How To Prepare for a Depression

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(Edited)

There's been lots of talks about recessions and possible depressions and everything I read says "prepare" but nobody really tells you how to prepare.

Here are some preparation ideas based on what I have researched from speaking to people alive during the depression, to reading about the people who survived (and thrived) during the last depression.

How to prepare for a depression .jpg

Learn how to cook with the basics and write the recipes on paper where they will always be available.

Pinterest is riddled with depression era recipes.

Learn some!

Flour and water with a little bit of this and a little bit of that makes lots of delicious breads and desserts.

Take it a step further and learn how to make a solar oven.

Learn all about water pasteurization

Water can be pasteurized in mason jars with the power of the sun. This water will be potable, and able to be used for meal preparations.

Learn which edible plants grow on your land (or around your neighborhood)

For me it is purselane and dandelions.

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baby purselane, picture taken by @busdriver

The dandelions are literally weeds that most people rip out of their lawn, and purslane is a super food that happens to be invasive, grows like a weed, and needs very little water.

I am learning how to prepare those now, and, really, they are saving me money during these high inflation times.

Purselane, tomato and onion tacos with slices of avocado are very delicious, and all those ingredients can be grown in my yard (the salsa garden is planted and the avocado tree is growing).

Start a garden

The first few seasons you garden are a learning process. You don't want to wait until you have to grow your own food to know what works for your home.

How much water does your garden need?

What types of critters want to share your garden with you.

How many tomatoes can a container really grow.

Does that part of the yard really get enough sunshine.

Find out now.

tomatoes by @crosheille
image from hive stock images by @crosheille

Have lots and lots of tools and the skill to use them.

If you have tools and a skill, you have an income generator.

What skill do you have right now that can be monetized during a depression?

My ability to turn size 2 toddler pants into size 3 toddler pants is of no use right now. The time and effort it takes to stretch out the clothes is better spent at Target or the goodwill where there is an abundance of stuff, at really cheap prices

Hive Stock Images
image from hive stock images by @asklanbudi

However, if pants start to be valued for what they are really worth, I will be able to trade my skill for a meal in a pinch.

A sewing machine will be a great tool to have.

Take inventory of the teachable skills you have

I can make mittens, hats and scarves.

I can also teach others how to make those things.

Again, in this time of abundance where you can buy such commodities for 2.99USD, it doesn't matter much.

But what about when you need those 2.99 to purchase eggs and milk?

The patience to teach others is a great asset of mine, what is yours?

Collect small amounts of gold, silver and other precious metals.

I especially like to collect the wearable, jewelry pieces, but some may argue that the coins or nuggets have a greater value.

If the US tanks, gold will still hold value. If there is no electricity and you can't get a hold of your HIVE account, then silver will be your friend.

Learn to entertain yourself

Do you have a set of books or board games, toys or such to keep you busy, entertained and having fun?

If a real depression hits chances are you won't be able to go out to dinner and a movie.

Concerts will proably be few and far between.

Learn how to love your environment and love spending time there. Liking the people you are around is an added bonus.

Have as little debt as possible

You want to make sure all your income goes to providing food, shelter, and clothing.

Even student debt and mortgages are "bad" during a depression.

Learn to be a part of a community

Do business within the community as much as possible.

Learn to keep the money you do have "within the family." Pay your neighbor to file your taxes and have them pay your son to mow their lawn, and have your son buy lemonade off the little girl down the street and have the little girl down the street buy a book from the neighborhood library.

HODL !!!

I am kind of kidding but not really. You have to learn when to sell, when to sit, and when to HODL. Even during the depression.

Whatever assets you have are to be maximized to their fullest potential.

Before things get "crazy" know where your buy, sell, and HODL loyalties lay.

In case of HIVE I won't sell for less than $2.50 USD and I won't buy until it hits $0.19

Know your numbers, especially during a depression, when emotions will be higher than they are now.

How else can we prepare for coming depressions?

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46 comments
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You think .19 is the buy spot for HIVE ... damn and I've been buying at .33

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If I had less kids or they were older, they buy spot would be anything under a dollar.

