Five Crucial Items for Any Survival Kit
 

We've been talking together quite a while about prepping

and survival. I thought it might be a good idea to do a

little bit of a recap because of the recent events of Hurricane Dorian. 

Let's take a minute to make sure that we've got all the major

bases covered.

 There are a lot of different things that go into

surviving. We don't always think about them because

society provides many of them to us. However, if society

breaks down, we won't be able to count on having fresh

water and food available.

Basically, our survival depends on three things:

maintaining our body temperature, getting plenty of clean

water to drink, and eating enough nutritious food.

Seems rather simple, doesn't it? Yet, we spend much of our

lives trying to make sure that we have those things.

Should a breakdown of society occur, we will spend pretty

much all of our time taking care of them.

To fulfill those needs, there are five basic areas of

survival equipment we need:

1. Means to create shelter

The thing which will kill us faster than anything else is

a loss of body heat. A change of only two percent in our

body temperature is enough to reduce our efficiency. A

change in ten percent is enough to kill us if not

reversed.

The human body is an amazing device, which can do a lot to

regulate its own temperature, but there are limits.

Shelter exists to help us protect our bodies from the

elements, thereby allowing us to maintain our body

temperature.

Basically, this means that shelter accomplishes two

things: insulates us from the ambient temperature and

protects us from getting wet. Those things are

accomplished by a combination of the clothing we wear and

the homes we live in.

Yes, our clothing is part of our shelter. It insulates us

to keep in body heat. Some types of clothing protect our

bodies from wind and water as well.

Our home provides the same things: insulation and

protection from water. However, in a survival situation,

we may only use part of our home because it would be

harder to heat the whole thing.

If we are caught away from home, then we would need the

means to construct some sort of temporary shelter. This

could be a tent, lean-to or even a cave.

2. Means to produce fire (heat)

Fire does many things for us, mostly providing heat. We

also use it for cooking, killing the naturally occurring

bacteria in our food. Some types of food can make us very

sick if eaten uncooked.

To produce fire, we not only need matches or a lighter but

something that will catch fire easily. This is called

tinder. Tinder can be a piece of newspaper or a part of an

old bird's nest. It can also be commercially available

fire starters.

You can make great tinder out of cotton balls and

petroleum jelly. Just work the petroleum jelly into the

cotton balls and store them in an airtight container. When

you need a fire, set one in the midst of your fuel and

strike a match or spark.

3. Means to purify water

Clean water is critical for survival. In most cases, you

can't live for more than three days without water. Drinking

impure water can make you incredibly sick. Actually, it's

the bacteria in the water that makes you sick.

You can't count on any water being clean in a survival

situation; you have to purify it all. That means having

either a mechanical filter or chemical to purify it.

You can also purify water by boiling it if needed, but

that requires you tap into your stock of fuel.

Stockpiling water can be useful, but having a means to

purify it is much better for weathering any long-term

crisis.

4. Means to find or produce food

Your survival kit will have food in it, but eventually,

that food will run out. When it does, you need some

alternate means to find, catch or produce food.

We talked about raising chickens for food, as well as

planting a vegetable garden. Both of those are very

effective - but they won't help you if you're away from

home. You'll need something else.

There is food growing in nature. Animals and plants grow

wild and can be eaten. However, you'll need some means

of catching or gathering those food items. You'll also

need the knowledge to be able to recognize what's good

for you versus what's deadly.

Don't wait until a crisis hits to start finding ways of

producing, catching or gathering food; start now. That

way, when the time comes, you'll be ready.

5. Means to heal our bodies

Injuries and sickness occur. That's one thing you can

count on. Therefore, it is prudent to be ready for them

by having the necessary supplies and medicines to help

your body heal.

The human body has the ability to heal itself from a lot

of things. However, major injuries may be too much

for the body to heal alone. Not only that, injuries can

provide opportunities for infection, which can kill.

Having a good first-aid kit in your survival supplies is

essential. It should include the means to treat all types

of injuries, as well as medicines to take care of common

illnesses. Dying of sickness isn't going to help you or

your family.

We could cover a lot of other things as well, such as

tools and means of communication. But those five things

are the most critical items to keep in any survival kit;

whether in your home, in your car or on your person.

Zombie Apocalypse

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When I do research on emergency preparedness I am quite amazed by all the references to the ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ in forums and other survival-themed websites.

