Although there's nothing wrong with that if it's what you prefer.
I'm no expert, but I'm willing to share what I know and hope you'll do the same.
What will you do if the grid goes down? If there is no electricity and maybe no natural gas?
Some people get generators and figure out how to use them to power household appliances. If you can afford it, that's a great solution. You'll need to be able to protect your generator from looters who will hear it running and decide they need it more than you do. But that's the case with most supplies, but other supplies don't announce their presence as loudly as a generator will.
Since I can't really afford a generator, my focus has been on making it so a generator is less essential to my plans.
I have battery-powered electronics and small solar chargers for the rechargeable batteries. I also have battery adapters so I can use AAA and AA batteries in most things. I also have hand-powered items, including a wind-up Victrola for "entertainment" (my daughter complains about the song selection). I have crank-powered radios and flashlights, too. And an antique hand-powered drill and a brace and bit set. I have wind-up clocks (if time would still matter for some reason).
I have "extra" electronics stored in a makeshift Faraday cage-- which I'll discuss later.
I have alternate ways of cooking and heating. It would be better if I lived in a forested area so firewood would be available, but that gets back to my previous post about sustainable places to live (which this is not).
None of this will keep my refrigerator running in a grid-down situation, but there are old ways of keeping foods cool-- at least until you can eat most of them. And the rest, I can do without.
These are the ways I
Sure, a generator would be nice, but it's not in the budget for now.
Do you have any other suggestions I might have missed?
One of the more fun things (to me) that qualifies as prepping is stocking up on ammo.
While prices are better now than they have been in a while, I was still having to travel an hour and a half to find prices that made sense. Locally, ammunition was 2 or 3 times the price that I could pay in the bigger city 90 miles away.
Fortunately, that situation has recently changed, but I found a great way to deal with it before the change, and I'm sticking with it, too.
It's a business called Ammo Squared. You sign up and subscribe for a set dollar amount and they set up an ammunition account for you. Then you can have it shipped to you.
If you use my link-- https://ammo2.me/dullhawk --and spend at least $20 in the first month, both you and I get $25 in free ammo. That's a pretty good deal. Then, after you've set up your account, you can share your own link with your friends and both of you can get free ammo the same way. It's kind of awesome.
If you wait until you have an account value of over ...
Every little bit adds up.
Due to medical situations, I've found myself without money to spend on larger projects such as firewood-- which might be a problem-- but there's always something you can do to prep.
A recent project for me was getting all my oil lamps ready to go. That's not the only alternative lighting I have, but it's my favorite.
I checked and changed the wicks (where needed), cleaned off any dust that had accumulated, and topped off the kerosene. You may prefer liquid paraffin since it stinks less, but I have gallons of kerosene on hand. I only broke one chimney, and I had a spare. (Note to self, keep an eye out for more chimneys at thrift stores and yard sales.)
I also decided to try to address a minor problem with the lamps. If you have oil lamps that you don't use all the time you'll know that the oil evaporates. This time I did something I hope will slow that process.
I covered the wick slot (don't know the technical name, but look at the photo) with aluminum foil I had...
