do not want the American Dream, at least not all of it or right now. They might just like being foot loose and fancy free preferring to live in a motor home instead of a 3 bedroom ranch. Maybe they realize that to them it is worth downsizing their expenses in order to be able to work less or take a few months every year off. Maybe they are just super cheap and would rather have cash in the bank then wood floors in the dining room.
To a certain degree Wifey and I fall into this category. We like most parts of the American Dream but are going to do it on a time line we are comfortable with. One thing about my rough age group (call it 23-33) we seem to expect to walk into a darn near ready made American Dream like a week after we get even a mediocre job. It is sometimes possible to do it that way these days (more so 3 or so years ago) with the ready available credit to anyone close to worthy.
Personally Wifey and I were not comfortable with that format. The idea of having a solid emergency fund and little or no debt suits us. We are living pretty modestly now in order to be able to do well and still be well within our means later. It might be a pretty solid idea for someone like our friend 5:59 to bite the bullet and live in a cheap little apartment for two years to pay off those student loans and otherwise shore up their financial foundation. Like many things in life the right answer is not the easy one.
We would love to own a nice home and drive a couple of solidly decent cars. However right now we can not pay for them in a fashion that is comfortable for us. We have very different opinions on how we should spend, save and borrow than most other folks. When we got married we lived in an RV for a few months. Lots of other folks would have gotten a nice apartment or even rented a house. We had some interesting times in the RV and Trailer Park and saved up some money. Folks at work messed with me a bit until I mentioned that our total housing expenses were $300. In hindsight I should have gotten a travel trailer and lived in it through college. In Alabama we chose a fairly modest apartment in order to save money.
I would love to drive a newish Toyota FJ Cruiser and Wifey would enjoy a nice little BMW. To be honest we could have these things this weekend. However we really do not want a car loan (let alone 2!) and thus we have one beat up old car. Instead of having 2 car loans eat up our income we chose to save up for a modest second car. Also by living well below our means we are able to put money towards stuff we think is worthwhile. Two car loans would make it impossible to establish an emergency fund, save for the future or otherwise get ahead.
In a few years we will buy a house. It will likely be a pretty modest fixer upper type place. A wood stove for sure and ideally a basement but nothing too amazing. I would rather fix up a place a bit than pay for a perfect place. We will come at home ownership a bit later than a lot of my peers. After all until you are a home owner you haven't made it. Too many people over the last few years jumped into something they could barely afford if they got a normal paycheck and nothing bad happened without even enough savings to get some basic repair on their car. Between their ARM mortgages adjusting or a crazy event like having a few slow weeks at work and these folks can have real issues. Personally I would rather have a bit more modest home, slightly later in life but with a solid emergency fund and with a home we can genuinely afford during a bad month when everything goes wrong.
I strongly encourage you to think long and hard. First think about what you can realistically afford and then think about what your priorities are. Remember, no matter how much someone else says you need to drive this or live here unless they are going to pay for it they don't get a vote. It is fine to want this and that and the other thing, most of us do. However you have to look at what you can afford and choose. Also to make things even more complicated you need to balance how much of a lifestyle you want to make yourself be able to afford. A guy who lives a lifestyle, even the American Dream that requires him to work 70 hours a week at a job he hates might just be happier with a smaller house, or even a trailer, and a more normal job that is not so stressful.
We all face a variety of different kinds of pressure. This pressure both real and perceived can couple together with our own desires and be a recipe for disaster. People back themselves into a circle where they have to have that house filled with those electronics in that neighborhood with those cars out front. They get all this stuff which they can't afford, seeing it as the only option and then don't understand how things are so bad. I do not have a great answer for this. Just like anything else your choices are your own and others do not pay the price for them. The same way that a friend who encourages you to do shots with them on a work night when they have the next day off is not going to feel your hangover the next day at work. People might cheer you on or encourage you to do something or another but at the end of the day your choices, good or bad are your own.
I have been accused of being heartless or inexperienced or otherwise somehow not well informed on this topic. I have said more or less that people are where they are because of choices they made. That elicited a series of unhappy comments. Here is my take on the whole thing. First of all I believe in personal responsibility. Aside from truly freak accidents and blind dumb luck pretty much everything that happens in our lives is a result of some choice or another.
However it seems that maybe some folks see this position of mine as an attack against them or a view on them as an individual. That is not the case. I have a solid measure of respect for people who instead of complaining about this or that come right out and say "I made a mistake and am living with the consequences". Good people can and do often make poor choices. Maybe it is just that my mind is compartmentalized but I can really empathize with someones tough situation without trying to shift blame for it away from them. I can feel bad for someone in a rough spot while completely recognizing they put themselves in that spot.
As I talked about in length yesterday the American Dream is getting harder to achieve. Its price has gone up and the earning power of a lot of folks has gone down. No point in excessively rehashing, read yesterdays post if you need to catch up.
I see two broad reasons people opt out of the American Dream. The first is that they (at least right now) just plain can not afford it. The second is that they want to take another path. We will talk about them in order.
Some folks just plain can't afford the "American Dream". They may have the exact same job their father had (unlikely but lets go with it) however they make less money and stuff costs more. There is a lot of pressure to drive this and live here, etc. It is a hard decision to do something else, like what you can really afford. One of the downsides of the relatively recently passed insane credit bubble was that it was very easy for people to borrow their way into the American Dream. Then their adjustable rate mortgages adjusted or they got cut from 40 hours a week to 35 and their whole house of cards falls down.
Some people do not want the American Dream, at least not all of it or right now. They might just like being foot loose and fancy free preferring to live in a motor home instead of a 3 bedroom ranch. Maybe they realize that to them it is worth downsizing their expenses in order to be able to work less or take a few months every year off. Maybe they are just super cheap and would rather have cash in the bank then wood floors in the dining room.
To a certain degree Wifey and I fall into this category. We like most parts of the American Dream but are going to do it on a time line we are comfortable with. One thing about my rough age group (call it 23-33) we seem to expect to walk into a darn near ready made American Dream like a week after we get even a mediocre job. It is sometimes possible to do it that way these days (more so 3 or so years ago) with the ready available credit to anyone close to worthy.
Personally Wifey and I were not comfortable with that format. The idea of having a solid emergency fund and little or no debt suits us. We are living pretty modestly now in order to be able to do well and still be well within our means later. It might be a pretty solid idea for someone like our friend 5:59 to bite the bullet and live in a cheap little apartment for two years to pay off those student loans and otherwise shore up their financial foundation. Like many things in life the right answer is not the easy one.
We would love to own a nice home and drive a couple of solidly decent cars. However right now we can not pay for them in a fashion that is comfortable for us. We have very different opinions on how we should spend, save and borrow than most other folks. When we got married we lived in an RV for a few months. Lots of other folks would have gotten a nice apartment or even rented a house. We had some interesting times in the RV and Trailer Park and saved up some money. Folks at work messed with me a bit until I mentioned that our total housing expenses were $300. In hindsight I should have gotten a travel trailer and lived in it through college. In Alabama we chose a fairly modest apartment in order to save money.
I would love to drive a newish Toyota FJ Cruiser and Wifey would enjoy a nice little BMW. To be honest we could have these things this weekend. However we really do not want a car loan (let alone 2!) and thus we have one beat up old car. Instead of having 2 car loans eat up our income we chose to save up for a modest second car. Also by living well below our means we are able to put money towards stuff we think is worthwhile. Two car loans would make it impossible to establish an emergency fund, save for the future or otherwise get ahead.
In a few years we will buy a house. It will likely be a pretty modest fixer upper type place. A wood stove for sure and ideally a basement but nothing too amazing. I would rather fix up a place a bit than pay for a perfect place. We will come at home ownership a bit later than a lot of my peers. After all until you are a home owner you haven't made it. Too many people over the last few years jumped into something they could barely afford if they got a normal paycheck and nothing bad happened without even enough savings to get some basic repair on their car. Between their ARM mortgages adjusting or a crazy event like having a few slow weeks at work and these folks can have real issues. Personally I would rather have a bit more modest home, slightly later in life but with a solid emergency fund and with a home we can genuinely afford during a bad month when everything goes wrong.
