Battling the Zombie Hordes or shopping on the first of the Month

Well it’s that time again when my sales,  discounts and check  all arrive on the the first of the month.  One nice thing about Cash and Carry is they don’t accept EBT/ food stamps so the 1st is just another day compared to someplace like Winco or Wally world. That is a good thing as I will be doing most of my shopping at C&C this week.

They have a great deal on Large eggs 15 Doz. for  $13.98.  Anytime I can get eggs for less than a dollar a dozen I’m happy. I’ll use mineral oil and stash them in basement as I can get 6 months easy  storage time. Plus eggs are a cheap protien and so flexible in cooking and baking.  I know that sounds like a lot of eggs for just one person but if you figure 1-2 doz. per week (depending on number of folks in the household) that is only 3-4 months of eggs.

Next on the list is 50 lbs. of Long grain white rice for $17.00. I had to raise my my price point because of inflation. So now it’s 50 # of rice for under $20.00 and if properly stored you can get an easy 20 years. Plus I like rice and I think it is good as long as you mix up with other starches and pasta to avoid “food fatigue”.  You will be hard press to find any other food that will give you 500 servings for such a low price.

Im going to try adding a few #10 cans to my storage especially veggies and fruits.   I’ll probably be the one doing some comunity cooking either for my nieghbors or my family so adding some diced tomatoes for $3.50 for a #10 can. With my stock pots I could make a Big batch of chili then can the chili. So I have a couple of recipes to try out and use up a big can of tomatoes without anything spoiling.

1 box of food grade freezer bags for $2.80 120 count. I really like this size for my BOB and survival/charity buckets. Plus if you make a big meal and have leftovers it’s great size for thawing for a quick meal.  I got the regular bags but the freezer grade are thicker and I think are worth the extra cost.

Last but not least  5 lbs. of lime and lemons each at just under $10.00 total. I’ve been wanting to try a couple of preserving methods that in involve salting and dehydrating.  Vitamin C is always a critical element in survival plus I really want to learn to make lime sherbert.

So total cost is about $55.00 not counting tax and all of these items give me anywhere from 3 months-20 + years they can be stored. Since May is Cinco de Mayo it’s a great opportunity to get bulk items for Latino recipes.  C&C has Masa corn flour for sale for making your own corn tortillas and other items but I’m already good on those.  So you should take advantage of any store that has a a holiday sale on ethnic foods.  I know I picked up some great items during Chinese New year sales. Epecially the Wok which is a great multi- tasker cooking tool.

I’ll be taking Mom shopping as I get to piggy back on her 10% senior discount and get another  rain barrel.  Fred Meyers is having the 10% senior day as well and I’ll get a few frozen dinners on sale as well. I know they are not the best meals and not even close to good home cooking but some days I need quick and easy. So I might as well get them as cheaply as possible.

I finally got the the 15 lbs. of bacon in the freezer and I’m still working on the onions dehydrating and I’d like to freeze some as well. So a bit of work learning a new method of preservation.  My sister is coming over to borrow the Electric chainsaw for a little trimming and my neighbor had a bunch of volunteer Sunflowers and my sister loves sunflowers. So I’ll be giving her about 8 sunflower starts and they are of course hierlooms.

Becoming a prepper is simple if not always easy and nothing says you have to spend a lot of money all at once.  There are some basic ideas and folks that have gone and done it will help you out but this is about you and how you want to live. I know some folks that have been gypsies and live on the road and now want a few comforts of electricity but don’t want to be tied to the grid. Now with solar panels getting so cheap they were astounded looking at my little 20 watt panel and how cheap it was on Amazon.   They are kind of hippies in outlook and I tend toward more of a conservative/libertarian outlook. But we both bemaon our “Elites” and the crap coming out of DC.

Remember this is about you and your life and how you want to live! I can show you how I do it as cheaply as possible and what works for me may not work for you. I’m single with no kids  which is not what most folks are. I’m 100% disabled with a military background which gives me a different slant/mindset than most folks.  Use what you learn and branch out and make it work for you. There is no finish line and it’s all pass/ fail if you live you pass.  I don’t think you have an excuse not to try as I’m disabled and living on the princely sum of under $20 grand per year and I don’t get foodstamps, nor a cell phone, or internet nor a subsidy for my power provided by the governement.  If you get those items use them for all they are worth and get ready for when the PTBs cut them, and I beleive they will in the future.  The future is looking a bit bleak and we have to be ready to create communities and help each other and I have no problem of sucking up what the PTBs dole out to keep the masses pacified as long as they are stockpiling and moving toward independence and self-reliance.  Get strong, get independent, learn and build skills. Keep building yourself and your community and when the PTBs try to enforce the dictats from on high.  Simply start ignoring them as not being relevant in your life. Remeber they want you to fear them.

