Written by: Sarah Duncan

Most preppers stock up with an Armageddon-like disaster in mind, but your preps can help when a small-scale personal disaster strikes as well.

These personal disasters can strike without warning and cause unprecedented stress and damage to our finances and even to our well being.

Consider the following, which could strike nearly anyone at any time:

• Job loss
• Weather disaster that takes down the grid
• Unexpected financial obligation
• Loss of a loved one
• Pay cut
• Illness
• Loss of transportation

If you have been preparing for a year of grid-down after a civil collapse, take heart that you are likewise prepared for these events too.

I recently undertook a long-distance move with my child.  We’ve been lucky enough to move to prepper heaven, surrounded by forests and lakes, but it came at a high cost financially.  A surprise opportunity presented itself and, because I’m a prepper, I was able to jump at it.

We spent nearly every dime we had making this move, and, as always, when you arrive, there are unexpected expenses.  I began to panic as I looked at my near-empty wallet, then I got a hold of myself – “What kind of prepper are you if this makes you panic?  What are you going to do when a real disaster strikes?”

So, I got in touch with my inner prepper and we are sailing through the tight spot with flying colors.  Not only is it a good test of my physical preps, like food, fuel and other supplies; but it is a test of my mindset and my can-do prepper spirit.

Here are some of the challenges we have met:

• No washing machine:  We’ve got to wait for a couple of weeks to purchase a washer. Instead of hanging it decoratively on the wall of the laundry room, we took down the washboard and used it in the bathtub to scrub some clothes clean.  No wonder pioneer women were rarely fat – that is a heck of a workout!  We’re hanging our clean clothes to dry and I think we will continue to air-dry instead of purchasing a tumble dryer right away.
• No extra money for a grocery stock-up:  While fresh fruits and veggies are nice, and always a preference, the goods that I canned from my garden this summer are also full of nutrients.  We’ve hit up our prepper pantry and were able to spend less than $20 getting a few basics at the store to last us for another 2 weeks.  The fun part is the creativity of making meals from the prepper pantry – I’m trying out some fantastic recipes and combining my home canned produce and meats with my stockpiles of rice, pasta and barley.
• Entertainment:  We’ve moved out to the boonies in a place where we don’t know anyone.  So we are enjoying our books and games, and exploring the great outdoors for loads of no-cost fun.
• Fix It:  Tapping in to the prepper mindset, instead of despairing and rushing off to the store when I unpacked the drying rack to find that the dowels had snapped in the moving truck, I got out the duct tape and repaired it – it looks kind of funny but it works just as well as it did pre-move.
• First Aid:  There once was a time that many first aid requirements would send us running to the pharmacy to pick up polysporin, bandages or a heating pad.  However, there is no place to just “run to” quickly here – it’s a large undertaking when the store is 20 minutes away.  Much to my delight, every issue we have had has been taken care of by my apparently rather well-stocked first aid kit that I have collected:  aloe vera juice for a burn;  ibuprofen for a headache; bandages, peroxide and polysporin for a cut, and an ice pack to be filled from the freezer for a smashed finger.

So all in all, aside from some supplies specific to my daughter’s new school, we have been delighted to discover there is absolutely nothing we need so much that it can’t be put off for quite a while!  Weathering this little shower so well makes me feel confident that we will weather the real storms ahead with flying colors.

When an unexpected personal event causes a bump in the road, use it as an opportunity to test your preps for the difficult times ahead!