Pantries and Preparedness. Paying off debt as preparedness.

Last week preparedness was in our news again! That is three weeks running and most unusual. This time the subject was rising household debt, rising national debt and a host of things that do not look good.  Nothing we don't already know but there it was in black and white and it ended with "pay off your mortgages, stock up on canned goods..."
For anyone interested the article was called "Apocalyptic warning for Australian Families".
Now not that all these kinds are articles are true and no one knows the future. But there are signs around us that are enough to cause concern!

In my week I took out all the first aid supplies I have build up over the last couple of years and went through them. I had too much in a small space making it hard to find anything quickly.
I bought a small cupboard to become a first aid station.  It was inexpensive at the cheap shop. This was probably because it came in 30,000 small pieces with virtually no instructions!
Andy came to the rescue and after a lot of muttering we had a really nice cupboard. It is about 1 meter/yard high.

On the right there is a smaller one, just the drawers. This was for my writing paper and stationary! That's another story!

As I stocked this I checked the dates on everything and was pretty shocked how many things were out of date.  I was then making a list of what I need to replace.  I made the top drawer cleaning and antiseptics, cotton etc. All things to clean up a wound.

The second drawer is bandaids of different sizes.

The third drawer is creams, ointments etc.

The bottom drawer is kind of this and that, heat patches and so on.

The side cupboard is large bandages, my super soft hankies, dressings etc.

Medicines are kept elsewhere in the kitchen. 

I showed it to Andy so he knows where everything is kept and can find things fast.  

So it is much better. I hope to add to it weekly.

This week my aim is to go through the car first aid kits and update those.

Now to our article from Vicky.  As our news story mentioned getting out of debt as far as possible is a real form of being prepared.  Paying down debt, resisting more debt...  all of this helps you weather any future storms.  I do not want to discourage anyone who feels overwhelmed by debt.  We are doing what we can, with what we have and as we can!   But I notice all the time people adding to their debt rather than reducing it.  Someone on our street already double mortgaged their home to pay for something big and unnecessary.  Things were really bad for them. Then last year they took out a loan for $30,000 to have a party! We were scratching our heads.  Last month they were forced to give up their home.  

 This is also a subject in the news/media a lot. Recently it was about Smashed Avocado and the cafe lifestyle. People were saying life isn't worth living unless you can eat out at the cafes and travel every year.  Apparently its $20 to have someone squish and avocado onto some toast for you.  By travel they don't mean down the coast for an ice cream they mean world travel. But they also want a house! The credit cards are maxed out and so it goes...

Sometimes we have choices.  Along these lines I really loved this article by Jes... relevant to use as we need to do something about our bathroom!

Jes' inexpensive bathroom re do.

Many times we can apply this in different ways!

Over to Vicky!

 Debt Free!!!....... Now what? 

As most of you know last year we paid off half of the mortgage and already paid off most of the other debts we had and now this year we paid off the second half of the mortgage and are 100% debt free. First we paid it by halves so that it would be in two different tax years thus saving us thousands in taxes. Second by making the decision to pay it off now versus later we have saved what would equal the cost of another small house in interest alone. Forty thousand to be exact. 

It has been a long journey for us over the years to say the least! And although we have gotten a lot of flack for our decision we stuck to our plans and achieved our goal. Maybe not in the way others would agree with, but it's done. 

It started with learning to save on groceries. Then starting the snowball effect by paying off smaller debts first and rolling the money from that payment to another payment to start paying off something else. Then came stockpiling and preparedness efforts. And having an emergency fund. All the while we learned we could actually live better and manage things much easier and be able to take care of ourselves through many circumstances. 

The opinions vary from we are stupid to oh boy now you can party all of the time you have no worries, Yeah...no we still have insurances and property taxes and electric, etc. We still have to rebuild the emergency fund and have the funds for repairs on the home and vehicles if needed and doctors and dentists. All on what the Mr. is able to make and his lovely wife being the frugal gal she is. 

So what is our plan for now? Well our first plan is to continue as we have since we seem to do well and both enjoy our lifestyle. We will continue to save in all of the ways we have before that won't change and with the Vicky Challenge if there is extra to bank we will do so. We need to tear down and replace an old garage and pay cash to replace it that is what we are currently saving for. I have seen too many people that when circumstances get a little better they quit saving or quit being frugal and go right back to a lifestyle they can't afford a vicious cycle that never ends. Slow and steady wins the race! We need to learn from the things we do and continue learning. 

To be honest we have had discussions on the matter of wouldn't it be nice to do this or that, but in the long term those are only fleeting moments of instant gratification, we want a life time of it. 

So to end this I will say that in the long run the wonderful friendships we have made and the support we have been given by people who many don't know us in person or us them has given us the enjoyment and encouragement to just keep our lives as they are. Thank you Blue Birds! 

XOXO

Vicky

Thank you Vicky!  I am so happy your place is now all paid for and you do not have anymore payments! This is a great achievement and security!

A couple of weeks ago I had a bad bite and was really unwell with it. We put it down to a spider as it became infected almost straight away.

I blamed the peach tree as I had been rummaging through that!  But on Thursday I had another one. I had been in the garden as usual but I could have got it anywhere. It was in the exact same spot on my other arm.  We have turned up the house, sprayed, used bug bombs and never found one bug. Outside Andy sprayed with a professional spray kit (and I hate sprays!)  

This bite acted exactly the same and became infected in a few hours. This time I knew what was ahead of me and got to the Doctor the same day.  I had antibiotics again but still the pain is awful and throbbing and hot. Not much sleep.   Yesterday it got worse instead of better and more of my arm looked bad and I ended up in hospital on a drip.  By then I was glad to be there. I was allowed to come home for the night and have to go back in this morning. 

They are great but only interested in fixing the infection. So far no one is interested in identifying what is biting me i.e. is it a spider or have I developed some huge reaction to a Mosquito bite or something (which is apparently possible).

I have never been prone to bites and never had a severe reaction. 

To me my problem is that I feel panicked that I will get another one. I feel sick at the thought.  

I need prayers for a solution!  

Have a good week!  Keep working on your preparedness! xxx

This was taken by Rachel's Dad. A Kangaroo at his place!