Fellow ATS members, I am scared....

Originally posted by Melissa101
Is any one else getting scared with what we are seeing and feeling? I just need some support and would like to connect with others that have been effected by the global collapse that the media says is getting better, but it don't feel better to me... How about you?

When I first "woke up" (about a year ago I think), I was shocked and scared. I had been in my own little world, basically oblivious to everything everything. When I woke up and saw the things that were happening...yeah...I was scared, upset, and had a nice long cry. Then I took action by trying to be as informed as I could be, as well as by trying to prepare for the future. While I don't feel much hope for the future, preparing for more difficult times does make me feel better.

If the thought of eating rabbit repulses you, start stocking up on beans and rice. Having a good stockpile of food makes good sense. Visit the survival forum and learn how to store them. Having a stockpile of food makes sense in case of a Situation X, but it also makes sense economically. If you buy those items now at lower prices, you'll be stretching your dollars by buying more of your food at lower prices. (I expect prices to continue climbing so it makes sense to me to stock up a little at a time).

As far as Kool-Aid, Splenda, and diet sodas are concerned, I understand these are items you and your family enjoy. I don't think they're very healthy, but that's my opinion, and I understand you may not agree. Water is a much cheaper alternative, and in my opinion, healthier than Splenda.

What helps me a lot is my attitude, and believe me, it's something I've had to work on. I try to do what I can to prepare for the future and not worry too much because worrying isn't going to do me any good. Take this time to learn how to prepare for tougher times. Read a lot of books and learn how to preserve fruits, vegetables, and meat. Talk to the elders in your family and learn how they survived without running water and electricity.

Another thing I do is remind myself of how fortunate I am. I have food, water, shelter, access to medical care, and lots of love. I try to live in the moment, being thankful for all I have and enjoying the world around me. Life is good, and whatever the future has in store for me, spending my days in a state of anxiety, worry, and fearfulness is not going to help me cope.

That's not to say I don't sometimes succumb to those feelings, but when I do, I try to think positively and visualize myself as strong and able to cope and deal with whatever the future might bring.

I don't know if this will help you, but it's how I try to do deal with the uncertainty of the future.

Things are bad. Someone wanted cheaper slaves. Everyone talks about unemployment, no one's talking about wages going down for 50% of folks out there, and the cost of living going UP.

reply to post by Melissa101



Well, Melissa101. No nonsense is what you need now more than ever.

My position, I grew up in the country. As an adult I have lived as a city boy for the last 25 years. So what right?

Just that's time to get back to the country is all. Eating rabbits, squirrel, dove, dear, boar, fishing, and gardening was a pretty regular occurence as a kid. In fact, what 100 years ago I bet that's how most US citizens lived. Don't let the urbanized society trap you.

Weirdest thing I've seen recently at the local Sprouts grocery store. You guessed it. Filet'd (sp? )rabbit.

In Texas there are tons of low cost ethnic branded grocery stores. In particular hispanic oriented. There you can find lots of goat, guts, sheep, heads, feet, and all kinds of really interesting things that some people eat regularly. They must or they wouldn't sell it.

True story....20 years ago I was doing a job near downtown Dallas and there was the most nausiating smell in the air. I asked the store clerk where I was installing a fixture what it was. He said it was goathead stew down at the restaurant down the road, and couldn't wait to head down there for lunch. I said I think I'll stick to McDonalds today.

But still, don't limit yourself. Talk to people, get that no nonsense can't be beat attitude straightened out and you'll find that things are gonna be fine.

Personally, I think I'm gonna have to be pretty hungry before I start diggin in to a bowl of goathead stew.

Are you a pioneer or are you a p.... pansy? Think about it.

PG

My husband and I are in a similar situation.

But what we've slowly come around to realizing is that we were people who had bought into the "cultural propaganda". It's tough to wake up sometimes - very tough. All of the things you thought were static, consistent - even deluded yourself into believing were necessities - when all that begins to fall away...it absolutely can be scary and feel like the end of the world.

Keep in mind that CHANGE of any kind - comes slowly and not without discomfort. Hubby and I are slowly changing what we eat, changing how we spend our free time, changing what we consider necessity. And guess what? We're discovering we're actually happier for it. But that doesn't mean that change comes easy or rapidly. It's a process.

