$1000 preparedness budget - your shopping list

1) Water (clearly)...probably would buy gallons over the packs of bottles.
2) First Aid (gause, band-aids, anti-septic, alcohol, etc.)
3) flashlights (at least 4-5 hand ones, 1-2 larger ones)
4) camping equipment (if fleeing from home) such as tents, sleeping bags
5) hand weapons (knives, swords, axes, pepper spray and of course guns if you own them)
6) Smoke bombs (you never know when you could need a smoke bomb)
7) M-80s (used more to distract than anything)
8) Gasoline (at least 10 full tanks for reserve if they shut down stations)
9) Body Armor/Mask/Gloves (Substitute heavy clothing and pads if necessary)
10) Dried/Canned food
11) Tangible items for trade (batteries, compass, medical supplies etc.)
12) Tools (including planks of wood for home barricading)
13) Radio (simple weather radio)
14) House hold products (chemicals, sprays, washes, etc.)
15) torches/lighters/firestarters (especially if camping)

People need to take a defensive end if anything catastrophic occurs. If the world plunges into chaos the best thing to do would be create a safe point/base that is barricaded and protected. Plenty of people would be fighting everywhere, there'd be no sense to flee into the masses and get caught up in that. However, if alone I would suggest banding together with friends/acquaintances that you trust. I'd be rigging up traps an alarms and as much as I could to protect myself from any sort of activity. Especially if you have a family...theres no chance your going to be all GIJOE. Think defense, not offense...

[edit on 11-9-2009 by crimvelvet]
edit OOPs wrong post



[edit on 11-9-2009 by crimvelvet]

I'd forget about getting a bow and arrows. You and others won't be allowing others to hunt wild animals on your land if times are bad. You will be too busy making sure your own livestock with real poundage are on your property gaining weight and you won't want anyone shooting your wild game in case something happens to what you are growing, then you will hunt that wild game, but not until then.

A compound bow is the worst bow that you could possibly buy to survive with. In the first place if someone doesn't want you to use the bow, all they have to do is cut the cable and your bow is worthless because you won't find or have a cable to fit it. Then if you loose or destroy your arrows (arrows bend easily upon impact), you will not be able to make your own arrows for the compound bow because compound bows take specially made arrows that can take the compression when the arrow takes off. If you don't think this is right, go out and make your own arrow and shoot it out your compound bow; the arrow will snap before it goes 10 feet because of the pressure.

A rabbit has about 1-2 pounds of meat, a roaming deer has 60 to maybe 200 pounds of gamey tasting meat if its huge, and a steer has around a 1,000 pounds of good tasting beef. You and others will starve to death hunting game animals and pretty soon you will be in the sights of the other people if you are relying on game animals to feed you. You aren't going to go hunting with a bow and arrow if you know people are roaming the countryside with semi-automatic rifles that can easily pick you off at 200-300 yards while your bow has a range of around 40-50 yards. They can fire 30 or more bullets at you in the same time you will fire one arrow.

If there is big game like deer around, you can be sure there will be someone or some group of people right behind it and they won't care if they shoot a 200 pound deer that tastes gamey or they shoot a 200 pound human that tastes like chicken. They will shoot you just as easily as a deer and maybe more easily since they will know that you taste like chicken by then.

You will need a real knife to kill or gut game or humans, the knife will need to have a broad saw on the back side of the blade to saw tree limbs and big bones of animals and humans. You will also have to carry a small side arm at all times if you are out in the open or away from where you are protected by others.

A fishing pole with lots of line and lots of hooks is a good idea and a cast net or a seining net would be a good thing to get if any of you don't have one already. A cast net or seining net can get you a lot of fish fast, where as a fishing pole can be pretty iffy that you will catch anything.

Other things that you will need are lots of boxes of water proof matches to make fires; and hatchets, axes and tree saws for creating heat when it gets cold because you will freeze to death when it gets cold.

Buying a tent is one of the worst ideas that you could ever have. Tents are small, someone seeing a tent will wait until you get inside and then they will fill that tent full of bullet holes and then take your stuff and fillet your body out and be thankful that you were so stupid to get into a flimsy little tent so that they could shoot you just like shooting fish in a barrel; you stand no chance against a foe if you are in a tent.

If you are down wind from a nuclear blast, move to your chosen place of protection that you have picked in the countryside as fast as possible and then stay inside as long as possible, hopefully until after it rains or one week later until most of the radiation particles are out of the air. Breathing in radiation fallout particles will be a slow painful death. Buying radiation pills is a good idea also. Take care my friends.



[edit on 11-9-2009 by RussianScientists]

Salt lots of salt. You need some to make your food taste good especially beans, it works as a disinfectant and it can be used to preserve your food.

reply to post by emsed1


Excellent post.

I have a nearly-4 year old... she weighs 35 pounds. We purchased a special backpack to carry young children. (Any kind of stroller would drive me crazy in the woods, forest or mountains)

My husband and I are fit, but I would say it is vital to stay that way. Go hiking, go on endurance runs, practice shooting in a variety of conditions, keep dehydrating food and storing necessities.

I'm telling my family and friends: Don't wait to do it all at once - Start now!