If everything cost 10x as much 5 years from now...how would you prepare???

[Thystle]

My June/July Mother Earth News came and it had an interesting "call" for responses on their forum.


"What step would you take to prepare if you knew five years from now that everything would cost 10 times what it costs now-- gas, food, electricity, solar panels, hybrid cars,-- everything, but your income would not change?"



It then went on to ask various questions.



Innteresting thing to ponder. My dad talks about how everything is 10-100x what is was in the seventies when I was born... but minimum wage has only gone up like $5.00. Hubby worked for $3 something 18 years ago when he was a teen... and gas is five times as much nearly.



It's a rough idea to think about... I am not sure what most of my friends or family would do.

[stretchmark]

I kind of am trying to prepare for that in a way. We built our own home with no mortgage but haven't been able to afford solar. We use minimal electricity, put in a big garden, got goats, chickens, ducks, and are trying to drive less and get our food locally.
We are saving usefull things like cloth diapers in case we have another child even though we plan on not having another. We are trying to be more self-sufficient. We don't have municipalities like sewer or water, we get ours from mountain runoff through gravity. We're trying harder to not rely on the system but it is a very slow process for us.
We hope to be able to get most of our own food through growing, hunting, milking, etc.

I'm not sure what else to say.

[KariM]

We've been discussing this in our household and basically to boil it down to a simple explanation is that we'd become a more self- sustainable household.

We'd use solar power and alternative heating methods (heating is more important in our climate).

We'd use pedal power and foot power whenever possible for transportation and limit our use of the car.

We'd use MORE community garden space to further extend our garden. Right now we have a 32' x 62' plot in the community garden and 260 squares of square foot garden beds in our backyard. We're planning to add an additional 32 squares as well.

We'd continue our reduce, reuse, recycle lifestyle.

We'd continue to build community networks for bartering services and products.

We'd continue to use local sources for food and supplies.

We'd continue to acquire the skills needed to be self-sustainable.

[majazama]

I would like to buy a little piece of property before it gets really expensive.

build a strawbale house (very energy efficient)

get a really energy efficient woodstove

have chickens, goats, and maybe a pig for rototilling (not eating:P)

wildcraft with an expert

definitely build community, but that's a given


actually this is my plan for my future no matter what. I don't even take into account that things might be more expensive. It's just what I always wanted to do!

[texmati]

yeah... I guess the only thing you can do is become more self reliant.

[velochic]

We'd take larger distributions from our investments.

I lived in Moscow, Russia during the early 90's during a time of hyperinflation. You end up doing less and spending less and becoming more self-sufficient. It certainly leads to much less waste.

[PrettyBird]

We would have to move on base and buy/do absolutely everything on base. I don't see how we would ever be able to visit family though, which would be the hardest adjustment I think.

[1growingsprout]

Things would get really tight around here. In 5 yrs the kids would be older (duh) and the older ones would have to find babysitting/yard work type jobs. I hate to say that ;(

We already stockpile and would continue to do that.

[DreamsInDigital]

We would not be able to afford to live, I'm afraid. We live in a $$$ area in terms of housing/property so there is no hope of us buying a piece of land and having a sustainable home.

[fek&fuzz]

Well, if the price of everything is going up, the price of legal services would too, so I'd just raise my rates to keep pace. And I'd except things in barter.

[SeekingJoy]

This is actually the future DH and I are planning for. we anticipate things getting very tight, although we fortunately have the option of me returning to work in a couple of years.

To prepare, we are taking a slightly different strategy with moving into town (instead of to somewhere more rural), but are working toward becoming more self sufficient and less wasteful as we can. Our big steps that we are working to finish within the next 6-12 months:

* buy/build/redevelop or renovate a small house within walking distance to work, library, postoffice, school and farmers market
* put in solar panels, extra insulation and a wood fireplace/stove into this house
* continue to garden as much as one can on 1/10 an acre
* become a carless family, or very close to it

I have also approached my brother about his family moving somewhere more rural and us serving as each others back up plans. I think social networks will play an even larger role in our future.