 

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How do you prep? You start.

The hardest thing in prepping is  to start.  I still consider myself new to the whole mindset of prepping even after 2-3 years and it never ends. There is more to do and more to learn.  I know I have gained great respect for folks that are mostly self- reliant as well as the ability of an average midevel village to provide most of the items needed to survive.

I think I know why in the USA that we focus so much on food as preppers as you can see if you are making progress. I think it’s a mindset that we tend to value what we can buy rather than what we can make. Though  I think that mindset is changing slowly as we are not simply consumers but full human beings and we all have value if only to ourselves.   I know 3 -5 years ago I’d would not have thought about trying to snake my drain to clear a clog. If  Drano didn’t work it would be time to call Daddy or a plumber, pay some cash and make the problem go away.  I’m not knocking my Dad or plumbers as I’m very impressed with the skill they have but I bet they get a bit tired of being called out over a simple problem that most folks could take care of themselves with a couple of tools. I know I feel that way when I’m asked to work on a PC,  most problems are fairly simple and could be fixed with just a little knowledge and basic preventive maintinence.

I know while I was clearing that clog I was about at the limit for the 15 foot snake I borrowed and I relly needed to blow out the pipes even though I cleared the clog. Plus having the pipes good and clean makes things work better in the long run.  I need to fix a toilet as it wants to run water in the tank and the shut off valve is a joke. Now I will call Daddy after I get all the parts and actually repair the toilet guts.  The water running is a bad cost on my water bill. The tank and toilet are the larger size and create a good flush and it just the cheap plastic guts that are the problem as well as the shut off valve being bad. It will cost a bit for the parts but I want good valves I can count on for the house.  This a bit more complicated than the clog problem and will have to shut off a house main or the water main to fix. I don’t really know that much about adding in a water valve properly to do it on my own. Besides I need to learn about water mains and stuff anyway. Theory is one thing practice is another.

You will need to be able to do a more yourself and use the pros when you have a project that you can’t do on your own.  Having tools and the parts already to hand can make everyone’s life easier.  I’m not talking about having all the parts to back up your home, but having some basic tools some  standard size pipe, valves and some items as multi-taskers stored may not be a bad idea.  You won’t become a contracter but being able to patch and make do for a month or two may save you a bit of money or at least get you to your next paycheck so you can have work done properly.

One thing to do is always tell your repair person what you have already done and keep notes. This will save both you and them time as they will move on in troubleshooting from your start. If you have screwed up they can also tell you what you may have done wrong or at least out of order. You can get your back up or you can learn from everything. I know I annoy the crap out of PC support sometime cause I screw with the “Idiot Checklist” and tell them all I have already done to fix a PC.  Actually it’s kind of fun as you get to see who knows repair and who is reading a script and really does not know what they are talking about.

I build PCs for fun and as a hobby when I can afford it. I know my stuff basically around a PC and I worked tech support in the Army and as a civillian. I can tell folks how to build a PC from the ground up as far as hardware goes and what they want a PC to do. It’s not pride or arrogance that I do it well. Heck I’ve taught folks to build PC’s via email and the telephone.  Mostly gaming PC’s to get the most bang for the buck. I’m a bit weak in software and programming but hardware I’m dang solid.

So I have my skillset and I my be a bit weak on implementing them all.  But I buy tools that others can use as well as help me out.  It’s not really a big deal if you are aware. I took over a little bit of ground cloth to protect a  neighbors plants. Perhaps it will work but pay attention and work to help each other.  This part of prepping is not a competition save that for the beer making and produce taken out of the garden.  This isn’t a game or a MMO were you can buy gold that others have mined. You will not be able to buy your way out of it and you need skills and other folks skills.  Cultivate those skills,build your tribe and or clan and welcome others and or alliances. Yes it’s retrograde but your IPAD or Iphone won’t help you to survive. Folks that know how to grow food, make clothes and repair stuff will…..

Washer and Kitchen sink Clog

I’ve been fighting with a clog and trying to avoid calling a plumber since Sunday.  It looks like I was successful finally thanks to the use of a 15 ft. snake/auger I borrowed from next door.  Of course this got me to thinking about this happening after TSHTF (no pun intended).