I strongly encourage you to think long and hard. First think about what you can realistically afford and then think about what your priorities are. Remember, no matter how much someone else says you need to drive this or live here unless they are going to pay for it they don't get a vote. It is fine to want this and that and the other thing, most of us do. However you have to look at what you can afford and choose. Also to make things even more complicated you need to balance how much of a lifestyle you want to make yourself be able to afford. A guy who lives a lifestyle, even the American Dream that requires him to work 70 hours a week at a job he hates might just be happier with a smaller house, or even a trailer, and a more normal job that is not so stressful.
We all face a variety of different kinds of pressure. This pressure both real and perceived can couple together with our own desires and be a recipe for disaster. People back themselves into a circle where they have to have that house filled with those electronics in that neighborhood with those cars out front. They get all this stuff which they can't afford, seeing it as the only option and then don't understand how things are so bad. I do not have a great answer for this. Just like anything else your choices are your own and others do not pay the price for them. The same way that a friend who encourages you to do shots with them on a work night when they have the next day off is not going to feel your hangover the next day at work. People might cheer you on or encourage you to do something or another but at the end of the day your choices, good or bad are your own.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Raiding the Emergency Fund: When and to What End?
First of all don't worry things are fine here at the TOR household. No need to raid the emergency fund, in fact we will add to it this week on pay day. I have just been thinking.....
Under what conditions should you raid the emergency fund?
1. If you are married, domestically partnered, living in sin, coupled up or really in any other situation where you share money with another person only get into that account with both people being involved. This isn't the way to cover up (not that you should be covering up anything but that is not the point) that you spent a bit too much on naked dancing girls, designer shoes, poker night, handbags or whatever. Obviously things are really bad (not borrow a few bucks from a friend bad but ski mask and handgun kind of bad) or you would not be wanting to raid the emergency fund. Do you really want things to be that bad AND have an incredibly pissed off spouse? I certainly wouldn't. Sit down and have a serious conversation about what is going on and what the two of you are going to do to get through it. Make this decision together.
2. What are you going to raid the emergency fund for? First of all if married, etc all read above again. Second this is personal and you might have a different answer than I. To me it is for covering sudden unavoidable expenses (think broke down car or sudden plane ticket home to bury a close relative, not a deal on a .308 or a boat or a diamond ring), job loss or something else completely lame and unexpected like a house fire or needing to flee a natural disaster and spend a month in a motel in Nebraska. I think it is good to keep it open because you don't know what sort of crappy thing is going to happen to you but the odds are over any given decade at least one probably will.
To what end will you use these funds is the more unique thought I have been mulling over.
One of my low probability (lower than being mugged but higher than say a lightning strike) concerns is something getting completely fucked at work. My job is very stable, like prostitution and gambling stable. As long as our Federal Government exists in anything near its current state my industry will be safe. For the foreseeable future given our current world circumstances (two conflicts, various threats on the horizon) we will probably be a growth industry. Given said current circumstances there isn't really much of a worry about job stability because people are leaving left and right, if you stay in you will move up.
However just because things are pretty stable doesn't mean they are 100% guaranteed and reliable for every person. Anything can happen in life (everything is just fine at work don't worry) like sometimes a boss gets a serious case of the ass at someone and crushes them in evals or a subordinate does something stupid and they crucify the first officer and NCO in line so I have thought about it a little bit.
I make pretty good money but it is our only income. [Wifey is looking like crazy and hopefully will find a job that will make her happy soon.] Also there are not a whole lot of places where my current skill set would be valued without a real change in scenery and job conditions. It isn't exactly like I am a plant manager in a town with 8 plants.
Odds are we would get home and spend a couple months with relatives but it could be awhile before we were back to around our current income. Lets say that before we got back to meaningful work things came to a head at the relatives place (doubt it would but lets say it did). Right now we have more than enough to buy a piece of junkish land in the general area we want to settle plus get some sort of a functional shelter (travel trailer, mobile home, etc) to put on it sitting in the bank. We could live all Dakin like on around minimum wage for a long time in this sort of situation. Heck we could do this on what I would get in unemployment.
The reason we (might potentially ) choose to take this extreme course instead of just getting an apartment or whatever then looking for jobs is that we would not know when real jobs could be had and the odds are it would be awhile. In two years time things would be fine but there would probably be a rough 6-9 months before then. There would be a high probability that things would come to head in terms of finances (if we kept more or less our current budget) before jobs could be had so we would need to drastically change expenses to survive.
Some folks say to have a 6 month emergency fund, some say 12 months or maybe even 18. Heck why don't you just have a 96 month security fund as well as 400 ounces of gold, $100,000 face in 90% silver, a dozen M1a's and a 12,000 acre retreat! The simple answer is that we live in a world of unlimited desires and limited resources. Most folks need to scrimp and save and sacrifice just to bank a little bit each month and keep it there till it adds up to much of anything.
Also money that is sitting in an FDIC insured account (or a safe) is money that can not be put towards anything else. To me as a relatively young person the idea of saving up 12-18 months wages before starting to save for a home down payment doesn't make a lot of sense. I would rather have less in the bank (say 4 months) and be paying myself instead of some other guy.
My point is that it might not be bad to have a contingency plan for radical long term or even permenant changes in income. You might (depending on your funding,age, levels of risk, etc) not even need to do anything toward putting this plan in motion unless your personal circumstances really change but it is probably wise to think this one out for awhile and discuss it with the spouse.
Thoughts?
Under what conditions should you raid the emergency fund?
1. If you are married, domestically partnered, living in sin, coupled up or really in any other situation where you share money with another person only get into that account with both people being involved. This isn't the way to cover up (not that you should be covering up anything but that is not the point) that you spent a bit too much on naked dancing girls, designer shoes, poker night, handbags or whatever. Obviously things are really bad (not borrow a few bucks from a friend bad but ski mask and handgun kind of bad) or you would not be wanting to raid the emergency fund. Do you really want things to be that bad AND have an incredibly pissed off spouse? I certainly wouldn't. Sit down and have a serious conversation about what is going on and what the two of you are going to do to get through it. Make this decision together.
2. What are you going to raid the emergency fund for? First of all if married, etc all read above again. Second this is personal and you might have a different answer than I. To me it is for covering sudden unavoidable expenses (think broke down car or sudden plane ticket home to bury a close relative, not a deal on a .308 or a boat or a diamond ring), job loss or something else completely lame and unexpected like a house fire or needing to flee a natural disaster and spend a month in a motel in Nebraska. I think it is good to keep it open because you don't know what sort of crappy thing is going to happen to you but the odds are over any given decade at least one probably will.
To what end will you use these funds is the more unique thought I have been mulling over.
One of my low probability (lower than being mugged but higher than say a lightning strike) concerns is something getting completely fucked at work. My job is very stable, like prostitution and gambling stable. As long as our Federal Government exists in anything near its current state my industry will be safe. For the foreseeable future given our current world circumstances (two conflicts, various threats on the horizon) we will probably be a growth industry. Given said current circumstances there isn't really much of a worry about job stability because people are leaving left and right, if you stay in you will move up.
However just because things are pretty stable doesn't mean they are 100% guaranteed and reliable for every person. Anything can happen in life (everything is just fine at work don't worry) like sometimes a boss gets a serious case of the ass at someone and crushes them in evals or a subordinate does something stupid and they crucify the first officer and NCO in line so I have thought about it a little bit.
I make pretty good money but it is our only income. [Wifey is looking like crazy and hopefully will find a job that will make her happy soon.] Also there are not a whole lot of places where my current skill set would be valued without a real change in scenery and job conditions. It isn't exactly like I am a plant manager in a town with 8 plants.