I have started stockpiling in small ways when sales and coupons align, but plan to make my first bulk foods order within the next month. Next on my list after that is to gather clothes in the next two sizes up for the kids and heavier bedding so we can skip heat at night.

[lmonter]

Originally Posted by Thystle

"What step would you take to prepare if you knew five years from now that everything would cost 10 times what it costs now-- gas, food, electricity, solar panels, hybrid cars,-- everything, but your income would not change?"

Yeah, that's a bit frightening to think about all at once. I know since hubby and I are the responsible ones in our families and are the most homestead-y, our relatives would just show up at our place and expect to be taken care of.

Short-term at least, I'm working on our food supply with the garden and canning supplies... hoping to plant a few more fruit trees this fall, working on turning most of our backyard into food-growing spaces, blah blah blah. We already heat with wood, so if I could figure out how to can with the woodstoves and we got a water heater to run off wood as well, that would be nice. Except we live in a private water district where the well is electric with no backup power. : I'd love nothing more than to have our own few acres with our own well. *sigh* It truly is hard to prepare for that broad kind of expense hike with so many confines in what you can do in your current situation.

Finding just 2-5 acres with a decent farmhouse and well on it would be our dream right now - we could do chickens and our garden and a small orchard and all that groovy stuff. Given some space, a little extra money now, and some creativity, we could whip things into shape pretty quickly in that regard. But we can't because of the whole living-within-your-means thing we do (unlike our neighbors, I think one even has a 3rd mortgage they got when housing prices went absolutely bonkers). We only got our house reappraised and got rid of our PMI back then.

[JTA Mom]

Hmm, more conserving, more self-sufficiency. To be honest though, if the prices did that in 5 yrs, there would be rioting in the streets. Also, I think the majority of people working might not be able to go to work at all. If you're only making $8 and hour and gas to get to & fro is $40/gal, makes no sense to go.

I also think people would eventually split into self-sufficient enclaves if that happened.

Ami

[nathansmum]

Originally Posted by SeekingJoy

This is actually the future DH and I are planning for. we anticipate things getting very tight, although we fortunately have the option of me returning to work in a couple of years.

To prepare, we are taking a slightly different strategy with moving into town (instead of to somewhere more rural), but are working toward becoming more self sufficient and less wasteful as we can. Our big steps that we are working to finish within the next 6-12 months:

* buy/build/redevelop or renovate a small house within walking distance to work, library, postoffice, school and farmers market
* put in solar panels, extra insulation and a wood fireplace/stove into this house
* continue to garden as much as one can on 1/10 an acre
* become a carless family, or very close to it

I have also approached my brother about his family moving somewhere more rural and us serving as each others back up plans. I think social networks will play an even larger role in our future.

I have started stockpiling in small ways when sales and coupons align, but plan to make my first bulk foods order within the next month. Next on my list after that is to gather clothes in the next two sizes up for the kids and heavier bedding so we can skip heat at night.

I could have written this post.

We don't plan on moving from our 1/4 acre home - we are in a town of about 40,000 people, but live within walking distance to shops, library, doctors etc. We have got bikes and means to get around (not doing it just yet, but working towards that mindset), I buy kids clothes in bigger sizes from 2nd hand places when I see them and gumboots sized up at end of winter sales (well only for ds as I figure dd will use his outgrown ones).

We haven't gone solar yet though (have done the insulation and wood stove) and got a bit stalled when thinking about it - with the replacement of the panels etc required and they are imported I wondered how that would happen if things were really expensive?

DH is now working nearby, but he's in retail, so honestly, I can't see his job still going if things are that tough (although he is in bike sales so may last a bit longer than some other retail jobs). So I can see us needing to gain other hands on skills that will be useful to trade or earn dollars that way.

[ShaggyDaddy]

If I was absolutly certain things would be 10x as much 5 years from now, I would borrow every cent I could, buy a big house or 2 or 3, make minimum payments on all my debt, and pay it all back at the inflated rate... basically paying 10% of what I borrow.

Inflation is good for borrowers, bad for lenders, and savers.