Strategies For Your Survival Supplies List
When I went online for recommendations on what to get in the way of survival supplies, I was overwhelmed with lists that looked like entire inventories of a sporting goods store.
So, of course, I asked the question, ‘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 I could tell you that you can have it all, but the truth is that you will 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 is, in my opinion, not the best option. Regardless of how much money you have.
However, many survivalist kits are available for the prepper who has no shortage of money and wants to feel safe as soon as possible.
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, and 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 research and build 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 will 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 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 will have to decide where to start with this overwhelming task of prepping.
One way to do it is to start with what could kill you.
Do you have severe allergies? If so, what would happen if you got an allergic reaction while the roads were 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 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 guessing 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 much longer 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.
What will you do if your house is totaled due to wind or fire?
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 makeshift shelter?
Would you want to?
Are you capable of something like that, or will you settle for a Red Cross hotel situation?
Can family and/or friends take you and your family in?
6. Low-budget strategies
The prepper with a strict budget has many great strategies to apply in combination with one of the last three shopping priorities.
With great benefit, classic low-budget strategies such as buying in bulk, buying from wholesale corporations, and clipping coupons can 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 cheap produce 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 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 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 must 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 many 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 care for yourself 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 possess 365 days a year. Not after the unexpected happens. Then it’s too late. Good luck finding supplies, then.
A Survival Supply List Mindset
If you have been browsing 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 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, prepping will help you develop into a master prioritizer.
Prepping will help you develop the skills to get yourself organized.