Odds are we would get home and spend a couple months with relatives but it could be awhile before we were back to around our current income. Lets say that before we got back to meaningful work things came to a head at the relatives place (doubt it would but lets say it did). Right now we have more than enough to buy a piece of junkish land in the general area we want to settle plus get some sort of a functional shelter (travel trailer, mobile home, etc) to put on it sitting in the bank. We could live all Dakin like on around minimum wage for a long time in this sort of situation. Heck we could do this on what I would get in unemployment.
The reason we (might potentially ) choose to take this extreme course instead of just getting an apartment or whatever then looking for jobs is that we would not know when real jobs could be had and the odds are it would be awhile. In two years time things would be fine but there would probably be a rough 6-9 months before then. There would be a high probability that things would come to head in terms of finances (if we kept more or less our current budget) before jobs could be had so we would need to drastically change expenses to survive.
Some folks say to have a 6 month emergency fund, some say 12 months or maybe even 18. Heck why don't you just have a 96 month security fund as well as 400 ounces of gold, $100,000 face in 90% silver, a dozen M1a's and a 12,000 acre retreat! The simple answer is that we live in a world of unlimited desires and limited resources. Most folks need to scrimp and save and sacrifice just to bank a little bit each month and keep it there till it adds up to much of anything.
Also money that is sitting in an FDIC insured account (or a safe) is money that can not be put towards anything else. To me as a relatively young person the idea of saving up 12-18 months wages before starting to save for a home down payment doesn't make a lot of sense. I would rather have less in the bank (say 4 months) and be paying myself instead of some other guy.
My point is that it might not be bad to have a contingency plan for radical long term or even permenant changes in income. You might (depending on your funding,age, levels of risk, etc) not even need to do anything toward putting this plan in motion unless your personal circumstances really change but it is probably wise to think this one out for awhile and discuss it with the spouse.
Thoughts?
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Quit Bitching- First Rant in Awhile
I am tired of people bitching and griping about bankers and 'the elite' plus of course the trilateral commission or some other such junk. [Now if you are complaining about how the derivative collapse and or government bailouts affected you fair enough. That isn't what I am talking about.] People who claim to be pro freedom but bitch about how someone else (legally) makes a lot of money are fucking posers at best. These folks want to have their cake and eat it too but do not have the guts to live in a truly free world where people are allowed to borrow and loan money at whatever terms both parties agree to. If you want to be a communist that is fine and good but at least be honest.
First of all class warfare has nothing to do with libertarianism or freedom. Don't begrudge anyone else the ability to (legally) earn a lot of money. I am sorry their skills are more valued than yours and their business sense is better but tough shit. If you want to make more money get better skills and make better decisions, nobody is holding you back but yourself.
If you don't like the terms a bank will offer you then don't borrow their money. As for bitching about how they just jacked up the rate on your credit cards I ask why are you carrying a credit card balance. If you don't want them to be able to change the interest rate on a loan then do not take a loan with an adjustable interest rate. This ain't fucking rocket science.
The bankers are not ruining your life, nobody forced you to take their money. I am honestly sorry if you got a [reasonably priced fixed rate] mortgage and now you can't pay it because of a job loss or whatever. That is a sad situation but it is not 'bankers' fault that you lost your job or whatever.
Running up a bunch of debt you can't service and then blaming bankers for your shitty financial situation is like eating 3 big mac's for lunch every day and complaining that 'donalds made you fat. YOU ARE AN ADULT WHO MADE CHOICES so fucking own up to your responsibility for those choices.
If you don't want bankers to be involved in your life then don't have any debt. Fuck don't even have a bank account, keep your earnings in a coffee can. Do like Dakin and Creekmore and get yourself a couple acres and a travel trailer (purchased with cash) and live off grid but stop fucking bitching.
First of all class warfare has nothing to do with libertarianism or freedom. Don't begrudge anyone else the ability to (legally) earn a lot of money. I am sorry their skills are more valued than yours and their business sense is better but tough shit. If you want to make more money get better skills and make better decisions, nobody is holding you back but yourself.
If you don't like the terms a bank will offer you then don't borrow their money. As for bitching about how they just jacked up the rate on your credit cards I ask why are you carrying a credit card balance. If you don't want them to be able to change the interest rate on a loan then do not take a loan with an adjustable interest rate. This ain't fucking rocket science.
The bankers are not ruining your life, nobody forced you to take their money. I am honestly sorry if you got a [reasonably priced fixed rate] mortgage and now you can't pay it because of a job loss or whatever. That is a sad situation but it is not 'bankers' fault that you lost your job or whatever.
Running up a bunch of debt you can't service and then blaming bankers for your shitty financial situation is like eating 3 big mac's for lunch every day and complaining that 'donalds made you fat. YOU ARE AN ADULT WHO MADE CHOICES so fucking own up to your responsibility for those choices.
If you don't want bankers to be involved in your life then don't have any debt. Fuck don't even have a bank account, keep your earnings in a coffee can. Do like Dakin and Creekmore and get yourself a couple acres and a travel trailer (purchased with cash) and live off grid but stop fucking bitching.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Random Thoughts
I don't know about how gun control in Canada works but Ricky and Julian always seem to have ready access to guns.
I would really like to have a duffel bag full of guns. Suppose I could take some of my guns and put them in a duffel bag but it just would not be the same. Where do you go to buy a duffel bag full of guns anyway? Do you get some sort of a discount for duffel bag amounts of guns?
Tomorrow we are going out of town. Posting will not be disrupted but comments may not get posted immediately. Come to think of it for the next month or so thinks are going to be hit and miss. We are getting out of here the middle of next week and going home for a bit over two weeks. It will be really nice to go home, see everyone and such. Got a couple of cool things lined up too. Going to see a concert, do some shooting, eat at my favorite Chinese place ever; and go to one of my favorite places. May have internet access and may not but I am not going to stress it at all. Will post when I can and won't when I can't.
Life without a microwave sucks.
Anyway I am going to get super creative and try to make some food. Wheat tortillas+ pasta sauce+turkey pepperoni+cheese+oven might = great pizza or a total fail. Will know in a half hour or so.
I would really like to have a duffel bag full of guns. Suppose I could take some of my guns and put them in a duffel bag but it just would not be the same. Where do you go to buy a duffel bag full of guns anyway? Do you get some sort of a discount for duffel bag amounts of guns?
Tomorrow we are going out of town. Posting will not be disrupted but comments may not get posted immediately. Come to think of it for the next month or so thinks are going to be hit and miss. We are getting out of here the middle of next week and going home for a bit over two weeks. It will be really nice to go home, see everyone and such. Got a couple of cool things lined up too. Going to see a concert, do some shooting, eat at my favorite Chinese place ever; and go to one of my favorite places. May have internet access and may not but I am not going to stress it at all. Will post when I can and won't when I can't.
Life without a microwave sucks.
Anyway I am going to get super creative and try to make some food. Wheat tortillas+ pasta sauce+turkey pepperoni+cheese+oven might = great pizza or a total fail. Will know in a half hour or so.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
The Middle Path
I think we often forget to think about the middle path. Don't get me wrong I love (no homo) Creedmore and Dakin. They have awesome blogs full of great advice on dirty cheap living. Some people can't or won't live in a travel trailer. Just that somehow we often talk like the only two options are to live in a trailer on an acre of junk land or in a McMansion with an ARM mortgage.
Between living absolutely as cheaply as possible and having an unsustainable over leveraged lifestyle there are other options. Think of all of the shades of grey between black and white. I will call it the middle path.
The balance between not being a total slave to debt but still enjoying some of the nicer parts of living in modern society. This is mostly about being harshly realistic with yourself. Living well within your means and managing your relationship with debt in a smart reasonable way.
To many people end up living at the edge of their income. Maybe they get a bit lucky and get a job which is (for their skill level) highly compensated or maybe they start getting some overtime. These folks need to make every penny of a normal pay period every week or they are screwed. Some of them are in trouble if they don't get overtime.
