Destiny Survival

You don’t have to let financial struggles stop you from prepping. At least those struggles don’t have to stand in your way if you adopt prepping on a budget as a way of life.

One man who knows about the economical prepper life is Dennis Evers. He was my guest on DestinySurvival Radio yesterday. He’s been on before when we talked about his book on How to Handle a Crisis.

Dennis has been a small town police chief and has a long list of public service credentials. He also has over 30 years of emergency planning experience.

But what really qualifies him for the discussion we had yesterday is that he’s head of a household with 11 kids. Some are adopted, and some have grown and “flown the coop.” But you don’t raise such a family without learning how to make wise use of resources.

For Dennis and his family, prepping is a lifestyle. It’s not a big deal to them. While they may be ready for disasters, they’re only doing what our ancestors a couple of generations back had the common sense to do on a regular basis. Taking responsibility for the welfare of the family is important to Dennis.

Wednesday nights are family nights at the Evers household. Family and a few friends partake of a meal together and play games afterward. While the focus isn’t necessarily on prepping, it surely builds family bonds which is wise for any prepping family to do.

Living in a community with Mormons taught his family much about preparedness. Buying food in bulk is part of Dennis’s way of life and prepping strategy.

Recycling is another part of that lifestyle. Dennis believes in using everything as much as you can, then you use it some more. It’s not just about living frugally, but living responsibly. And it’s not so much about saving the environment as doing what makes sense.

Here’s one example. In our throw-away society, we toss batteries unnecessarily and before we need to. Dennis recommends a battery charger that actually recharges alkaline batteries. It’s the Rosewill RGD-CT505 Battery Charger for AAA/AA Alkaline and Ni-MH Batteries.

Dennis also recommends buying solar LED lights for use in the home from Wal-Mart’s garden center. LED’s are efficient, effective, and safer than candles when the power’sout.

Naturally, Dennis taught his kids the independent way of living. For example, his daughters probably know more than most of us know about car repair. Not only does this save money, but it empowers them so an unscrupulous mechanic can’t take advantage of them.

So many common sense things can be done with a little forethought. It helps to have a scrounger’s mentality, too.

Dehydrate fruits and vegetables. It isn’t necessary to have an electrically powered dehydrator.

For those who may still be sitting on the fence about prepping, build your food stock and supplies to get you through a couple of weeks. Then try for being a month ahead.

Then take the plunge and go beyond that as you develop a prepping routine. If Dennis could do it with his large family, you can, too.

Whole books have been written about living a simple prepping lifestyle, such as Doctor Prepper’s Making the Best of Basics. And there’s so much more Dennis and I could only touch on briefly.

Therefore, I invite you to listen to the whole interview with Dennis Evers on DestinySurvival Radio for April 26, 2012. Check out Dennis’s DiscreetPrep blog and The Recycle Ranch blog for more ideas about prepping on a budget.

What do you think? Do you have tips for prepping on a budget? Do you have a family time like Dennis’s family? Struggling preppers are waiting to hear from you.. Share your wisdom in a comment.

The topic of prepping has become popular. At least a couple of TV production companies I know of have either produced shows or are in the process of putting something together.

I watched the National Geographic special, “Doomsday Preppers” on YouTube. I’m not certain, but I think it’s the episode that aired February 7th. This is apparently part of a new series, though I don’t know how many episodes there will be.

The show presents some interesting ideas, such as one family’s aquaponic system. Also, I liked the bicycle powered wheat grinder another family set up.

It’s gratifying to see nothing negative said about guns and firearms training. They’re both normal aspects of the prepping life for the people featured.

In one segment of the show, two families are shown working together to be prepared. That’s encouraging and sets a positive example.

In fact, I think each of the families featured sets a positive example. They’re each doing things differently and envision different scenarios for which to be prepared. You’ll get inspiration and new ideas from what they’re doing.

What I don’t like is the attitude of the people who put the show together. They show all this great material, then chide the preppers for not doing what “our expert” recommends. I don’t know who their expert is, but presumably he knows everything and has all the answers.

Granted, none of the families is perfect or 100% above criticism. Would you put yourself and your preps on public display? Not me.

But the real question is, Will these people survive? Time will tell, won’t it? One can only assume the show’s producers won’t make it.

But what really infuriated me is the ending of the show. They have the nerve to say scientists don’t think the scenarios these families are preparing for are likely. So they’ve just called preppers fools.

Oh, yes, the show acknowledges the government encourages people to be prepared. But, hey, let’s not go overboard like these featured families, right?

With that in mind, I can’t get enthused about watching any future episodes. I feel those who participated in the “Doomsday Preppers” show have been wronged.

How about just reporting what preppers are doing and let viewers make up their own minds about it? Of course, the problem with that is that it’s not sensational or controversial enough.

You can watch the show below if you haven’t seen it. When one part is done, click through to the next part in the upper left corner of the video screen. There are four parts in all. The show is a few minutes shy of an hour long.

What do you think? I’d love to know your thoughts. Feel free to leave a comment below.