15 Items To Consider Hoarding

10 Ways to Ensure Your Family Gets Fed in an Emergency

Rely on these ten preps when facing a crisis situation:

1. Know your emergencies

The first step towards feeding yourself and your family in

an emergency are knowing your possible scenarios. Any

security achieved through prepping without this step is

essentially won by luck.

By being aware of the types of disasters that could strike

you, what they would mean for your food supply and their

the likelihood, you are able to prepare for them.

Ideally, you would only need to prepare for the longest

and most difficult of the disasters that could plausibly

strike your family, but few people can organize such

extensive preps quickly.

Instead, be aware of even the smaller situations that

could strike you and which ones are most likely. I am

talking about common scenarios such as suddenly being

without any income.

Start by preparing for those less life-threatening, but

still food supply-endangering, situations, and then grow

your supplies to cover greater disasters long-term.

That way, if something that is less serious but more

likely happens before you achieve full zombie apocalypse

readiness, you are prepared to handle the minor set-back.

2. Calculate your needs

Don't prep haphazardly. Look seriously at the needs of all

of your family members and take them into account.

If you don't know how much each person eats on a daily

basis, keep food diaries to calculate your caloric intake

and how many meals you need daily to feel full.

These days it's easy. Use an online calorie calculator to

check what you ought to be eating to maintain your current

body based on your age, gender, weight and activity level.

There are even apps with barcode scanners to easily track

your meals and snacks.

To ensure that you don't consistently go over your planned

intake, create a sample meal plan based on your preps.

3. Go one step further

If you really want to make sure that your family is going

to be fed, go beyond your calculations.

Prepare for a few extra days. Prepare more snacks. Take

the irregularities into account. People get hungry; a

couple of preps might spoil. Life isn't picture perfect

so prepare to supplement your initial plan.

4. Store canned goods

Canned goods, whether store-bought or homemade, are 

an excellent way to ensure that your family can eat in an

emergency.

Cans can be dented and glass jars can be broken, but

overall, they are pretty durable. Canned foods will not spoil

from damp conditions, and they can be eaten cold if the

need arises.

5. Store dried goods

Dried foodstuffs can often be a far more economical option

than canned goods, and they are a great complement to

store together.

In addition to your dried grains, from rice and bulgur to

pasta and the many varieties of beans, don't forget about

the more flavourful dry foods that can be reconstituted.

A great variety of vegetables can be dried and then

reconstituted for soups or stews. Dried mushrooms may add

little in terms of calories, but just what you need in

terms of flavor and minerals.

The same is true for many other dried goods, such as

spices and seaweed.

Don't forget all of those dry staple goods that you are

used to having, from cornflour to baking powder.

Foreign staples you might not usually store can also come

in handy. Chickpea flour, for example, can be turned into

instant protein-rich hummus, a versatile dip or spread.

6. Store dry prepared foods

Dry foods that are ready to eat are not just the domain of

those poorly prepared souls who scurry to the supermarket

the moment a crisis is announced.

Many of them are, but there are some with a longer

shelf-life that should definitely qualify as prepping

food. Or, well, snacks.

You shouldn't expect to get a large percentage of your

calories from snacks, such as meal replacement bars, rice

cakes or potato chips, but don't underestimate the snacks!

They can give you quick energy when you feel too tired.

They can raise your spirits. And yes, they can feed

you and your family.

7. Store ready meals

What about ready meals? Some survivalists do all their

preparations in the form of military rations. That's fine, but

it's too expensive an option for most.

Even if it would be far too expensive for you to prepare

large quantities of ready meals, consider storing a few.

The variety will keep your family from developing food

fatigue.

Not to mention that there may be times when you can't

cook, and in an emergency, there is no option to order

delivery pizza or Chinese take-out.

8. Grow your own

Growing your own food is the most secure way to feed your

family. Not everyone will have space or ability to

grow all of their own food, but even a little bit helps.

If you grow some portion of your own food, you will also

be able to carry on feeding your family once your preps

have all run-out.

9. Have something to trade

Sometimes all the prepping in the world isn't enough.

Something will run out. If you have prepared something to

trade for either money or food, you'll be better equipped

for long-term survival.

10. Prepare for alternative cooking methods

Unless you are prepping only ready meals and snacks, you

must make sure not to make the largest food prep mistake

in the books: not having a way to prepare your food.