Having a plumbing snake would probably take care of any clogs if it is long enough to reach it.  Amazon also has a tool that fits on a hose along with a bladder that seals the pipe so that you can clear the clog using just water and pressure.  I’ll be picking up these tools to have on hand, even if I can’t do the work physically.  I have found if I have tools it’s not to hard to get someone to help me out.

I also want to give a shout out at Kris at Simply Living Blog for all of her ideas and help for getting that clog broke loose.  While the snake  finally  did the trick. The Boiling water poured into the sink and washing machine drain helped to soften up the clog and made the going a little easier.

Got my five gallon Carboy at Fred Meyers while taking my Mom shopping. Now I can add a secondary fermentation process to my lagers and add another piece of equipment for future all- grain brewing. Plus this fall I’d like to add in doing wines and even some mead made from honey as another skill. So having extra fermenting vessels already bought and ready to go will be nice to have on hand.

Plus I have another water container if it is needed in a “emergency situation”.  You know how I love multi- taskers!

Doing up a batch of wheat beer tonight as I kind of held of doing any big kitchen chores until I had the CLOG taken care of,  so I’ll need to get hot on all my preserving chores that were supposed to already been done.  The Lagers were a huge hit at the party and I need to make some beer for my self.  LOL  I have to say I am really fond of drinking the Lagers though they do take a bit more time. It seems as if I’m into seasonal beers.  Lagers are a little lighter and finish clean that makes them great for summer, there I prefer even the Pale malt extract. For fall and winter the ales especially in the dark malt extract seem to be what I like the most.  After this batch of wheat I’m going to work on trying to create what is called “Krystal Weitzen” in Germany which is a very pale, clear wheat beer. Hence the secondary fermenter to get a really clear beer.

The Beer Lady has offered to let me check out some of her beer books so I can do more experimenting. (Cue mad scientist’ s maniacal laughter).  My friend is doing some new dark ales now as his wife really liked the beer I took over for them to try out.  I don’t know if he’s  pleased or a bit pissed as now making beer is added to his “Honey Do” list.

Even when things go wrong and it feels a bit like the universe is out to get you. I have to say I’m liking this thing called “Life”  and I’m fairly certain it beats the hell out of the alternative!

 

Quality of life

I think I’ve become more sensitive to the term “Quality of Life” since becoming disabled.  I’m not talking about your own choices you make for yourself but many of the so called liberals that want to make for other people.  I believe life has value outside of the idea of cost consideration and inconvience to others.  I believe we show the best part of ourselves when we care for for others that cannot care forthemselves.

I have found being disabled has changed my attitude. Or better to say that I always found value in folks but by becoming disabled it made it personal.  I find it Ironic that no one uses Stephen Hawkings as a good case for “Quality of Life” and by his own addmision the diagnosis of “Lou Gherig’s”/ALS  disease made him stop cruising through school but to actually work hard at his studies.  Good, bad or indifferent Hawkings is about the best example of a a scientific rock star we have today.  He was diagnosed at 22 years old and now he is 67, a grandfather and a person that has inpired millions. We get the story of his ALS has progressed very slowly, but he could have believed the “Establishment” and chewed a bullet or simply ended it because “He didn’t want to be a burden” .

I don’t think of myself as a burden and I do my best, but I’m am what would be considered a useless eater by the “statist”  and I would at best be left to die , or worse simply eliminated,  because my “Quality of Life” can’t be all that good.  I’m poor and physically handicap along with my medical issues.  I maybe facing ALS as there is some correlation between ALS and CIDP if not cuasation.  I’ ve been a survial situation for years.

I’m not trying to bring folks down nor gain “pity points”.  Life is dangerous, she is trying to kill you everyday,  eventually she will win and you will die.  I want folks to wake up to the fact that some things can be controlled and some things can’t.  Even so you can’t give up because of some arbitrary pinhead expert decides if you don’t live his way you are worthless.  I truly believe this disease has saved my life. Becoming a prepper has given me purpose.  I have stored boxes of 3 weeks worth of goods for family members that mock me. At least 1 will probably die within a couple of weeks of any SHTF event because of health problems and a total lack of touch of that little world we call reality.  I can’t save her as she will not even try to save herself.

