If you know it’s important to have your food and other preps in case of a disaster in your home, but if you haven’t … why not?
For a lot of people, they worry about the cost …
Now, to be honest, the Food4Patriots system you’ve probably heard about is actually quite economical if you want a “one click” solution to getting your food preps done.
And if you just need a few 72 hr kits — something like that is DEFINITELY your best bet because it’s quick, simple, and just plain cheap when you consider the value of your time, trips to the grocery store, finding the right foods, putting together the little kits, etc.
But there’s still other ways to prep and save money (and not just on food).
We’ll talk about that right now …
We all hope we’ll never have to face a disaster which forces us to either stay indoors for a while or leave our homes completely for a prolonged amount of time – however preparation is the key to survival in a disaster, but how to we prep if we’re on a budget?
Firstly you need to actually plan, because going out and buying lots of food and practical tools for survival can be expensive if you do it all at once.
That’s a big money saver right there — do it in PIECES as you have the money (a little at a time, each trip to the grocery store, Wal-Mart, or Home Depot, whatever).
You need to be fully aware of two types of disaster prep – one is bugging in which means you have to stay in or close to your home in a disaster and the other is called bugging out, and this means you leave your home to seek refuge in a safer location.
It’s not really fun to even think of these things but it’s the truth …
The first thing you need when you plan is a list of both things you’ll need in a bug in situation and a bug out situation. Often times you’ll see that you’ll need the same things for both, such as water, food and ways to make heat.
There are various places on the internet that you can find lists of things, and depending on whether you have children or not you’ll need to think of extra things like extra diapers, formula milk and games.
Much of what you need can easily be found cheaply online or in thrift stores. EBay and Amazon are excellent places to go to get really good discounts on this that would otherwise be expensive in bricks and mortar store.
That said you can also get some crazy discounts in your local grocery stores and you want to be looking for things that buy-one-get-one-free or similar.
You can never have enough food and drinkable liquids for home storage, so look for deals on noodles, pasta, rice and energy bars.
In any type of disaster situation you’re going to need meds and first aid items.
You can buy pre made first aid packs as well as buy vitamins in bulk on special offer days at your local drugstore or health food shop. You will most definitely need multi-vitamins if you’re eating a lot of canned goods.
When it comes to more expensive items like crank radios and camping gear you should definitely try EBay. It’s important you read up on the sellers and their reviews. If you have favorite sellers you can save them to your account files for future reference.
If you’re thinking of asking people to buy some of your much needed survival goods you can set up a wish list on Amazon. Don’t be shy to do this because honestly, if something on their can make your life easier in a disaster then it’s not stupid to ask for it. Come birthday and Christmas time you could well get many of the items just from that wish list, and if anyone asks why you’d want them you can start the process of explaining why and hopefully they’ll understand how to prep too.
(This is perfect actually if you’re like me and your mom or other people in your life can never “think of what to get you” — make it easy for them! — make a wishlist!)
It’s easier to plan then impulse-buy when you’re prepping for a disaster, whilst on a budget.
And you can feel good about stocking up while you have the time and we’ll all just pray we never need our preps.