Take into account how much time and fuel you will need.

If you are storing dry beans, for example, remember that

dry beans, even when left to soak in water overnight,

take up to one hour of cooking.

If you are serving those beans with regular rice and some

tomato sauce, you are looking at upwards of an hour and a

half of the fuel for one meal.

Whatever strategies you choose to go with, remember to

plan redundancies!

3 Things You Must Do Immediately Following Any Disaster

You've got all your preps in order and your family on board, but do you know how you'd immediately react when the crisis is upon you?

We're talking the first 30 seconds upon disaster striking, which may be all you have to come up with a plan to ensure your family's survival.

Ideally, you have access to multiple means of communication and live in a place that could alert you to the coming of some kind of threat, giving you enough time to react and formulate your plan to hunker down or evacuate to a safer location.

In the United States, there are tornado-warning sirens located in most Midwestern towns. The East Coast usually has a heads up on hurricanes and severe storms by means of local weather reports.

Unfortunately, folks living in Southeast Asia aren't as lucky. Recent tsunamis have killed, displaced and affected thousands of individuals who were without warning of disaster striking.

The same is true all over the world, where flash flooding, tornados, blizzards, hurricanes, tsunamis and other violent weather patterns are all too common and inflict serious damage.

That's why it's important to have a plan laid out ahead of time and know how to react as soon as a crisis situation rears its ugly head, even if there's no guarantee you'll have a heads up to the coming crisis.

Every prepper, family and survival group will have their own priorities and varying course of action of what to do when disaster strikes. It all very much depends on your location, the type of disaster and your individual circumstances.

Regardless of whether you intend to hunker down at home or bug out and get out of dodge, the way you react in the first minute of a crisis will determine your course of survival.

Below we'll identify 3 things you should (or shouldn't) do within the first 60 seconds (give or take) of a disaster survival situation.

 1. Don't Stall - Don't Panic

The immediate human response is to panic in a dangerous or life-threatening situation. Eventually, adrenaline kicks in, and you go into survival mode, but it's a very natural response to lose your head when facing a crisis situation.

Don't. You need to take a moment to break, collect your thoughts, and start putting your emergency preparedness plan into place, which you should have laid out well in advance of doomsday.

If you intend to bug out, the sooner you do so the better. The state of roads and navigable routes will be unknown.

You should have several escape routes in place and multiple meet-up destinations laid out for your family or group. If you're relying on a bug-out vehicle, make sure it's fueled, loaded with your gear and ready to hit the road within 60 seconds.

If you're hunkering down, your goal will likely be to get your family to a designated safe room or shelter.

Immediately upon making sure everyone is safe, start coming up with a plan as to how you're going to get through the situation.

The most important thing is to remain calm. You should already have your plan laid out and your family on board, so all you have to do is rely on your training and put your preps into action.

 2. Have a Back-Up Plan

Disaster often strikes with little notice and brings with it unknown variables that affect the way you survive.

Even if you're intent on hunkering down at home no matter what goes on outside, you should always have an escape route and bug-out plan in place.

If you're bugging out, you should also have a back-up plan in case vehicles, communications, evacuation routes and rendezvous points are compromised. Be ready to adapt and react to new challenges.

Even after the first minute of a disaster, your situation could change dramatically. You could be following your plan when all of a sudden the second wave of chaos erupts outside.

That begs the importance of always being prepared and having a Plan B in place. From there, the same rules apply as above.

3. Gather Water and Food

Among the most critical components for survival are food and, more importantly, water.

It's likely that a major disaster will cause electricity, water and other basic services to be disrupted if not shut off completely.

So whether you're bugging out or hunkering down, you should store/carry as much water as possible.

At home, you can fill up all available bathtubs, sinks and other spare vessels before the pipes run dry.

Alternatively, know your way to the closest source of freshwater or ground well. If bugging out, stick to routes that will keep you close to a source of potable water, and make your designated location equally close and well stocked.

You don't want to be part of the masses of people running to the grocery store when all hell is breaking loose - that is if they remain open. In any case, looting will occur sooner or later, and you want to avoid the mobs at all costs.

Make sure that every member of your family or group has at least a 72-hour supply of food and water on hand to survive the first three days of a disaster.

If you're hunkering down, make sure your shelter or safe room is well stocked with plenty of extra food to survive long-term, along with medical supplies and other essential items.

