More Complaining about the High Cost of Prepping

I just don't know how I'm going to be able to afford prepping. I was watching a YouTube video by the "Modern Survivalist" about having cash in an emergency. He said that his experience in Argentina showed him the importance of having cash for the first month or so of a financial collapse.
Apparently money might not go to the value of toilet paper, immediately. Even though it might lose most of it's value the first few days; it will remain a medium of exchange for a while. You'll still be able to buy things (like food and fuel) with it, for a while.
He recommended having a month's of cash on hand. After that, you'll probably have to sell your gold and silver. Bartering will also be common. So now, I not only have to have gold, silver, food, guns, ammo, but cash, as well.
The people on YouTube don't seem to have any problem telling us what to buy but I just don't know where the damned money is supposed to come from.
I've been cleaned out multiple times on the stock and futures markets. I never had an especially good paying job. And now I'm on Social Security and a part-time minimum wage job.
That job is making it possible for me to attempt getting prepared for the financial collapse.I just hope that I'll be ready for what I know will happen, in time. I feel that I need a trailer and more bitcoins at the least.
I've got enough gold and silver for now. I could use more food, and I could store some water. Cash is the problem. I feel conflicted between bitcoins and cash. I am probably just being greedy when it comes to bitcoins.
They have tripled in value since I started trying to buy one. If they keep going up in value, I could finance everything else with the profit from them.
I felt the same way about futures, real estate stock options, stocks and bonds as well. Nothing has ever worked out and everything has always turned out to be a way to lose money. At least, this time, I only have a little more than $400 invested. Of course, I used a credit card to come up with all of that money. I did that with most of my other investments and it has always been a disaster.
It seems that I'm destined to be poor. Maybe the time-space continuum would be ripped if I made money. Something seems to be keeping me making bad decisions about money. It might be that I still have the thinking that makes for compulsive gambling.
I don't think so. I feel that I've gambled all of my life to break out of the grip of poverty. The poverty led to my gambling not the gambling leading to poverty. Even when I wasn't gambling I've been poor. Other people who quit gambling turned their lives around. I never did.
 Working in electronics was the root of my poverty. And now the currency is collapsing and I'm not able to do much to prepare for it.
Oh well, I just needed to vent a bit. I'll try to get back on track, tomorrow.
Later

Still don't know if I got a bitcoin.

I still don't know if I've gotten a bitcoin or not. I had an email saying that Coinbase wasn't able to verify my bank account. They had the numbers I gave them originally. They were wrong. I checked my old checks against the new ones and there has been a major change. I originally gave them the numbers off of my old checks.
When I went to the bank and asked about my routing code they gave me the right one. I re-entered  that and bought a coin.
This weekend the bank's website is down for maintenance. I'll get back to them Monday.
I hope the transaction goes through. Every day that passes and I don't have the bitcoin is another day that it goes up in price.
I don't know but it might be that bitcoins are a true indication of the value of the currency. Everything else is so manipulated that they aren't giving us a true idea of what is going on.
Actually, I hope that bitcoins go down so I could buy some more. I feel that way about gold and silver as well.
On a different topic, I found a website that sells surplus, government property.
I found a trailer that will be auctioned off, next week. It's been stripped out down to the carpet.
I would have to find and install everything, like a kitchen and bathroom. Everything was taken out. I have the feeling that drug runners were using it and they removed the furniture to get a bigger load in it. Maybe the DEA agents ripped everything out.
Maybe it will go cheap. The auction starts at $25. I might go up to $100.
It's in a town, not far from here. I still don't have a hitch on my van so if I get it I'll have to have that installed. Without the furniture it might be light enough for my van. Maybe I could get someone else to tow it. At least it's not too far away (only about 100 miles).
I was watching something on YouTube that made me rethink the idea of getting my own land. The commentator said that real estate is in a bubble again and that a person would be foolish to tie up his money in land when it might be better to be more mobile. I have to agree. Getting a trailer makes sense because it opens up options, whereas land ties you down to a location. I went through that about ten years ago, when I couldn't leave Decorah for a better job because my house (such as it was) was here. If I were to start a homestead it might make more sense to rent the land. I don't think I want to get tied down, anywhere, right now.
I'll have to email them with questions about how long I would have to pick it up and licensing to drive it home. I would probably have to have an electric brake controller installed in my van, as well. That's next week's project.
Well, it's almost time for me to go have coffee with Nick at the Co-op. I'll have to ask him if he can bring in a hitch for my van. He was going to do that a month ago. That's just the way that Nick is. When he says he'll do something you have to add at least 6 months to it's completion date. It looks like something might come together faster than I felt it would. Oh well.
Later

