I live with my partner and in-laws on a few acres in the rural US. Right now we both have jobs and are saving as much as we can given the crazy way the world is at the moment.
I make less and am more of a junior professional so it’s likely I would be laid off first in a depression. Given this I’ve been thinking about non monetary ways to contribute.
One obvious one is gardening, which made me realize it might be a good idea to stock up on fertilizer if it went from a hobby to a necessity to grow food.
What other bulk things, or things in general might we stock up on that we would kick ourselves for not buying a lifetime supply of while we can?
Thanks a bunch!
In a depression, it’s not just you and your neighbors who suffer. You may have increased breakdowns in municipal services or issues with supply chains. With that in mind, I’d get a few things to reduce your grid dependency: a couple solar chargers like backpackers use can charge your cellphone, flashlights and backup batteries. A water filtration kit like bikers use. A hand- and battery-powered emergency radio.
Canning supplies - all your produce is going to come in at once and you won’t be able to keep up. If you’re doing pickling, you don’t need the big canning pot, but you’ll need a lot of vinegar. If you’re actually canning, you’ll want a canning pot, lifters, a whole shitload of jars, and every more lids.
A tested set of recipes for the food you’re producing, especially when it comes in in bulk, so you know how to safely can stuff. I get a farm share, and sometimes you just have to get creative so stuff doesn’t go to waste. Like, I have a recipe for lettuce soup which I make toward the end of lettuce month. Once it’s soup, I can freeze it and have it over the winter when I’m missing my veggies.
A dehydrator, and recipes for that. Any additional supplies you might need for your pickling, canning, or dehydrating adventures - pectin, pickle crisp, etc. A set of recipes that use the stuff you’ve canned, pickled and dehydrated - I mean, it’s great that you’ve pickled garlic, but now what do you want to do with it?
Look into food forests - it’s a way of planting a lot of food on a small amount of ground. Consider planting some fruit trees or berry bushes - sweet stuff will get expensive. A couple apple trees would be a good starting choice: you can eat and cook with the fruit, make cider, make vinegar, and make pectin. [Not all apples work well for cooking, or eating, or cider, so look up the attributes you want and go from there.]
A bidet: no sense paying for a lot of paper you’re just flushing away. A sewing machine, hand needles, a bunch of different colored threads, wooden darning egg or mushroom, patches.
Common spare parts, like replacement cartridges for each faucet. Check over your tools to see if any of them need replacement or upgrading.
Heated mattress pads or blankets for the winter, fans for the summer. Some kind of good, long-lasting footwear (maybe boots). Good winter outerwear.
Learn how to tune up your car and get the tools for it. Cans of motor oil, spare spark plugs, etc.
Can you set up a root cellar or something similar? Etc.