As I read SurvivalBlog there is much on how to build things and various preparations. I have gleaned a plethora of information on many subjects. I have implemented many into my preparations. There are some modifications to many of these that I wish to cover in this article. These are basic and simple to achieve with a little creative thinking on your part and can be done by anyone who wants to keep it simple. Preparing for any emergency or disaster or even TEOTWAWKI is a daunting task in and of itself. I wish to pass on a few pieces of knowledge to help ease the burden of preparing for these scenarios.
1. Don’t believe everything you read at face value. Check the information that you find on the Internet first. 90% of the information you read is good but every once in a while you will get an article that is just complete bunk and if you apply any of the information you could get into serious trouble or worse end up dead. So do your homework first and double check the information.
2. Be frugal in your spending. If you don’t have a need for an expensive item or any knowledge on how to use that fancy piece of survival gear that looks so cool then you don’t need it. Don’t waste your money on it. There will always be something better that you could use that will cost a lot less and may be easier to use.
Shop around and find the best price you can on anything you are looking for to add to your preps. Take advantage of those supper sales at the grocery store and clip coupons. Ten cents may not seem worth the effort but add them up and you will be shocked at how much you save at the check out. I have been able to cut $100 off of a good sized grocery bill on a good day.
3. Start small and work up to the big items in your preps. As you gain knowledge you will know what you need and what you don’t. Once you have a good foundation you can expand on what you started with. In my Preps I started in the beginning. I started with a Bug out Bag. I could outfit it to my needs and the initial cost to my budget was minimal. I scavenged the entire contents from spare items in my home. Once this was done I had the minimum of what was needed in the short term. It was not until this was done that I started to supplement with purchased items and gear. Once I finished with that I moved onto Bug out Bags for the rest of my family members. This may seem silly but it prepared me for the big picture and was the first step to building up my preparations. I have only been at this for a little over a year and I have four complete Bug-Out Bags and just a little over two months worth of stored food. I started small and am working up. I would be farther along but it is slow going and the budget is tight. I am quite surprised at how much I have accomplished in the short period that I have been doing this. I just did my first rotation of supplies in my Bug out bags and used the food in a grand dinner for the family. Even the misses was pleasantly surprised by the meal I had made from the BOB preps.
4. Make all of your preparations work for you and your family. If your spouse and children are not 100% on board than you may have to think of their needs and prepare accordingly. Especially if it involves children under the age of 10. Try to engage them by making preparations fun. For that stubborn spouse who still has issues with Prepping just be patient. The first time you have a major power outage or severe blizzard and is in a panic calmly break out some of your preps and assure her that it will be ok and to stop worrying. This will speak volumes more than anything you will ever say to her. It worked with my other half. I still have a bit of convincing to do but she is more open to some of my ideas now.
5. Make friends and allies. You can’t do it alone no matter how prepared you think you are. The right friends can save your butt in any emergency. Knowing who you can count on will be worth their weight in gold. Avoid the type that will leech from you. If they don’t seem to care about anything other than how much they can get out of you than they are not worth the effort. Those would be the kind of friends who would knock on your door WTSHTF and use up all of your preps and leave you and your family in a hanging. This is not a friend that I would want around in the end. Make lasting trusting friendships and always be true to your words. NEVER EVER Break your promises to your friends.
Be sure to make friends with your local law enforcement {in a small community}.You can avoid a lot of trouble that way and if your in good with the police local chief or sheriff they may even enlist your help. The more help you render in a crisis the more likely you will not be the target for Johnny Law when TSHTF. Local businesses are also valuable allies when crunch time comes. This can make the difference when it comes to getting that needed item that you neglected to get when things were good. This will also work in your favor when you are trying to get this item versus the last minute customer trying to get it. Be generous with the shop owner and render any help he or she may need. This can be done during good times or bad times. I once helped a shop owner catch a shoplifter and we became real good friends as a result. This worked out very well. He cut me some good deals on his merchandise and I was able to get items weeks before they were put on the shelf. I was also able to have him set certain items aside for me when I was not able to buy them right away. I always made it a point to thank him and check in on him at least once or twice a week just to shoot the breeze. Remember you never know when you will make a good friend just by helping them out. The simplest help can be of great value to those in need. Never ask for anything in return for your help. People who are grateful will thank you and will remember you. A lasting impression goes along way when the time comes when you may need the help. If they know you are in trouble they will be falling all over themselves coming to your aid.
6. Lists, lists, and more lists. I can’t emphasize this one enough. You will go insane trying to keep track of everything without a list. I also keep a journal to track my progress and to write down any ideas that I have or to just ramble off some thoughts about the whole prepping idea.
This is also where I draw up some of my more creative designs for improvised survival gear. Try to avoid using any of the electronic kind of tracking lists journals etc. In the event of a power failure,all of your efforts to keep track of everything will have been a waste of time. You will have no way to get the information that is so valuable. Good old paper and pencil is your best bet.
7. Assemble a good survival Library. One of he best places to find what you need is all of those used book stores. There may be a lot of old books out there but when it comes down to it the information contained within, they are priceless. Thrift stores and Goodwill stores occasionally have some older how-to books once in a while. Don’t be turned off by the print date. I have a book from 1975 that has more valuable information on such things as repairing your plumbing to patching drywall than anything that is in current print. At least for the price. I paid 29 cents for this book. I went to Walden Books and looked in the do it your self section to see what they had on the subject. I found a similar book but it was $25 bucks and the information was virtually the same as my book. See tip #2 on this. So for the fraction of the cost I had the same information.
8. Check SurvivalBlog, daily. I can’t say enough about this one. Just trust me on this one, it is a must in my book. Even missing it a couple of days and you will be sitting in front of your computer for a few hours trying to catch up on your reading. This will cost you time when you could be doing other prepping.
9. Take each day and read, study and apply your survival knowledge. Read a book on any subject that can help you to survive. Learn a skill and perfect it, so you can use this skill in a TEOTWAWKI scenario. For those who are disabled such as myself find a Valuable skill that fits your capabilities. Be it anything from mathematics to drafting or arts crafts. If you can design a simple machine someone will build it for you. Not all people have the skill or patients to sit down and design mechanical device. Still others can’t draw a stick figure to save their life. Sure a lot of contractors know how to read a blue print but very few know how to actually draw one up. So if you have a similar skill pursue it. I can’t build anything out of wood but I can draw up the plans to build a small house with a complete list of materials and cost. Ask me to build it and I would fail. I have neither the strength or the endurance to build it.
10. Learn what you need and use what you learn. Think outside the box so that your box is always full. Pack smart not hard. If you learn all of these skills and never use them than you will never know if skill you read about was worth learning in the first place. Practice, practice, practice makes perfect.
These are my top ten tips to preparing. I will have more to come as time goes on. This is not an all inclusive list but these are the things that I use everyday to help me and mine to get ready. There is enough information out there on prepping and making and storing this and that. I hope to cover the how to get to there from here as well as doing it in a way that helps everyone, including those who [, like me,] are disabled.