By Daisy Luther
In a year filled with violence, financial uncertainty, an epidemic of offended people, and unprecedented civil unrest, it’s obvious that more people than ever became aware of the need to get prepared. Based on your favorite posts, some prevalent themes are clear. Readers are interested in weathering the impending financial crisis via frugality, they want to learn self-reliance skills, and they are determined to get ready for any situation life throws at them in 2016.
Reader’s Choice 2015: The Top 15
Following, you can find the top 15 posts on The Organic Prepper website, based on their popularity. Some articles were written in years past but got enough interest this year to push them ahead of newer posts. If you missed any of them, you may find they were worth a read.
#15 The 10 Daily Habits of Frugal People
Being a black belt in frugality takes creativity and an optimistic outlook. It should never be some grim, sad thing that you have to do. It should be something that you choose to do. By finding joy in your non-consumerism, you will be far more successful at it. It becomes a game that you win if you can do something for free that others spend money on.
When you feel like you require less, then you are happy with less. This means that you have to spend less time working at things you may not truly enjoy to pay for the things that you never actually needed in the first place. This means that the money that you have goes a lot further and that your life feels a lot more satisfying.
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#14 The Top 10 Teas for Your Herbal Medicine Cabinet
When you’re sick, little is more comforting than holding a steaming mug of fragrant tea in both hands, warming your face with the hot steam. Somehow, no matter how rotten you felt before, you instantly feel just a tiny bit better.
Whether you are lucky enough to grow your own tea herbs, you purchase loose teas, or you use tea bags, your cabinet is not complete without these ingredients. These teas are delicious and beneficial, with many different healing qualities.
#13 How to Make Jam without Using Added Pectin
Storebought pectin contains additives that are most likely genetically modified. Dextrose is generally made from corn products (GMOs that are absolutely SOAKED in glyphosate). It is made from cornstarch, the main ingredient in good old High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Don’t let anyone tell you that citric acid is “just Vitamin C”. It is derived from GMO mold.
Not only does store-bought pectin contain unsavory ingredients, but it is also very highly processed.
So, if you want to avoid GMOs and processed foods, what’s a homemade-jam making mama to do? It’s easy to make an intensely fruity jam with absolutely no added pectin!
#12 30 Frugal Living Tips: Small Changes That Result in Big Savings
You may not want to make changes. You may not want to sacrifice your little luxuries. You may feel like you “deserve” them or that you have “earned” them.
First, please get out of your mind the phrase, “I work hard and deserve this chocolate thingamabob while someone paints my toenails for me” or any combination thereof.
You may work hard, but rationalizing poor spending habits is a surefire way to remain broke forever. Now, please don’t misunderstand – you don’t have to be miserably unhappy, grimly plodding through a life bereft of any pleasures. You just have to change your perspective, and that can take a little tough love.
So, look over these small savings and see which of these expenditures you can cut. You can often figure out a way to still have your small luxuries while saving money.
#11 How to Make Cottage Cheese
Cottage cheese is one of those things that has far more ingredients than it should when you buy it at the store. Homemade cottage cheese is creamy, fluffy, and delicious, and it’s made with only 3 simple ingredients
#10 Preppernomics: How to Survive While the Dollar Dies
If you ever prepped for anything that “might” happen, please understand that this current rate of spiral can only end one way: in financial collapse. There is a much greater statistical likelihood of your family suffering from the effects of this than being subject to a nuclear disaster, an EMP strike, or a devastating natural event. I’m not saying that these other things won’t happen, but the odds are much greater that you will be affected by the economy in 2015.
(We did indeed have some dramatic swings in the stock market. Meanwhile, the cost of food went up and so did unemployment rates.)
#9 How to Build a 30-Day Emergency Food Supply…Fast
If you do not have a food supply waiting in your pantry, now is the time to focus on creating an emergency stockpile as rapidly as possible. You can then add healthier options at your leisure. If you’re trying to build a food supply quickly, consider ordering a bucket with a month’s supply of meals in it.
#8 40 Flicks for Prepper Movie Night
Every prepper I know loves a good disaster flick. Heck, it doesn’t even have to be that good for some of us to watch them. We just enjoy sitting back and watching a fictional disaster unfold so that we can strategize how we would handle it, mock the hero for his or her poor decisions (you know, those dumb moves that a prepper would never make), and feel absolutely justified with regard to our lifestyle choices. A movie is like the prepper version of a sporting event, where we can cheer, jeer, and scheme our ways through some imagined event. It engages our love for critical thinking while allowing us to take a break from our everyday activities. Here are 40 suggestions for your next prepper movie night!
