The Wisdom Of Proverbs And Algebra

From “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink” to “You’ve made your bed, now lie in it”.

I didn’t pay much attention to my algebra classes in high school, much to the chagrin of my father. But, one thing that I do recall is the transitive property. Simply put, if A=B and B=C then A=C. Or, using a real world example…

Eating requires food. Food requires investment. Ergo, eating requires investment.

No matter how you look at it, you must be willing to invest something to have food. Most of us invest our money, but there are very select few who go through the effort of investing time and other resources to produce their own food and to be self-sufficient. But we simply can’t invest nothing and expect something (food) to come of it.

At its core, prepping is simply making the investment into your food now while it’s easiest and most readily available versus attempting to make your investment later in an unknown situation. For years, people were more than willing to rely on the status quo and found false assurance in the expectation that things would always be good – this is the U.S.A., after all! They pushed their investment out and suddenly, amid the Covid-19 chaos, found bare shelves and nothing left to invest in. Preppers understand the risks in trusting everything to always work as smoothly as it typically does and choose to invest up front, hedging a bet against difficult situations. In essence, their investing in an insurance policy against bad times.  

While the benefits of prepping have been driven into the limelight over the last two years, it is unfortunate that the required investment is still a perceived barrier to entry for so many. To be overly direct and upfront, Prepper’s Stockpile is here to smash that barrier. If you’re going to get caught with your pants down, it won’t be because you didn’t have the opportunity to prepare. It will be solely because you chose not to.

Smashing The “Legitimate Investment Issues” Barrier:

Sometimes, budgets are tight and large investments really aren’t possible. Ultimately, that’s what created Prepper’s Stockpile. I had a desire to start prepping for my family but knew that my personality and lifestyle wasn’t one that would allow me to use the DIY “buy canned goods and bags of rice, fill a room in your house, record and monitor expiration dates, start a rotational calendar, etc., etc., etc.,” route. Our other option, to purchase specifically made survival food, was much simpler and fit our lifestyle, did not fit our budget…we were looking at laying out thousands and thousands of dollars on these products in order to have a supply that would last long enough for us to feel like we’d accomplished our mission.

At Prepper’s Stockpile, we’ve taken the ease and simplicity of the pre-packaged, 25-year shelf-life meals, combined that with the budgetability of the DIY route, and put it all on a “set it and forget it” platform. With plans starting at less than $30/month, anyone who truly desires to prepare for inevitable difficulty is able to and even the busiest of lifestyles can handle the sub-30 seconds required to open a box and dump the food into tote. We’ve taken both “I can’t afford it” and “I don’t have the time” off the table.

You can afford to do it and you do have the time. (Because it doesn’t require any time)

If you choose not to, then you’re simply placing your bet on “everything will always be good”. It’s probably no surprise, but I think that’s a poor bet. I’ve lead you to the water – drink.

Smashing The “Perceived Investment Issues” Barrier:  

When dealing with misguided perceptions, we first need to establish a foundation that we can both agree on. In keeping with a singular thought stream for this blog, I propose this as that foundation:

“If I want to eat in the future, I’m going to have to pay for it at some point”

We can agree on that, right?

Super.

So, the question here really isn’t about the investment itself, but about when to make it and how much that investment will cost. Judging by the fact that you’re here and still reading this, I’m going to assume that, given the choice, you’d rather make the investment now and be ready when the tough times come, so we’ll focus our remaining time together on “how much the investment will cost”.

Generally, food makes up a relatively large portion of the American households spending habits. The USDA provides great up-to-date and in-depth analysis of what it costs to feed someone based on gender, age, and budgets. Below are their most recent statistics published for June of 2021. 

You can check out the full PDF here: https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/media/file/CostofFoodJun2021LowModLib.pdf

We’re a family ran business, so let’s use ourselves as an example. As a family of 6 (father, mother, 4 kids 10 and under), the USDA says we should expect to pay $1,270.60 a month for food – if we use their “low-cost plan”. 3-months of eating would be $3,800+, 6-months would be $7,600+, and a year’s worth of eating would cost us over $15,000.

If, in normal, everyday conditions, it’s going to cost us $1,270+ to feed our family for 30-days, it is simply unrealistic to think that, in an emergency, we’ll be able to continue eating without a relatively significant overall investment being made. We need to be upfront and establish that you simply cannot prepare for tough times in the future without putting something into it now.

Eating = Investment, remember?

Staying true to our goal of breaking this perceived barrier, let’s compare the overall investments between the USDA averages and what our family of six would invest prepping through Prepper’s Stockpile with an 18-month build time.

With Prepper’s Stockpile, your overall investment into eating goes down significantly versus what you would expect to spend over a normal period of time. And, these numbers don’t account for the inevitable price fluctuations that emergency situations bring. As food supply amounts decrease, prices per item increase. We must expect that on some level. We currently have laws against price gouging that prevent excessive increases in times of needs, but in a total collapse those laws won’t be enforced. Ultimately, running a comparison of the cost of prepping versus the cost of feeding your family in a non-emergency isn’t as accurate as we’d like. Feeding your family during an emergency will become significantly more expensive and your investment tools (both what you have to invest and what you’re able to invest in) will be reduced.  

Understanding there is a difference between “It’s too expensive” and “I can’t afford it”, let’s put the “It’s too expensive” perceived barrier to bed:

Prepping, when done wisely, costs less money than you’re going to spend in an average month…and you get the added benefit of eating when that may be more difficult than hoped.

You’re Making Your Bed:

For those who are left saying “ok, it’s generally not too expensive…but I still can’t afford those monthly payments” our 6-person, 1-month food supply on the 36-month plan costs $31.64 a month, including shipping costs. Anyone truly motivated to be ready for whatever the future may bring can work $31 into their budget.

While these figures go a long way in showing that there really is no investment barrier to entry, we haven’t even included the value of what being prepped actually brings. But again, you’re already here and you’re still reading…so I’ll assume you’re aware of the reasons you should be prepped and the benefits that brings. If not…well, that’ll be a later blog.