Wow. Economic scare anyone?

The latest bank closure has hit too close to home. We have a Washington Mutual account. I opened my first checking account there when I was 16. Until dh and I combined finances that was my only bank. It has not been our main bank since then, but it shocked me to my core when it went down. I'm not a doomsday sort of a woman, I tend to ignore dire predictions. But 3 major banks in one week?? HELLO! Whats the point of recording history if we dont learn from it?? Until the latest bank failing I've been pretty calm but watchful. Now I'm scared. We wont pull our money out of banks, that WOULD make more fail. But I intend to invest in some items, and keep a good stash of cash at home. If the banks fail we wont have access to dh's paycheck, the military makes you use direct deposit. There is no other option. We talked about what were going to do to prepare last night.

Build the Pantry back up.

Buy a flashlight/solar charger we saw for $25

Buy more solar lamps.

Get a filled propane tank for the bbq

Store some gas in the shed.

Buy a small child wagon

Store some water.

Get rid of clutter

Sell the good extra car, donate the van

Being afraid wont help anything, the economy is going to do what its going to do. I can't keep it from failing by being afraid. But I can prepare, calmly. If i have a plan I feel better.I am very thankful for our house. We live close enough to walk to base. Where dh works. Where there is a grocery store, and a store with general merchandise. Little bit of everything. If gas becomes scarce we can manage without driving. It would be tough but doable. The wagon would be for groceries, and dh can grab small items on his way home from work. We live up the street from a hardware store, and a Rite aid. They would be a pretty good walk but we can do it. I wish we had a wood stove or a place to put one! But we have fur heat. All our animals and us and one room would heat it up quickly! We can cook on the bbq if necessary. Solar lamps do not produce enough light to compete with an electric light but they help. I put one in the bathroom (when I remember I have to charge it in the living room) and its enough light to see when the house is dark, close to a night light. A cleared out drivieway would allow us to park an rv there if my parents need to live with us.

I'm thankful my dh will not lose his job. His pay will not go down. It may not go up but it will not go down. I'm thankful we own our cars. I'm thankful we have savings. I'm thankful I know how to bake bread, bagels, muffins etc. I'm thankful we know how to be very very frugal if needed. I'm thankful we will still have store access if we cant drive, in some of our old homes that would not be true. I'm thankful the base store sells animal food. I'm thankful we already live a wonderful life on less, taking it down a notch would be fine for us. Kitty litter might be a problem! Newspaper anyone? Oh wait i've been wanting to train them to use the toliet, looks like now is a good time.

Power Outage

Power outages are very common where I live. They happen often because we get lots of rain so our tree roots don't go very deep. When the wind gusts, trees blow over. Especially when its been raining for a few days like recently. And wouldn't you know we have high winds predicted? I've been through this many times and I do a few simple things to prepare. Our home phone is not a VOIP service, just a plain old phone. That way if the power goes out we still have working phone service. We have plenty of candles, lighters, and matches. If we still had a fireplace I would lay in a supply of wood, however we don't have one. We do have lots of small propane bottles and a propane heater, as well as a propane stove. I've always had a small propane BBQ when living in apartments but now we have a big one as well. We have plenty of food in the house. Several convince foods, like 'chicken helper' that would make a full meal in a single skillet. The animals are stocked up on food. We have tons of blankets. On the day of i lay out candles and a lighter in whatever room I'm in, especially if its night. I generally carry a flashlight in my pocket. If I know in advance that bad weather is planned i plug in my cell phone and start heating up the house. (we keep it pretty cold and usually just use the heater in whatever room we're in) If i didn't have warning i Coral all the animals in a single room with me, it heats up fast! Especially with candles burning! A word of warning, be careful with candles if you have curious cats. If I'm out anyway i fill up the gas tank. Usually we don't have the power out for long, maybe a day but last year my city lost power for several days. However it wasn't the whole city, parts of it still had power. I was lucky enough to have it down for a single day. But I like to be prepared just in case! And if it gets too bad my parents live a few hours away and usually don't experience the exact same weather. But who wants to stuff 5 cats, 2 dogs, and a rabbit in a 4 door car??? Not me!