by RedStateGreen » Tue 10 Jun 2008, 15:14:15
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('wellbehaved', 'W')hen I started researching peak oil 3 years ago and read the Hirsch report, I thought this can´t be true, and if it is why isn´t anyone doing anything. I think of myself as informed, but I have not been proactive about doing anything. Now that the predictions are coming true, Hirsch has been in the mainstream media, peak oil is common knowledge, I am freaking out.
I have no money saved, no supplies andcommute 32 miles a day to work. I have three children and don´t want to be an alarmist. I guess you could say I have been working through a 3 year grief process and although I am past denial, I can´t seem to mobilize myself to do anything.
My daughter is going to France this year, my family is going to Mexico for 2 months and my question is, should I get as much cash together, cancel our family vacations and plan for the apocalypse?
I need reasonable advice, a place I can start so I can feel like I have some control. My husband and I are both teachers and have very little debt except for our house. We have a home equity line that we could pull out some cash on.
HELP!
Don't go into debt. Get out of debt if you can.
Visit your family. You don't say what the trip to France is all about, but daughter should be encouraged to finance it herself and not have you pay for it.
Do you know how to cook? Pick the two things your family eats the most (probably some combination of corn, rice, beans, wheat) and buy a large sack of one of the two (at least 20#). You've spent maybe fifteen or twenty bucks (probably less). Freeze whatever you got (you can repackage it in gallon freezer bags if you don't have a deep freezer.
Research long term storage methods (buckets, etc.). You can get some plastic buckets and gamma seals cheap, or you can put the stuff in canisters or keep them in the freezer bags, depending on what it is. But figure out where you're going to store what you bought. Then store it, outside the freezer (you'll need the room).
Next time you go to the store, get a sack of the next thing on your list. Do like you did with the first item, repackage, freeze, then store. Now you have a large amount of the two things you eat most.
If you didn't pick beans, now's a good time to learn to eat beans. Get a sack of beans and do the same as whatever you got before, but save some out to learn to cook with them.
You see where I'm going with this? It doesn't have to be huge or difficult or scary. One sack, each time you go to the store. If you want to pick up an extra few cans while you're there, so much the better. Buy only what you eat, in as simple a form as possible.
If you don't know how to cook, learn. Plant some fruit trees if you can. I wouldn't start a garden until you get back from vacation if you're going for two months.
You can do this even if your husband isn't on board with you. My husband and kids don't want to hear about bad news, but I'm the one who buys the food, so I get to pick what we eat.
Good luck!
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('efarmer', '&')quot;Taste the sizzling fury of fajita skillet death you marauding zombie goon!"