Do you recommend stopping the index fund investment and instead start stashing away cash in my savings acct?

Wouldn't it be more efficient to take the original pot of money and stash it away in a 'plain' investment account ?

It's now the home of many spiders & fantastic cold storage for stashing my beer when working on the place. 

Although it might be a good time to sell because of the economic climate, I think it is better to hang in there, replenish your accounts from the renovations and continue to stash the monthly income.

i have started using an app called Everlance. i like it very much so far. it tracks mileage and expenses. it allows you to set up favorite locations and different vehicles. it has categories for personal, work, and medical. the expense tracker allows you take photos of the receipts so i don't have to have large stashes of paper for long periods of time. as for paying for things, i do have an llc and business checking/savings however there is very little money in there as we are just starting out. most of my expenses have been put on 2 personal credit cards or paid from my personal account. i knows it's a bad idea but currently have no other options.   

I hit outlets, eBay to keep a stash.

Keep a stash of cash .  

You don't have it, if they go bust.If you buy gold coins, keep em in your personal safeKeep em in a banks' safe deposit box (fails if there's a banking collapse)If you're worried thieves are coming looking for your safe, there were elaborate schemes to hide your stash behind the drywall inside walls, that won't be easy targets.If you're worried thieves are coming with a metal detector looking for your gold, you bury it in the back yard (or it might be a compound in the woods, because you need food, guns and ammo for the apocalypse); bury 50 pieces of junk metal car parts 2' deep in 50 locations.

Stash $ in the retirement funds, upgrade the vehicles from Saturns to Toyotas, buy a bunch of gear.

The exact opposite of what we need to do.You need to stash money in a rainy day fund when times are good and draw on the fund when times are bad.