Preparedness | 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

7 Comments

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.

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

5 Comments

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.

Eating Old and Expired Food

Bread for Survival & Comfort: Five Recipes You Can Make Today

8 Comments

Over the years, I have been a bread maker and bread eater. I have ground my own flour and hand-kneaded bread. I have also used an automatic bread machine where dump and go made homemade bread easy and quick. In between, I mastered creating a sourdough starter and making a no-knead dough in large buckets that could provide fresh bread for a two week period.

Making bread was something I did because I enjoyed the process and enjoyed the comfort it brought in knowing I was learning a powerful survival skill that could come in handy down the road.

So here we are today, in a SHTF situation that is putting us in survival mode. Bakers and non-bakers alike are starting to make bread while most of our country is in lock-down and we are advised to stay at home.

If you are like me, you have a lot of flour, wheat, salt and sugar in your survival pantry. In addition, you have a few pounds of yeast stashed away in your freezer so that it stays fresh and viable. We are the lucky ones because I have heard about major shortages that are frustrating some would-be bakers.

True confession: I have been making two loaves of low-carb bread a week since earlier this year. My bread has its beginnings in a mix from Bob’s Red Mill but to my consternation, the mix has been discontinued and I am seriously bummed. With low carb and Keto diets being so popular, I was hoping to share my recipe with you this week. Instead, I am going back to the kitchen so I can come up with a recipe that is not reliant on a commercial mix. Stay tuned for that.

So, for now, my pal Ron Brown (author of the Non-Electric Lighting Series) is stepping in with five simple bread recipes that are super good, super easy and tried and true. The best part is that two of the five do not require yeast.

Let’s get started.