Control your own ground: Mentally,  physically. It might be a house, and apartment or a tent. But start there as you have about 3 feet around you you can say you truely control.  Please do not play the PTBs hype of collectivism and shared sacrifice. Especially the inside traders, Gov’t workers, Corperations, banks or unions.

It starts with you!  How would you fight the PTBs?  Don’t grow a  a garden or have few shotgun shells full of salt? Learn who you can trust among neighbors  and have some fun and not develope a bunker mentality.  Gosh do you think “Flash Robs”  hit local mini-marts cause they have high quality food? Whole grains hell I can leave detailed instructions and most folks can’t even soak beans.

We all owe a death and your alive now and you can make a choice!  Will it matter? probaly not how many deaths do you know about from Revolution?  Screw it they won and we can too if we work at it.

Had a good day shopping and other stuff

Got that 5 gallon Igloo drink jug today.  So I’m set for my little modified “Hot water tanks” in case I lose access to city water. I already have a smaller 2 gallon Kitchen aid  jug,  but I think the Igloos are better insulated especially at the lid.  I will be able to have almost 10 gallons of warm to hot water through out the day if I pre-heat all my insulated jugs and thermoses the night before and fill them up.  That’s more than enough for my needs.

Cash & Carry was my main shopping spot today and the Igloo  jug was only $23.00.  Along with another 12 pounds of elbow macaroni and I splurged on some smoke Kielbasa that I like so much that’s kind of my little treat for myself.

Stopped by my favorite pawn shop for a couple more stripper clips with 20 rounds for Sasha and a little junk silver. I’m focusing on the junk silver as I think it may work out as a good barter item at least for the short term or for daily purposes compared to 1 oz. of silver.  I got some nice pre 64 dimes already but I’d like to grab a 50 count roll of pre 64’s this next check.

Did up some turkey stock from the Taxday party. The party went really well and the beers were a hit as well as the turkey! Met some good folks and hopefully we can start building more on our “Tribe” as well as help folks out and teach them to do for themselves. I think I have a better than average audience here in Idaho for folks wanting to be self-reliant, but it still a bit of a hard sell.  I think I over did just a bit as it was a long day though a lot of fun. I sometimes forget that I’ll get knocked down hard for overdoing.  I ran a little fever Monday and seemed to have caught a little 48 hour bug or I had a flare sometimes it’s hard to tell.  But I was a little sick the next 2 days, which made me feel bad as I wanted to help clean up.

I’ll freeze up the the stock , plus I need to get some onions dehydrated as well as freeze up a few pounds of bacon. So it looks like the rest of the week will be getting foods ready for long term storage and then onto planting the garden.  We also have a couple of big Bike events coming up. I want to do a setup on my “trike” for the Armageddon bike that will cover all the basics of prepping and making the bike a true BOV.

 

The Taxday party!

This weekend on April 15th my nieghbors, freinds and family are having a tax day party.  I’m doing a BBQ turkey and it’s sitting in it’s brine as I write and I’ll take over acase of Homemade lager (Tax-Free) of Dark and pale types.  Huzzah! the pale lager will be ready in time.  We will have a professional DJ and some incredible gardeners. Folks that refurbish bikes and those into organic gardening.  Plus a professional BBQ’er  and a very eclectic group of all ages.  Everyone else should be bringing everything else “Potluck style” . They are good about getting a little bit of everything.

This is a great way to know your neighbors and building your own little tribe. Folks are relaxed but working together to make the project happen.  Having several brewers,  gardeners, and folks doing BBQ gives you a nice place to start and share.   Plus it’s not all Doom and Gloom and if you keep focusing on how bad things are and don’t take some positive actions you will burn out.  I know I take a bit of joy in giving the one finger salute to the PTBs in even a small way!

We are going to have some good music, food, beer and fun in spite of the IRS on taxday. No government intervetion needed for us to be happy and have some fun!

 

The only way to win is NOT to play the game!

Another big lottery game has come and gone. Quite a few more Proles played the game and lost and the media hype was prolific with just a few stories of former winners crashing and burning to give all the excuses needed for failure.  On the off chance someone wins they always take all the money at once  so that they may incur the maximum tax which at best takes back 40% of the lottery “WIN”.  Hell even the Mafia’s numbers racket isn’t that good!  Yes, I know they say you can’t win if you don’t play guess what you don’t lose if you don’t play either.