These folks are just waiting to fall victim to one of lifes little emergencies. My regular economic emergency amount seems to be $400. Every 2/3 months something happens that randomly costs us 400 bucks. Maybe it is a car repair or the need for a sudden plane ticket home (funerals and such). Maybe it is a pay period at work where things are slow and instead of the normal 40 hours you only get 24. Maybe things are a little screwy and the boss can't make payroll and the mid month paychecks will be late. These things happen and being ready for them is essential. I am not talking about the emergency fund specifically here but suffice to say that if you spend more than you make it isn't going to get set aside.
How we use debt is the real issue. That borrowing money to pay for an education which will greatly increase your earning power or to finance a reasonably priced home is fairly common sense. You don't need a McMansion but a 3 bedroom place with 2 bathrooms or a mobile home in good condition would be be bad at all. If it is on some land all the better.
I have been thinking and have sort of changed my opinion on car loans. I did this for one reason. Real cheap junker cars are often money pits and will either totally break down or $500 you to death. I make OK money and we may need to get a new car in the not that distant future. I am not willing to drop all our savings on a car but we don't want to get some fucking POS clunker either. Maybe you are more mechanically inclined than I am so that isn't an issue but most of us aren't. As I see it the thing is that if you need to finance a car/ truck to get a reasonably priced one. Assuming you make OK money putting 3k down on a car that costs 6k is not insane or a truck that costs 8k. What starts to sink people is when they get a loan for a car that costs 20k or a truck that costs 30k or both. Plenty of my peers have two brand fancy new vehicles in their drive ways. The amount they must be putting towards car loans probably keeps them from savings for the short or long term and paying more then the minimum to get ahead on other debts.
Don't get me wrong I would love to drive a sweet Toyota FJ Cruiser and Wifey would love some sort of a little sports car. Will may have these eventually, but not for awhile. We could have them both but the goal is to get ahead not to drive the shiniest vehicles.
Using credit to live beyond your means is just not smart. Aside from an education, a reasonably priced home or maybe a reliable modest vehicle there are few reasons to use credit. If you can't pay for big tv's or new computers or fancy super shiny appliances then keep your little tv and buy a used washer and dryer out of the paper for $200. If you can't pay for a new couch but must have one then get it out of the paper for $100.
I know at least one guy who completely furnished their residence from rent a center. I don't have a clue what he pays for all that shit but I know he is barely treading water. He is certainly not saving for unexpected expenses or the future. When you are spending darn near everything you have to pay off debts you aren't saving.
It isn't that you can't have nice things. It is just that you need to save money, make reasonable choices and purchase things as you can afford them. Getting into the 'we deserve it' game is the doom of many people.
Thoughts?
Between living absolutely as cheaply as possible and having an unsustainable over leveraged lifestyle there are other options. Think of all of the shades of grey between black and white. I will call it the middle path.
The balance between not being a total slave to debt but still enjoying some of the nicer parts of living in modern society. This is mostly about being harshly realistic with yourself. Living well within your means and managing your relationship with debt in a smart reasonable way.
To many people end up living at the edge of their income. Maybe they get a bit lucky and get a job which is (for their skill level) highly compensated or maybe they start getting some overtime. These folks need to make every penny of a normal pay period every week or they are screwed. Some of them are in trouble if they don't get overtime.
These folks are just waiting to fall victim to one of lifes little emergencies. My regular economic emergency amount seems to be $400. Every 2/3 months something happens that randomly costs us 400 bucks. Maybe it is a car repair or the need for a sudden plane ticket home (funerals and such). Maybe it is a pay period at work where things are slow and instead of the normal 40 hours you only get 24. Maybe things are a little screwy and the boss can't make payroll and the mid month paychecks will be late. These things happen and being ready for them is essential. I am not talking about the emergency fund specifically here but suffice to say that if you spend more than you make it isn't going to get set aside.
How we use debt is the real issue. That borrowing money to pay for an education which will greatly increase your earning power or to finance a reasonably priced home is fairly common sense. You don't need a McMansion but a 3 bedroom place with 2 bathrooms or a mobile home in good condition would be be bad at all. If it is on some land all the better.
I have been thinking and have sort of changed my opinion on car loans. I did this for one reason. Real cheap junker cars are often money pits and will either totally break down or $500 you to death. I make OK money and we may need to get a new car in the not that distant future. I am not willing to drop all our savings on a car but we don't want to get some fucking POS clunker either. Maybe you are more mechanically inclined than I am so that isn't an issue but most of us aren't. As I see it the thing is that if you need to finance a car/ truck to get a reasonably priced one. Assuming you make OK money putting 3k down on a car that costs 6k is not insane or a truck that costs 8k. What starts to sink people is when they get a loan for a car that costs 20k or a truck that costs 30k or both. Plenty of my peers have two brand fancy new vehicles in their drive ways. The amount they must be putting towards car loans probably keeps them from savings for the short or long term and paying more then the minimum to get ahead on other debts.
Don't get me wrong I would love to drive a sweet Toyota FJ Cruiser and Wifey would love some sort of a little sports car. Will may have these eventually, but not for awhile. We could have them both but the goal is to get ahead not to drive the shiniest vehicles.
Using credit to live beyond your means is just not smart. Aside from an education, a reasonably priced home or maybe a reliable modest vehicle there are few reasons to use credit. If you can't pay for big tv's or new computers or fancy super shiny appliances then keep your little tv and buy a used washer and dryer out of the paper for $200. If you can't pay for a new couch but must have one then get it out of the paper for $100.
I know at least one guy who completely furnished their residence from rent a center. I don't have a clue what he pays for all that shit but I know he is barely treading water. He is certainly not saving for unexpected expenses or the future. When you are spending darn near everything you have to pay off debts you aren't saving.
It isn't that you can't have nice things. It is just that you need to save money, make reasonable choices and purchase things as you can afford them. Getting into the 'we deserve it' game is the doom of many people.
Thoughts?
Friday, July 17, 2009
quote of the day
Lucy, Who did you bang the weekend me and my dad went to the drunk tank, the second time?
-Ricky
I fucking love trailer park boys.
-Ricky
I fucking love trailer park boys.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Modern Army Combatives Level 2
Tonight I finished the Modern Army Combatives level two course. Spending two solid weeks wrestling and grappling sure took a toll on my body. Pretty much everything is sore. I have two black eyes, my body is covered with bruises and pretty much every major joint hurts. Spending a couple hours training, rolling and grappling is an enjoyable and generally pleasant experience. Do the same thing all day long and it hurts.
It was probably good for my overall fitness level. If you grapple live (very close to full intensity) for an hour at a time and sweat buckets it is probably a reasonable muscular and cardiovascular workout. I think wrestling burns more calories per minute than any other type of exercise. It has a strange and unpleasant way of using all of your muscular strength and cardiovascular ability that nothing else has. Swimming and XC skiing use both but only use muscles in at endurance levels (very low intensity for long duration). If you haven't ever wrestled/ grappled the best way to explain its exercise equivalent is doing wind sprints while lifting heavy weights.
I learned a few good moves which was pretty darn cool. No fundamentally new submissions but some new counters which is good. The biggest thing is that I did the stuff I learned in level 1 enough that it is really internalized. I am a lot more fluid in moving from position to position while grappling.
To be honest my fighting style is still heavily based on past experiences in thai boxing, MMA and and good old fashioned redneck fights in my past. In any case I can't see learning more stuff as a bad thing.
Learn to fight. That is my last thought because TRAILER PARK BOYS is on.
It was probably good for my overall fitness level. If you grapple live (very close to full intensity) for an hour at a time and sweat buckets it is probably a reasonable muscular and cardiovascular workout. I think wrestling burns more calories per minute than any other type of exercise. It has a strange and unpleasant way of using all of your muscular strength and cardiovascular ability that nothing else has. Swimming and XC skiing use both but only use muscles in at endurance levels (very low intensity for long duration). If you haven't ever wrestled/ grappled the best way to explain its exercise equivalent is doing wind sprints while lifting heavy weights.
I learned a few good moves which was pretty darn cool. No fundamentally new submissions but some new counters which is good. The biggest thing is that I did the stuff I learned in level 1 enough that it is really internalized. I am a lot more fluid in moving from position to position while grappling.