In the first 60 seconds of an emergency, make sure you're considering food and water as they are more important to your survival than (almost) anything else.

Though not an exhaustive list, considering these three things ahead of time will give you a much better chance of surviving a disaster situation.

If you remain calm, follow your established plan, have a back-up plan, and secure enough food and water to survive the first wave, you'll be much better off to come up with a way to thrive long-term, no matter what's happening outside.

10 Things To Do Now

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Find out more about common sense survival prepping right here

How To Start Prepping: Top Ten List

Find out more about some common sense survival prepping ideas right here

Why your family might not survive the coming crisis

Today I want to talk to you about something very serious
but a little bit uncomfortable.

But before I do, I want you to ask yourself this vital
question:

"What steps would I take to ensure my family's safety and 
security after a crisis or natural disaster?"


There is no humorous way to say this so let's not beat
around the bush. I want to talk to you about the many
reasons why your family might not survive a crisis.

* The most common killers

Let's say that a crisis situation descends on your area,
whether it's a natural disaster, an industrial disaster, a
financial disaster, or a conflict disaster.

Depending on the type, the disaster itself might not even
be the biggest killer. The aftermath can often do just as
much damage to an insufficiently prepared population.

Thirst is one of the major killers in nearly all disaster
scenarios. You can survive for three weeks without food,
but only three days without water.

Because the water supply is often one of the first things
to get affected in a catastrophe, it is incredibly
important to have access to clean water.

In addition, you should have several ways of filtering and
purifying unclean water.

Just like we often take water for granted today, we often
take protection against the elements for granted. But
insufficient protection against weather weakens and kills.

It is not just a matter of having the tools to stay warm
in the cold, or cool off in extreme heat.

Without staying dry and out of the wind, you'll become
more susceptible to cold weather.

Hygiene is another factor that we take for granted, but in
a survival scenario, poor hygiene leads to infections that
affect your overall survival odds.

Lastly, there is the human factor: violence.

As much as we would like to think that an emergency brings
out the best in us, our most compassionate selves, in
some people it unleashes the beast.

But, more so than making already ambiguously moral people
bad, disasters have a way of bringing out the
opportunists and giving rise to already violent tendencies.

Take Houston, Texas, for example: When the victims of
Hurricane Katrina was sheltered there, homicides went up
by 23%.

"But what about hunger?" you may ask. "I have all of these
food preps!"

Of course, hunger kills. Hunger leaves you weak, as well
as open to viruses and bacteria. But you knew that! You've
prepped for it or you are prepping for it now.

Your family probably won't be dying from hunger.

* Incorrect prepping

That said when it comes to longer-term disaster
situations, food availability does, of course, play an
important role.

Faced with a three-year disaster, you won't survive if your
food preps expire in a year. And if all you have are beans
and rice, you may suffer from palate fatigue and fall prey
to illness.

Incorrect prepping kills. That said, it's not usually
incorrect food prepping that is the most immediate killer.

The real problem arises when the entire family's needs
aren't fully considered.

For example, if you have young children their needs will
be different from yours, and if you don't prep properly
for your pets, they may not make it.

This goes far beyond food and water and into other aspects
such as protection against the elements, first aid,
hygiene products, and more.

Bug-out scenarios are particularly precarious. Fleeing
home means that incorrect prepping becomes all the more
dangerous.

Failing to prep medications is a killer in a large number
of scenarios that most preppers would not even consider
disasters or emergencies.

Even a few days of being snowed in can become highly
dangerous if you don't stock your medications and supply
is running low.

* Dependency

Dependency is the deadly cousin of incorrect prepping. In
particular, I am talking about dependency on people.

Let's say that there is a bug-out scenario and you are far
away and unable to get to your family.

What would that mean for them if you are the only one who
is strong enough to carry the main bug-out bag with the
necessary supplies?

What would that mean for them if you are the only one who
knows how to use all of those survival supplies?

What if you have designed the entire bug-out plan around
your very specific survival skills?

Your family will be dead in the water without you.

There are some dependencies that you just have to accept,
of course. An infant will not carry on without you, nor
will a weak elderly or handicapped family member.

When it comes to certain dependants, such as certain types
of pets, you might even have to make the tough decision to
sacrifice them because of their dependency.

* Insufficient skills

Last, but certainly not least, your family simply might not
have the knowledge or capabilities to survive. When you are
the lead survivalist in the family, their insufficient
skills can lead to dependency.

