When wife and I were team, the house, cars, storm room replacement damage repairs and all debts were paid off. It took about 15 dollars for water bill a month (Admin fees and taxes, and electric close to zero along with gas. All the utilities were paid a year in advance.
We bought food and fluids and supplies for hygiene etc 6 weeks in advance. The penalty was about a thousand pounds on the tractor for gross weight. But easily worked around certain pain in the ass scales with lower fuel amounts.
The biggest blow was 9-11. Our company lost payroll completely. SO... we were told to go home sit on unemployment and so on for potentially months. However we had cash savings for all that time to run and continue delivering the medicines. No problem. They squared with us in due time.
I finished a round of store shopping for food and necessary items today. Spent close to 500 dollars but in some situations for example iced tea. Buy a box of teabags for 2 bucks a 50 or whatever bags, brew several times a week in coffee pot, assemble into a pot on stove. Cool down. Its ready for a few days that week. About two gallons worth.
A gallon of ice tea already made in walmart today is at least 3.00 plus taxes. So thats the end of buying 10.00 worth of iced tea prior to Covid. We make it at home. There is enough tea bags accumulated in storage where we can keep making house tea to hydrate on for 5 years provided we can get water and heat to brew with which is supplied by a Kelly stove and a small forest near us. No problem.
Everything we bought today was ahead. Not only for just this months needs but in multiples. Combined with portion sizing in certain plates and dishes etc for meal prep on the weekly menu the total cost was about oh... 80 bucks. I have enough food on hand to eat three months if everything went poof today. I can feed 20 plus people for a month. Under rationing conditions Even longer.
The bath tub is constantly full of fresh water. (Disinfected too) ready for the toilet. Thats about 60 to 70 gallons on hand. The water is replaced every few days now. If our water and sewer systems get destroyed we can take care of hygiene for a while before transitioning to human kitty litter and finally to a 123 pit out in the forest.