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https://www.youtube.com/c/GreatDepressionCooking
This lady is a gem but sadly she passed away in 2013. Her grandson has been maintaining the channel and adding some new content here and there but she left a wonderful legacy on how to cook good meals on the cheap.

My wife and I have been learning how to grow and recently got the greenhouse into a useable condition.image
It's only 8x12 but there is just the two of us now so that, and the grow lights in the house should be able to efficiently have a decent bunch of plants ready when we finally can plant outside in mid-May.

On the new building we are going to install solar panels and batteries so we don't have to rely on the grid. We are also going to have a backup woodstove, in case it is needed. We live in a farming area so we have access to reasonably priced meat and if necessary, I can start hunting again. We also have a lot of great fishing within a 5 minute walk.

Luckily we have around 5 years left before we are completely debt-free but we could easily survive on $1500/month which wouldn't be hard to manage at all.

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I watched some of those videos.

I was actually very pleased to see the dandelion one, because people always talk about picking them and eating them, but to me they don't really look like edible plants.

She showed us how she picked them AND how she cleaned them. It is a very time consuming practice which is why people probably stopped eating them when they didn't have to anymore.

This is my first year that I might get fruits from a garden. I grew tomatoes in a container once or twice before but since moving back to San Diego I have not had a succesful harvest.

This year we already ate mandarins and apples from trees, rainbow chard, bits of arugula and collard greens, a giant onion, a chili, and the tomatoes look like there will be hundreds.

Let's hope. I'm following, looking forward to seeing more about your green house and plants.

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Hey mama, I missed you! Hope you are well xx

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I am doing great! Thank you for asking.

Sending you lots of love.

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Thanks for this post. It’s very informative and something we all should be thinking about. I think about how much we rely on the system and if things were to really get bad we’d (my family) be in a sour spot. I don’t want it to be like this so it’s time to really start putting some plans in place to be self sufficient. I wasn’t going to garden this year at all but that might have to change. You can almost feel a depression coming on :\

Thanks again for this post and glad to see my tomato photo came in handy ;)

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Lady you can get a small garden going, even if it is "just" one tomato plant.

I love seeing all your images on the Hive stock images site. You are doing such a good job building the site. I hope it gains massive popularity as it is one of those projects that just makes sense.

Regarding the depression, I hope to be over-prepared and and not really need any of the information that I am writing about.

Thank you for stopping by :)

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You’re right, I can do just a small one to have something going for us.

Thanks so much. Yes we’re trying to get the word out about it more. Things have been slow as far as new contributions coming in but we do have a full library of images. It really does make sense and I hope more people get onboard with using these available images.

I really hope we don’t go into a depression. Things can always change, I just hope it does soon but better to be prepared than not.

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Made a mental note of the buy and sell price for hive. Thanks for sharing.

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Those are some great points and I think people can start cutting back on their spending. They can also consider taking a hustle to earn some extra income.

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Yes, spend less money and make more money are great ways to keep and grow wealth.

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Some great tips there! I'd say 3 good tips are to 1) have a fully stocked pantry with at least 6months woth of food 2)gather as many precious metal coins as you can 3)Grow in your own garden or apply for a community garden (most towns have them).

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Six months worth of pantry food! Enough beans to last you until you can grow your own crop.

Great advice.

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Nice! I actually started to grow tomatoes just recently. Good tips, thanks for sharing!

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Thank you for reading!

Good luck with your tomato crop.

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This is a great article, and I agree with everything you wrote.
I would just like to add that hooking up solar to your home is a great way to become recession-proof. DYI solar ovens and pasteurizing kits make me very nervous. I have experimented with some and the big problem is they do not bring the food or water to the proper temp.
I liked your article so much I decided to follow you.

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(Edited)

I have looked into solar panels, and, at least here in Southern California I haven't found a "good" deal. Everyone seems to be "installing for free" and financing in weird ways. I do love the idea of generating my own electricity though, so I will put it in my radar.

