Prepping For Financial Collapse

 Prepping For Financial Collapse

 Following on from my article on ‘Preppernomics’, I will share with you what steps I took, over a five year period to prepare for a UK economic collapse.

I took a long deep look at what expenses and luxuries drained my monthly pay check the most, and then worked down the list to the smaller outgoings.

What hit me straight away was the actual amount of ‘stuff’ that I was spending my hard earned cash on each month. It was almost like spending for the sake of spending!

The spending had to stop if I was ever to get to that zero expenses level.

My biggest expensive was keeping a roof over my head, and that’s probably the same for you. It was the biggest by far. I had a nice new car and another for my wife..! Two lots of everything being paid out there as well.

I had two kids but only one was living at home [now and then when he felt like it!]

The number one question was –  could I actually afford my current lifestyle?  Well, the simple answer to that question was a resounding “No”.

I actually became very disgruntled at the situation I had allowed myself to get into.  I had to figure out a method of reducing all my regular monthly expenses. .

I guess your getting the picture now eh…

 My outgoings were exceeding my income and as a result I was calling on my credit cards to bail me out.

All of this had to stop. So, in one fail swoop I began my own preppernomics campaign. Over the next five years I have done the following:

• Sold my 4 bedroom house and moved into a 2 bedroom smaller house. Now even if you have a couple of younger kids that is still doable.  Contrary to popular belief, I have never heard of a child dieing simply because he or she had to share a room with a sibling.
• I lived in a village that added time and fuel costs to my commute to work – so i relocated to a small town. 
• I sold both cars – and bought a good, low mileage second hand car for cash.
• We now use car share and the free bus transport whenever one of us needs the main car.
• Gathered every penny I could, which included selling a lot of household items from the sale of the house. Then paid of as many credit cards as possible. as each one was paid off, it was then sacrificially destroyed. We are now at a point where we have completely stopped using credit cards.  
• I have used the same principle for the 2 loans I had – pay off as soon as possible – the interest alone kills you.   The moral here is Stop Accumulating Debt.
• Pay off as much debt as possible. You must pay it off. The fewer amounts of bills you to pay when the SHTF, the better prepared your going to be. * Take a look at this excellent book: A Practical Guide On How To Save Money, Spend Less And Live More With A Minimalist Lifestyle

• We have drastically cut back on the number of meals out. This has been reduced to a maximum of once a month or very special occasions.
• There have been months where we have not eaten out at all..!
• The huge expensive of having sky TV was a no brainer – it had to go. The internet offers all the films and entertainment you could ever want and then there’s Free-view as well. all essentially for nothing.
• Forget your big expensive family holiday – that’s right out. I haven’t had a holiday abroad for five years now and not missed it one bit.
• No food was waisted at home either. Eat the leftovers the next day. I reckon I have at least one ‘free’ meal per week made from the leftovers. * This is worth checking out: Jamie Oliver – Shop Smart, Cook Clever, Waste Less
• By sniffing out what’s on in my area I have been able to find free or very low-cost entertainment. Forget expensive gym membership and take family membership at your community center instead.
• I made a financial spending plan: I called it my essential spend fund and it worked like this. You know that there will be set expense during certain times of the year. The key here is to set a maximum spend and then add a set amount each month and put it into an envelope so that when its time for that item or activity you have the exact amount ready.
• All unnecessary spend was cut on things like mobile phones, memberships etc.
• I changed fuel suppliers and telephone packages, all saving me money.
• I bought in bulk when ever possible. Using the stockpile method.  There are tons of bargains that run for most of the year – sniff them out in your area and only buy when they are cheap.
• I started my own vegetable patch an have been growing a lot of my own food. It’s not that difficult and you don’t need huge amounts of land. I am now entering into rearing my own chickens and rabbits [although this is still in the research stage]
• I now repair as much as possible rather than just throwing it away and going out spending money.
• I have found new ways to reduce fuel bills. Although I live in a town, it’s still possible to go a little tiny bit off grid. Even the simplest thing like collecting rain water for the watering the veg patch. Solar lighting is another simple fuel saver.
• Stay at home more.  Resist going out too much. It’s almost guaranteed that you’ll spend money when your out.
• I have found other, simple ways to reduce my heating and electricity bills and at the same time prep the house for a disaster situation. Simply hanging a heavy curtain across the main doors will give another level of insulation. Draft excludes will help too. If you ever had to hunker down and ride out a disaster then having one room prepped as the ‘nerve center’ of the house is essential. I have my living room insulated and prepared regardless of the season.
• Additionally, I can stay warm if there were an electric blackout, fuel shortage or emergency situation.  Prep for this by having a secondary fuel burning and cooking. Good sleeping bags and warm clothing. 
• In essence it just comes down to Prepping before the event. It’s never too late to start. But it is possible to ride out a UK economic collapse but you must start to get ready now.  

My way of being prepared for a UK economical collapse has worked for me – but what works for my family may not work for your family. 

I was very lucky and had the support of the whole family. They were prepared to sacrifice a lot and understood the long term benefits of the sacrifice.

It was not easy, but I made the plan and we all stuck by it – so was it worth it?

A 100% resounding yes. I am in a position to be able to say my expenses and outgoings are at a minimum, and with that I now have excess funds to spend wisely on my future prepping. My storage of prepping supplies are able to grow because of these extra funds.

But in reality, they were funds I always had – I just made the mistake of spending them unwisely and, in effect, giving them to other people for things I really didn’t need.

Happy Prepping Folks..

Steve