Some examples:

1) No longer buying name brands of much of anything
2) Cutting out most soda or sugar/preservative loaded "pre-packaged" food
3) Eating a lot more fruits and vegetables with different types of herbs and spices (some really neat and tasty new discoveries made)
4) Drinking a TON more water - but only after filtering
5) We no longer use credit cards OR our debit card except when required (went to an old fashioned cash in envelopes system and now go to the bank once a week - interestingly enough - when you actually SEE the money being spent - you tend to spend more frugally)
6) Kept our internet, but dumped all the "pay" channels on our cable - watch much less television now, and do a lot of walking in the park or sight-seeing in our locale

And finally, I'm not sure it will get better for quite awhile - as I said, change comes slowly - is a process. For quite awhile now, the US has been treating symptoms of a much larger disease. Until the majority focuses on eradicating the 'disease' itself change won't come. But the only way most of us will begin to treat the disease and not the symptoms is when our situations change, take us out of our comfort zone and necessity requires new thinking, new solutions and a new approach. At least that's my opinion.

Hang in there - life really is amazing. For the first time in many years, I began to smile again - at simple things - a squirrel in a tree, the way grass smells fresh cut - a whole host of things I hadn't noticed or maybe ever been aware of before. And slowly, though my pocketbook isn't getting any fatter, my love for life and the natural world around me has increased 10-fold. We're still struggling and there are some pretty tough days, but its funny - I doubt we'll EVER go back again now, to the way things were - even if we won the lottery tomorrow. It just ain't that important.

I'm going to echo pretty much what everyone else is saying.

You need to learn how to shop.

We wait for good sales on the things that we use and then stock up. We also use coupons. We rarely spend $50 at the grocery store and if we do, we have plenty to show for it.

It takes time to stock up your house so you do it a little at a time. But when things that you use on a regular basis are on sale, buy by the case. When you've been doing this for about a year, you'll find that you are only paying full price for fresh fruit, dairy and or other items that you can't freeze or store.

Everything else you can usually find for 1/2 to 1/3 of the"regular" price.

Originally posted by Krystian
Maybe go to an off brand store to stock up....quality at places like ALdi are no different.

ALDI is the Truth.....We just got one near us 2 months ago and my parents go there a lot now compared to meijers...

Costco is nice if you can afford the membership fee which isn't all that much i don't think.

You can save a ton buying in bulk, but the problem then becomes storage of all this bulk food....


Seriously though if you have an ALDI go there.....My parents save an average of 20-30$ going there instead of the other places.

Also start experimenting with OFF Brand products ( not name brand )

We have and have found some are down right awful and some are even better than the name brand. That has saved an average of about 1$ per product...

We have done this because my dad was laid off in Jan and is still looking for a job.....

So we are doing what we can to cut back...


I suggest you don't buy pop

reply to post by Melissa101


I sympathize with you. The great depression hasn't hit my area yet, but I sense it's coming. Get down to basics now. It's time to stop buying 12 packs of diet coke and quit with the splenda too and the koolaid. Why not use that money on actual food with substance? If you have land, plant a garden. Even if you don't have land, use buckets to plant vegitable plants in. If you have cable TV - cancel it and use the money you would have spent on it, to stock up on staples like rice and dry beans. If you have a cell phone, cancel it as well. Turn down the air conditioning or try to do without it. Turn off lights when you leave a room. Start riding a bike around town rather than jumping in the car to run errands. These are all very simple ways to save money. Cook on the BBQ outside instead of turning on the oven and adding heat to the house (making the air conditioner work harder). Dry clothes on clothes lines instead of adding heat from the dryer, to your house. Start buying off brand things. There are very few off brands that don't taste like or work like the name brand counterpart. Rather than buying coke, buy Sams Cola at Walmart. Tastes identical to Coke from what my taste buds have gathered. I believe it's probably the same thing.

If you look at penny pinching as a challenge, you might actually see that it can be empowering. I love to get a good deal.

reply to post by Melissa101


Heh, as I've posted about before, I grew up on rabbit, squirrel, turkey, deer, quail, doves, antelope, and pretty much all of our domestic meat we slaughtered ourselves, so I don't see having to eat rabbit as being any sign of coming disaster. That said, I do see a lot of other warning signs, some VERY concerning to me. Unemployemnt is the chief one amongst them, particularly since I believe that if we calculated unemployment using the same standards we used in the 20s, we would be close enough to Great Depression unemployment figures to make John Q. Public crap his pants in fear. The abillity of our country to pull itself out from under this crushing mountain of politician created national debt is another concern high on my list... I simply don't see any way we're going to be able to do this without a serious amount of real pain being felt by everyone, real pain that will make the current pain seem like a breeze.