To be honest my fighting style is still heavily based on past experiences in thai boxing, MMA and and good old fashioned redneck fights in my past. In any case I can't see learning more stuff as a bad thing.
Learn to fight. That is my last thought because TRAILER PARK BOYS is on.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
We Are Still Housing Katrina Victims? WTF
Read this great article by TOM on the matter. All I can say is that this is totally ridiculous.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Unconventional Housing Question?
That was good advice for a conventional house buy. Could be you are one of those people who need to look outside the box? Like the guy on thesurvivalistblog who lives in a travel trailer on a paid for lot? That is 'out of the box' thinking.
Are you the sort of person who could do it themselves or do you really need to buy a ready to go place?
A lot depends on where you are, who you are, the climate, the laws and culture. Can you afford to buy just the land (a building lot or maybe acreage)? Can you put up a pole barn and park your travel trailer in there while you build a house.
Will a real 'fixer-upper' work for you? Can you live in and fix a place at the same time? Can you do it paycheck to paycheck and with scrounged materials? There is a whole world of shelter ideas and thoughts (and advice type help) out there if you are able to go 'out of the box' in your search for shelter.
We bought out first place on a land contract out of the back of a magazine. After several years we paid the land off and everything we did to the place was ours.
There are risks but it can be done.
TOR here: Interesting question. As for unconventional housing I think generally speaking we (if you don't include your spouse in the decisions your asking to become single, sorry but its true) are pretty open minded. For a time we lived in in RV both on a relatives land and in a trailer park. Glad we did it but also glad it is over. Can't say we would never do it again but it would not be our first choice.
I have gone over most of the outside the box options in the past and there are some possible options.
Could we do it ourselves? The short answer is YES! We do have the rather unique situation that at least for the foreseeable future we will be moving every 3 years or so. This means it is not worthwhile to do the sweat equity thing that will create a cheap long term place to live unless we could get out money back out of it. Factoring in what our time is worth lots of the conventional outside the box housing ideas do not make sense in this context. Mobile homes don't move real well and finding land that you can purchase which is hook up ready is fairly rare, certainly not something you would want to try and find every 3 years.
I could build a pole barn (be on the phone to my Uncle every few days but that is OK) but again putting improvements into land just to sell it and gamble we will get the $$$ back isn't something I'm going to do.
Of all the ideas you have mentioned getting a real fix er upper is very realistic for us. As long as a home is structurally sound I can do just about everything. The idea of living in a home for a few years during which we do a lot of repairs and increase the value is realistic. Since we are going to move anyway it would fit into our plans pretty well. I think depending on the overall situation (how much we pay for the place, what needs to be done, the market, etc) doing repairs/ improvements as cash comes is would be doable. As for scrounged materials they can work but as I have seen at friends places the end result is a scrounged mis matched place which can hurt value on resale.
Buying land, paying it off and then building (and or fixing up) down the road is a real possibility. It will depend a lot on when we finally settle, our financial situation at the time and what is available. Living in a travel trailer while we substantially repair or build is a very valid option. Wifey's folks lived in a travel trailer and had their stuff in the barn while their home was build and we may well emulate that plan.
Did I miss anything?
Are you the sort of person who could do it themselves or do you really need to buy a ready to go place?
A lot depends on where you are, who you are, the climate, the laws and culture. Can you afford to buy just the land (a building lot or maybe acreage)? Can you put up a pole barn and park your travel trailer in there while you build a house.
Will a real 'fixer-upper' work for you? Can you live in and fix a place at the same time? Can you do it paycheck to paycheck and with scrounged materials? There is a whole world of shelter ideas and thoughts (and advice type help) out there if you are able to go 'out of the box' in your search for shelter.
We bought out first place on a land contract out of the back of a magazine. After several years we paid the land off and everything we did to the place was ours.
There are risks but it can be done.
TOR here: Interesting question. As for unconventional housing I think generally speaking we (if you don't include your spouse in the decisions your asking to become single, sorry but its true) are pretty open minded. For a time we lived in in RV both on a relatives land and in a trailer park. Glad we did it but also glad it is over. Can't say we would never do it again but it would not be our first choice.
I have gone over most of the outside the box options in the past and there are some possible options.
Could we do it ourselves? The short answer is YES! We do have the rather unique situation that at least for the foreseeable future we will be moving every 3 years or so. This means it is not worthwhile to do the sweat equity thing that will create a cheap long term place to live unless we could get out money back out of it. Factoring in what our time is worth lots of the conventional outside the box housing ideas do not make sense in this context. Mobile homes don't move real well and finding land that you can purchase which is hook up ready is fairly rare, certainly not something you would want to try and find every 3 years.
I could build a pole barn (be on the phone to my Uncle every few days but that is OK) but again putting improvements into land just to sell it and gamble we will get the $$$ back isn't something I'm going to do.
Of all the ideas you have mentioned getting a real fix er upper is very realistic for us. As long as a home is structurally sound I can do just about everything. The idea of living in a home for a few years during which we do a lot of repairs and increase the value is realistic. Since we are going to move anyway it would fit into our plans pretty well. I think depending on the overall situation (how much we pay for the place, what needs to be done, the market, etc) doing repairs/ improvements as cash comes is would be doable. As for scrounged materials they can work but as I have seen at friends places the end result is a scrounged mis matched place which can hurt value on resale.
Buying land, paying it off and then building (and or fixing up) down the road is a real possibility. It will depend a lot on when we finally settle, our financial situation at the time and what is available. Living in a travel trailer while we substantially repair or build is a very valid option. Wifey's folks lived in a travel trailer and had their stuff in the barn while their home was build and we may well emulate that plan.
Did I miss anything?
Thursday, May 14, 2009
quote of the day
"It's come down to this boys, we're gonna be rich or we are goin the fuck back to jail."
-Jillian in Trailer Park Boys. I love this show.
-Jillian in Trailer Park Boys. I love this show.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
High Class Entertainment
A transcript from a scene of the awesome show Trailer Park Boys:
-Ricky, You're pointing a loaded handgun at a puppet.
-Yes I am
-Behind the puppet is our friend the bullet will go through the doll and kill Bubbles, give me the gun
-I gotta kill this puppet Julian
-Ricky give me the gun, give it to me
[Ricky safeties the 1911 and hands it to Julian]
A few seconds later Julian shoots the puppet in the face. He does it at such an angle that it does not travel through the doll and kill their friend Bubbles.
I fucking love Trailer Park Boys. It could easily be the most entertaining comedy on television today. Also it goes great with cheap domestic canned beer.
-Ricky, You're pointing a loaded handgun at a puppet.
-Yes I am
-Behind the puppet is our friend the bullet will go through the doll and kill Bubbles, give me the gun
-I gotta kill this puppet Julian
-Ricky give me the gun, give it to me
[Ricky safeties the 1911 and hands it to Julian]
A few seconds later Julian shoots the puppet in the face. He does it at such an angle that it does not travel through the doll and kill their friend Bubbles.
I fucking love Trailer Park Boys. It could easily be the most entertaining comedy on television today. Also it goes great with cheap domestic canned beer.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Living in a Travel Trailer and Women
Mickey wrote a darn good post about the motivations which lead to his lifestyle choice. He is more or less going with the Dakin plan of gentile poverty. Not that Dakin invented it but he definitely coined my favorite description for it and thus gets mentioned.
The post also briefly touched on the topic of women. First of all I want to say that I like boobs a whole lot. That has nothing to do with anything except women have them and my random thought generator is on high today. Anyway I am coming to see through a variety of different areas (peoples posts, comments, etc) that some essential topics need to be revisited from time to time. While readership on most blogs doesn't change that much month to month we do need to realize that individual readers come and go. It might not be a bad idea to post on some key topics from time to time, maybe quarterly.
