Mindset is now survival

As we are all acutely aware, there is a cost of living crisis in many countries. A large percentage of people are struggling to pay for accomodation, utilities, nutritious food, and just the basics in life. Luxuries are few and far between for many, and this is for people working, as well as those claiming benefits. Everyone is struggling, including professionals. In fact during my volunteer work I am often seeing people on benefits getting access to things that lots of working people (or pensioners that have saved or got a small private pension), are having to forgo and do without. Things like dental appointments. These are the only things that they can cut. Benefits in the UK are a gateway to free services like dentistry, Wifi, food banks, reduced council tax, free courses, grants for heating costs, etc.

I will probably be criticised for saying all that.  I am not bashing those who need benefits. I know what a struggle living on benefits is. I see it daily and have friends that are struggling.  I find friends of my age that can not work any more struggling, especially if they are renting. I hate the stress that they must be feeling as benefits are getting harder to obtain, they have no security, and they have to jump through giant hoops to get them. This is the main reason that I have never tried to claim, despite being on a low income. It would impact on my mental health too much.

The benefit system needs reviewing. It traps you on benefits so that you can’t improve your life. I have young friends with families that can’t go for a promotion at work as they would lose their top up benefits which would leave them hundreds of pounds worse off a month. The system is crazy here in the UK. It was the same in the 1980s. I was worse off than my colleague who worked part time and received benefits even though I worked full time and worked over time. It wasn’t the income that was a lot different. It was the fact that I couldn’t get the extra help like reduced council tax or free school meals.

Prices are rising on a daily basis. For me, and I know, for many others. This now feels like survival rather than a frugal journey. Many things have nearly doubled in the last 4 years. I have therefore set my mindset to reflect that. A lot of the ways I cope are actually utilising my basic survival knowledge learned in the Girl Guides, and the military. I never thought that one day I would need to heat my house with foraged wood, cook outside on a firepit, flush the loo with used water, or forage for food to feed myself. At least I am lucky that I have those skills and opportunities.

There is no point in moaning and thinking that life should not be like this. Instead I embrace it as a challenge. I do love doing some of these things, but I wonder how long I will be able to as I age.  Thankfully, all of these skills do contribute to helping me survive on a low budget. I will expand on some of the survival knowledge I learned that particularly helps.

1. The importance of practicing and building my skill set. I have been cooking over, and lighting fires for years, even before I had to in order to save money. I have also constantly improved my knowledge of foraging and practiced most weeks, even on holiday. Keeping up these skills, and learning new ones, now saves me money on a daily basis.
2. I have planned ahead and been ready for any situations. I have equipment to survive if the grid goes down or my area loses power. We use the camping stove outside to save us buying a meal if we have to stay in a hotel. I have some food stored that has saved me money as inflation took hold. We also have the right clothes to stay warm and know lots of tricks to cope in cold weather by looking back at how people  survived hundreds of years ago. I utilise some of these ideas to save on heating  and cooking costs.
3. I can feed myself from nature and identify what is safe to eat. I even know how to set traps if I really have to, or fish in a real survival situation. A lot of our food is now foraged or grown. It is also preserved for winter.
4. I know various ways to purify water, with or without heat. I can collect water and liquid  from trees using just a plastic bag and string. Who would have thought in the UK that my tap water would be unsafe as it was recently?
5. I can build fires to cook on and heat my home in my wood burner. I know which kinds of wood gives off the most heat and what to use for natural fire lighters. I can also light a fire if I have run out of matches and have no lighter.
6. I have resilance, built up over the years and my positive mindset helps me in challenging situations. This is important in a survival situation. I have learned to adapt and problem solve in a solution focussed way so that I don’t panic.
7. I have basic first aid skills and know how to treat illnesses or injury. This has saved me visits to A & E, and prescription costs (or medical bills). It has also saved me money as I don’t need to buy supplements.
8. I can build shelter. I don’t use these skills for accomadation but have used them to build storage, structures in the garden, or shelter for my crops. I have taught them to the grand children as well.
9. I have knowledge of how to cook over an open fire using various methods, with or without cooking utensils.
10. I automatically utilise what is around me and what I already have. I make do with what is to hand as survivalists do.

These are all tecniques that I have been taught in order to cope with living in a challenging environment. The world feels very challenging at the moment. In this modern world it is crazy to think that I need some of these survival skills on a daily basis, and may need even more in the future.

I have 4 survival books on my bookshelf and have found myself reading them more often. I am  not honing my skills for the apocalypse. It is mainly to help with the cost of living crisis or what the uncertain future may throw at us. Can you survive if things get a lot worse? Which  skills are helping you save money and survive during this expensive time?