[marktwain]

I would suggest basic, cheap food, making connection with your neighbors, basic protection first, then upgrading as you can. If you buy only 200 lbs of rice and 200 lbs of dried beans, put in scrounged 5 gallon buckets, costs about $250-$300 dollars, yet will provide basic food for over a year for one person.

You can get a cheap .22 marlin model 60 out of pawn shop for $100, and buy 1000 rds of ammo for $50. I recently bought 6,000 rds on special, online, for $170.

Getting to know your neighbors takes a little time, but no money. It is likely some of the best “prepper” preparation that you can do.

[Kartographer]

I urge you to consider a pump action shotgun (Mossberg 500 is what I have) and 100 rounds of buckshot. A shotgun is a good intimidating weapon and could at times be enough to convince and bad guy that the price is just going to be to high.

[kevao]

If you buy only 200 lbs of rice and 200 lbs of dried beans

I take it rice and dried beans last indefinitely? Been thinking about buying a few months worth of MREs, but maybe this is a better idea?

[Georgia Girl 2]

We get the buckets and lids from the ladies at our local grocery store for $1 each. We have all the dried stuff and now we are working on stocking up on canned meat. We checked around and found that in our area Walmart has the best price ($4.38) on a can of corned beef. We picked up 4 additional cans last week. Costco has a high quality canned roast beef in the four pack for $10.99. We have tried it and its really good.

Personally we buy all ammo locally and pay cash. I think the Feds are tracking ammo purchases. Just our take on it.