I hear two typical gripes when it comes to survivalists griping about their wives. (To a much smaller degree women readers griping about their husbands in the same context.) The first is rather small and simple. It goes something like "I want to get (enter the name of a relatively low priced item) but my wife vetoed it". I have a couple thoughts about this. First of all there is a real simple answer to this, personal money. We do this and I can't see how any marriage survives without it. This is money that you both get to do whatever you want no questions asked. Spend it on good tasting lip gloss, hair products, shotgun shells or high capacity magazines or save it. The point of this is that you can do whatever you want with it. Survivalism aside I strongly suggest implementing this plan. Want a rifle or a dozen machetes but the wife is not on board? Save up your pocket money and get it.
For slightly larger (say a few hundred dollars but + - depending on your finances) items here is another idea, I bet she wants something also. Within the limits of your finances she is a lot more likely to be willing to allocate resources towards that sweet new whatever if she just got something nice. I have an awesome Wife who really asks for very little in terms of material goods but when she asks for something the answer is almost invariably yes. I think that a culture of both of you getting the reasonable things you want and can afford breeds a sort of good nature about it. This week we are spending cash on what you want but last week I got that spam can of ammo or whatever. I do know for certain that the fastest way to get a spouse to start being nit picky about that stuff is to do that to them.
Why don't guys do this I often ask myself? I think part of the answer is that one can look at survivalism as essential and thus not a hobby and thus something which falls outside the compromising realm (nothing in marriage falls outside the compromise realm). With small reoccurring expenses like extra canned goods or a few blue 5 gallon water jugs in my experience it is usually a non issue. Unless we are shorter then normal me picking up something on a trip to the store is a given. I think it is more important to focus on your desired end state of getting the preps you want instead of thinking about and arguing principle. I have chosen this path and it has worked out pretty well for me. If some nice stuff appears in her jewelry box (or whatever else she likes) odds are the ruggedly awesome you have been wanting Mosin Nagant will show up in the closet.
This pretty much covers my thoughts on how to deal with the smaller issues.
Ironically from what I see no issues seem to come up between a few hundred bucks and a massive and total change in lifestyle namely moving to a trailer in the middle of nowhere. All I can say about that is if both parties are really not 100% on board with it that dog isn't going to hunt.
Wifey and I have talked about this in a combination of a conceptual discussion and our own experiences with preparedness finances. Somewhere down the road she will write on the matter. I/We were lucky that my paranoia was fully developed when we entered into marriage. For better or worse all the cards were on the table before hand. I do not suggest revealing your paranoia on a first date but somewhere between that and promising to spend the rest of your natural life with someone it would be a good thing to have some serious conversations about.
For those of you who got all nuts after making lifelong vows and the spouse isn't on board with the whole thing. Aside from the basics of what I said above I do have a couple suggestions. First start gradually: a few cans of food and a couple gallons of water at the grocery store, a couple boxes of ammo for your ccw/ bedroom handgun, a bit of emergency cash in the sock drawer. Gradually increasing the size and scope of your paranoia's impact on life will give her some time to get used to it.
Also I have had pretty good luck with explaining exactly what I want to get and why I want to get it. Someone who sees a need for say clean water is a lot more likely to be OK with some cash disappearing from the bank account for a water filter.
Oh yeah, I am sorry if it seemed like I was picking at anyone or anything like that or if it came off as know it all. I am just putting what I have experienced (or observed) that works and doesn't work.
How does it work in your house? If it doesn't work then why doesn't it?
The post also briefly touched on the topic of women. First of all I want to say that I like boobs a whole lot. That has nothing to do with anything except women have them and my random thought generator is on high today. Anyway I am coming to see through a variety of different areas (peoples posts, comments, etc) that some essential topics need to be revisited from time to time. While readership on most blogs doesn't change that much month to month we do need to realize that individual readers come and go. It might not be a bad idea to post on some key topics from time to time, maybe quarterly.
I hear two typical gripes when it comes to survivalists griping about their wives. (To a much smaller degree women readers griping about their husbands in the same context.) The first is rather small and simple. It goes something like "I want to get (enter the name of a relatively low priced item) but my wife vetoed it". I have a couple thoughts about this. First of all there is a real simple answer to this, personal money. We do this and I can't see how any marriage survives without it. This is money that you both get to do whatever you want no questions asked. Spend it on good tasting lip gloss, hair products, shotgun shells or high capacity magazines or save it. The point of this is that you can do whatever you want with it. Survivalism aside I strongly suggest implementing this plan. Want a rifle or a dozen machetes but the wife is not on board? Save up your pocket money and get it.
For slightly larger (say a few hundred dollars but + - depending on your finances) items here is another idea, I bet she wants something also. Within the limits of your finances she is a lot more likely to be willing to allocate resources towards that sweet new whatever if she just got something nice. I have an awesome Wife who really asks for very little in terms of material goods but when she asks for something the answer is almost invariably yes. I think that a culture of both of you getting the reasonable things you want and can afford breeds a sort of good nature about it. This week we are spending cash on what you want but last week I got that spam can of ammo or whatever. I do know for certain that the fastest way to get a spouse to start being nit picky about that stuff is to do that to them.
Why don't guys do this I often ask myself? I think part of the answer is that one can look at survivalism as essential and thus not a hobby and thus something which falls outside the compromising realm (nothing in marriage falls outside the compromise realm). With small reoccurring expenses like extra canned goods or a few blue 5 gallon water jugs in my experience it is usually a non issue. Unless we are shorter then normal me picking up something on a trip to the store is a given. I think it is more important to focus on your desired end state of getting the preps you want instead of thinking about and arguing principle. I have chosen this path and it has worked out pretty well for me. If some nice stuff appears in her jewelry box (or whatever else she likes) odds are the ruggedly awesome you have been wanting Mosin Nagant will show up in the closet.
This pretty much covers my thoughts on how to deal with the smaller issues.
Ironically from what I see no issues seem to come up between a few hundred bucks and a massive and total change in lifestyle namely moving to a trailer in the middle of nowhere. All I can say about that is if both parties are really not 100% on board with it that dog isn't going to hunt.
Wifey and I have talked about this in a combination of a conceptual discussion and our own experiences with preparedness finances. Somewhere down the road she will write on the matter. I/We were lucky that my paranoia was fully developed when we entered into marriage. For better or worse all the cards were on the table before hand. I do not suggest revealing your paranoia on a first date but somewhere between that and promising to spend the rest of your natural life with someone it would be a good thing to have some serious conversations about.
For those of you who got all nuts after making lifelong vows and the spouse isn't on board with the whole thing. Aside from the basics of what I said above I do have a couple suggestions. First start gradually: a few cans of food and a couple gallons of water at the grocery store, a couple boxes of ammo for your ccw/ bedroom handgun, a bit of emergency cash in the sock drawer. Gradually increasing the size and scope of your paranoia's impact on life will give her some time to get used to it.
Also I have had pretty good luck with explaining exactly what I want to get and why I want to get it. Someone who sees a need for say clean water is a lot more likely to be OK with some cash disappearing from the bank account for a water filter.
Oh yeah, I am sorry if it seemed like I was picking at anyone or anything like that or if it came off as know it all. I am just putting what I have experienced (or observed) that works and doesn't work.
How does it work in your house? If it doesn't work then why doesn't it?
Sunday, March 8, 2009
A New Link
I stumbled into RV Survivalist awhile back and for whatever reason lost contact with his blog. In any case I stumbled back into it today and figured it's time for him to join the prestigious blogs we read section on the right. I don't put everything that initially interests me into there because lots of folks tend to fade quickly and pretty soon the sidebar is full of dead links. In any case give the guy a read.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The Plan- Cheap housing
I got a good amount of comments on my previous post on this matter. After a lot of helpful comments and thinking we realized that buying a new mobile with the intent to keep it for the long term and move it from place to place wasn't sound. A couple comments (Pearls and Mayberry) suggested getting a big travel trailer and just moving that from place to place. I've been mulling that idea over for a couple days. Today Wifey and I had a conversation about it. To put it mildly she is not a big fan of that idea. We did it already more or less and she isn't keen on doing it again. After some discussion on the matter we came to an interesting place. She is not down with the travel trailer thing and I don't like the economics of renting an apartment.
