A reader questioned why I felt things would get really bad and asked me to blog about it. So, in the spirit of homesteading here is why I think things are going to get worse, and what we are going to do about it.
The cost of everything is rising, while jobs are being lost, overtime is reduced/impossible to obtain for those who have jobs, and it’s hard if not impossible for people to keep up with the rising cost of everything, especially those who were living paycheck to paycheck before. Businesses are going out of business, crops are being flooded out, massive recalls on meats and produce are making people sick and costing businesses lots of money, our dollar is weakening and no one is doing anything about it. I’ve never been the type to expect someone to make things easier for me, so now the prices rise and instead of asking what is the government going to do, I’m asking myself what can *I* do to ensure my family survives, and what can *I* do to help those in need who live in my community. I don’t read the books and articles about peak oil, ‘the long emergency’, or any of the things people predict will happen to our country. I do read threads on forums where people are commenting, but I see enough around me to know what is already happening. I truley believe that the economy is going to continue to get worse for quite some time. I’m not surprised to see the cost of gas continuing to rise. Instead of complaining about it, we limit our trips or simply don’t go places if we can’t afford it. I wouldn’t be surprised to see gas get above $10 a gallon, and soon. Even the prices of bare basic food necessities (milk, vegetables, flour, meat, etc.) are rising, making it hard for those who have always cooked from scratch, to be able to do so. While cooking from scratch is something that people are turning to now to save money, unless you garden and grow your own meat your grocery bill is STILL going to continue rising with basic food needs.
We live on a fixed income due to my husbands disability. I have to be home to care for my husband and have been asked not to work outside of the home by his doctor. As a result, this severely limits the income we have each month. The income we have is less than what my husband had coming in when he was able to hold down a job, and we were living paycheck to paycheck at that point. Occasionally he’d score some overtime and we would have some extra cash coming in but more often than not, the paycheck would be spent before payday was over, on bills. Now we’re living on less with no chance for ‘overtime’ or extra cash. I run a business from home which thank the Lord has been helping us get by. We moved to the city, in a not so nice part of the city to save money on rent, be able to walk to stores or use public transportation to avoid having to travel 15-20 minutes to do grocery shopping or run errands. Living in the city allows me a backyard, in which I can grow a big garden to feed my family, and raise small livestock (rabbits for meat, hens for eggs) to provide meat for my family. The main cost of our grocery bill always has focused on vegetables, meat and the items I can’t make such as milk, flour and sugar. I preserve as much of my garden harvest as I can by canning or freezing but have not been able to have a garden to sustain me until the next harvest. Hopefully this year will be different. But by being able to cut out vegetables (at least during harvest season, and cut out canned goods from the store and use homecanned) and meat (at least the bulk of it) we’ll be able to save money for the higher prices in everything else.
How bad will things get? No one knows. I just need to be content with what I am doing right now to help my family and stretch our dollar, and not fear the future. The Lord will NOT give us more than we can handle, I am confident of that. We have to remain obedient and willing to be used by the Lord for His purposes. At this point I am learning all I can about the things we can make and do ourselves. I am also looking into the future and considering ‘what if’ we can’t afford to pay our electric bill or our heating bill. How will we get by without electricity and heat? There are many things I am learning about to ensure we CAN do without, heck our ancestors lived like that every day. We can do it!
I was at the grocery store today and was stunned over the price of vegetables – two small green peppers were $1.99, a small bag of green beans were $3.49, cucumbers were still at an alright price at 2/$1 (however Walmart is charging them 78 cents each!!). It’s obvious that ‘things’ (in terms of prices rising, jobs lost, businesses going out of business, income lowering, etc.) are going to continue to get worse for quite some time.
My biggest comfort in all of this, however, is knowing that the Lord is going to bring good out of this in some way. We can’t guess, we can’t fight it, we can only do what we can to help ourselves and help our neighbor and be secure in the fact that God is allowing this for whatever reason, and He will not give us more than we can handle. We have to set our sights on Him and live only for Him and not for the things of this world. After all, for those who proclaim the Lord to be their Savior have a wonderful home awaiting them in Heaven. A place where pain, suffering and sadness don’t exist.