But insufficient skills can apply to anyone and does not
necessarily mean that some family members are more
dependent than others.

Insufficient skills often boils down to not enough drills.

It is not enough to have the tools; you have to know how
to use them in a given emergency. That will give you the
ability AND the confidence to see it through.

Don't forget about the little ones. A lot of smaller
children have routines that they are used to and will have
a massive meltdown when those routines are broken.

Your toddler won't be able to learn to build a shelter,
but he should, for example, be able to fall asleep, to
eat, and to stay relatively quiet in an emergency
scenario.

I hope that was more eye-opening than terrifying, although
a little bit of fear is not necessarily a bad thing!

 Main Causes of Food Shortages

This is not just an academic exercise; it's one that will

help you to see food shortages as they develop - before

it's too late.

Unfortunately, you may have many opportunities to watch

these common food shortage causes unfold.

Food shortages are currently a reality affecting large

parts of the world, including impoverished families in

developed countries.

Greece, Spain, China, India, and Venezuela are just some

of the countries where very large numbers of people are

currently going hungry. But, hunger is coming closer and

closer to home.

In the United States, nearly 50 million people are living

with the uncertainty of not knowing when and where they

will get their next meal.

What causes this widespread hunger?

* Nature

Extreme weather is increasing in many parts of the world.

Drought, in particular, has been a major player in food

shortages during these early years of the 21st century.

It is currently the most common reason for the food shortage.

Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, and Guatemala are just some of

the countries currently suffering from several years'

long food crisis at the hands of drought.

Although the farmers in these countries are used to

dealing with low levels of rainfall, often by selling off

livestock, several consecutive years of drought have left

their resources depleted.

* Poverty

A more common reason for hunger in all regions of 

the world is the economy.

Greek charities report that around 90% of the people in

lower class city neighborhoods are currently subsiding on

food banks and soup kitchens.

The cause? The collapse of the Greek economy in 2009.

Without jobs, it doesn't matter that there is food to be

had; many people can no longer afford it.

And when the poor are hungry, they are weak, more likely

to fall ill, and less likely to be able to take action to

get out of poverty and satiate their hunger.

Poverty is a self-perpetuating hunger cycle.

* Lacking infrastructure

In the developing world, one of the main reasons for

hunger is that the infrastructure needed to feed the

hungry is not prioritized, or there are no funds for it.

There are not enough roads, silos, and warehouses. There

is no infrastructure for getting water to the crops.

This either raises the costs of the food produced beyond

what people can pay, or it means that the food does not

get to the people regardless of what they are willing to

pay.

At its worst, it means that food is produced but spoils.

This is a major problem for many developing countries; yet

their governments continue to spend money on urban

developments.

Because the farmers cannot sell their food, they cannot

grow more, and so a downward spiral begins.

* Unsustainable farming practices

This world is rife with unsound farming practices.

Deforestation, overgrazing, and over-cropping are just a

few of the problems the environment faces.

We poison our water with fertilizers, and we kill all of

the pollinators with insecticides so that our crops won't

grow in the future.

We leave our fields bare in the winter winds, leading to

large soil losses and we spread human waste on food

crops, introducing diseases into our soil.

We plow and we spray so much that nothing lives in the

soil, and the only way to make it fertile again is to

poison our water with more chemical fertilizers.

Never mind how we are patenting modified seed so that

farmers in developing countries can't save seed from year

to year but have to plunge into financial ruin and go

hungry themselves.

Don't get me wrong; I love the countryside and have great

respect for farmers. It is really good out there!

But, there are also widespread bad practices, even in the

developed world. Farmers are often forced into these

practices by government subsidies and regulations.

In many parts of the world, the soil is simply dying. There

is nothing left for it to give - until, of course, we

start taking better care of it.

When the soil erodes, salinate and becomes desert, people

go hungry.

* War

Lastly, the war continues to be the main reason for hunger and

food shortages in the 21st century.

Unlike during World War II, when food imports were cut off

and supplies had to be saved for the troops, war-based

food crises today are often more acute.

Many of the current armed conflicts are displacing

millions of refugees. These refugees need to be fed, and

the regions giving them refuge cannot feed all of those

new hungry mouths.

It's not because those regions aren't normally perfectly

well-equipped to feed their people. There are just, very

suddenly, too many of them to feed.

