Strategies For Your Survival Supplies List

When I went online to get some recommendations on what to get in the way of survival supplies, I was overwhelmed with lists that looked liked entire inventories of a sporting goods store.

So, of course, I asked the question of ‘what do I really need to get my family through a crisis’?

It can be a daunting project at first. On the one hand, you want as many survival supplies at home as soon as possible, but on the other hand, covering all your bases would take a lot of money!

I wish that I could tell you that you can have it all, but the truth is that you are going to have to decide which is more important to you.

Nine Tips For Your Survival Supplies List

1. Supply Kits… and we’re done!

A lazy man approach and in my opinion, not the best option. Regardless of how much money you have.

However, for the prepper who has no shortage of money and wants to feel safe as soon as possible, there are a great number of survivalist kits available.

You don’t have to calculate your family’s nutritional and calorie needs or learn to make 500 different dishes with rice and canned beans, all those things are done for you, all you need to do is buy a six- or twelve-month food kit.

You don’t have to go through the trouble of researching and building a bug-out bag or car kit because they’re available pre-made online.

First-aid kits, water purification kits, survival cooking kits, survival knife kits, survival garden kits … these can all be bought and shipped to your location.

Even if there are some quite competitively priced kits out there, you are going to end up spending a lot of money. That is just not a possibility for everyone.

For others, stocking only these ready-made kits is unthinkable because generic kits are not tailored to their individual needs.

It is hard to argue with the convenience, though, of being fully prepared as soon as your kit arrives.

2. Starting with what’s lethal

Everyone who doesn’t have more money than they have time is going to have to decide where to start with this overwhelming task of prepping.

One way to go about it is starting with what could kill you?

Do you have severe allergies? If so, what would happen if you got an allergic reaction while the roads are blocked or there is no one home to drive you to the hospital?

What would you do if you cut yourself deeply while cooking? Do you have the tools on hand to handle that until you can get to a medical professional?

Do you have extremely cold winters and rely only on an electric heating system?

With this strategy, you won’t be prepared for everything immediately, but you will survive deadly scenarios

3. Starting with what is likely

If you don’t want to start with what is lethal, you can start with what is most likely. This is a very simple and efficient way of prioritizing your shopping.

In its very essence, this strategy asks the question: Am I most likely to lose my job or live through a zombie apocalypse?

If the answer is “zombie apocalypse,” that’s the scenario you’ll prepare for first.

Of course, you will probably start by preparing for a power outage, an accident, a lost job or being snowed in and then work your way up.

You won’t be prepared for everything for a long time, but the odds will always be in your favor if you are prepared for it.

4. Starting with the short-term

Prepping for the short-term first, moving into the long-term later, is the shopping strategy many preppers prefer.

This way, you are not making guesses as to what kinds of situations you ought to be preparing for. You are preparing for them all, but starting small.

The upside is that you are preparing for a wide range of scenarios.

The downside is that some of those scenarios may last for much longer in duration than what you will be ready for in quite some time.

5.Settling on the long term

Understand where you live.

California has wildfires. Florida, the Gulf Coast, and the East Coast have hurricanes. Tornados, for the most part, in the mid-west.

This past year was unprecedented when it came to home loss.

It can happen anywhere at any time.

If your house is totaled due to wind or fire, what are you going to do?

Can you go back to it and give yourself a foothold so you may be able to stay. Will you be able to or allowed to build a make-shift shelter?

Would you want to?

Are you capable of something like that or are you going to settle for a Red Cross hotel situation?

Are there family and or friends that could take you and your family in?

6. Low-budget strategies

The prepper who has a strict budget to work with has many great strategies to apply in combination with one of the last three shopping priorities.

Classic low-budget strategies such as buying in bulk, buying from wholesale corporations and clipping coupons can, with great benefit, be used by preppers.

Preppers with a cash trickle instead of a cash flow, who find it difficult to justify large purchases even to justify savings, can start by buying just a few extra items on each shopping trip.

Truly handy preppers can create their own preps by buying produce very cheaply at the end of the season and canning or drying it themselves.

7. Quality over quantity

If you are a stickler for quality, you may choose to prep more slowly in order to save up money for the very best.

If that is the case, know now that you are in good company. The survivalist and prepper communities are full of people who share a love for fine things – especially if those high-quality things involve knives, tools, and weapons.

Better quality often means better durability. Beware, though, of dooming yourself to inertia simply because you want the best. Sometimes it is better to compromise.

8. The middle road

It’s okay to want the best, but sometimes you have to settle. Maybe you can invest in the best possible knife, but spend less on a handgun?

Maybe the best costs so much that you are saying no to a large number of crucial preps when something a little less perfect would do just as well.

You have to weigh the cost of having the best of the best against your need to take care of you and your family.

Otherwise, you may have a great knife but go hungry in a disaster. And that’s what we will talk about in another time in another post.

9.Survival gadgets and tools

Remember when I mentioned all the survival supply recommendations I read about? Really, everything from the top 5 items to the top 101. Yes….101 items.

They are not going to be all for you. Start with the common-sense basics.

You should definitely have the following:

First-aid kit

Flaslightights with working batteries

Gas

Cash

Hammer and nails

Plastic sheathing

Furring strips

Tarps of various sizes

The device needed to start a fire.

Survival Knife

Those are basics every homeowner should have in their possession 365 days a year. Not after the unexpected will happen. Then it’s too late. Good luck finding supplies then.

A Survival Supply List Mindset

If you have been browsing throughout this site by now you have some idea of what it means to be a prepper, and you might be chomping at the bit to get started collecting your own survival supplies.

You will also have to decide whether it is more important to have the highest quality supplies or to have a higher quantity.

Prepping is all about prioritizing(getting organized). If you are not already a master prioritizer, then prepping will help you develop into a master prioritizer.

Prepping will help you develop the skills to get yourself organized.