The newest (and I think more reasonable and realistic) idea is to just buy a used mobile home wherever we are. There is no intent to move it around for the long term but a move might be in the cards. This plan is pretty darn cheap as used mobiles can be had for a song. Paying a couple- three hundred bucks a month to park it someplace would be just fine with me. Bank the rest of the BAH and save for a house down the road. We do intend to purchase a home and then continue to sell and move (but not upgrade) as needed for my job. This plan seems like a good stop gap measure between the next duty station and being able to really afford to buy a house.
Please by all means point out anything I failed to consider or underestimated. Thoughts?
The newest (and I think more reasonable and realistic) idea is to just buy a used mobile home wherever we are. There is no intent to move it around for the long term but a move might be in the cards. This plan is pretty darn cheap as used mobiles can be had for a song. Paying a couple- three hundred bucks a month to park it someplace would be just fine with me. Bank the rest of the BAH and save for a house down the road. We do intend to purchase a home and then continue to sell and move (but not upgrade) as needed for my job. This plan seems like a good stop gap measure between the next duty station and being able to really afford to buy a house.
Please by all means point out anything I failed to consider or underestimated. Thoughts?
Monday, January 26, 2009
Building A Home On The Cheap
We have gone over RV and travel trailer living in the past, mobile homes have been discussed also. Let us assume that you want to live in a more permanent but want/ need to do it on the cheap. It is worth noting that cheap for a permanent structure is nowhere near trailer/ RV/ mobile home sort of cheap. The bottom line is that cabins/ houses/ whatever you want to call them just plain cost more.
Please check out some background by reading this post by Steve. All the good advice in it aside it got me to thinking. Three different people and their residences come to mind; I will now talk about them. Hopefully you will get something out of it. Here I go in no particular order.
Uncle B lives in a nice little cabin. It sits in a mid sized town that was small 20 years ago. The origin of the cabin is kind of a funny story. Grandpa was in construction and was building a park which included demolishing the structures that were on the land. He had a lot adjacent to the family home where they had a barn and kept the horses. Grandpa chose the best of the cabins on the land he was working on, sawed it in half with a chainsaw put it on a truck and drove it to the land in the middle of the night. This structure is fairly small but ingeniously designed to have a lot of space.
The cabin is about 20' x 35'. It has two small (queen bed, desk, dresser, small closet and its full) bedrooms on the left side that are about 10 feet wide. The little bit of space on the left side between the wall of the middle bedroom and the north wall was a tiny bathroom. The remaining space was split up with about 25' of living room and the rest was the kitchen. A brick fireplace is in between the two spaces. It looks like at one time the oven might have been attached but it was replaced by a gas oven. Later on a laundry room was added which tacked about 10 feet onto the end of the place. This place has pretty much everything you need and could be built pretty cheaply. My uncle and I were talking (he is a contractor) about homes and I gave this floor plan some serious thought. We agreed that adding a loft (very cheap space) would help out a lot. Admittedly in the cabin storage is somewhat short but between the barn and assorted outbuildings (one of which is basically a small apartment without a bathroom) there is plenty of space to put stuff.
This place has three lessons for me. First sometimes you can get a place just for moving it. This is of course more economic if you have the truck and such to move a place. However if that is your only expense for getting a livable structure it is worth looking into. The big thing in this is that for it to be cost effective the structure probably needs to be pretty close to your home site. Certainly not an answer for every situation but it is worth keeping in mind. The second lesson is that to a certain degree the floor plan and its livability are more important then total square footage. The third lesson is that if you have enough space on your lot additional storage space can always be added later on as funds allow. The cabin started with a tiny porch and no laundry room. After it became Grandmas full time residence I think the laundry room came pretty quickly. A few years later Pa and my uncles all got together and built a car port and a wrap around deck. Build a small place now, a shed in a year or two, a barn a few years later, maybe another room or two down the road, etc.
The second place is probably the smallest and almost definitely the cheapest. It belongs to one of Uncle B's friends who we will refer to as J. He owns ten beautiful acres of woods with an amazing view. He got the land about 20 years ago for a darn good price. He lives in an A frame. No foundation and no septic. He has a grey water system and an outhouse. To be honest I am not sure if there was a single permit involved in the place getting built. In any case the work was done by him, I imagine Uncle B and a friend or two. He has a nice barn also which stores all manner of things. The morale I learned from this place is that if you are willing to adjust your lifestyle (he has an outhouse) then substantial savings can be made.
The third place is the one I know the most about as it was recently built by a friend of mine. His folks have 40 acres they inherited and he was given a couple to build a house on. He of course has access to the rest should he want to have a cow or something. Most likely he would just get more involved in his parents rather substantial efforts (cows, pig, chickens) and have a piece of the rewards.
My friend built what could be best described as a studio house. Pretty simple layout with a bedroom in one corner, the bathroom kitty corner to the bedroom with the kitchen on the same wall to make plumbing easier. A wood stove sits by the doorway and the rest of the place is open. It sits on a slab and there is a small mud room in which the washer and dryer live. If I recall correctly he built the place for $45,000.
It took him about a year to build partially because he built as he could pay for materials. He thus owns the place free and clear. Being a union machine operator and generally a handy guy who knows lots of other handy guys he was able to get everything but the septic system and the plumbing done for trade or greatly discounted cash prices.
The good part of this plan is that he got the place for significantly less then it would have cost to have someone else build it. The bad sides are numerous but it is a question of what is important to you. When you get cabinets and such from leftovers at a great discount some weird combination's come up. When people are doing work for free or lower cash rates they show up when they can and feel like it. This means stuff takes a lot longer then if someone is there all day long. Expect to have lots of pauses while waiting for someone to come and finish their piece of things.
The building process being far lengthier is a big problem if you are paying rent/ mortgage/ whatever somewhere else. Paying for two places to live puts a strain on all but the biggest budgets. Living on site in a travel trailer/ barn (tent if you are a bachelor and the climate is mild enough) would be a good option. A friend of his who I don't know was building a place in the same manner and having serious financial problems because he was paying rent. My friend probably would have done things differently if he didn't have a room in his folks place. The bottom line is that he got far more of a place for his cash then through any other means. He did concede that if his time was factored in the cost would be far higher and really it was a pain in the ass. When he adds on two more bedrooms and a family room in a few years he is going to just have a contractor do the work.
I guess the biggest thing to keep in mind is that you need to think outside of the box to really cut costs. Thinking outside of the box means making sacrifices in some form or another. It is just a question of what you are willing to live without. Doing the average thing and getting a loan which you use to purchase a turn key home or having one built is going to lead to an average sized mortgage and all that comes with it.
Please check out some background by reading this post by Steve. All the good advice in it aside it got me to thinking. Three different people and their residences come to mind; I will now talk about them. Hopefully you will get something out of it. Here I go in no particular order.
Uncle B lives in a nice little cabin. It sits in a mid sized town that was small 20 years ago. The origin of the cabin is kind of a funny story. Grandpa was in construction and was building a park which included demolishing the structures that were on the land. He had a lot adjacent to the family home where they had a barn and kept the horses. Grandpa chose the best of the cabins on the land he was working on, sawed it in half with a chainsaw put it on a truck and drove it to the land in the middle of the night. This structure is fairly small but ingeniously designed to have a lot of space.
The cabin is about 20' x 35'. It has two small (queen bed, desk, dresser, small closet and its full) bedrooms on the left side that are about 10 feet wide. The little bit of space on the left side between the wall of the middle bedroom and the north wall was a tiny bathroom. The remaining space was split up with about 25' of living room and the rest was the kitchen. A brick fireplace is in between the two spaces. It looks like at one time the oven might have been attached but it was replaced by a gas oven. Later on a laundry room was added which tacked about 10 feet onto the end of the place. This place has pretty much everything you need and could be built pretty cheaply. My uncle and I were talking (he is a contractor) about homes and I gave this floor plan some serious thought. We agreed that adding a loft (very cheap space) would help out a lot. Admittedly in the cabin storage is somewhat short but between the barn and assorted outbuildings (one of which is basically a small apartment without a bathroom) there is plenty of space to put stuff.