There you have it, and that is not even getting into the

postulated reasons for coming food crises, such as global

climate change. But it's a good start to understanding why

so many go hungry now and why your family might go without

food in the future.

7 Shopping Strategies to Build Your Disaster Supplies

By now you have some idea of what it means to be a

prepper and you are probably ready to get started collecting your own survival supplies.

It can be a daunting project at first. On the one hand,

you want as many preps at home as soon as possible, but on

the other hand, covering all your bases would take a hefty

budget.

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:

Amassing preps quickly - or - Amassing preps cheaply

You will also have to decide whether it is more important

to have the highest quality preps or to have higher

quantity.

Prepping is all about prioritizing. If you are not already

a master prioritizer, then prepping will help you develop

the skills to get there.

To help you get started, here are seven strategies that

you can use when building your disaster supplies.

1. Prepper kits... and we're done!

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 calorie needs or

learn to make 500 different dishes with rice and beans;

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

the 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.

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. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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

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. 

Learn a little about Bug Out Bags

 5 Supermarket Items That Sell Out Instantly in a Crisis

 Let’s look into a worst-case scenario!

 Disaster preparedness can be a

difficult topic to explore, but it can also be very

empowering once you start to take action.

In this and the next few newsletters, we are going to dig

deeper into the prepping mindset and look at the specific

items you will need to buy now before it's too late.

But before you go any further, I implore you to check out

this short (and jaw-dropping) video that will show you

exactly how quickly essential items will sell out

following any crisis.

This is scary stuff, but you need to understand it to

survive when all hell breaks loose.

We are starting today with the top five grocery items that

you can't keep putting off.

These are the items that sell out instantly in a crisis,

and if you wait until you know that a crisis is coming,

chances are that you will find the shelves bare.

Remember, though, that these items alone will not get you

through every emergency situation. They are simply the

items people who do not prep will desperately want.

They are also items that you can forego in certain

situations if you decide to prepare differently. We will

talk a little bit about that too.

Even if you ultimately decide to do things differently,

understanding this list will make you a better prepper

because you will better understand your needs.

Let's get started!

1. Bottled water

Most people can survive for three weeks without food. But

go for three days without water and you'll be, generally

speaking, dead.

In our day-to-day lives, we don't often have to stop and

consider water. It's just there in the tap, all day every

day. It's cheap, and it is abundant. Not to mention it's

clean.

It doesn't take much for the water supply of an entire

city to spoil, however.

A flash flood or a hurricane can drive all sorts of

impurities into the water, and there's no telling the

catastrophic chemical damage an industrial accident could

do.

Did you know that the World Health Organization recommends

5 gallons of water per day per person? If it's shocking

to read now, just imagine only learning this when the

supply runs dry!

That is just for drinking and the very most basic hygiene.

If you hope to cook food, wash more thoroughly,

or do laundry, that number multiplies.

That is why water is the first thing that supermarkets run

out of when shit hits the fan. And that is why you need to

keep a significant supply of water.

It doesn't have to be the pre-bottled stuff. If you prefer

to buy food-grade containers and fill them with your own

water, that works just as well. But you will need water

and plenty of it.

2. Canned foods

Upon hearing warnings about impending doom, most people

will immediately think of canned foods. Why?

While it is quite possible to prep without any canned

foods at all, for example, using only dried foods or army

rations, most preppers like to stock canned food.

Canned food is brilliant for survival. It has a very long

shelf-life is easy to store and can be eaten cold and

uncooked if need be.

It is also possible to store canned foods without

subjecting your family to the toxic coatings found inside

these metal canisters, but it is more work.

To avoid those toxins, you would have to buy food canned

in glass or to can food yourself.

Remember that even canned food has an expiration date, and

be sure to buy things that your family is willing to eat.

Ten containers of the corned beef hash will do you no good if

you can't stand the stuff!

3. No-prep-necessary dry foods

In those relatively short-term emergencies, in particular

those deriving from extreme weather, dry ready-to-eat

foodstuffs disappear from the supermarket shelves in no

time.

Foods in this category would at any other time just be

considered snacks. In a crisis, however, they get promoted

to a full meal since they require no cooking or special

storage, such as a refrigerator.

This includes biscuits, crisp bread, dried nuts, rusks,

crackers, muesli bars, trail mix, and shortbread.

