I can't believe it's March already. The year seems to be flying past. It's turning to an early Autumn here in NZ. I've ramped up on my preps in the last week. The world seems such an uncertain place at the moment. 

I'm still stocking the woodshed. February turned out to be the wettest ever month here, we had 27cm of rain (11 inches) in the first two weeks and so all my cut and split firewood that was sitting out in the paddock was drenched. Although it had been seasoning for 6 months, I still wanted to wait until the surface dampness had gone, but we;ve had intermittent rain ever since. Anyway, I'm upping my pace to 2 trailer loads a day until I'm done. 

Today I'll be sorting through all our jerry cans. Some are half empty, some full and some bone dry. I want to get them consolidated and full up, just in case.

I'm still bottling fruits but the solar dehydrator has been an epic fail this year because of the rain and lack of long hot sunny days. It's currently full of 16 trays of sliced apples slowly rotting. 

The garden is looking good - all that rain -  and I've filled the winter salad boxes ready for the greenhouse. I've also started a mushroom garden. I'm hoping it'll grow. Mushrooms are very expensive here, so that would be a real addition to our diet.

We have done some amazing prepping the last few weeks.  Simply worried about supply chain issues and seeing some empty shelves drove us to stock up.  We have always had a 3 month supply of food for our family but over Covid probably let that drop to a month or so, and now we are fully stocked back to 3 months.  We have beans of all sorts, diced canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, plenty of canned veggies, flour, sugar, yeast, baking powder, meats, frozen meals that are cooked already so could essentially just be defrosted if necessary.  Lots of snacks.  Vitamin C dummies.  We are feeling good, but still want some more meat!

Sounds good Roni. I don't know about America but the cost of meat has really gone up here. It's so expensive and there is now talk about chicken becoming scarce. 

prices are insane here too!  Luckily, even though I have two teenage boys, they are not big meat eaters....so meat isn't too expensive for us right now.  We just need to stock up on some chicken and fish so we will do that soon!

It's insane, Kiwimum.  Depending on the area of the country, meat prices have risen up to 21% with the promise of another 20% by year end.  I haven't seen much difference in things like flour and sugar yet, but I have seen definite increases in fresh produce.  There is that part of me that wants to stock in another couple of bags flour and sugar each.  Feeling a bit of remorse that I gave my pressure canner to my niece.  But I'm sure she'll bring me some canned goods from her father's garden this coming season. He's already talking about what he's going to grow and has rented a roto-tiller to make a large garden on my niece's new house.  He'll be in his farming glory, I think. 

As a side note, I just read an article on Bloomberg today laying out projections on the U.S. economy.  Sounds to me like we're in for the same kind of "stagflation" experienced in the mid to late 70's.  I'm sure the U.S. isn't the only nation that will be dealing with it over the next 18-25 months.  

I remember the huge interest rates of the 1980s of 20% and how worried my parents were with their mortgage. I know that here in NZ people take out the largest mortgage they can get and rather than pay it down they use it as a huge overdraft. I have friends who's mortgage has grown over the years as their house value has increased and they've used that money for jet skis and holidays. Heaven help them if the interest rates go up. It will cripple, or even break them, financially. 

That's going to be a problem everywhere, KiwiMum.  I know more than a few friends and acquaintances have depended too heavily on 2nd mortgages and overborrowing on credit.  The bankruptcy courts will be very busy in the coming year, I think.  

I'm grateful that I stopped using credit cards years ago.  I have no debt and very low rent on my apartment.  I haven't owned a car in years because I live in a very pedestrian city so no expenses there. Saving up for purchases and debit cards are the way to go, IMHO.