It’s going to be a little bit tight on cash flow in April. Taxes have to be done unless you want to spend a bit of time in the “Grey bar Hotel”. Actually sometime it doesn’t sound so bad, three hots and a cot along with free cable/sat TV, health care and educational opportunities.
Anyway back to “casa de chaos” I’m a little tight on money because of the last of the water bill ( via the break) and the green house I hope to purchase in April. Overall I’m doing very good with my savings plan being nearly untouchable and the cash flow problems are all my own creation because of the items I hope to purchase in April. The good thing is while prices may rise for basic items if we get through April we should be safe from any economic collapse until September at the earliest. I’m not saying thing will be easy or cheap but a “massive loss of confidence in the dollar” should be a minimal risk.
I’m working on stocking up and I have well over a year’s worth of food for myself, but family or friends that might be useful and need a helping hand will deplete my pantry. I’m not telling you to share what you have prepared, I’m disabled and will need some help to survive. My survival plan is based on sustaining a community and not just myself or family. This plan is what works for me and has no bearing on what works for you! Just make an honest assessment of the people around you and prepare accordingly. I think it was Will Rogers that said “I can’t tell you what gun to buy, as you know your neighbors better than I do”. The same goes for food, water, shelter and basic sanitation. Many of the sheep are in Denial but that does not make them evil. It took a me a big personal smack upside the head to get me to wake up! Most people are not hurting yet because of the “Safety net”. That “safety net” is to keep us lower classes satisfied and complacent. Not because the PTBs care about us, they simply want us docile while the get on with the “Agenda”.
I have planned on a 30% cost of living increase. Now it might be the PTBs stoking inflation or reducing the “so called entitlements” . But one way or the other my friends your paycheck just took a 30% hit at best. Buying power is not about what you spend it’s about what you keep! Jim Rogers is a PM guy and he figures a new currency backed buy gold would be doable if gold was $9,000.00 per oz. Now this is based on some speculation that the IMF will create a new reserve currency called SDR’s or Special Drawing Rights based on gold or perhaps a basket of commodities. Let’s say the US petrol-Dollar tanks and the world wants a new reserve currency that is based on some thing tangible/physical they can hold, not based on faith and an IOU. Now let’s suppose Jim Rogers numbers on the price of gold is plausible. I’m guessing silver would move to the historic ratio of 15/1 or 15 oz. of silver would buy 1 oz. of gold rather than the 60/1 average. Now figuring a historic 15/1 gold silver ratio, About 180 oz. of silver at $600.00 per oz. would have a value around $108,000 dollars. You could buy that 180 oz. silver today for just over $4,100 dollars.
This is all hypothetical speculation on my part. All paper currencies die and all reserve currencies die eventually if not backed by something physical and of value. I would love to see silver under $10.00 per oz. That means I can buy more of a metal that has intrinsic value and can store generational wealth. You know us rednecks like shiny stuff! LOL
I don’t think PMs are a replacement for getting self-reliant. But I do think they have a place in your planning so you can keep pace with inflation or store value long term in deflation.
My Adventures in selfreliance 
Hi Jamie, as usual a thoughtful post on several fronts. I hope April isn’t too hard on you financially. Thank goodness you have plenty of food on hand because going out and buying it at this time can wreck a budget due to inflated food prices.
I too am looking forward to getting into the garden and growing my own food like I did last year. First decent garden I’ve ever had and I’m expanding ( doubling ) the amount of garden this year. And I AM going to learn how to can the abundance of veggies this year. That was the plan for last year but I didn’t get around to it.
Like you, I buy silver every chance I get. I made a killing in silver back in 2009. I bought silver at 13.00 dollars an ounce in 2008 and when I got into some minor financial trouble I cashed in a 50 oz bar at 48.00 per oz. The financial collapse pushed gold and silver way, way up and the sale of that bar kept me going for a couple months until my financial situation improved.
I do have a bit of a dilemma I’m facing right now. I have enough food for myself and the pup ( Patches ) to last a year and maybe a little more if we ration safely. And of course the garden expansion will help, but my list of people I’ll help out in SHTF situation has dwindled dramatically in the last 6 months or so for a variety of reasons and I’m down to 2 person’s I can trust and will help out in a crisis.
Both persons are phenomenal mechanics and tinkerers. Good solid family men as well and one of these guy’s Mom and Dad are preppers too so we have a natural coalition. I don’t have any family around these parts ( or least any I want to associate with ) and when one of these folks who know about my preps but have no skills or anything to offer our small tribe I’m conflicted about giving them any assistance. My Christian upbringing tells me to assist these hangers on and provide some charity yet my common sense tells me to take pity on them but do nothing for them because the valued persons with me in this mess are the two guys and their small families who will stick with me and me with them.
Crisis brings out the worst and the best in all of us. I try to hope for the best and that’s why we prep. I ask myself ” why should I help someone who hasn’t taken the basic steps of surviving a couple of weeks without power/food/water?” ” What do I do when these hungry desperate people show up on my doorstep?”
I’m a self employed business guy and make hard choices daily. I ask myself ” what is the right thing to do in this situation?” because doing the right thing is hard work and tough. IMHO, most people avoid making tough choices because it’s easier to lie and obfuscate. I know I can make a hard descision when it comes to unprepared and desperate folks showing up at my door but it would bother me to no end knowing that I may have just signed somebody’s death warrant.
Any thoughts or information you can share on this issue?
Best regards,
Snake Plisken
Snake: That is one of the tougher question that preppers will have to answer for themselves. I can’t tell anyone what to do but I plan to help family and friends as much as possible.
Now with that being said my situation is a little different because of my disability. I will need healthy bodies to do a lot of physical work for survival if the disaster lasts more than a couple of weeks. For extended family I have made up food bins of easy to cook foods and kept my 2 liter soda bottles for water to hand out. My hope is to keep them in their own homes and out of my hair. I have made up some charity buckets that can help strangers move down the road especially if they have kids.
I will be helping my neighbors as the have already helped me with yardwork and stuff around he house. Having the tools to make the job easier will be one of my barter/trade ideas is the do some work for me and I loan them a tool to do work for themselves.
I figure the first 14-30 days will be the most critical and people will have shown themselves for what they are at the “core”. Most will have moved into the camps, moved toward survival or have died off in that time frame. Storing enough food to hand out like rice and beans, pasta and sauces is relativly cheap and if people don’t like it they can move “down the road”.
As far as security, OPSEC and someone selling you out, that could happen even if you don’t help out others. If things get as bad as we think, anything you do can get you killed including doing nothing. So I will trust in God because I don’t want to become so desperate to live, that I lose my soul.