Bought my First Bitcoin

Well, I bought my first bitcoin today. It was quite the hassle. I messed up copying my bank account number and routing number the first time I tried to buy one. By the time I got that straightened out the price had doubled.
I bought one anyway. I just feel that I can't trust the currency, any more. I now have gold, silver, and a bitcoin.
I would like to sell my etchtings for bitcoins. I'll try to sell them again after Winter. I make a quite a bit of money, shoveling snow. I don't really need the money until Spring. I'm also hoping that the market will be better for art if the economy picks up. At least we shouldn't have the threat of a government shutdown hanging over us.
I'm wondering if I'm going overboard with the prepping stuff. I was watching a guy who calls himself the "Sensible Prepper" on YouTube, yesterday. He was saying that you should have bunches of magazines for your guns. Magazines, of course, are what hold your ammunition in rifles and hand guns. He had more invested in magazines than I have totally.
I think we live in different worlds. I just don't have the money to do all the things that these people want me to do. I would have to triple my income to come anywhere near the level of investment that those people do. It's obvious that I won't be anywhere near as prepared for the financial collapse as others are.
I wonder about the whole thing. Some of the people I watch on YouTube seem to be afraid of their shadows. Some are concerned about the radiation from the power plant meltdown in Japan. Others talk about the Earth magnetic poles shifting. With some, it's Sunspots.
I don't see how you can be prepared for everything. With me, I'm concerned about the pending financial collapse. I don't see any way around it. That's why I keep buying alternatives to the dollar. Maybe bitcoins or metals will retain their value. At least, that's my hope.
I'll have a slow day at work today so I might continue this posting a little later.

Thanks for coming to my blog.

I wanted to start off by thanking everyone for coming to my blog. For some reason the number of viewers has increased.
Maybe the NSA is reading it. I do get some viewers from Russia. So maybe Vladimir Putin is reading it.
Maybe other preppers are reading it. I have taken an interest in prepping since the economy almost tanked, last Spring.
About bitcoins; I'm still trying to set up an account to trade bitcoins. I have enough money in my checking account to buy one bitcoin. I'm waiting for them to send my bank account some money and then sending it back to them. They have to be sure that the transactions will work before they let me buy a bitcoin.
The price was about $350 each the last time I checked. I'm anxious that it may rise to a price that I can't afford before I can even buy one. Today, I'm going to transfer some money from my Discover card account to my checking account to facilitate the transaction.
You might be wondering about what got me into buying a bitcoin. They sound like one of the flakiest investments that I've ever been involved with. They have no backing; they were started by an anonymous person; and you are trusting that only 21 million of them will ever be made.
The only thing worse is the dollar; which is made out of debt. When a dollar is created it is created by creating debt to the Federal Reserve (which is owned by a bunch of bankers). I have no trust in the Fed, whereas bitcoins might be worth something.
I've been buying gold and silver with borrowed money for the last 6 months or so. I'm getting disillusioned with precious metals.
The market for metals is very manipulated. A couple of weeks ago, somebody sold 5,000 contracts on the futures market. It was worth over half a billion dollars. It crashed the market. They had to stop trading after they sold half of them. For every ounce of metals that really exist there are 100 ounces of paper or virtual metals that are sold. Nobody ever takes possession of these but they move the market for all the real metals. I'm tired of trading something that is so manipulated. No matter what I do I get cleaned out. Every day the price is set by crooks. Of course, the dollar is similar.
Maybe I should concentrate on buying food and supplies for the economic collapse. I need to set aside more food and water at Gary's place. I still need to get a trailer and a hitch for my van. I would like to be able to go prospecting for gold. Well, I'll keep at it.
Later

Too late to buy Bitcoin?

A couple of weeks ago I was telling people to buy bitcoins. Now I may be too late to buy, even one, myself. They went from $205 to close to $400 each. I'm trying to come up with the money but I'm stymied. I was hoping to sell some gold to buy a bitcoin with but Gary (my best bet for a sale) declined me. Now I'll try to sell some gold to my sister, Faye. I don't think she'll buy. If I sell on EBay it will take too long and the price will move out of my range.
In my opinion, there are two reasons that Bitcoins are moving so much. First, is that the Chinese people (who don't trust their currency) are buying. The second reason is that Brazil's currency is collapsing. People all over the world are buying them and I'm finding myself priced out of the market. Maybe I can transfer money from my Discover account to my bank. That would solve the problem.
On a different topic, I priced trailers at a trailer sales place in Cresco, Iowa yesterday. I wound up talking with the general manager since the sales people weren't there yesterday.
I got information about how sales of small trailers work in Northeast Iowa. Apparently, there is a big demand for trailers of the size that I want. A lot of people have small vans that can only tow a small trailer. Therefore they don't stay on the lot for long.
He also said that there is a seasonal component to trailer sales. People bring in their small trailers in the Spring to trade for a larger, new trailer.
I left him my phone number and name so he can call me if he gets a used trailer to sell.
On an even different topic, I bought another junk drawer on EBay yesterday. I was the only bidder. It was a bunch of foreign coins, mostly Canadian, a baseball card, a couple of South Korean paper currencies, two pair of cuff links, and some stamps.
I bought it for the foreign currency. I hope that Canada's money doesn't collapse when the American dollar collapses. At least I'll have some diversity.
Silver and gold are still selling at a heck of a premium on EBay. I think that shows the real weakness of the dollar. I checked Kitco (an online site for buying and selling gold and silver, as well as showing prices and a discussion site for precious metals) and their prices were lower than EBay's. I'll have to start buying there. I'm tired of watching auctions and paying too much.
Later
  

