While I don't believe things are so far gone yet, I can't help looking around and wondering how bad is it going to get? I was a child during the Regan recession and, for my family, it was our own little Great Depression. We lost the house, but not before working in the fields with migrant workers, having no phone, no television, no hot water, and often no electricity. We had to heat water on the stove for baths. There was a large hole in the roof and another in the floor. I learned how to pick wild mushrooms for money, fish, catch crawdads, scavange for wild fruit, dumpster dive and that every single can is worth a nickel so pick them all up. The only clothes we had were those that other people gave us. Most of our food was goverment surplus from the food bank, or what we could scrounge and my mom often went without so we children could eat. It was a very ugly time and it lasted for years.
While I am no economist, I notice many similarities between the Roaring 20s and Great Depression and our own time. Up until last year we certainly were Roaring. Like the 20s we have been using credit for everything. Like the 20s there has been a huge amount of real estate and stock market speculation. The distribution of wealth is becoming more unequal with each passing day and this also occured in the 20s. Savings is at an all time low and just before the Great Depression 80% of the population had no savings at all. People then, as now, were spending their entire yearly income on consumable goods.
Banks began to collapse and then the drought came. Today, much of the regulation that prevented a repeat of the bank collapses has been repealled or rewritten by pro-business administrations (like the 1920s) and our banks are looking shakey. We've had no droubt but hurricanes, floods and fires and wrecking an similar devistation. It is also my understanding that wages not keeping up with costs and war debt also played a role along with problems in foreign trade. All in all rather worrying.
So will it happen again? I don't know. I know history, not economics. Some things are different today than they were back then. The gold standard for one. I have read theories that the gold standard actually exacerbated the problem, but then others speculate our faith based money system will make things even worse. Our market is much more global and fluid today and maybe that will make a difference. I just don't know. I do know that there are enough visible parallels between today and the 20s and 30s to make me concerned and feeling the need to prepare.
So how does one prepare for the possibility of very hard times. Well, having lived through such times on a smaller scale and being aware of history I have a pretty good idea of were to start.
1. Don't be afraid. Trust the Lord and pray.
God never sends us more than we can handle and everything He gives us it designed to strengthen our faith and make us grow in holiness. Even those things that He does not send but permits to occur due to the actions of our fellow man contain ways to help us grow as Christians. For a person who has faith in the Lord hard times are nothing to fear.
2. Get out of debt ASAP!
When times get hard debt load will make the difference between keeping your head above water and total devistation. My parents had a large amount of debt along with a mortgage when my Dad got laid off and things started going down hill. If the would have been able to focus on just making ends meet things would have been much different. Instead they did what most folks would do and tried to keep up appearences, spending money on credit card debt that should have been going to daily living expenses.
3. Save! Save! Save!
My parents had little or no savings. No cushion when hard times arrived so they hit the ground much harder and more quickly than they might of otherwise. If a person has a good safety net saved (3 to 6 months gross income) then being laid off is not the end of the world. With a part time job, even at minimum wage that 6 month cushion can be stretched even farther. Especially if one owes no debt and cuts out everything but the necessities, i.e. food, shelter and heat. Although many will not find it hard to believe, TVs, computers, video games, ipods and the rest are all optional. Period.
The three steps listed above are the most critical, but there are other things you can do before times get hard to help prepare yourself as well.
4. Trim your grocery budget.
Learn to calculate meal costs and work on reducing your overall grocery budget. Do your experimenting now so if you should ever need the knowledge you will know how to do bare bones nutritious cooking. Start adding one or two black belt frugal meals a week into your families rotation to get them used to the food.
5. Stockpile
Get a stockpile of non-perishable foods going. Things you use every week and pantry staples. Think flour, dry beans, rice, baking supplies, canned goods - meat, fruit and veggies, as well as non- consumables like laundry detergent, dishsoap, hygiene products and pet food. A good stock pile takes time to build but will be a life saver if you ever find that the paycheck will only cover rent and gas to get to work.
6. Learn to can and preserve food.
There is free food to be had all over the place and learning to can will allow you take advantage of this. In my area I know of blackberry and huckleberry patches as well as a couple of old abandoned orchards. Crab apples aren't good to eat but they make great jelly. Did you know you can make preserves from rose petals and during Halloween most people just get rid of their decorative pumpkins. If you ask they will give them to you and they can be canned for pies, muffins, puddings and custard.
7. Plant a garden.
This can be done in the tiniest space, a balconey, the postage stamp sized front yard. You will be able to cut your grocery budget with the fresh produce and add the extra to your stockpile with those canning skills you've learned.
8. Stop driving.
Get used to it now. Only drive for work and absolutely necessary trips. If you don't leave home you won't spend money. If times are really hard you won't be able to go even if you want to.
There is still much more a person could do and I hope to explore this subject more fully as it seems very timely. Any ideas are certainly welcome.
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