This place has three lessons for me. First sometimes you can get a place just for moving it. This is of course more economic if you have the truck and such to move a place. However if that is your only expense for getting a livable structure it is worth looking into. The big thing in this is that for it to be cost effective the structure probably needs to be pretty close to your home site. Certainly not an answer for every situation but it is worth keeping in mind. The second lesson is that to a certain degree the floor plan and its livability are more important then total square footage. The third lesson is that if you have enough space on your lot additional storage space can always be added later on as funds allow. The cabin started with a tiny porch and no laundry room. After it became Grandmas full time residence I think the laundry room came pretty quickly. A few years later Pa and my uncles all got together and built a car port and a wrap around deck. Build a small place now, a shed in a year or two, a barn a few years later, maybe another room or two down the road, etc.
The second place is probably the smallest and almost definitely the cheapest. It belongs to one of Uncle B's friends who we will refer to as J. He owns ten beautiful acres of woods with an amazing view. He got the land about 20 years ago for a darn good price. He lives in an A frame. No foundation and no septic. He has a grey water system and an outhouse. To be honest I am not sure if there was a single permit involved in the place getting built. In any case the work was done by him, I imagine Uncle B and a friend or two. He has a nice barn also which stores all manner of things. The morale I learned from this place is that if you are willing to adjust your lifestyle (he has an outhouse) then substantial savings can be made.
The third place is the one I know the most about as it was recently built by a friend of mine. His folks have 40 acres they inherited and he was given a couple to build a house on. He of course has access to the rest should he want to have a cow or something. Most likely he would just get more involved in his parents rather substantial efforts (cows, pig, chickens) and have a piece of the rewards.
My friend built what could be best described as a studio house. Pretty simple layout with a bedroom in one corner, the bathroom kitty corner to the bedroom with the kitchen on the same wall to make plumbing easier. A wood stove sits by the doorway and the rest of the place is open. It sits on a slab and there is a small mud room in which the washer and dryer live. If I recall correctly he built the place for $45,000.
It took him about a year to build partially because he built as he could pay for materials. He thus owns the place free and clear. Being a union machine operator and generally a handy guy who knows lots of other handy guys he was able to get everything but the septic system and the plumbing done for trade or greatly discounted cash prices.
The good part of this plan is that he got the place for significantly less then it would have cost to have someone else build it. The bad sides are numerous but it is a question of what is important to you. When you get cabinets and such from leftovers at a great discount some weird combination's come up. When people are doing work for free or lower cash rates they show up when they can and feel like it. This means stuff takes a lot longer then if someone is there all day long. Expect to have lots of pauses while waiting for someone to come and finish their piece of things.
The building process being far lengthier is a big problem if you are paying rent/ mortgage/ whatever somewhere else. Paying for two places to live puts a strain on all but the biggest budgets. Living on site in a travel trailer/ barn (tent if you are a bachelor and the climate is mild enough) would be a good option. A friend of his who I don't know was building a place in the same manner and having serious financial problems because he was paying rent. My friend probably would have done things differently if he didn't have a room in his folks place. The bottom line is that he got far more of a place for his cash then through any other means. He did concede that if his time was factored in the cost would be far higher and really it was a pain in the ass. When he adds on two more bedrooms and a family room in a few years he is going to just have a contractor do the work.
I guess the biggest thing to keep in mind is that you need to think outside of the box to really cut costs. Thinking outside of the box means making sacrifices in some form or another. It is just a question of what you are willing to live without. Doing the average thing and getting a loan which you use to purchase a turn key home or having one built is going to lead to an average sized mortgage and all that comes with it.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Gentile Poverty
I can't seem to get back to sleep. The topic of gentile poverty comes up from time to time. It is almost synonymous with the whole travel trailer living concept. It is also mentioned when people talk about moving to a piece of land way out in the middle of nowhere.
The gist of gentile poverty is that if you reduce your expenses you can live on less. This means a stressful job could be replaced with a far less stressful albeit less profitable job. You could get by on a (couple of) underground economy income streams. Maybe you don't even need to work at all. Basically there is a trade off between money and time. With this plan you will have little money but lots of time. Time to write a book or just sit on the porch.
I think that reducing your expenses is an awesome idea. Reduce them as far as you can before life becomes too unpleasant for you. The one issue I have with gentile poverty is when it comes to dropping your income significantly. I am not talking about a guy getting out of the rat race where he makes $100,000 and going to a calmer job where he makes $50,000. Being able to live on $800 a month is awesome but that doesn't mean you are good to go making $801.
I think keeping as much of your current income as possible and reducing expenses while saving the difference would be the best recipe for freedom. Lots of bad scenarios will involve the loss of a job or downsizing. Getting your hours cut back at work is bad any way you cut it. However if you are living in gentile poverty and earning a hundred dollars more then you absolutely need to survive then there are going to be some big problems. For those folks who are rocking some sort of sweet undergoing income streams you could get hit harder and faster then you possibly imagine. I fear those who can now earn money doing small jobs and cutting wood could be displaced when others start doing these things for themselves because they can't afford to pay someone to.
Heck lets step away from gloomy scenarios all together. The closer the difference between what you need to live and what you make is the closer you are to trouble. Maybe it is a few of life's 500 dollar problems in a row or a slow winter at work but I think this concept is intentionally putting yourself at risk. Gentile poverty could be asking for trouble.
The gist of gentile poverty is that if you reduce your expenses you can live on less. This means a stressful job could be replaced with a far less stressful albeit less profitable job. You could get by on a (couple of) underground economy income streams. Maybe you don't even need to work at all. Basically there is a trade off between money and time. With this plan you will have little money but lots of time. Time to write a book or just sit on the porch.
I think that reducing your expenses is an awesome idea. Reduce them as far as you can before life becomes too unpleasant for you. The one issue I have with gentile poverty is when it comes to dropping your income significantly. I am not talking about a guy getting out of the rat race where he makes $100,000 and going to a calmer job where he makes $50,000. Being able to live on $800 a month is awesome but that doesn't mean you are good to go making $801.
I think keeping as much of your current income as possible and reducing expenses while saving the difference would be the best recipe for freedom. Lots of bad scenarios will involve the loss of a job or downsizing. Getting your hours cut back at work is bad any way you cut it. However if you are living in gentile poverty and earning a hundred dollars more then you absolutely need to survive then there are going to be some big problems. For those folks who are rocking some sort of sweet undergoing income streams you could get hit harder and faster then you possibly imagine. I fear those who can now earn money doing small jobs and cutting wood could be displaced when others start doing these things for themselves because they can't afford to pay someone to.
Heck lets step away from gloomy scenarios all together. The closer the difference between what you need to live and what you make is the closer you are to trouble. Maybe it is a few of life's 500 dollar problems in a row or a slow winter at work but I think this concept is intentionally putting yourself at risk. Gentile poverty could be asking for trouble.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Living Off-Grid in a Travel Trailer
By Backwoods Bob
In the late 1990s we found twenty acres of good timber land for 15,000 dollars. We put 3K down and the escrow payments were only 150 a month. By immediately moving onto our land in a travel trailer we were able to reduce our monthly bills to only the land payment. This let us build our load bearing straw bale cottage out of hand as we went along without going into debt.
Continue reading....
I saw this great post on The Survivalist Blog and really enjoyed it. I imagine you would enjoy it also.
In the late 1990s we found twenty acres of good timber land for 15,000 dollars. We put 3K down and the escrow payments were only 150 a month. By immediately moving onto our land in a travel trailer we were able to reduce our monthly bills to only the land payment. This let us build our load bearing straw bale cottage out of hand as we went along without going into debt.
Continue reading....
I saw this great post on The Survivalist Blog and really enjoyed it. I imagine you would enjoy it also.
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