G4T's Vlog

Another Vlogger that I go to a lot is G4t or G4Title. George has a wife named Perla and several daughters. He's been unemployed for 5 years and living in Southern California. He tends to be rather negative about the way society is collapsing in the Southwest. He interviews homeless people, films drug-addled people, and in general he's been documenting the decline of California.
Recently, he got a job in Texas. His vlogs have gotten a lot more cheerful. He's been showing us Texas. He did a video of a Barbecue place. He showed us oil fields and the trailers of oil field workers. He drove through towns where the average house cost $85,000. Today, his new boss (Paul) was showing him a place that will be developed for prepper homesteaders.
It's like watching a new George. He's remarkably upbeat, for him.
There are two things that this has brought to to my attention. The first is how much better it might be to move to Texas. There are jobs there. The taxes are low. There are places to homestead. Land prices are low.
The second is how we are influenced by the people around us. George is now hanging out with someone who doesn't fixate on the negative things around him. Rather, he keeps busy creating a better reality, like Glendon Cameron (who I've mentioned on previous blogs).
I hope he can get Perla and the kids to come out with him. It's kind of like watching a soap opera. I find myself getting interested in other people's lives.
Another vlog I watch a lot is Network126. It's done by a young man named Brian. He lives in Southern California, and he has been working as a day laborer. I hope that he'll be able to move out of his parent's kitchen and get his own RV. He hopes to be able to document living in an RV, and traveling.
Brian doesn't post as often as George does but I look forward to both of their Vlogs.
On a different topic, I went to Rochester, yesterday. I looked over Costco, I shopped at Harbour Freight, and hung out at Barnes & Noble.
I was a bit disappointed with Costco. That's a discount supermarket. Their prices weren't that much lower than Wal-Mart, and there is an annual membership fee. I didn't think it was worth it to me.
Harbour Freight ( a discount tool store) was a bit better. At least I could buy things without having to pay for a membership. It was rather small but they had a lot of merchandise.
Barnes & Noble wasn't a disappointment. I bought a book on identifying edible, wild food in North America. I drank a lot of coffee and surfed the web whilst there.
Well, it's almost closing time at Culvers (a burger place that I go to for free ice cream and to surf the web.
Later

Glendon's Vlog

If I have any repeat readers, you may remember me mentioning Glendon Cameron before. He has a video blog (called vlogs) on YouTube. Last night I watched one of his vlogs about the pending collapse and the way he views it.
He has a different view about things. He believes that people make their own economy. He feels that since he is an entrepreneur, that he will rise above whatever the economy does. In fact, he pointed out that the Kennedys made most of their money in a depression. What is bad for most people may end up being great for someone who takes advantage of the situation. He feels that a person's attitude and the willingness to work and take chances is more important than what the economy is doing.
One of the things he pointed out was that his drill instructor in the Army stayed incredibly calm in the midst of chaos. Glendon asked his drill instructor about that, later. It was put down to experience. That is one of the things that experienced people have going for them. They will maintain their calm while others are falling apart.
I think I will do well during the collapse but I will feel better if I have all of the tools to get by without the advantages of civilization.
I'll be going to Rochester, MN tomorrow to pick up some more food and stuff at Costco and Harbour Freight. I need a heater that will run on propane to heat my apartment in case of an ice storm taking down the electricity. Also a financial collapse might do the same. I also need some books on harvesting wild plants during a financial collapse. I'll be spending most of the afternoon at Barnes and Noble in Rochester. I'll also look at trailers.
Maybe I'm spending too much money and time trying to get ready for the collapse. I read something on the Internet, the other day, someone said that the last thing anyone would need in a financial collapse was small pieces of shiny metals like gold and silver. He might be right and I have spent more than $2000 buying gold and silver. I keep buying it on EBay long after I feel that I already have enough. Today I'm bidding on a coin that I intend to give to my sister.
It's the Chinese year of the horse. Some South Pacific nations are making silver coins commemorating this. They have images of horses on them. I found one that seems to be going cheap. My sister has 6 Arabian horses and she's a fanatic about horses. So I'll give her the coin for Christmas if I get it.
Back to prepping, I saw some interesting mining claims on EBay, today. I find myself more interested in the lode claims. I think there is more likely to be larger quantities of gold on a claim that has a lode or hard rock mine on it. The placer mines probably wouldn't be worth my time and effort. Placer means gold that is found on the surface or in streams. Lode mines actually go underground and extracts gold from veins beneath the ground.
I got a letter from the Veterans Administration, today. It looks like I'll owe them some money from 2011. I sold my house and I had some money at that time, so apparently I wasn't eligible for VA benefits. I'll have to make a payment plan with them. I'm concerned but I think it will work out. At least I didn't have any big expenses with them at that time.
Later