Blog | Strategic Living

The Ultimate Guide to Frugal Living: An Interview with Daisy Luther

There comes a time in everyone’s life when we find the need to scrimp on even the most basic of life’s expenses.

Sometimes, this is by choice when, for example, we are saving to purchase a home, a new car, or even a much-needed vacation. Many times, however, the need to save, and by definition, live frugally, is due to unemployment, illness, unexpected expenses, or an attempt to cover basic living expenses from a meager monthly social security check.

Let’s face it. The global pandemic has devastated the finances of many households. Even savers have suffered since savings accounts currently generate close to zero percent interest. Try living on that.

To survive, our government will have to quit printing money. What then? The answer will be higher taxes, massive inflation, or both. Sadly, there is no question in my mind that we will be looking at tough economic times ahead if not another Great Depression.

All this leads me to Daisy Luther’s new book, The Ultimate Guide to Frugal Living. Many of you know Daisy from her website, The Organic Prepper. You may also know that she and I have been blogging pals for close to ten years.

Let me be clear: Daisy knows what it is like to have two young children, no job, and no food in the cupboard. She is a survivor and generously shares her survival strategies and wisdom almost daily on her website.

Her new book is fantastic, and, in my usual style, I have a copy to give away to one lucky reader. More about that later but first, an interview with my wonderful gal pal, Daisy Luther!

Real Prepping for Real Preppers

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A couple of years ago my pal George Ure posted this piece on “Real Prepping” on his website. At the time, he gave me permission to share it here, but for one reason or another, I did not.

Given the world and domestic situations at the moment, I believe it is a good idea for all of us to inventory our preps and make plans to bolster our supplies, skills, and most importantly, attitudes.

These are scary crazy times and many of us can sense an imminent attack on our way of life. Wait. Hasn’t this already happened?

Indeed, the Stuff has already Hit the Fan.

And Then They Came For Me

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There was a time about nine years ago where I came to accept that I may be on an active prepper list being compiled by the US government. Although I may sound a bit paranoid, to this day I still feel such a list consists and that a time may come when the PTB will come after preppers and confiscate our stuff. They definitely plan to do that with our firearms.

With that out of the way, let us move on to the present.

Lists are being compiled. Broad segments of our population are being publicly canceled and the media is telling anyone who will listen that 74 million citizens need to be cleansed of our ideology.

Politics aside, this is just plain wrong. It is Totalitarianism relabeled as “Cancel Culture”. What happens next is downright scary. Who will they come after next in a world turned upside down from the angst created by a global pandemic and political strife?

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Packaging Food for Long Term Storage Using Mylar Bags and O2 Absorbers

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I have always taken food storage seriously, doing my best to preserve the quality of my stored food using a combination of good packaging and proper temperature control. Over the years I have learned a few things.

First of all, packing dried foods in huge, 5-gallon buckets or bags is a non-starter. Second, storing food in a moderate climate such as Washington State is a whole lot different than storing food in super hot Arizona. That means that if food is not carefully packaged, it will go bad rather quickly. And by bad I mean inedible.

I have also learned over the years that practices for storing bulk foods vary widely, with some methods being both cumbersome and confusing. After all, with only two hands and two arms, there is just so much juggling of potentially heavy bags, buckets, and beans that a person can do without struggling and making a big mess. Been there, done that.

Today I am going to show you how I currently package bulk foods using dog food, a highly perishable item, as an example.