Saving Money With Oil Changes

First off let me stress that if you have a new car under warrenty you must follow the manufactures requirements for oil changes to keep your warrenty. With that said lets save tons of money.
If you are like so many people in this country you drive an older car and you do not need to worry about all that warranty crap. There is absolutely no reason you need to change your oil every 3,000 miles. Why is that you ask? The true reason 3,000 miles is recommended is because your oil filter needs changing. The filter has a life of about 3,000 not your oil.
First off you need to spend a few extra bucks and buy a good synthetic oil. Many of these oils will last anywhere from 10,000 to 25,000 miles. Read the bottles, do some research. Get a good oil filter, look for sales of course and you are set. Keep track of what oil you bought so you can always use the same and around 3 or 4 thousand miles change the filter and top off the oil level after you run the motor for a couple minutes.
Lets see your savings, an oil change at one of the lube places will cost you somewhere between $30 to $60. You have the oil changed by them 4 times a year, that is $120 to $240. In that year if you do the change yourself and do it my way, after your initial oil change, it will cost you one filter and a quart of oil for that year. That would be about $10 or so. Quite a damn good savings!
As I said do the research yourself and make up your own mind. If I really have to tell anyone this that is into surviving, learn everything about your car or truck that you can. Why would you pay someone else to check your power steering or add washer fluid. Do it all yourself and save a hell of a lot of money!

Practice Makes Perfect

That is the one saying that was always drummed into us when I served in the Army. Practice, practice and practice some more. I read many blogs and sites about survival and the one thing I seem to never see is practicing. You may have all the best expensive stuff money can buy, but do you know how to use it?
When was the last time you made dinner using some of those nice freezed dried dinners you have stashed away? The directions say to use 2 cups water, are you sure that is the right amount for you? Maybe 2 cups is too thin for your tastes or too thick. How about using your sterno stove, how long does it take you to boil water?
How about all those nice medical supplies you have? Have you ever made a splint? How about a turniquite? Can you do it on yourself if there was no one around?
When was the last time you practiced putting on your gas mask? Did you know according to military regs the filters and rubber disks are to be replaced at regular intervals? Have you ever tried to put on a NBC suit? Have you ever used your rad meters?
When was the last time you went out in the woods and actually built a shelter? How about building a good fire pit? Every once in a while set a weekend where you will spend 2 nights out in the woods. Take your b.o.b with you and truely survive. Go to different areas and get use to how everything works. Do not cheat! Pretend it actually happened and you NEED to survive! Personally I do this this when I go for weekend fishing trips, deer hunting, trapping season and I always try to find rough areas to set-up camp to test my knowledge.
If you have children, involve them. Kids love to play doctor, so to speak. Teach them how to use the bandages, splints and stuff on you, they will love it! Make a game of it as long as they are learning. When the shtf your child might be the only one around to save your life.

Political Ads On TV

First off I am just sick and tired of all this crap on tv. I realize they have the right to advertise and let the voters know about the campain but enough is enough! Almost every ad I see on tv is an ad that is trying to destroy the oponent.
First, if you are running for an office then let me know what the hell you can do, not what the other person can't do! Slander ads should be outlawed.
Second, all these slander ads are counter-productive. Are politicians and thier campain people that stupid?
Here is a run down of the ads from my area:
The whole ad has a huge picture of the oponant they are trying to slander. Most times it includes his party and his name also. The whole ad talks about how bad this person is. It is not until the very end of the ad that the person running for office is mentioned and in small print (compared to all the other print in the ad) is the "good guys" name.
Here is how the average voter will see this ad. Most americans care more about "Idol" than real voting. The only thing they will remember from this ad is the "bad guys" name and THAT will be the person they will vote for. They will walk into the voting booth and look over all the names of the people running and they will remember the biggest face, the biggest name and the ad they see the most. They will vote for the person the ad was not for only because of a minimal attention span when it comes to politics.

