Posted on 05/12/2022 10:41:48 PM PDT by blam
A storage room stacked with food is seen at a preppers ranch in Mathias, West Virginia, on March 13, 2020.
Most people don’t bother to prepare for uncertain times until it’s too late. It’s the “ant and the grasshopper” parable written on a human scale.
“The problem is that while fear is a great motivator, it isn’t conducive to smart decisions,” said Diane Vukovic at Primalsurvivor.com, an online personal preparedness website.
“No matter how terrified you are about a certain event happening, you still need to go about prepping in a calm, logical way,” Vukovic told The Epoch Times.
Once considered a fringe “conspiracy theory,” the idea of preparedness has gone mainstream as global events unfold. Many online “preppers” have said that only a small percentage of Americans prepare for potential food shortages and civil unrest. However, the concern among would-be preppers on a limited income is the cost of preparing in an inflationary environment.
The good news is that prepping is still relatively inexpensive to do, Vukovic said.
“Chances are you don’t need an expensive gas mask, bulletproof vest, or other hyped-up survival gear. You’ll see that most preparedness supplies are very cheap,” Vukovic said.
Rule number one is don’t buy out of fear or panic.
“I suggest writing a list of the most likely disasters for your area. For most people in the United States these will be earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and power outages. Then, make a list of what items you would need to be prepared for these disasters,” she said.
What’s On The Menu?
Prepperwebsite.com host Todd Sepulveda recommends budget-minded preppers start with a menu of necessary items such as dry food and canned goods, which are still plentiful at the grocery store.
“People trying to prep their food storage sometimes go to the grocery store and start buying random items. Later, they have to try and figure out how it will all work together and put dinner together,” Sepulveda told The Epoch Times.
“Starting from a menu takes out all the guesswork and ensures that you won’t buy unnecessary items at the grocery store.”
Sepulveda advises making a one-week menu of breakfast, lunch, and dinner of what your family usually eats, making a grocery list, and keeping a clean copy for the following week.
Empty shelves for pasta are seen at a supermarket on Jan. 13, 2022, in Monterey Park, California.
“If you want to stock up a month’s worth of food at one time, just quadruple your list,” Sepulveda said. “You can bring more variety to your family food storage if you make a two-week menu and double that. That way, you are not eating the same foods every week.”
Food storage isn’t hard and doesn’t have to be expensive—”you just need to plan it out,” Sepulveda said.
Other websites that cater to preppers of all experience levels include Graywolf Survival, Apartment Prepper, Bioprepper, Mom With A Prepper, The Prepared, and many others.
These sites cover a full range of topics on disaster preparedness—from creating emergency kits and bug-out bags, medical and first-aid supplies, water filtration, cooking without electricity, solar power, and living off-grid.
“Even if you have zero money to spend, you still have a budget—it’s just zero. And, yes, it is possible to prepare with absolutely no money,” Vukovic said.
She said once you have a list of everything you need, prioritize the items—trash bags and buckets, for example, are inexpensive or even free.
“To make sure you don’t forget anything important, divide your list into categories. As you buy supplies, make sure you get items from each category.
The critical supplies categories include food and water, water purification, health and hygiene, heating, lighting, electricity, disaster cleanup, personal safety, and emergency radio communications.
Live Within Your Means
Even if you have no money for prepping, you’ll need to know about wilderness survival and how to make supplies even on a shoestring budget.
“For example, you can get free buckets from local stores. In an emergency, these buckets could then be used for things like collecting rainwater or making an emergency toiler, which is incredibly important but something a lot of people forget about,” Vukovic said.
If you have a small budget, divide your list into expensive items: propane camp stove, propane heater, personal safety, and inexpensive items such as canned food, tarps, tape, and bleach.
“Buy a few inexpensive items every week and set aside a certain amount of money each week or month to go towards pricier items,” Vukovic said. “Consider shopping at thrift stores, flea markets, and yard sales for lower prices on gently used items.”
For those fortunate to have a large budget, Vukovic recommends that beginning preppers resist the urge to buy “fancy” or “cool” gear and supplies at the outset.
“Instead, do your research and invest in quality items that have good reviews [or] come highly recommended by those who have used the item. Otherwise, you might find the item you bought is unsuitable for your needs and have to buy another,” Vukovic said.
It’s also important to back up all essential documents in a significant life-altering event, she said.
“Having backups of your important documents might not be a life-or-death issue, but it will make the aftermath of a disaster much less stressful,” Vukovic said.
“For example, if your entire home is destroyed in a fire, knowing your insurance policy number and having a list of valuables in the home will make it easier to get a refund.
“Likewise, if your children had to switch schools after a disaster, you’d be grateful you backed-up copies of their school records.”
Backing up your documents can be done cheaply or at no cost, she added.
“You can put them on an encrypted USB and keep this in a bank safe or other secure location. There are also some secure cloud storage platforms you can use,” Vukovic said.
“While you are at it, back up all of your family photos. If your home is destroyed, at least you won’t lose all of your children’s baby photos and other memories.”
And at Walmart:
This is a great comment.
Do not underestimate the viciousness of women. The stories of how women would handle abusive spouses before women’s liberation were not documented and not talked about. Ask your granny and see if she will tell you.
A good place for beginners to start is setting up a place in the home to store enough shelf stable food and other supplies to wait out a widespread blackout due to a storm. This involves food, water (or a fresh water source), emergency lighting, heat source and depending on the circumstances, some kind of alternate shelter provision. We have no real need for any kind of “bug out” plan or supplies as our place is somewhat secluded, we have a big yard and would not in most circumstances leave. We would “bug in” not “bug out”.
