What's The Downside?

I've mentioned on previous posts that I have recently become an avid listener to Jack Spirko's show The Survival Podcast and have been learning a lot of things along the way. He started his podcast in June of 2008 from his car as he commuted from his home (then) in Arlington, Texas to his work in Frisco Texas Monday through Friday and although the sound quality is kind of bad on those early episodes it is sometimes amusing to hear him go into an auto-rant dealing with the many road hazards presented by the multitude of assclown drivers out there once in awhile. Anyway, I only stumbled upon his show early this past November so in addition to listening to his current broadcasts each weekday I have been working my way through his past episodes and have so far made it to episode number 301. As a point of reference he posted his 815th episode this past Friday. In addition, as he has stated, a virtual college education's worth of knowledge about self reliance and self sufficiency is available on the show's forums which has a very active community of folks from all walks of life and many particular areas of expertise actively participating and learning from one another.

So anyway, I got to thinking to myself the other day, self, how did you get started on all this anyway? What led you to this site and got you started listening to what this nutjob had to say as he was dodging his way through DFW traffic each day? Well, as near as I can remember the starting point for me was when I ran across a guy at work who was, in my opinion, kind of in the tinfoil hat brigade as we call the folks who seem a little too deep into the conspiracy theory, paranoid, "They're going to come round us up and put us in FEMA camps!" stuff. This guy might not have actually been the classic, media image of a modern surivalist. You know the stereotype, some guy hiding in a bunker with his guns, a pile of ammo and a bunch of MREs shaking his fist and yelling they're not going to get him! But he kinda struck me that way even if some of his concerns actually had merit. In our conversation, though, he mentioned a website that had good deals on bulk, storable, food. So I thought, well, you know, we do like to go camping and such and if there are some good prices on this stuff it might be worth checking out. Plus, I liked the idea of having some food around that doesn't require refrigeration in case we ever had a long term power outage from storms or whatever.

So, I got to looking at this stuff and a lot of the packages seemed kind of pricey to me and I got to thinking, there has to be a cost effective way to build your own storable food reserves a little at a time so you can spread the cost out. (I don't do credit card purchases and haven't carried a credit card since 2002 as I have always seen debt as a form of slavery. A view, that I later learned that Jack Spirko also holds by the way.) So I threw some search terms into the ol' Google along those lines and I think one of them came up with an episode of The Survival Podcast in which Jack was talking about that very subject on the show notes. I gave it a listen and found that a lot of what he was saying was stuff I already knew and some of it was stuff I have always wanted to learn more about. Some of it was stuff I didn't agree with too but how often do you 100% agree with anyone?

Well anyway, as he points out, what is the downside to being better prepared for dealing with whatever junk life might decide to throw your way? Not freaked out and paranoid, hiding out in a bunker somewhere but just taking sensible precautions. Don't fear the rain just carry an umbrella! It's a good thing to be prepared for a rainy day. They happen all the time. Sometimes we see them coming and other times they catch us by surprise. As his show's motto states, "Living a better life if times get tough and even if they don't." And sure enough, most of the things he recommends that people do will indeed make your life better even if nothing bad ever happens. But the bad things that can happen aren't all, end of the world, defecation hitting the rotating oscillator type scenarios that make great Hollywood movies. Something that happens all over the world, every single day can create a personal emergency for you and your family. The death of a loved one, a job loss, an extended hospital stay due to illness or injury. So, would being debt free, having extra food on hand so you don't have to worry about getting groceries for awhile as you deal with whatever situation you're in passes not help you out? Plus, when you have extra food (which you're going to eat eventually anyway) then you can take advantage of opportunity buys when there is a sale on something or when prices are too high on another item and you have extra at home you can skip buying it until the prices come back down. So, in the long run, you end up spending less money on groceries on a regular basis. These are just a couple of examples. There are also the advantages to be had from learning to preserve food for longer storage. Learning to grow some of your own food. Recovering some of those basic skills our grandparents and great grand parents had that make you more self reliant. Ways to save energy and lower your bills. Just a few things to think about...


Resources:

Episode 123 - There is No Downside To The Survival Lifestyle

The Survival Podcast Forums