Anyway, here's a helpfull tip for you on the rabbit issue. Rabbit is an excellent lean, high protein meat, but it does require a little pre-cooking preparation to really become truly delicious. After cleaning the rabbit, quarter it and put the pieces into a large bowl of salt water (roughly a cup of salt per gallon of water, but this can be diluted depending on personal taste and how strongly the rabbit's diet has affected the meat. I grew up on rabbits that had been eating mesquite, pinon pine nuts, and juniper which all will impart a distinct and strong taste on the meat so we used a very salty solution.) Soak the meat in the refrigerator overnight. After a mere 10 hour soak, the meat will be extremely firm, all gaminess should be gone, and you'll find that it doesn't make the meat salty at all. I was always partial to my mom's rabbit enchiladas, but essentially you can substitute rabbit meat for any recipe that calls for chicken (or any other meat, for that matter.) Rabbit also holds up well to stronger spices like hot pepper powders and dishes with a lot of garlic. In that regard it's almost better than store bought chicken which tends to be completely overpowered by spicier sauces and ingredients. So if you're frying it, mix a little cayanne pepper with the flour before breading it and you'll be amazed at how great it tastes.

Happy hunting and best wishes to you!

Originally posted by RolandBrichter

Originally posted by ~Lucidity

Sustainable? We've only just begun to see how low this is going to go.

Your view, which resembles what I would call that the altruistic globalists, to me is as offensive as that of the big bad NWO globalists is what kills he dream as much as the other does.

There was nothing WRONG with the standard of life many in the developed nations achieved and there is nothing wrong with wanting to and fighting to keep it. That was nothing to feel guilty about. And your ready acceptance that things have to go down to a "simpler" level is accepting and giving up.

You are sadly misled..

Your lifestyle that you are desperately clinging to is based entirely on an unsustainable scam...better living via massive credit expansion...or should I say debt slavery..

Perfectly natural economic forces forces are beginning to bring us back to reality....whether you like it or not...

Giving up? Hardly....My well being does not revolve around buying worthless junk because I was programmed to do so by the lords of systematic slavery...

Try to pry yourself away from Limbaugh, Hannity, and O'Reilly...they are the mouthpieces for an outdated paradigm...

[edit on 15-7-2009 by RolandBrichter]

[edit on 15-7-2009 by RolandBrichter]

you make a LOT of assumptions here about me. every last one of them erroneous and ludicrous, some of them quite offensive, and none of them even logical based upon what i actually wrote. do you realize that you come off as quite ignorant here? ntbut clearly my post may have hit a nerve. not everyone is capable of thinking outside their radical political leanings and trying to find common and logical ground.

i am not wrong nor am i misled. i lead a simple lifestyle and always have, not out of necessity but of choice. my point here though stands and was more to the point that is nothing wrong with striving and achieving versus caving in and retreating like ostriches, which i think some are doing and trying to become righteous and indignant about in trying to save their own face.

i won't say you are misled because you clearly threw up your defense shields and pulled out your labels and intentionally misunderstood my entire post, which probably required to much thinking outside your own radical leanings to the polar extreme of and which so closely resemble those you accuse me of following.

me watch limbaugh, hannity or o'reilly? fat chance...they remind me a LOT, way too MUCH of your post.



[edit on 15-7-2009 by ~Lucidity]

reply to post by Melissa101


What's wrong with eating a rabbit? Remember those old films where they're in the jungle and have nothing to eat so they catch some and barbecue them? I remember thinking "man, those must be delicious!"

Another thing I like about the global meltdown. Stupid vegetarians will again be forced to eat animals to survive. Yeah! Suck it, PETA!

I wish to quote what others here have stated.."and i thoguht i was alone". Phew! Which isnt a good thing of course. This kinda sounds lke my shopping list time to time. Difference is, i didnt go to college and get a degree. Make about $400 a week, and live with my sister. BEtween keeping my car going(not one thing its another, due to rough streets or weather taking its toll financially on it) its something else, keeping the property fertilized and groomed, feeding the shrubs...it adds up! I used to like collecting guitars(not expensive ones), was into speed metal, and always wanted this one gutiar..will never afford it: (

Originally posted by ~Lucidity
Sorry to get off topic here OP, just trying to quench my curiosity..

reply to post by RolandBrichter

 

well i am either wrong (not misled, because i lead a simple lifestyle and always have but my point was more to that there is nothing wrong with striving and achieving versus caving in and retreating like ostriches.) or you are misled.

Not sure what you mean...striving to achieve what?? Money?

If that's the case, you'll figure out soon enough how utterly useless that endeavor really is..

Good Luck!!

Hire an allotment out or grow veg and fruite in the garden if you have space and look to see where you can get cheaper food, but not cheap food, cheap food is designed to make you die younger so its either healthy or a cheaper shop but not cheap food.

reply to post by RolandBrichter


anything! music. art. innovation. achievable good housing, healthcare, and education for everyone. sustainable food sources. better ways of doing things! what's wrong with improving people's lives? or wanting to keep your lifestyle?

reply to post by RolandBrichter


oh and again with your ludicrous assumptions about money. more a reflection of your ignorance and projection again than anything else. in my hurry i didnt even read that part. again you're as bad as the polar opposite side you show you hate and as mindwashed to the other extreme as they are. you appear to have lost your sense of reasonableness and reason, given up, defined "an enemy" and retreated. And that was almost exactly my point. thanks for proving it so well.

i'm done with you. in fact, i've never ignored anyone here. you're the first good job.





