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Survival & Emergency Preparedness Freedom by relying on yourself, being prepared to survive without the need of agencies, etc.


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  #21  
Old 09/06/09, 05:48 AM
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Whiskey Flats(Ft. Worth) , Tx
Posts: 8,708
...............Have you checked into the cost of health insurance for yourself ? And , for your wife and children as well ? When you purchase health ins. privately , they can deny care as they see fit ! Denial , is somewhat less likely when you're covered by a company plan . , fordy
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  #22  
Old 09/06/09, 02:58 PM
"Slick"
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Moving from NM to TX, & back to NM.
Posts: 2,329
Instead of health insurance, look into the Christian programs like medi-share & Samaritan Ministries. They actually pay for each others medical expenses after a deductible.

I wholeheartedly agree with what you are doing, & all the advice already given is excellent. Purchase tools that will enable you to either earn income, or perform repairs yourself instead of paying someone else.

Prepay some of your bills & see if that will enable you to have a discount for paying a year up front.

Buy a pressure canner, thousands of canning jar lids, all kinds of things like that.

For Auto's, buy extra filters & consumable parts. Air, oil, fuel filters, headlamps, light bulbs, wiper blades, tires, wheels, rims, air compressor, hand tools, etc.

Even if you don't use them, good quality tools can be sold to someone else at a pretty good percentage of original price.
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Last edited by GoldenCityMuse; 09/06/09 at 04:07 PM. Reason: forgot item
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  #23  
Old 09/06/09, 04:24 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Carthage, Texas
Posts: 12,260
Quote:
Originally Posted by Va. goatman View Post
Thanks all I should of said I have a small house and at the moment have 18 goats. did have about 40 but it was to many to keep up and work to. I have about 10 acres pasture and the rest is woods though I'm just about done fencing about 4 more acres of brushy woods. I do plan to keep my job till spring I just can't help but think there's a better way to live
You mean you don't have an extra full time job, just to maintain the goats? I spent more last year on goats than I made quite a few years.

If the area you live in is booming, finding part time work or handyman type work shouldn't be a problem... if you're area is busting, finding anything might be troublesome. If you can and will do anything, you shouldn't have a problem... as long as you can adjust your incomes and outgoes...

I quit my real job over ten years ago. For a while my cash cow was a few handyman projects each month. Now I'm doing 'landman' work (basically running down mineral estate titles)... it's flexible, and it pays the bills, plus provides a healthy savings.
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  #24  
Old 09/06/09, 11:08 PM
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Semper Fidelis
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Northwestern Coastal California
Posts: 4,609
Good idea -, but as Texican says, "what if you can not find any side jobs??" Then you may wind up in dire financial straights!

Heck, when I need an extra set of hands or a strong back, I have a hard time finding someone to work for cash money, since I live far up the hill.. That and some folks don't want to seem to actually break a sweat, being paid wages at $15.00+ dollars an hour with lunch and non alcoholic drinks thrown in, for doing grunt work. Heck, I will even drive them up and back down the hill to and from their doorstep, and it is hard to find good help!!!!

Health insurance is important. I have that covered between my worker's comp, and my V.A. medical benefits - and it is only for myself..

Have you tried living without a steady income. What looks good on paper, may not always work in reality. Hey, stuff happens!! Even if you plan for it, or not... One major repair, may radically alter your financial status overnight!!
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  #25  
Old 09/07/09, 08:17 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: White Mountains, Arizona
Posts: 2,466
I hope you decisions works out for you.

Ask yourself what answer you would like to have later in life to these question. I am happy with myself because:

1) I tried and Succeeded.
2) I tried and failed a few times before I succeeded.
3) I was afraid to try.
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  #26  
Old 09/07/09, 11:34 AM
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Kansas
Posts: 12,928
My husbands Uncle did something like this.

He had his land paid for.

He had a few head of cattle so that he could sell calves every year.

His heat was from wood that he cut on his own land.

He had a small truck to take his calves to market with, and sometimes he drove for a new nursery. If the regular driver got sick or if they were in a busy time of year he would make the run.

He made his own fence posts by cutting them from his woods and soaking them in used oil until they were needed, and he checked the fence posts around his pasture 3 times a year and replaced any rotten ones. If only the part that touched the soil was rotten he would turn the post upside down so that the rotten part was in the air.

He was old enough to have health care through the government, which you will not have. I think before he got that old he just paid cash, since when he was younger he also cut hay and raised pigs. He was older when I met him!

Last edited by Terri; 09/07/09 at 11:38 AM.
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  #27  
Old 09/07/09, 11:45 AM
Terri's Avatar
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Kansas
Posts: 12,928
Oh, yes.

Do you currently live on your land?

If not, you might want to send out resume's now, and move ASAP. It is harder to get jobs when you do not know the area!
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  #28  
Old 09/07/09, 01:40 PM
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 156
Quote:
Originally Posted by Terri View Post
Oh, yes.

Do you currently live on your land?

If not, you might want to send out resume's now, and move ASAP. It is harder to get jobs when you do not know the area!
Yes I've lived here for a good while just never did much with it except for the goats and they were to clear the brush witch they do a great job at This place was over grown really bad
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  #29  
Old 09/07/09, 01:52 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Turtle Island/Yelm, WA "Land of the Dancing Spirits"--Salish
Posts: 7,456
for single people--I used to have a neighbor guy who was a retired engineer. He saved up and paid cash for his 15 acres, then lived in a garden shed with a propane stove, an outhouse, and saved rainwater. If he needed cash for property tax he cut and sold firewood and a few good timber trees to sell the logs. He was happy as a clam. He did get social security checks, which he put in the bank and used for trips to Hawaii to visit his penpal hawaiian hottie.

so just saying I've seen someone live very happily on very little. I miss him! he died, and now a bear hibernates in his shed

PS, HE is one of the more CONTENT people I've ever met, too.
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