Five and Dimer

What? What's a "five and dimer"??? Well, that's what my grandma called rummage sales. I definitely have fond memories of hitting them with her and mom. She grew up and lived in a rural area with lots of mouths to feed and little income. Life then consisted of way more diy and make due with what you have than where the country sits as a standard today. In lots of cases thats ok. Using what you have and finding bargain deals on things can be an absolutely huge part of your path. In many cases, there's no reason why you have to go top shelf with things or even buying it new. A dollar can stretch a lot farther on used and/or free goods. 

I just checked craigslist and found free wood. If one of your mitigations is to have a backup heat source and you're considering wood. Bam there's 30% of your solution. Free. There's a new glucose meter. If one of your preparations is to have an extra meter, there it is. Theres a picknic table with built in benches. If you need a shed for your backup generator, there's probably enough wood to get a wall built. Or shelves in the shed. Free materials. Theres two sinks and a toilet. Are you building a rural cabin to meet at when the chemical plant has an issue and lets a plume of gas go into town? Theres your toilet and bathroom sink. 

Certainly not everything is available every day for free to cheap, thats where having some general plan of what you'd like to get done is a good thing. Have the thoughts/plans have a general idea of what you're looking for and over time as you find these deals you can take advantage of them. 

One of them I kind of think of a lot is backpacks. I've bounced youtube a lot on many subjects including hunting, bugout bags, and get home bags. It's amazing for some of the bugout and get home bag conversations kinda start with something like "this is the Big Jimmy Backpack from Rockland Backpack inc, I bought it for $220 and it's perfect for this...". That's awesome, congrats in having the funds available to buy that. But lots of folks don't. What lots of folks do have is access to a goodwill, or craigslist, or five and dimers, or maybe a just finished school student with an old backpack. In lots of cases that's all you need. Sure it's nice to have the exact make and model, exact volume your looking for but having one for free to cheap that meets 80% of your wants is far better than not having one because you can't afford it. 

The bottom line, is put together what you can on your budget. As you have time and extra funds to put towards improving your situation, go ahead (or don't) and make your upgrade.