[edit on 15-7-2009 by ~Lucidity]

Originally posted by ~Lucidity
reply to post by RolandBrichter

 

oh and again with your ludicrous assumptions about money. more a reflection of your ignorance and projection again than anything else. in my hurry i didnt even read that part. you're just lame. again you're as bad as the polar opposite side you hate. i'm done with you.

in fact, i've never ignored anyone here. you're the first

edit on 15-7-2009 by ~Lucidity]

You're the only one expressing hate here...typical..can't debate on the merits so you resort to ad hominem attacks...Keep in mind , you started this conversation and now you sense that you are severely outclassed, so off you run

When you grow up, maybe you'll better appreciate the concept that I'm trying to share with you...

reply to post by Melissa101

There are no jobs and the ones that are available have like 500 people applying for the same position. The grocery store has become absolutely ridiculous as far as prices. More and more businesses are closing.

Well... I know you must be really worried, but I have a different perspective on this situation that may (or may not) be of help to you.

When I read your post, it reminded me of how things are in poorer countries, like Brazil, where I live. All the talk about 500 people applying for the same position, grocery prices going high, business closing, etc.

Did you know that this is just the way things are on poorer countries and have been for a long time ? Yet, people live just fine, are able to be happy, etc, so don't worry, you won't die because of that... you will live in a tighter situation, have less luxuries, as you say, but you'll do fine. It's entirely possible to live this way - millions of people everyday do it.

To put things into perspective, these are some comparison facts (as of 15th July 2009)

- In Brazil, a McDonalds worker will make around R$ 2,49 per hour - equivalent of US$ 1,28.
- A BigMac costs in Brazil around US$ 4,73 against the USA price of US$ 3,57 (just the hamburguer, as of 26th July 2008)
- In Brazil, a gallon of gas (3.78 liters) costs R$ 9.72 - equivalent of US$ 5,02
- A 2004 Ford Focus in good condition costs around US$ 5,000 in the USA - the same car will cost around US$ 12.240,00 for a brazilian buyer

I can't find easy comparisons for groceries, but I lived in Florida for three years and I can tell you that pretty much ALL of your groceries are cheaper than in Brazil (with exception of meat, which is cheaper in Brazil).

So, yeah, if you look from where I'm standing, things are still pretty easy in the USA. Brazil isn't even the worst of cases - it is actually one of the best third world countries around - there are lots of other countries where the situation is much much worse, and people get along just fine, everybody manages to be happy.

You'll just have to adapt, so that you will be happy driving a Geo Metro instead of a brand new Civic. If you're a christian, you might take solace in thinking that it's probably what Jesus would do =P


[]'s
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For the past year, since my father past...having to pay rent, ive been living off cans of progresso soups, but ive stopped cuase of the high sodium content. Now im eating eggs twice a day daily...at least at work, thiers lots of work and stress, being retail, so not too worried about cholesterol lol.
I guess the point is...our leaders have goten very good education, got degrees, and are the bigggest thieves next to al cappone. Alot of us, wanna work, make fair wages, and dont steel, and we get the bottom the barrell. Seems like the system discriminates agasint its own citizens, for wanting to do the right thing.

reply to post by Melissa101


Melissa101,

I really hope you will get through this. Don't forget that your not the only one out there. I couldn't imagine what it must be like for you. I was born in South Eastern Europe, north of the Balkans. My parents have a house/farm there. My family moved to the U.S. when I was almost three. Almost every year since I was 9, my family takes a trip back to the house/farm in Europe. We have relatives that use the house now, who take care of it.

When we do go back, we eat the stuff we grow, and the livestock. We have plenty of Chickens, and Rabbits. Even though when I'm there I do miss brand foods, McDonalds, KFC, Wendys and all, I feel much more relaxed. I can easily say that when im in Europe, life is simpler, because of that farm. My point is, find something that you and your family can easily modify to, something that will be less stressful. Some have already mentioned that your position will bring your family closer.

Best wishes to you and ur family, good luck.

i dont know if anyones said this already i know that someones already said to move in with family which is good (if you get along) but also we should be surounding ourselves with good people and creating little "communities" and each person has there own trait and give to that communtiy maybe??? buuut some or most will ignore this and when the time comes they will not be prepared. but my planes are to stock up on plenty of seeds. etc etc. but im sure you all have heard this before and are doing what you can. but just be kind and help eachother out thats all we can do right now in these sort of times....best wishes to you all hope we can make it through all of this crap...