Food Freedom At Last!: What to do to navigate thru inflation or any financial crisis

Many years ago, more than I'd care to admit; I was a child in the 1970's. Being a child, I vaguely remember seeing news stories of gas lines, and alternate day fueling. That was where you were able to purchase gas based on your license plate (if I remember correctly). Odd plate, odd days of fueling, even plate, even days fueling. As a child I wasn't really aware of the other things going on, like staggering inflation. My parents, however, were.

It was years later, I was an adult with my own kids, when, during a phone conversation, my mom told me about what it was like. She said the price of ground beef went up seemingly overnight, as did other grocery staples. We were just talking groceries, but inflation covered just about everything. We were a one income family. While my dad had a good job, it spread thin over that many mouths to feed, and bodies to dress and care for. My mom said she was nervous, very nervous. It was during that time my parents moved up from the city to the country; building a house and taking on a payment at an interest rate of around 8%; which was good for then. Their house payment covered the price of a construction company "Drying in" the house. In other words it had the 4 walls and a roof. Anything internal was up to us; well my parents. We lived in the house while the inside was finished because our previous house had to be sold first. Actually we lived in a camper for 5-6 weeks then we lived in the house. The land the house was built on was paid for separately in a "by owner "sale. My parents gardened, mom canned, we kids foraged (wild blackberries, and muscadines), mom made jellies, they raised cows and pigs, etc. But what did they do before they moved? How did they get by when the ends needed extra work to meet and even then it was a toss up?

Not every one can move to the country and raise things. It was a hard, scary time for my parents. There were things they had to do to make things work. Just like my parents, just like all of us, there are things that we can do to help make the ends meet, even if those ends look a little frayed.

First of all, you need to understand that regardless of any panic buying or hoarding you may do, inflation will affect you at some point. Just accept that realization and you will feel so much better. My job is to give you some tips on how to minimize it's effect on you: to help you navigate it.

So here we go!

1) If you have an adjustable rate mortgage, and are able to right now, I highly recommend refinancing to a FIXED rate mortgage. I'm hopeful no one has adjustable rate mortgages anymore, but if you do, it's in your best interest ( no pun intended)to change.

2) If you have credit card debit, work to get out of it. As interest rates fluctuate, so does your credit card interest rates. Most interest rates are based on the Prime Rate, If that goes up, so does your rate. Interest rates can only be artificially held down for so long. The bill comes due.

3) If you have access to opening a Health Savings Account, I highly recommend it. We've had one for a few years now and they are really nice. The money comes out of your pay check before taxes and as long as the money is used for health expenses ( dental is included too and now over the counter meds I believe), it is never taxed. This gives you a little more bang for your buck in that you are using pre taxed dollars. It's like having more money. Plus you can take it with you where ever you go. Even if you left your job, that health savings account is yours. It can also take off a lot of worry when you know you have something set aside for medical emergencies. In addition to all that, it can act as an additional fund for retirement in that the money you invest in it will act like a 401k that you can withdraw from at retirement for any reason. We've needed ours quite a bit in recent years, so ours is a stop gap at the moment.

Okay, now that I have the Dave Ramsey stuff out of the way, here are some ways to keep your budget in check during this time. These will not require moving to a new location or taking on the task of caring for farm animals. You're welcome.

*** I'll try and go more in depth on all of these in later posts

1) Rethink purchases- Try to find more uses for the things you already have on hand. In other words, is there something you already have on hand that can accomplish the job for which you were planning a purchase? This might take some out of the box thinking. This also means making sure you actually need something before buying it. I'm bad to buy something thinking we don't have it, only to find out we did ( sometimes more than one), all along.

a) I created a new run for the Bantam hens using scrounged PVC from a former run that was in pieces. I had to cut out usable pieces, but had enough to make a smaller than the original run. I did have to purchase some of the joints, but many other joints were from where I chiseled out the glued in part and salvaged the joint so I didn't have to buy more. Also, full disclosure, I found out I had more joints in the shed...sooo. I still used them, but it would have saved me some chiseling.

