First, I wanted to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. Hopefully, you were able to enjoy a few days off work and to relax a bit. Second, if you’re reading this post now chances are this advice is too late as you’ve likely already done your Christmas shopping but if you’ve yet to do so and are still contemplating braving the crowds to get the best deals, please don’t bother…. or, at least, file this away for next year.
As much as I want to say that my advice is because people are crazy and may do dumb–even harmful–things to save a few bucks on some silly toy or bigger television that’s not even the problem I have. It’s really just the entire consumerism mindset that this day, above all others, brings about.
It’s not that I’m against being a “good” consumer or against businesses trying to promote their deals. Instead, my concern is really about the I’ve got to have more, bigger, better and NOW mindset that is pervasive in our society. At what point is what you have good enough? So what if you’ve got an iPhone 5, do you really need the iPhone 6 to the tune of hundreds of dollars? Is the 52″ plasma not big enough that you need a 60″ instead at the cost of several hundreds of dollars? After all, both of these items worked just fine yesterday. 🙂
And what about little Joey’s or Sally’s latest and greatest toys that they simply must have? Odds are they’re a colossal waste of money too given the time spent playing with most toys. I know we’ve purchased too many relatively expensive items in the past for our kids that now either collect dust somewhere, were sold for super cheap at a garage sale, or were perhaps given away to friends with younger children. And I know my parents did the same with me. My kids will likely do the same with theirs.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against buying kids a toy or two that they really want. After all, they’re not going to be kids forever. Likewise, I’m not against purchasing a new iPhone if yours is about to shoot craps and is older than me. 😉 But that’s not how we treat our things these days. Everything is magically outdated within a month of buying is, disposable not matter what it is, and subject to being replaced at a moment’s notice… not because of our desires, mind you, but because loads of advertising says so.
In my opinion, this could be money well spent elsewhere and, dare I say, on preps if I may be so bold! Unless your television is still considered a piece of furniture or your cell phone is… ugh… a flip phone AND you’ve been saving up for something better then do yourself a favor this holiday season: put your money back in your pocket. Or, better yet, put it towards your preps.
For instance, with a few hundreds dollars you could:
- Start an emergency fund at home, in your wallet/purse, or add money to your bug out bags
- Bolster your emergency foods stores by adding to your pantry’s canned goods, buy bulk foods from a local LDS Home Storage Center, Sam’s Club, or COSTCO
- Buy a quality Big Berkey Filtration System which can easily last your family for years upon years (we love ours)
- Add to your survival library and purchase any number of great survival and preparedness books
- Create a truly useful first aid kit or IFAK; if you don’t want to do it yourself Dr. Alton and Nurse Amy have quite a few great choices in their DoomAndBloom.net Store
- Purchase a quality a quality LED Lantern (or two) and enough Alkaline D Batteries to last for years
- Add to your fuel preps (or start one if you’ve yet to do so) though CARB-compliant fuel storage containers are getting ridiculously expensive and are horrible to use
For the kids you could be “sneaky” and buy them things like sleeping bags, small flashlights or lanterns, perhaps a quality knife or BB gun if they’re old enough. Obviously, there are plenty of other ways to use your hard-earned money to bolster your preps and even gifts for the kids instead of purchasing the latest and greatest [fill in the blank].
It’s your choice, though… spend it wisely.
Leave a Reply