Cheap preparedness

This thread has only one purpose. The Cheapest way to prepare for total collapse. Arguments that it is futile to only half prepare are pointless. What if nothing happens...ever. Remember Y2K? Not only that. I have no cash on hand. So what are the cheapest easiest ways to prepare. What are cheap necessities? Guns? too expensive. Gun Safe? too expensive. water purification system ..too expensive. Help!

I actually think this is a very important topic to discuss. Our economy is going to drain most of our resources before any kind of sit X. I already live on a very tight budget making ends meet for my family. In my case, I spend an extra ten dollars a week while buying groceries to buy extra long term staples (rice, beans, flour, etc). I have also started reading as much free information on the net as I can find regarding edible plants, water purification, first aid, etc. I would love to hear other's ideas on how to prepare on a shoestring budget.

My recommendation for cheap if not free preparedness....

Library.... read as much as you can about useful skills and learn skills that would make valuable wherever you are when sitx happens. Education and knowledge about a wide variety of thing is the cheapest way to get prepared since libraries are free and the internet has tons of useful info for free access.

Cheap also means shopping at thrift shops. You can probably put together a fair survival kit with stuff found there and also at dollar stores. No one can honestly prepare for every scenario, but the basics is a good start.

oh.. just to give you an idea of survival type things you can find at thrift stores...

books... lots of do it yourself, gardening, etc
sleeping bags
tents
camping equipment
grills
backpacks
boots
tools

at the dollar store, you can put together a basic first aid/personal hygiene pack for less than $10.

I am in the same boat.....I just today started preparing. I have been on ATs for about a week and realized that now is the time to start. So, what should I get, how do I store flour and rice and beans, what are the absoulte basic necessities for survival.

get buckets or if cheaper get plastic rubbermaid type bins when on sale. Store your grains in those, I keep them in their original packages. Absolute basics would be flour, sugar, salt and water. With those few ingredients you can make either sweet or savory basic pancakes and flatbreads, good enough to survive on. Adding beans, rice and pastas will increase your variety of foods as well as canned veggies and meats. Buy what's on sale a little at time and it will add up.

start small.. get your emergency 72 hour backpack ready
then work on a 3-5 day food and durable goods supply
once that is accomplished, it's easy to turn it into 2 weeks, 1 month and eventually a year or more if that is your goal.

The Mormons practice long term food storage and offer many tips, plans, supply lists online... it's a good place to start.

Everyone knows that if you dont have the most expensive, state of the art gear and lots of it, you are certain to perish.

So long, sorry.

As world watcher said, books are either free or cheap from thrift stores.

Rummage sales are good as well, one mans trash.....you know.

Speaking of trash, and not everyone can or will do this, but transfer stations sometimes have hidden finds. I know I guy who once found a Filson coat ($275) in a dump. So look around.

For storing dry foods, talk with a local restaurant, school, or hospital. They go through piles of food grade plastic containers, clean them out and refill. Free, and you save them from a landfill.

As far as firearms, you dont need a gun to survive. There are plenty of ways to defend yourself and take game without guns. Traps, bows, crossbows, etc... These can be created from your surroundings, pick up an SAS survival guide, pretty cheap, all kinds of fun/free information.

There are other ways to filter water as well. Dont need the fancy pumps. (Im lazy, I have a fancy pump) Solar stills for a start, boiling is good, again, books are your friend. Books and also many of these topics have been brought up here, so take a walk through the older survival threads here.

As far as a list of what you need. Only you know that. Take your daily life down to its simplist form, what do you actually need to get through the day? Food, fire, water, shelter, first aid, etc... Once you figure out what you need, then start to get creative on how to find or make this stuff as cheaply as you can.

If you come up with any good original ideas, please share. We all like to learn.

On a different note.

No matter where you are in the world, if you have a yard, apartment, whatever, you can grow your own food. Be it in containers, in the ground, or on your counter top. Seeds and a little time are far cheaper than store bought foods. If you can grow enough to dehydrate, can, or pickle you can save a ton of money and still build yourself a nice disaster pantry.

Only one book you need to buy man; Survival with Les Stroud. Seriously awesome book. Although sometimes you need some thought process to realize that you don't want to attract attention, so use your brain whilst reading.

Making Hardtack is a cheap, simple option. It lasts for damn near ever, and you can just make alot one day and forget.

Thanks guys nice tips! Especially like the SAS guide. Great idea I'll be looking for that one. I do have a basic Army survival handbook as well. Might be a good Idea to take what ideas come out of this Thread and publish em in a PDF file.

reply to post by amazing

The manuals are a good idea, but only use them as a guide, not as a bible. When it comes to edible plants, ignore the manuals. Go to the net, find the plants that grow in your area and print of PHOTOGRAPHS and descriptions. Grow what you can, wherever you are.
Think about the tools you need. Start with a belt knife, somethting that can take punishment. Then think about a QUALITY multitool. I recommend Leatherman. Get the biggest one you can afford.
Figure out where and how to cache food, water, extra clothes, and blankets. And don't tell ANYONE what you have.
Don't forget weapons. A handgun is great. If you can afford it, get a shotgun. Good for hunting and for defense.
But the most important thing to have is common sense. You need food, water, shelter, and heat. Provide for those first, then start on the other stuff. (You'd be surprised how easy it is to come up with this stuff.)

reply to post by kettlebellysmith


What belt knife would you recommend? Are you talking about a fixed or folding knife?

Nothing is as important as a prepared mind. Wrap your brain around the idea that, yes, it can happen. Start giving it some thought.

Say you wake up tomorrow and there is no gas at the pumps and the food is about gone from the store shelves. What is the first thing you would do? What is the second? Who would you want with you? Would you bug out or shelter in place? Will you kill to survive? Better consider that. You may face having to make that decision. What would you use to kill if you had to?