#7 Getting Started: Prepping for a Two Week Power Outage
If you’re new to preparedness, you may be reading some of the excellent and informative websites out there and feeling quite quite overwhelmed. While many sites recommend a one year supply of food, manual tools, and a bug out lodge in the forest, it’s vital to realize that is a long-term goal, not a starting point.
A great starting point for someone who is just getting started on a preparedness journey is prepping specifically for a two-week power outage. If you can comfortably survive for two weeks without electricity, you will be in a far better position than most of the people in North America.
#6 The Last Rebels: 25 Things We Did as Kids That Would Get Someone Arrested Today
With all of the ridiculous new regulations, coddling, and societal mores that seem to be the norm these days, it’s a miracle those of us over 30 survived our childhoods. Here’s the problem with all of this babying: it creates a society of weenies.
There won’t be more more rebels because this generation has been frightened into submission and apathy through a deliberately orchestrated culture of fear. No one will have faced adventure and lived to greatly embroider the story
.
Raise your hand if you survived a childhood in the 60s, 70s, and 80s that included one or more of the following, frowned-upon activities (raise both hands if you bear a scar proving your daredevil participation in these dare-devilish events).
#5 20 Signs That You Might Be A Cheapskate
Do you enjoy saving a buck more than most people? Do you have a black belt in frugality? Here are 20 surefire signs that you are embracing your cheap side. How many things on this list apply to you?
#4 Don’t Fly Without These 20 TSA-Approved Items in Your Prepper’s Carry-on Bag
What is a more uncomfortable feeling than relinquishing all of the items that are normally part of your EDC kit?
Here’s one: relinquishing those items and boarding a plane to fly across the country.
Here are 20 items you can bring onto a plane (without getting tackled to the ground by 3 TSA goons while sirens blare ,lights flash, and the PA system announces that you are a terrorist who was planning to hijack the nearest 747.) To make the list, the items must be able to pass through a security checkpoint, they must be small and light, since your space and weights are limited for carry-on bags, and they must be practical in a variety of situations.
#3 How to Create a Safe Room in Your House or Apartment
The homes of many rich, famous people have a secret hidden within them. Somewhere, in the depths of the home, is a secure room to which the residents can retreat in the event of a home invasion or violent intruder. A safe room was carved into the original house plan, and many of these are state of the art. These expertly designed rooms can cost tens of thousands of dollars, but you don’t have to be a movie star or a multi-millionaire to build your own version of a safe room. Even the most humble home or apartment can have on a place to which vulnerable family members can retreat if they are under threat.
#2 25 Homemade Coffee Creamers and Syrups (without the nasty additives)
Do you love coffee or know someone who does? ‘Tis the season for the fanciest possible version of everything, and your hot beverage is no exception.
Places like Starbucks have taken flavored coffees to whole new level. At my local grocery store, there’s an entire refrigerated unit dedicated to decadent flavored creamers. Unfortunately, those creamers are rife with chemicals, including artificial flavors and neurotoxins like aspartame and sucralose. You certainly aren’t giving someone a “treat” by putting that stuff in their coffee.
Here’s some great news, though: If you possess the ability to heat milk and use measuring spoons and a whisk, the fanciest flavors around can be yours, and at a fraction of the price of the artificial grocery store versions. Be your own barista, and try making some homemade coffee creamers today!
And the #1 Reader’s Choice 2015 post on the site was……..
12 Bad Strategies That Will Get Preppers Killed
If you’re involved in the preparedness lifestyle, you’re probably into planning. Most likely, you research and study the excellent preparedness strategies
put out by experts. Whether we prepare for incidents small or large, we all ponder what we’d do if something world-as-we-know-it-ending went down.
The trouble is, a lot of the plans that get made are more likely to get you killed than to save you. And people post these plans online, then new preppers read them and think, “Wow, what a great idea.”
Not all preparedness plans are well-thought out and practiced. In fact, there are several recurring themes that I hear or read that are not good ideas for most preppers, and I bet that many of you reading have also privately rolled eyes at one of the following strategies. (Or maybe even publicly.) Take a moment to consider the variables if one of these plans happens to be your default strategy.
Thank you…
Was your favorite post of the year on the list? If not, let me know what it was, and more importantly, tell me what you’d like to see more of in 2016, because really, this site is all about you.
Every year at this time, I think about how thankful I am for you guys. This website is about sharing information, and often, the comments have as much, if not more, information as the articles themselves. I love the community we’re creating here in Internetland and often wish we could all be neighbors.
Thank you for reading, for sharing, for commenting, and for supporting my website and my books. I have lots of great things planned for 2016, so be on the lookout for an announcement next week about what the year will hold here on the website.
I’m wishing you peace, prosperity, and preparedness in 2016. Happy New Year, my friends.