You are right solar ovens and pasteurizing kits are definitely something I should perfect. I haven't used either of those kits myself, but have helped my children work on them for Science Projects. The water project was extremely impressive for me, and having the water reach 145 degrees Fahrenheit is only easy if you are working with 16 oz of water at a time, which is not much water.

The solar ovens... I'll write about them again as we are building some this week!

Thanks for the follow :)

edited because I wrote 100 degrees Fahrenheit instead of 145

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What a great post! Thanks for sharing these things. Our idea was to find a home with either a garden or a balcony so we could grow some of our own things, we ended up renting an apartment without both lol. We didn't have much choice to be honest, but I'm going to dig into some of this stuff to see how to prep in other ways..

Also, we have a small tiled piece in front of our window in the living room which I think won't be used in any way, so I'm going to check if there's a way we can grow some stuff there anyway, even though it's not a closed garden. It may be possible. Would be cool.

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I have tried growing gardens in apartments and condos and have not been very happy with the results.

There are lots of people out there who can grow herb gardens indoors, and there are even small hydroponic kits, but me personally, I never did more than regrow chives and romaine lettuce (which tasked kind of bitter). Everything else just kind of turned into a yellow, moldy mess.

If you do try your hand at an indoor garden, I would love to read about it.

Good luck!

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Yeah I was more thinking in front of our window lol there's a tiny part we may have access to, but that would probably also mean putting it inside when there's a very high temp, but that's just my thought I have no clue if that's really the case :)

In the past, I tried having a few plants inside apartments and none of them were a success either, so I doubt that I'd be able to keep them alive haha.

A friend of ours built something really cool that you can use inside though but I don't think the owner of the brand-new apartment would be thrilled to see us hanging that on the wall :)

Either way, if I try to grow something, I will write about it.

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great post!lovely!
!ALIVE

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Great collection of ideas to save money. They are easy and practical. Thanks for sharing.

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Thank you for taking the time to read.

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These are great tips on how to prepare as well as survive a possible recession, thanks.

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Yes. I have a very small garden, with only two Rainbow Chard plants, some purse-lane and a bunch of micro greens, but the bounty has been enough to feed my husband and I plenty of lunches (as long as we keep buying those tortillas).

We didn't exactly do it to save money, but we sure have been saving a pretty penny by eating from our yard instead of eating from the regular (supposedly cheap) lunch spot.

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very nice post. let's see if i can manage growing some veggie plants.
Alphashot from listnerds.

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Thanks for visiting.

I am glad I started my garden as it turns out I have an invasive plant growing there that needs hardly any care but gives lots of vitamins and Omega 3's

I wonder what will grow for you.

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In times of trouble we need to look for solutions. Not more problems.
Great contribution to the solutions side! Thank you.

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Thank you!

When I was a teacher I was constantly telling my students: "If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem."

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This is all good info. How long does water need to be in the sunshine to become pasteurized?

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I had to edit a previous comment (I had stated misinformation). Water has to reach 145 degrees and must stay there for 6 minutes.

There was a study on slow pasteurization but I can't find it to verify the numbers that I think I know. I will be updating this post with links on more specific information soon.

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I am glad I can sew, alter, mend, knit, weave, can, and cook dried beans. Thanks to my engineering education, I can also reverse-engineer a lot of stuff. !CTP !BEER

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I've been seeing your posts on listnerds leading to your Etsy Shop.

I like your wares!

Sewing, altering, and mending should definitely make it on this master list. Thank you for sharing.

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My 55th trip around the sun has taught me that keeping my body in shape and exercising may just be the most important thing I can do.
It is a great thing to have access to trees for firewood but if I can't operate the chainsaw because I have tendonitis in my elbow or can't run the log splitter because my back is hurt it does me no good.
As far as gardening goes the most important thing I have learned is to get calories in the ground. That means root vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets, turnups, yams, carrots, etc... after that I focus on storage pumpkins like winter squash. Learning to grow these things first will go a long way to keeping you fed during tough times. Just my 2c
!LUV the post.

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