By Daisy Luther
It sounds really dramatic to say there’s just ONE WAY to handle a crisis, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say just that. We’re looking at very hard times coming up – heck, they’ve hit many of us already. And I think there’s only one way to survive 2023.
Frugality.
We have to make different choices with our money.
Many of us will be forced to do it. We will make different choices because we won’t be able to afford to make the same ones we’re making right now. We will have to cancel some of our regular expenses and downsize parts of our lives.
Others might be able to squeak by spending as they have been for a little bit longer. We saw this over Christmas. A lot of people put the holiday on credit cards. They bought the same food as traditionally served, epic gifts for the entire family, and decked the halls full on. They wanted “normalcy” and “one more good holiday” for their families. It’s not the decision I’d make, but I do understand it. Change is hard. Seeing your children forced to adapt can be painful. Getting a spouse on board can be next to impossible.
One way or the other, 2023 is going to look different for nearly all of us.
What is the projection?
We don’t need a crystal ball to know that the outlook for our economy is rather grim.
First, there’s inflation. Many experts expect inflation to increase in the coming years due to rising demand and the impact of government stimulus measures. The Federal Reserve predicts that inflation will remain below 2% in the near term, but could rise slightly above 2% in the long term. Of course, anyone who has visited a grocery store recently can attest to the fact that the “official” inflation and the real-life effects are entirely different numbers.
We’ve also been dealing with supply chain issues since the Covid outbreak in China in 2020. Exports dwindled, and store shelves emptied. While we recovered to some degree, our supplies have never reached pre-pandemic levels, and prices have remained high.
It doesn’t have to be miserable.
The way you approach the upcoming changes will greatly affect how you and your loved ones handle it. It’s essential to adapt philosophically too. You can’t think about everything you’re losing. You have to find the positive things. Maybe your life doesn’t look like it once did, but it can still be good.
Look, I’ve lost everything. EVERYTHING. And it happened after I built myself up from nothing as a single mother making minimum wage. I lost my house. I lost my car. I was forced into radical changes. I had to move to a tiny little apartment with my girls, and it had to be close enough that I could walk to work. Then, I lost my job, too, during that delightful Great Recession mentioned above. I ended up getting an old beater of a truck and moving out to the boondocks of Canada in the Algonquin forest in a drafty cabin that only had wood heat. It was literally the cheapest rental in Ontario. That was my search parameter. And there, I rebuilt my life again. I went in a different direction, re-budgeted, and I started over.
And you know what? It turned out to be awesome. It’s how, eventually, I found freedom.
It was a different kind of awesome and it certainly wasn’t immediately wonderful.
Suddenly I didn’t have a job with benefits and a boss. Everything was on me. I worked a lot. But I also learned a lot. I started a new career and a business of my own. I had outdoor adventures living out there in that frozen wilderness. Instead of going out to lunch, we went for a hike and identified animal tracks in the freshly fallen snow. We learned to look forward to the days when the power went out because we could play games and read books without guilt for not working. We found new ways to enjoy life, ways that didn’t cost us a lot of money.
I had to keep going to get to the good part. To the new happiness. To live well.
And that’s what it’s all about. Living well. Sure, we’ve got to spend less money. But that doesn’t mean you’re doomed to a life with no fun, no joy, and nothing to look forward to.
It’s all in how you approach it. What you see depends on where you put your focus. Are you focused on what you’re gaining or what you’re losing?
Check out our new PDF book, One Year of Life-Changing Frugal Living Ideas and Philosophies. Get more than a thousand pages of savings, large and small. Our philosophy is that you can live well while spending far less money than the Jones next door. We’ll show you how to do it in this epic roundup of more than 200 “Thrifticles” that will make it easy to live well while spending less. We want to make this available for everyone, so this weekend, you can name your price for this PDF book that will seriously change your life.
Americans are resilient.
There’s no denying that the very fabric of our nation has changed over the past 50 years. Heck, America now is practically unrecognizable from the country of 20 years ago with all its wokeness and PC nonsense.
But the idealist in me believes that deep down, the resilience of our ancestors remains. I sincerely hope we will channel the resourceful spirit that has seen us through every other difficult time in our history.
Your attitude about the changes you’ll face will be everything. The difference between success and failure is all in your mind – and your mindset. You can set an example for your family and help them with their own perspective.
The only way to get through this upcoming economic melee is frugality – perhaps even extreme frugality. Nobody’s version of this will look the same. We can’t individually repair the entire nation’s (and the world’s) economy, but we can change the way we manage our own money. We can roll with what life throws at us. We can thrive.
What do you think?
What do you believe is the key to surviving 2023? Are you concerned about the economy? Are you making changes to handle looming inflation?
Let’s talk about the future. Let me know what you think in the comments.
Source: The Organic Prepper
https://www.theorganicprepper.com/the-only-way-to-survive-2023/
Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites. 1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty on her website, 2) The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived, and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. She is widely republished across alternative media and Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.
