Making the most of opportunities

To prepare for an event and survive during and after an event we have to be adaptable and make the most of whatever comes along. It becomes a way of thinking and we can look at a negative situation and see an upside. There usually is one for everything although not always for the person involved. This has been one of the reasons that the human species has grown to be the dominant species on this planet.

So to take advantage of situations we need to be able to step back and view a situation dispassionately. We need to see both the positive and negative sides of any situation and take action to maximise our benefit. That is not always easy because we sometimes get carried away with the moment and we don’t think clearly.

For example; at the moment there are massive subsidies on for alternative power production. This is where you get a subsidy on the costs of installation of solar panels or wind turbines as well as a guaranteed return on your excess power which is well above the cost of electricity generated. Many people are installing turbines because there is profit to be made in them because of the subsidies. I’m not going to go into the rights and wrongs of the subsidies here or anything to do with power production in general. This article is about making the most of opportunities.

So for us who are planning for the total loss of the grid, either permanently or temporarily, we would want to purchase some form of power generation anyway and so would be forced to pay full price. We can take a reduction in the cost and get what we would have paid for anyway. Taking into consideration, of course, the full TCO of the subsidised options. It may be that they mandate a supplier who is double the cost you can get or a solution that is unsuitable for your needs.

Then if you were to sell this power to your local supplier, it seems they must purchase it at a very expensive rate, then at you can take the opportunity to reduce your bills at the very least and at best make a bit of profit.

That way whilst your electricity bills will go up to pay for this your actual costs will go down because of the subsidy and you will be in an ideal situation of having your power generation capability there ready to go plus a subsidy on your prepping.

In a similar way you can gain discounts on composters, compost, bins etc. from your local council. Sometimes you can find other government agencies who supply free or subsidised equipment and you frequently see offers from various private firms. For example my electricity provider provides a few free light bulbs, whoopee even if they are those eco ones, and they also supply a free electrical monitoring unit which is quite useful for measuring power usage for evaluating electrical equipment. Some firms will send you samples of items as well. There may not be much but it is free and sometimes that is all you need. Plus if you enquire at a few similar firms you may get enough for your needs.

I also like reading about people real life stories. Although sometimes you think why would that ever happen to anyone, how could anyone be so stupid, there are still quite a few lessons to be learnt from them. Among those are the fact that even the most careful can get caught out by simple mistakes. People that prepare for every eventuality they have thought of and then get locked out of their electronically controlled uber fortress because the battery is flat on their remote control or something. We should learn from these mistakes and take advantage of their misfortune.

The bottom line is that almost everything that happens brings with it opportunities. We need to see those when they would benefit us and act on them.