The Campfire Trail: January 26 - The Campfire Trail

January 26, 2025

Day 1,213 of the Adventure

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So much of our journey has its roots in self-sufficiency, and that in itself is generally a cost savings lifestyle. The act of becoming more self-sufficient is good too, I might add. The biggest problem I see with it is that developing a life of self-sufficiency is usually a methodical process. One that takes time, commitment, changes in habits and routines and even some planning. In the economies we are currently dealing with, an extended "ramp up" curve is not very helpful in dealing with the immediate crisis of high costs. Those costs related to fuel, housing, groceries, insurance and nearly every other aspect of life are crushing right now. So much of it is unavoidable. You cannot simply, not buy food, for example. We shop sparingly for groceries throughout the month and usually save a big grocery shopping run for about once per month. That last grocery spree tallied up to over $750 dollars. Talk about a shock. It was only about one and a half grocery cart's worth of food. To add to that, we are now in the middle of winter and the garden is resting in preparation for the upcoming planting season. Our preservation efforts have our shelves full of canned and freeze-dried goods. All of that represents the "first year" garden efforts which is strong on a few things and light on many other things. We have pickles in abundant flavors and varieties to last for several years. Salsa is the same way. Most everything else represents a few months-worth of use until it's depleted. So as of yet, our garden is not completely the answer. I suppose one way to deal with it is to simply shift our diets to one of beans, rice and Ramen noodles.

There has to be a better answer to this. Unfortunately, any solution that has long lasting effects is going to be a process to achieve. One that will require a commitment to planning, investment and discipline. It's also a process that is not for the person who is only mildly devoted to solving this as a long-term solution. Between housing costs, utilities costs, fuel costs, insurance costs and food costs, there is almost no good place to start. They all require our attention every single month. Then the next month, it all starts over. Many of the increased costs we face have to do with things that are beyond our control. We can't very well change the cost of an insurance premium that has gone up by 30% other than just shopping for something somewhere else. Same is mostly true for fuel, other utilities, housing and so on. The one area where I believe it is possible to begin making an impact is with food costs. Obviously, if we choose to not change our buying habits, then that too, will be out of our control. Food is an area where we do have some influence on what the costs are. We can't really change the prices at the stores, but we can modify our spending habits and start trimming the costs that way.

Shifting to bulk buying, perhaps even co-op buying with others can take advantage of bulk prices. Growing more food ourselves reduces prices drastically. Preserving and storing bulk and home-grown produce allows us to push our personal stores of food out into the future. However, it's not a solution that automatically happens just because we get upset about high prices at the grocery store check-out. The check-out counter may initiate the change, but it certainly requires a willingness and a resolve to implement the change. Over the next month or so, we will be focusing our written and video efforts on steps you can implement in your life to begin dragging those high costs back into alignment with a reasonable budget. Make sure to get subscribed to the channel and watch for upcoming videos related to Conquering Your Costs. All it takes is a commitment to change!

Carry On

Adventure Quote: “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” ― Albert Einstein

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