There is  bigger game in play with the elites trying to ferment either a class war via OWS or a race war via Zimmerman or the War on women.  Listen to the rhetoric Zimmerman is a “White ” Hispanic. He’s Peruvian adopted by a Jew, a registered Democrat and mentors disadvantaged kids. I don’t know what happened on that night but I do know that this is being played by the MSM and the PTBs  as it being racist. Do not play the game! If someone attacks me from they will be met with force as I will defend myself. Assholes and criminals are everywhere and can look like anything.

It could have been that Trayvon say what he assumed was a “White” guy following him and he felt threatened.  Being a 17 year old male the best defense was a good offense, as in the old “Fight or Flight” response we all have.   I don’t know and neither does anyone else!

This playing skin color or racial politics as arbitrary as me saying don’t trust any one with brown hair and brown eyes because they are the largest segment of prison population or have the most number of arrests and tickets.  So now blue eyed blondes or green eyed redheads are the only safe folks to be around.  See it’s dumb!

“But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

                Free at last! Free at last!

                Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!³

Martin Luther King was a Great American and we need to live up to his legacy.  All Americans are his people

Crudmuffins got to rework the budget

I know I harp on having a budget quite a lot. Trust me when you live on under $20 grand a year and you want to prepare for the long term in addition to monthly costs a budget is critical.  I tend to set up my budget on general costs and hard numbers. For example if I want internet or Dish TV I will have to pay $43.00 and $25 and some change for those items. This year everything is going up!

I had a jump in house insurance. All of the disasters last year cost the insurance companies and someone must pick up the slack.  The EPA creates new mandates for power companies and the rates go up. Gas prices effect everything transported and it’s not just filling your tank but filling all the tanks of the truckers that transport food and other goods.  I figure I have a 10%-15%  increase in overall cost that is hitting my budget. Heck that’s what I’m trying to give to charity every month.

Needless to say I’m a little less than pleased with “There is no inflation” Ben Bernanke, and we are in a recovery which is nothing more than the “Big Lie” and if everyone keeps repeating it enough folks will believe.

I also try and wrangle the longest use out of everything as well and so my Tower PC seems to have died. She has been getting a little long in the tooth in PC age as the motherboard, CPU and memory are about 7 years old. So while not unexpected the timing could have been a bit better.  I know how to build PC’s and it looks like the  major upgrade will cost less than $250.00. It’s just that it happened about 3 weeks earlier than my budget accounted for as May was going to be PC upgrade month.

I just hate it when I get the budget going and life throws a monkey wrench at all my plans. No, I’m not in any danger as I have all that I need, just slightly inconvenienced. So that’s my whine for the day and I imagine there are folks that wish they had my problems of having to work on the backup laptop instead of the main PC. But it does show the old saying of 1 = none and 2=1 and so forth on prepping.

Finished up my Government Paperwork

Taxes are done and sent off.  I was able to use the 1040 EZ form which saved a little bit of money on my tax software so that was nice.  I don’t pay income tax and I don’t get or take the EIC that a lot of folks get this time of year.  I’m “below poverty level ” just barely as a single person but that’s okay I’m getting along and have all I really need with a little left over. On the Idaho state form they give out a standard credit of $80.00 for grocery sales tax but that’s it for me.

I have to rework the budget again for increases for my home owners insurance and my internet bill. Not a lot of change but it’s additional $20.00 every month along with water is going up or at least mine did. I wonder if it’s all those water barrels I filled?  LOL  Hopefully I’ll make up the costs on my irrigation bill this summer.  I think I’ll be able to swing both rain barrels this upcoming check and add one five gallon Igloo insulated water jug as my my modified hot water tank.  That will take me to 500 gallons total water on hand when I add the RV’s tank.  I’m feeling confident that I should be able to handle all my water needs for at least 6 months and I can  stay at home rather than venturing out among the barbarian hordes for water.

I got another 5 pack of Brita water filters. I even scrounged my change jar of a couple of dollars in quarters to get enough to pay for them.  Down on my saved cash for the house but I’m good on filters for over a year now. I’m saving a few of them as I saw a way to re use them on the internet by adding fresh activated charcoal.  I figure it’s worth the effort to see if I can use them.  Got a couple of  ideas kicking around in my brain of using stacked buckets some sand, activated charcoal and cheese cloth.  I already have everything on hand so It’s just needs to be put together and tested.

That should finish up all the water needs I have to take care of and the next mission will be getting wood and all of the parts for the wood stove.  That will be the big project for this year, but if I figured everything correctly the wood stove should pay for itself within 3 years and I’ll have a solid backup to my electric furnace, oven and water heater.