Our Town Wide Garage Sale

Last weekend the town I live in had their annual town wide garage sale. A few years back it seemed like all literal junk for sale but this year was much different. As I walked around I wished I had a lot more money to spend, there were many good items I wish I could have bought. I still think lawn/garage (or whatever you want to call them) are the best places to go shopping and save a hell of a lot of money.
Rule one is you have to be ready to be disappointed if the item you got for one or two dollars ends up being no good. But, if it is good you just won the lottery! My first great buy was a 16 jar spinning spice rack with all the jars and half of those jars still had the seals inside them. That cost me a whole $3. I did pick up a few tapes (Godzilla) just for me. The next 2 buys I smiled so much over. At I walked down the street my eyes widened when I could see hunting stuff at a house I was approaching. For less than $10 I picked up an ALICE pack, a range finder, a stealth cam and a scope. NOW! That's a deal!
Since I do not drive I hooked up with one of the local bus drivers who just happens to enjoy garage sales also and since the bus in normally empty on Saturday mornings, him and I stop by a lot of them as he makes his route. I have door to door service and a way to haul bigger items, can't beat that!

A New Storage Spot

Being in an apartment it is always a chalange to locate places to store items. As I was sitting watching tv the other night it dawned on me, my dvd shelves! A while back I purchased some of those nice Walmart 3 shelf bookshelves for books, dvd's and such. I have 2 of them stacked for 6 shelves of dvd storage and realized there was a lot of space there not used.
I got up and looked and the shelves are deep enough you could put other dvd's behind the ones already there. Well, that would be stupid, right? But, all that space was just perfect for storing all my extra medical supplies. After moving everything around it cleared up 2 shelves in one of the closets which gave me room for larger items to store.
My next quest is all that space setting under my bed, but I am not spending all the money these stores want for those storage units for that area. I will figure something a lot cheaper out. One thing I am looking at at those huge vacuum storage bags, I already found a few used and a lot cheaper than new.

What a rain we had!

Yesterday was quite a day around here. It rained for about 36 hours, sunday night into monday night. The nice thing about it, the rain was a slow soaking rain. The bad thing was power outages around and being stuck inside. Since I was stuck in the apartment all day I decided to look around and change things around. It might sound weird but I am making my bedroom into my living room and visa-versa. Why you ask. My bedroom window is in direct sunlight first thing in the morning, I like sleeping in now and then. The biggest reason was storage. Off my living room is a small closet, small enough for all my hanging clothes and some storage. In the bedroom is a huge closet that is way too big for my clothes. Why not use that closet for my pantry and have about 2 1/2 times the storage space. The bedroom is the same size as the living room and will be easier to cool on the hot summer days.
I just think it will all work out a lot better. I know visitors will see it as weird but I never said I was normal. I think it will work well for me. Around here at night it is very quiet, daytime having the living room in the bedroom there will be hardly any noise. Right now in the living room I hear every person talking outside, every car driving by, ect, ect.
Just a note, using a website I found for calculating food storage I now have 4 months of survival food saved up. I am waiting on the landlord to let me know about putting in a small garden here next year. I am already planning it out.
The website, if your interested is: http://www.foodstorageanalyzer.com it goes by calories so remember that as you figure out your food supply.

Trapping, an overlooked part of survival

It was a perfect Saturday, hardly any humidity, a cool breeze, just a great day. So, I decided to begin my exploration of spots to trap out some coon. I had a couple areas in mind and went out to the first one to look for signs and get a good idea of the area. I packed up my small ALICE pack with plenty of water, food, map, small hatchet, plastic ribbon for markers, ect. It took my about 6 hours to complete the course I laid out by map and I found some nice spots to set up traps later this year.
People might ask, why trapping? I say why not! I do not trap full time like some trappers do, I mainly trap to add to my food supply. Now don't say YUCK COON! Coon is some very tasty, nutritious meat. You just need to learn how to prepare and cook it right. The biggest thing is coons are fatty, de-fat as much as possible and slow cook it in water. Every once in a while change out the water, this helps remove most of all the fat and you are left with some good tender eatin'.
I also take my 22 cal with me and do some squirrel hunting while I am out checking traps. Why let a good opportunity go by. As the price of meat keeps going up and up in the markets, we all should do what we can to save money.
During trapping season I usually shoot for trapping 2 or 3 coons a week. that does not sound like much but for a single person that is alot of meals. If I get a few squirrels along the way, great! More meat for the freezer. Here is how I also supplement my costs, I found someone near me who traps for meat and furs and I give my furs to him to sell and we split the profits. You could do it all yourself but I found this is alot easier especially since I live in an apartment complex and it would be hard to flesh and dry pelts here.
I know many survivalists live out in the country and have the room to do it all and I recommend that you all should look into trapping. It takes alot of reading, learning and most important of all, find someone near you who would be willing to teach you. Look for a trapping association, lots of help there.