Prepping on a budget
The first time I heard about preppers was on a documentary on TV. I was surprised to find out about this huge community of people planning for any life-threatening situation. As I started to learn about prepping, I was fascinated with the amount of information available and the personal story of many preppers.
During the Ice Storm of 1998, we lost power in our house like 4 million people in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. It was the worst natural disaster in our history and for us, the realization that we were not prepared for this. I remember our house being so cold that we eventually had to leave. We were amongst a million Quebecers caught in the “triangle of darkness,” an area south of Montreal where the power grid was the most damaged.
Like many of us, this is how we realized that we needed to get ourselves prepared for this kind of disaster. This is why I took interest in The Penny-Pinching Prepper book published by Ulysses Press. This book is filled with vital information to prepare yourself and your family without spending tonnes of money. From organizing your life by decluttering it to storing water and entertainment, you will find in this book inexpensive DIY projects to protect your family from any kind of life-threatening situation.
You will learn in The Penny-Pinching Prepper how to build a stove from tin cans, which personal care items to stock up on, and to how to create a family emergency communication plan. These projects and many more easy and affordable solutions for prepping on a budget are featured in this book. Whether you are very knowledgeable or just starting your prepping journey, I suggest that you buy this book and include it in one of your emergency kits.
The Penny-Pinching Prepper by Bernie Carr is published by Ulysses Press. For more book reviews, check out Homemade Bath Bombs, Salts and Scrubs and The Paleo Vegetarian Diet also published by Ulysses Press.
Have to admit that we don’t have anything ready for emergencies. We talk about doing something but never seem to get around to it.
Thankfully we’ve never lost power for very long here, but it doesn’t hurt to have the knowledge on how to be prepared for it! Things happen, unexpectedly, and being able to prep without breaking the bank is important. Thanks for the info!
Yet another big wind storm tonight… one more reminder about how important it is to be prepared!
It’s always good to be prepared as long as you’re not building a bomb shelter in your yard. Then you’ve gone too far! Lol! We actually had a bad flood several years ago that cut our town off from the highway. The stores began to run out of food! Luckily we were prepared and had a good pantry full!
A very interesting read,its too late when something happens.Be ready now
Thank you Meg for sharing your story! Really great tips!
I come from a country that experiences disasters year round, so, when I came to Canada, I had that mindset of being prepared. When the 2003 brownout occured, I had already prepared dinner before leaving home to apply for jobs in downtown Toronto. Of course, I didn’t know a massive power failure was going to happen while I was there. I was able to catch a bus to Pape station and walk to Woodbine where my bus was to go home. I was thankful that my route could be taken by bus as there were many people who were stranded or had to take other means of transport to get home. I had candles, flashlights and batteries at home all the time. I also filled up the bathtub in case we lost water, so we can at least flush the toilet. Aside from this, I was using the Brita Max that could hold 4 litres of water in the fridge. I also had a pail or bucket, that could be used to flush the toilet from the bathtub water. My DSL with Bell also included dial up, so I used that on my laptop to get news updates. My relatives called from the Philippines on the cellphone when they heard the news. My building was 4 storeys and we were fortunate enough to receive electricity after some hours while the rest of Toronto was in darkness. I was thankful to live in a low-rise apartment as climbing several flights of stairs is not easy. Nowadays, I carry my cellphone whenever I go down to the laundry. That way, I can call for help in case the elevator stops for any reason when I’m inside.
This book sounds really excellent! Thanks for the review!
This book makes a nice Christmas gift for just about anyone! I’m thinking of friends who have everything they need, for others who are hard to shop for. It’s practical down to earth tips.
My husband would so be into this. Thanks for sharing.
Sounds like a great book with lots of tips for how to prepare. We have been lucky we have never lost or power for more than a day but with all the cut backs and low maintenance I am sure a long outage like you had is in our future 🙁
Someone should re-write and modernize this book at the dime-pincher! LOL I totally need this.. along with preparing for the BIG ONE (since I live on the west coast). we just lost power a couple weeks ago and I suddenly remembered that without power there is no heat!! I was like… WHAT… I forgot that could happen! And it occured to me that I should consider my options… in case the power was off for an extended period of time!
Sounds like a great book. I would love to read it, I bet there is some great advice in it!
This must be a very interesting read with lots of good tips to help in preparation of an emergency.
This is great to know about and everytime I have good ideas to get something together, and for some reason always gets pushed back to another week,month and then year, I really need to get something together for emergencies