This is just one example I have, yours may be different. The idea is to look for an alternative to something you think you have to( or want to) buy. There may not be something handy, but the idea is to try. Case in point, our alternative to an incubator was to let the hens hatch the chickens, but our hens are NUTS so we have an incubator. This leads me to my next point:

2) When you have to buy something, make sure it's worth the investment. The incubator is one such example. We gave the hens ample tries before making this decision. With this incubator, we can sustain/grow our flock without having to buy additional chicks, and we can provide really good meat ( and broth) for the freezer. While it won't be all the meat we would need over the year, it will be some. Plus these roosters will have a much better and longer life than those raised in commercial farms. This saves us money in the long run, and gives us better quality foods cheaper than store bought. That makes this a worthy investment. When we chose this incubator, we chose one that was well reviewed, but in our price range. We've been happy so far. We'll see how the hatch goes in 16 days.

3) Take care of what you have- I'm bad to not do this, but am trying to do better. It's easier to do the maintenance on what you already own, then to have to replace it; especially now when prices are rising and items are hard to find in stock. We have a 1998 Chevy S10 truck. We paid $3000 cash for it 6 years ago. Unfortunately about a year later it over heated, locking up the engine. We were told it wasn't worth repairing. We found someone to rebuild the engine because we couldn't afford another truck. That repair cost us another $1800. 5 years later that truck has more than paid for itself. It's hauled all manner of things and taken DH to work 5 days a week. Recently it started running rough. We took it in. We had to make a decision to pay $1400 for a tune up, new distributer cap, new fuel injector, and intake gaskets. Again, it was cheaper than buying another truck. The cheapest truck we've found was for $1500 with no transmission or engine so...... This truck is paid for, insurance for 6 months is about $200.

4) Stretch what you do have! The conversation my mother and I were having that led to the discussion about the inflationary times of the 70's was about things she used to cook that we loved. One of those things was meat patties made with onion and bread. I loved those! I preferred them to just regular ground beef and gravy. Well come to find out she used the bread and onion as filler because ground beef prices jumped so high. This is a great use for stale bread, FYI.

5) Salvage- This is along the same lines as stretching, in that it means you are getting all you can from an item. Have a useless shirt that's no good anymore? Remove the buttons and cut out any usable fabric before you throw it away. I've taken ripped and faded t shirts and cut them into strips to use for tying up tomatoes, plus crocheted some for hot pads! A pair of jeans beyond repair can still provide sturdy denim fabric for another project ( a pair of men's jeans cut down to make a pair of pants for a small child?), and a zipper too! It doesn't have to be fabric items. The idea is to get all you can from any item before throwing it away. After my dad passed, we were going thru the basement/ his workshop and found a box, kid you not, labeled " barely too good to throw away. In it were odds and ends of screws, nuts, bolts, etc that he had held onto in case he could use it again. My Dad was a child in the early 1940's during the end of the depression, the start of WWII and the war rationing that went with it. Plus his mom lived thru the depression in it's entirety. They both held onto stuff " in case".

6) Learn a Skill- Bread making, cooking from scratch, canning, sewing, basic car repair, basic small engine repair, cutting hair, and gardening. These are just a small list of skills that will serve you well now and in the future. Some are harder than others, but all are worth while. They take more time to do yourself, but the money you save from this is money earned, AND it isn't taxed ( at least not yet, give them time).

7) Bartering! A lot of people don't think about this anymore, but really it should be a big part of society regardless of the situation. It's just smart, and tax free! It also fosters good neighbors, and friendships. Every year, sometimes twice a year (fall and spring) I post on a neighborhood sight that I'm giving away my extra strawberry plants and blackberry plants. I've met quite a few neighbors this way. In the beginning it was just as a way to bless people with our extra, but since then I've received offers of other plants ( got a Gardenia and a Rosemary this way), a Bantam Rooster (Eli), and actually met a distant cousin! Our next door neighbor has brought over meat from his smoker (SOOOO GOOD!) and I've taken them bread from the oven. We don't all possess the same skills, or time for that matter, but if we work together, combining our skills, time, and supplies, we both win. Now before you think this is some kind of socialistic utopia, think again. This is a friendly transaction where both sides contribute. It's just between the two parties concerned and not mandated by the powers that be. It's called being neighborly!