I am not sure how long we may have to prepare for a full blown collapse that I expect to happen. I hope that I’m totally off-base and everything will work out just fine.  I’d sure like some more time and want to be totally wrong on my prediction for the USA.  I’ll keep puttering along planning for the worst and hoping for the best and if I am wrong and everything recovers in the economy I’ll go to work on paying off my house and then I’ll be debt free.

Prepping with silver

I’m a prepper and I think your first moves should be getting enough food, water, 1st aid and sanitation to take care of your daily needs for 6 months at a minimum.  You are good on ammo and working towards your 1 year goals. You are out of debt and you are getting good at saving money but since you don’t trust the banks you got green backs that need to be put to use besides stuffing them in a mattress. It might be time to look at providing some generational wealth.  You did what you were told to do and invested in a mutual fund via your401k  got crushed. Yet your money managers seem to be doing well and god knows the feds would never let the 5  big bank fail…

I’d like you to walk down the road of history and think about what ifs? What if 401k’s are nationalized? You do know that Idea has been tossed about in DC?  How’s your pension looking?  Did you know that when you go on SS your Medicare will cost you about 10% of your SS?  and the government will take it automatically so you don’t have to worry your little head about that 10% cash going away.  Irregardless of any medical insurance you may have.  Hell I have to pay the Feds back my 10% disability via my VA payments for disability to the US Army. The US Army declared me only 10% disabled the VA given the same data declared me 40% disabled and I’m paying back $130 per month of my VA check to the ARMY for the lump sum settlement the Army gave me and kicked me out of the military for being disabled.  Yes I think this system is dumber than a box of rocks.   Please if the Feds are involved you better pay close attention!

I know some preppers poo-poo any talk of PM (Precious metals) but I think that is wrong. But only after you make your 6 month point on storage of the basics.  A bit of math and history forthcoming, All folks stuck with “Public education” may want to avert their eyes.

Junk silver and American eagles are legal tender. Those both have a physical value. Even the Eagle is stamped it is equal to 1 dollar. Now if a retailer or shop owner prefers a pre 64 dime or whatever worth more to him than a FRN that’s on the store owner. That’s why the Feds can’t come down on a gas station owner selling his gas for 1 or 2 pre 1964 dimes per gallon. Because they are legal tender, of course I have no idea how it works when the gas station owner trades his pre-64 dimes for deliveries.I assume he trades them for FRNs and gets clobbered on taxes. Which is why so few gas stations do it.

From what I understand from the law a retailer can’t charge more to someone using plastic. They can offer a discount to folks paying cash.  But since the feds and states have enacted almost 40,000 laws and regulations this year I might be wrong!

This is how you can show inflation is eating us alive as an additional tax. In 1964 the average Social Security benefit was about $64.00-$68.00 per month or equal to about 2 oz. of gold. Now today’s Social Security check is an average of $1100-1200.00 but if it was priced in today’s 2 oz. of gold it would be closer to $3,000-3200.00 as you can see even the COLA for SS or SSD is not keeping pace with buying power.

Here is where working fiat currency as opposed to a hard metal currency gets fun. Historically speaking 12 hours of labor was worth about a dime’s worth or 1/10 oz. of silver.  The Roman denarius was 1/10 of an oz. of silver.

Now on the historical standard of a 15:1 silver to gold ratio a person earn every month approx 2 oz. of gold value but it was paid in silver. A person/family could live on 2 oz. of gold per month. Do you see the trend?  A silver dime a day was your cost of living for the month. But you as a worker were paid in silver basically  30 oz. of silver were equal to 2 oz. of gold or 1 months of pay!

Now bring it and compare it to today’s prices. A family of 4 could have all the basics on an income of $36,000.00 per year in most states. You are at the the break point of poverty in the USA but you still should be doing okay as long as you are not a “debt slave”. This is on 2 oz. of gold but on over 100 + oz of silver based on modern ratios of gold to silver of 50:1 rather than the ratio 15: 1 that silver has been historically.

You can buy a 50 coin wrap of dimes at APMEX  for $160-$200.00 of dimes and every damn dime should or will be worth 1 day’s value of living as silver will reach it’s historic equilibrium of 15:1 if not 12:1 or 10:1 because silver is destroyed in use compared to gold.  To reach that equality, those dimes should cost over $10.00 each. Yet you can pick them up for about $2.00-$3.00 FRNs.

This is why I love silver and besides we all know us rednecks like shiny stuff.