With the unemployment numbers off the charts, the stock market doing crazy things, the price and demand of oil going down, the upcoming food shortages, the possibility of more lockdowns as the virus does its thing, and the rising prices of food.
Things are not looking real good for the next upcoming couple of years. We are going to have to do and think differently then most of us have ever had to do. I think just running to the store when we need or want something is going to be a thing of the past, at least for a few years. So much of what we use comes from China and at this point who knows how much will start coming back, and do we even want it to come back? I feel like there is going to be a huge push to get more American made products which 100% needs to happen. But it will take time to get that up and running. That and the fact that we are headed for food shortages which were already going to happen before all the issues with the virus.
We are already seeing soup lines aka the miles of people lined up for the food banks. The scary thing about that is those food banks are going to eventually run out of food.
So we have got to start changing our thought process. We are going to have to learn to do more with less, reuse and repurpose, more from-scratch cooking, growing our own foods, making gifts, learning and/or perfecting homemaking skills, Even saving the used foil and washing out the used baggies (that we always give Grandma a hard time about doing). Thinking outside the box. And learning how to make do with less or without.
You need to start changing your mindset, maybe even treating this as a challenge instead of a burden. When I was dirt poor and a single parent it was amazing how I could find ways to pinch a penny and to improvise when I made it a challenge to see what I could do and how I could live on next to nothing. So don’t think of it as I can’t survive this or how horrible this is. Yes, it is horrible but it is out of our control, but we can control how we react to it.
So change that mindset and look at it as a challenge to see just how frugal you can be. I am always looking for DIYs and frugal ways to show my extended family just to try and get a reaction from them ( although now they are so used to me doing it nothing surprises them anymore 🙁 haha). Be the example for your extended family and friends show them how to do it. And do it with a smile because you are not going to let conditions bring you down you are going to rise above and show the rest how it is done just like your Grandparents did.
A couple of things that need to be started right now is a garden as I have mentioned before even if you don’t have a large garden spot you can plant a lot in pots and grow bags. Also start looking at where you can cut expenses a good place to start is my 201 way to save money go here to read it. Yes, there are some extreme things in there but we are headed for some extreme times. I will also be adding some more money-saving ideas in a future post. Save every penny you can and put it towards getting out of debt as much as you can. The less debt you have the easier this is going to be ( not that it is going to be easy at all). But we do have a few advantages that our Grandparents didn’t have. We have internet (for now) so we can look up how to’s, we have power, electric washers, and a lot of convinces that our Grandparents didn’t have.
So bottom line we have to start thinking and acting like our Grandparents did during the war and the great depression. We can do this.
What are some ways you can think of to change your mindset
Living Like our Grandparents did During the Great Depression.
