We are about to enter THE HOLIDAY SEASON!
For some of us, just the thought of the upcoming holiday season can send us into a deep, dark funk. Money is already tight, the budget is stretched to the limit and we feel more like the Grinch who stole Christmas rather than Jolly Old St. Nicholas.
This is not a time of enjoyment for us but we participate anyway.
I’m sure you have either seen or heard of the TV series, Doomsday Preppers. The series is devoted to showing us how to get ready for nearly any world shaking disaster by stashing away food, water, clothing, gasoline, guns and ammunition and how to ready our home or a “bug out” spot so that we can make it through the disaster. It’s an interesting perspective and one that got me thinking about how to survive the holiday season.
I became a holiday prepper sometime during mid-February of this year.
I did not want to end up the week before Thanksgiving trying to figure out where the money was going to come from for holiday food, gifts and decorations. I made my plan based upon the Doomsday Preppers series.
This is what I did and I feel confident my “preps” will help me sail through the holidays with little or no stress and my bank account will not sink to zero.
Thanksgiving is usually food and lots of it.
This year, we are having fresh turkey – very fresh turkey. Living in Central Illinois means there is an abundance of wildlife so my husband has decided to go turkey hunting. I’m absolutely certain he will come home with one; but, just to keep my bases covered like a good prepper should, I have a frozen store bought turkey in the freezer that I picked up for a nice price at a store sale. I think they were getting rid of the turkeys left over from last year to make room for new incoming stock.
If you read my blogs, you know that we grow our own vegetables or forage for certain things and I can and freeze the food. I will not have to buy anything in the way of food at the grocery store. We even have canned pumpkin left from last year so the pumpkin pie is taken care of.
Christmas means lots of food, gifts, gift wrap and on and on.
Christmas isn’t just one day either. There are pre-Christmas parties, presents for special people like the Pastor, the mailman, teachers, etc. Then, it is finally Christmas Eve and that’s more food and maybe some small gifts. After that, Christmas Day!
Once again, my prepper skills will take me through without so much as a “bah humbug”!
I started buying gifts throughout the year at sales and even garage sales. I’ve already got the majority of my Christmas shopping for 2013 finished. The items are hid away in the closet, picked up at sales as I see them throughout the year. So, I just need to wrap them.
Since I have become an expert holiday prepper, next year I plan to purchase wrapping paper and trimmings along with Christmas cards when they go on sale the day after Christmas for as much as 75 percent off.
Food is covered just as it was at Thanksgiving.
Almost everything will be coming from our garden or our foraging trips. I will probably buy a ham and I will make homemade chicken and dumplings for our Christmas Day meal.
I really like how I’m feeling.
It’s not even Thanksgiving and I’m not making lists, cutting coupons, watching sales or planning menus.
Best of all, I’m not frantically trying to figure out where I can come up with the money to pay for everything. I’m a holiday prepper and I’m ready for anything!
Kimberly Johns
Kimberly is enrolled on the CareOne Debt Management Plan (DMP). Kimberly is very active in the Community Forums, some of you may recognize her Community user name; Tiquie. Recently retired, Kim shares how she and her husband manage the financial challenges of living on a fixed income in their home state of Illinois. The John’s have found some really creative and fun ways to offset the limitations of a retirement income. Kimberly generously shares smart and tested tips in her A Straight Talk on Debt blog! Compensated Blogger for CareOne Debt Relief Services.
SOURCE: A Straight Talk on Debt – Read entire story here.
