Jim:
I just finished reading “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse”, and it was great. It was very enjoyable and also worthwhile which is a rare combination in fictional literature these days.
While considering my own situation I had some thoughts which might benefit other people or at least be food for thought. I am a college student and with that comes little expendable income and living in a relatively small space in a relatively large town. in short just about the worst situation possible from a preparedness standpoint. Like many readers I am not in a place where buying 40 acres in an inland mountain area with a spring is going to be feasible for years. Up until recently I thought that because I cannot be totally prepared (if that is even possible) there was no point in doing anything at all. After a lot of consideration I realized that any improvement in the area of preparedness is significant and worthwhile. I have started buying extra canned food, ammo and fuel for my portable stove–a little bit at a time.
Having a week’s worth of food, 5 gallons of water [per person per day for a week] and a few boxes of ammo for each gun is an exponentially better place to be then empty cupboards and little or no ammo. I fall into the Dan Fong style of preparedness, so guns and ammo are relatively my strongest area. Back to the point I realized that any long process starts in small steps starting with the most common occurrence and moving to less likely ones. Thinking only about the most extreme (and relatively unlikely) multi generation TEOTWAWKI-type situation makes the task at hand seem so daunting it seems there is no point in even trying.
I think the place to start is by getting your finances in order (which in this context means spending less then you make, and have something of a safety net). It is far more likely that you will have your hours cut back at work, get laid off altogether, or have one of those $500-to-$1,000 spontaneous expenses (car repair, injury, vet bills, appliance failure, etc) then that modern society will stumble or collapse. Far too many people are one or two paychecks away from the poor house and the aforementioned occurrences hit them the hardest. Having a couple months living expenses set aside is the difference between a mild inconvenience and an emergency. Even from a disaster standpoint money matters. Just look at New Orleans during [Hurricane] Katrina; people with some resources had the option to leave! [And conversely, those didn’t have the means stayed put and suffered for it.]
After getting your finances in order, next focus on getting about a weeks worth of supplies, a decent first aid kit and some more ammo. With reasonable planning even lower income readers can do this. The way I did it was to tighten the proverbial belt and free up about 20 dollars a week which now goes for preparedness items. Think that is not possible? Track everything you spend money on for a couple of weeks then sit down and look at what you bought. By making drip coffee at home instead of getting caffèlattes at Starbucks, cooking instead of going out, having your Saturday night couple of drinks at home instead of a bar, et cetera, almost everyone can free up some money.
Next comes one month worth of beans, bullets and Band-Aids. (This is the stage that I am currently working on). After that 90 days, 120, 180, et cetera.
Realistically, a person could probably not ride out TEOTWAWKI living in an apartment but that doesn’t mean that it is not worth being as prepared as possible before circumstances allow for a more rural home. (Or if you do not choose that sort of lifestyle at all.) Take care of each other, – Ryan