The answers to all of those questions will depend on many different factors, locations, and events, but if you haven't thought about it at all in relation to your particular situation, you are may not be able to react or make the correct decisions under presure when the time comes regardless of what equipment you do or don't have.

For example, it cost absolutely nothing to cut off the TV and instead spend some time thinking about what you own, how useful it would be in various situations, and how fast you could get to it if you wanted it. If you had to fight someone for your life in your living room, do have a weapon available, even if its a stick behind the door? It may never come up, but again it might.

No, calmly planning for the collapse of industrial civilization is not fun. It is often downright depressing and discussing this subject with "normal" folk will get you labeled a "downer", or worse, a "Conspiracy Theorist". Again, it all comes back to the question of what you really think is coming and what you are prepared to do to survive it. The prepared mind is the most improtant tool you have.

reply to post by salchanra


And you can collect seeds from the food you eat. Pumkin, peppers, tomatoes etc. should all have viable seeds. In a prolonged event, seeds may even be useful currency.

reply to post by Ambient Sound


EXACTLY! If people would turn off the TV and stop refusing to think about the bad storm that is on the horizon, they might actually stand a chance when the poop hits the fan.

reply to post by amazing


I'm very much in the same boat...

The cheapest way is to think like a Womble and look at anything and everthing around you in a lateral way that could be adapted...for example:

Reflective survival blankets/CDs, corrugated cardboard, and gaffatape will build you a solar concentrator cooker for boiling water or cook on to save fuel...ideal if you are in a sunny climate

Lots of clear plastic sheet to make a greenhouse/shelter/solar still/replace broken windows if you bug-in

Dumpster Diving!
I love to dumpster dive.
Need wood to board up your house, build defenses? Just watch out for it on trash day.

You can get so much awesome stuff from people's trash.

I recently got some great storage tubs for my food from a house the other day.

dumpster ddiving! man i miss my teens My friend and i, at 13, used to go behind our post iffice and wede always find WHORDS of plastic rapped porno mags. Later, behind some business, wed always find tools and drills. They used to leave refrigerators, dryers, things like that, for whatever reason, hte back parking lot.
Through our late teens to early 20's city next door, once a year, resdience would leave what they didnt want anymore on the curb..i cannot tell you how many biccyles, 14 speeds, we got. People were throwing out perfectly good computers, and televisions, IF it wastn for some rain, we would have taken those tool.

Some have been mentioned already but I will try to sum it up.

Food: Start buying food period! Rice, Pasta, Beans, and cans of stuff to eat with your rice, pasta, beans. (You don't have to buy expensive mre's or freeze dried stuff... normal food stored in airtight containers work well and cans are good for 3 years normally, just buy what you eat and eat the oldest stuff first and keep buying more and just sort your food by year / quarter as you go.

Water: on the cheap, survival straws www.campingsurvival.com...

To many systems to count... this would be a good start.

Electronics: Radio, flashlights
www.sportsmansguide.com...
www.sportsmansguide.com...
www.sportsmansguide.com...


First aid, hygene & tools:... Dollar stores

Cheap surplus: www.sportsmansguide.com... (key word surplus) (check this site for about anything military / camping / etc,.

Cheap Firearms and Ammo: Mosen Nagant Rifle... about 100 bucks, Ammo 7.62x54 is dirt cheap compared to equivalent .308
www.impactguns.com...
www.sportsmansguide.com...
www.sportsmansguide.com...

Pistol: Nagant Revolver or a 7.62x25 semi auto (both cheap and ammo cheap]
www.makarov.com...
www.sportsmansguide.com...

.22 Rifle (A MUST HAVE) Ruger 10/22 (about 200 bucks and .22 ammo is about $16 bucks per 550 round value pack at walmart so you can get thousands of rounds of .22 ammo on the cheap.

www.impactguns.com...

A few points ---

Be careful about storing grains, flour and the like. Bugs will hatch and destroy the food. Best things are to pre-freeze the food grains for 48 hours, warm, then put into vacuum seal bags. You can also get desiccant packets to absorb moisture. If you can get air tight containers there are cheap vacuum sealers. But your investment in foods will go to waste if you can't keep contaminants out. Some packages of grains are nitrogen infused for that reason but they're hard to find.

So far as food goes -- strange but true there are people that are called non-eaters. It is possible to live quite well (i guess) without eating much food at all. But, the prerequisite is good health. You might try getting health then get use to eating less and less but keeping it nutritious. Typically non-eaters fast up to 28 days to break the eating habit. But some times eat small meals or small amounts of sweets. Youtube has some stuff on this.


Water is the bigger issue -- If nothing else buy water filtration -- outdoor camping stores, etc..

Invest in a low cost solar generator -- with it you can run an ozonator, charge batteries, etc..

Have a supply of your medical (herbal) medicines.

Consider what happens when you can't pay the rent and/or are out in the wilds. You will need shelter. That means an axe, shovel, machete, lighters. Buy reflective material for solar ovens and heating. You can heat rocks to hold warmth over night. You will need blankets and thermal blankets. If you are near forested lands then you have a good means of warmth and shelter.

There are good books on edible plants. Plan to go somewhere you can get to water. Know what plants are poisonous such as oleanders.

Learn about HHO production -- with a couple HHO dry cells you can power a gas generator for electricity.

Most of the land in the US has fraudulently been sold off by corporate state, corporate county, corporate city governments so land is very expensive and chances are you will be trespassing almost anywhere. Now days state and national parks charge you to stay. Be prepared to put yourself and your family about these false manipulations. But avoid trespassing on occupied land unless it is public or is very large and occupied by a few selfish people. Greed has devoured the land so be ready to take some back if you have to but with as little hostility to the individual just trying to survive like you.