Week 51 - December 26
Wow! It has been a crazy year but hopefully, you have been able to make progress on your goal to become self-reliant. What we are striving to accomplish here at Totally Ready is not just to prepare for a big disaster or significant emergencies but to have the ability to meet everyday needs for our family, no matter what happens.
Inflation and now recession, have hit us all very hard the past two years. Inflation has risen 15% since January 2020. Wages have not nearly kept up. The recession has brought higher interest rates, lowered the value of our homes, meant job losses or fewer hours, and further reduced our buying power. With all of this, it would be easy to ignore self-reliance but just the opposite is needed. Times may still get much worse so we cannot diminish our efforts.
In an effort to help we will be focusing our efforts in 2023 on saving you money and teaching skills thus freeing up cash to keep building your General Store. For those who may be new here or who may have forgotten, we like to think of our homes as General Stores. Remember those? You could purchase everything from food and medications to fabric and tools, some even had a bank. That’s our goal for our homes, no matter the need we are equipped to meet it.
Now, about us. We both grew up in families that were not well off financially. Our families did however practice storing food for a rainy day. We have struggled thru job loss, illnesses, and many challenges that drained our resources. Nicole has been a single mom and knows the desperation felt when you have no idea how you will pay your bills and care for your child. We understand the value of a General Store in our homes to help us thru challenging times. When the pandemic hit we found peace in being able to stay home and care for our needs without the need to battle and search for everything from toilet paper to flour.
Finally, about Totally Ready. We have never had affiliates and we never will. We want you to be able to trust our recommendations. We have seen too many sites that promote products or tools that are not in your best interest. For example, many sites promote freeze-dried foods for food storage however, you will see they have affiliate links and make money every time you order. For those who have been with us awhile you know, we do not recommend freeze-dried foods and you have learned the reasons why and why they are not a good investment. Some sites may link you to a tool to purchase and the tool may be a great one but with a little effort on your part, you could buy it more cheaply somewhere else. If we recommend something it will be because we believe in it and not because we are making money. The only money we make is on the eBooks we create. We appreciate every purchase!
You may see preparedness sites with tens of thousands of followers and many of those allow followers to post. We encourage comments, questions, and requests but we do not allow posts as we have seen too many with terrible advice. We need to investigate every post, so you are not misled. We also get frustrated with generalities. For example, the 15 things that will disappear….or 10 things you must buy now. One of the things we learned from the pandemic is that every region saw different food and medications missing from the shelves. Different areas of the nation and definitely the world, have different needs. The one thing that seemed to be missing worldwide was TP which we have always encouraged a larger stash of when we talk about what you cannot live without. Yep, toilet paper tops the list!
Speaking of research, we are connected with experts in the agriculture industry, shipping industry, weather experts, and elected government officials so we can keep up with new and proposed laws. Of course, we also speak with many, many disaster survivors. Yes, we actually talk with survivors who are real experts. Never be afraid to ask a supposed expert how many survivors they have interviewed.
So, when you join a preparedness site ask yourself if they are making money from their recommendations or if they are monitoring posts to delete those that are misleading or just wrong, if they are learning from survivors, and if they are researching.
Please reach out and let us know what your needs are. If you have a tip or see an article you think we should discuss please message us. Please comment on posts with tips or questions about the post. We love learning from you. If you have experience with a real budget buster let us know so we can make some suggestions on how to avoid those. We anticipate 2023 to be a difficult year financially. We hope we are wrong but whatever it holds we can get thru it together and thrive not just survive!