For us it is not that difficult as we live in a semi-rural area that is prone to frequent power outages, we actually had one yesterday that lasted about 2 hours. Emergency back-up generators are nice and we have one but for prolonged outages, say 2 months, fuel is a problem. So other plans should be considered in addition.
From this simple premise start to put together the rest of what is needed. Think in terms of gathering items over years not weeks.
As far as food goes the old sage advice is “buy what you eat, eat what you buy”. Every trip to the food store we get something for the bunker, even if it is just one can of beans or a box of pasta. Our motto is “buy it cheap, stack it deep”. Try to avoid paying too much for individual items and avoid buying things that you will not use. Experiment by making meals from the items you have prepped. Don’t make it a point to tell others what you are doing as there is nothing to be gained.
Aside from food and survival items, if you haven’t already done so, now is the time to get rid of personal debt. Get yourself on a formal household budget, have an emergency supply of cash and work diligently towards being debt free and mortgage free. Live below, not above your means. There is still time to correct mistakes, even big mistakes.
In addition to 4Patriots what other MRE suppliers would FReepers recommend?
For reasons I won’t go into, we need to focus on MRE supplies rather than containers of rice/beans.
Thanks!
Good advice. Wish a country get away were affordable cuz I hav a feeling we will need to flee in future.
My local Sam’s Club has everything that I need, so why prep?
My PhD son says it loses about 50% strength after a year.
Hydrogen peroxide lasts much less.
If you're new to this and just getting started, buy a propane generator. Last year during a power outage I used propane that I had stored for Y2K. You can't do that with gasoline.
You're correct. We're just being silly. You don't need to do anything.
“You’re correct. We’re just being silly. You don’t need to do anything.”
LOL. But I actually do go weekly to my Sam’s Club, mainly to check their shelves. A few things short, but not too bad. Yet...
“I have been accessing shelf stable food from prepper supply 4Patriots.”
That stuff is excellent quality but it’s really expensive. For the price of one #10 can of their white rice, $24.95 for 5 pounds, you can buy 4 times that at the grocery store and store it yourself.
We have some of that fancy stuff put back but IMO you can do a lot better on your own.
L
Pool Shock BAD. use bleach tablets instead. Cheap and easy to store.
The problem with prepping is a lot of people are apartment dwellers with no storage room, no money to prep and in the end rely on water from the city.
When SHTF the food stamps users will be shocked big time as nothing available to buy. Those are the people we have to watch out for.
“A ‘community’ is far better able to defend itself, keep its resources (and if evil, even take the resources of others) better than a Lone Ranger.”
Well said! One reason I feel confident we can endure whatever Mother Government throws at us is this: I live in a ‘community’ of our farm and four others, filled with god-fearing, hardworking, talented and generous people. One is an ex-Amish guy, so he KNOWS how to ‘do stuff’ better than any of us. And everyone can shoot straight - even the kids! ;)
Between us, we have thousands of acres of land and the talent and means to keep ourselves supplied with fruits, vegetables, foraging, meat animals, eggs and milk.
Other than someone burning us out, we should be OK.
Note to self: Continue to reinforce that northern perimeter! ;)
“If you’re new to this and just getting started, buy a propane generator. Last year during a power outage I used propane that I had stored for Y2K. You can’t do that with gasoline.”
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Good point. Another option is a dual fuel generator, gasoline and propane.
As I had mentioned in my response above I live in an area where we have frequent power outages. In January 2019 we had a 4 day outage which was the event that got us to finally get a generator.
For months i went back and forth, what size and fuel and even make of generator. We finally settled on a 8000 watt Generac gasoline unit. Coupled with a power inlet box and main panel backfeed interlock. With this I can power about 80% of our home with some notes and exceptions. It will run our boiler and well so we can take a shower and stay warm.
While we use propane for our clothes dryer and stove, I felt it best for us to go with gasoline. I have a system where I keep about 100 gallons on hand, I treat with Seafoam in numbered containers and rotate those containers out after about 3 months. I put the old gasoline in our cars or my boat or riding mower. It is work, that is true, and I had to build a dedicated storage shed away from the garage but so far so good.
In a perfect world I would get a propane whole house with an automatic transfer switch. Propane solves the storage shelf life issue but it creates a few problems of it’s own, such as having enough propane storage tanks and a place to keep them and connected to the generator. But I agree propane is probably the best overall solution. Given that we have oil heat, a diesel generator would be nice also but this is a huge expense. I think it really comes down to how much you want to spend.
If I may add to the above. I’m in the process of rebuilding our deck. I’m going to recycle the deck boards to make a small shelter for our emergency generator for when it is in use, to keep it out of the weather. It is a good feeling to have at least some power generation ability.
Prep on my brother, prep on.
What brand of bleach tablets woyld you suggest?
I envy you...
Prepping Ping List
If you can find a copy of “A Failure of Civility”, buy it.
L
What I did over the years was to go to yard sales and buy the 20 gallon cylinders (like you use on your bbq grill) for about $3.00 each and then have them filled at Costco for $9.00 each.
I have 28 of these stored in a stand-alone shed. I made some mistakes along the way like not checking the cylinder expiration dates before I bought them. About 20 % of the cylinders I had already bought were expired...Costco would not fill them.
BTW, the generator I have is a 7550 watt hybrid gas/propane.
I live in 'hurricane alley' and got tired of dealing with OLD gasoline. I had to keep some in storage every year. Propane is a dream in comparison.
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