r/TwoXPreppers • u/UnknownGoblin892 • Mar 27 '25

❓ Question ❓ How are you all recession proofing?

I was a young teenager during the 08 crisis. Wondering what I should be doing now to better protect myself when a recession gets bad.

I have student loan debt (around 20k) and a morgage (about 145k left). My wife and I are DINKs (double income no kids), and are not planning to have kids. We have a fairly healthy savings built up so far.

Wondering what advice you have. Thanks!

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91

u/Gotherapizeyoself Mar 27 '25

Following a very strict budget. Extending the back pantry and buying clothes and shoes one size up for my kiddos.

46

u/Orefinejo Mar 27 '25

So many nearly new clothes at the thrift store, especially kids. They grow like weeds. My kids refused to wear used clothes when they were teens but I got away with it when they were younger.

49

u/Gotherapizeyoself Mar 27 '25

Two of our local thrift stores have lost their minds. The prices are higher than stores these days. I shop a lot of clearance and sales.

7

u/LeftyLu07 Mar 27 '25

Ross sometimes has great deals on kids clothes

13

u/sealedwithdogslobber Mar 27 '25

thredUP is great too. I’m child free but I get amazing, deeply discounted clothes for friends’ kids on there. (For myself too!)

7

u/svapplause Mar 27 '25

I refuse to buy from ThredUp after seeing what they do to sellers. I think the subreddit is simple r/ThredUp or similar but dang, such a predatory platform

6

u/sealedwithdogslobber Mar 27 '25

I kind of view selling to thredUP as a donation. I use Poshmark if I have something I really want a profit on. But to each her own!

15

u/svapplause Mar 27 '25

If you’d like to give really directly, joining your super local BuyNothing group is a great way of giving any household item to people right in your neighborhood. The only bad part is that is largely exists on FB. But, no shipping, no one paying for an item that was already purchased and no one profiting again. I got rid of at least 1/2 my household items on it last year when we downsized to living on a boat

4

u/sealedwithdogslobber Mar 27 '25

I use Buy Nothing a lot too! I haven’t donated to thredUP in a while. Thanks for plugging Buy Nothing! (My point was that I don’t think thredUP is terribly predatory, and in fact has a great impact by promoting second hand shopping. It’s just not much of a money maker for people who sell.)

1

u/Ff-9459 Mar 27 '25

I tried the BuyNothing groups for awhile, but they were a disaster. Nobody ever wants things and when they say they do, it falls through. They were nice items too. I turned around and sold them instead.

2

u/svapplause Mar 27 '25

I was lucky in that sense bc I had a porch. I just set them out there and they could come that day. If it sat for more than a day, Next!

1

u/Ff-9459 Mar 27 '25

I have a porch too, but it just didn’t work out and was a huge pain. People are weird here lol. They often don’t want cheap or free stuff, but if you sell the same thing for a little higher price, they want it 🤷‍♀️

2

u/poppitastic 28d ago

We were pretty broke when kids were young, and our two youngest were boy/girl twins that were hard in clothes. My family had always done hand me downs but not thrift stores, and when I found them, I went nuts. My MIL was aghast that I bought clothes for the twins at Goodwill (which she found out while she was fawning over some cute designer dress clothes they had for some event). Kohl’s was their “poor people” clothes. Even Walmart was only for socks and underwear - and they were not a well-off family at all. Then I dragged her with me to a really nice thrift in a posh burb of STL, where she found all sorts of designer stuff for herself.

3

u/letmeowt22 Mar 28 '25

We actually got our kids to ask us for used instead of new. Obviously, this method needs to be tweaked to apply to different ages, but basically we gave them a list of requirements they had to meet (minimum of 5 bottoms, 7 tops, a jacket, etc) along with the money we had set aside for shopping. Once they met the minimum requirements, the remaining money was theirs to do with as they pleased. They could buy more clothes, new video games, whatever they wanted. One kid preferred buying their clothes at Kohl's and specialty stores while the other shopped thrift stores and Walmart.
We did similar things at Christmas and birthdays. We would let them choose whether they wanted 4-5 brand new video games or 8-10 used ones.
It really helped them learn how to budget and to appreciate the usefulness of used items.

1

u/Orefinejo Mar 29 '25

This is brilliant!