You may also include in this category those vacuum-packed

cakes and muffins which have hardly a natural ingredient

in them yet an astonishing shelf-life.

The reason that people run out and buy this is because

they aren't preppers. When unfortunate things happen, they

don't have the tools to cook or heat food.

You, on the other hand, are a prepper. You do not strictly

speaking need to survive on potato chips and the kind of

"blueberry" muffins without a single blueberry in them.

If you want to, though, go ahead and stock up on some of

these things anyway. Little snacks go a long way toward

raising spirits and providing an energy boost.

And maybe the emergency situation will be such that you

are just too tired to eat anything else.

* Bread

Bread and all of its relatives, from humble hamburger buns

to fancy croissants, are quick to sell out for the same

reason that dry ready-to-eat snacks are.

Although its shelf-life is often quite short, bread needs

no preparation and offers a lot of energy. White bread in

particular doesn't provide much in the way of nutrients,

but that doesn't matter much in a crisis.

Bread is great if you have no other food storage and no

way of preparing food, but the average prepper won't need

to run out and buy bread.

And given its short shelf-life, there is no real reason to

stock bread either.

* Beer

Given that it is essentially liquid bread, it is quite

appropriate that beer flies off the shelves in any

emergency.

Beer contains plenty of calories, making it very easy to

stock up on energy by drinking a few bottles.

On the other hand, alcohol makes you drowsy so if you

were hoping to actually feel more energized, you had

better stick to light beer.

The real reason that people stock beer in a crisis

probably has more to do with comfort than calories. If

that's something you sympathize with, by all means stock

beer!

Even if you don't drink much beer yourself, beer is

excellent for bartering with your neighbors for other

valuable goods.

Now that you know what you'll need to buy to keep your

belly full in an empty-shelves situation, in the next

post we'll look at the strategies you can use to

prep efficiently, cheaply and quickly.

Supermarket Shortages

Make no mistake, shortages come about very quickly when an

emergency looms on the horizon.

Most people aren't preppers. As a result, they are not

equipped with the tools to handle most emergency

situations. When one arises, they panic.

That panic generally translates into fleeing or shopping.

Not leisurely shopping, of course, but intense, highly

focused sprees with the intent to grab whatever might be

needed to get through declining circumstances.

But regardless of what they do in the aftermath, non-

preppers are exposing themselves to situations where they

might be out of electricity, heat or water, and they

won't be set up to handle that.

When the news breaks, they flood the supermarket aisles,

leaving the shelves empty of anything that could possibly

be useful to you and your family in the coming crisis.

Are you equipped to handle an emergency scenario, or will

you be amongst those who feel the panic mounting as you

find shelf after shelf bare?

If you think that you might be one of those unprepared

persons, make a choice today to change.

Choose not to be part of the panicked masses.

Prepping is not just for people in tin foil hats and

bunkers, hiding from the government, aliens, communists

and zombies.

Prepping is for everyone who doesn't want to be left

standing in an empty supermarket with no way to feed a

family if the electricity goes out in the coming storm.

Prepping is for everyone who want to stay comfortable and

in good spirits through five days of being snowed in.

Prepping is for everyone who doesn't want to risk not

getting their child or spouse to the hospital soon enough

because of a sudden allergic reaction.

And, seeing as you've signed up for this newsletter,

chances are that prepping seems right to you.

* If you were a prepper...

What would a crisis look like?

Instead of rushing to the supermarket in the face of an

emergency scenario, you would be focusing on "bugging in,"

a survivalist term meaning to shelter in place.

Instead of shopping, you would be breaking out your heat

and light sources, your cooking equipment, your food and

your hygiene supplies, and you would be securing your

property to minimize damage.

Or maybe you would have a dedicated plan in place, meaning

that you weren't forced to stay and weather the storm.

Instead you would "bug out," meaning to shelter elsewhere.

Instead of shopping, you would grab your bug-out bag, put

your family in the car, and drive to a safe location.

And if you had to stop on the way, it wouldn't matter that

all hotel rooms are already taken because you'd have a

comfortable tent, a seasonal sleeping bag and food to

keep you going.

* If you aren't a prepper...

How differently could this scenario play out?

I'm not here to make you feel bad, or scare you for no

reason, but I want you to think about what would happen if

you got to the supermarket to find there was no food left.

You know that extreme weather is coming. You might be out

of heat. You might be out of electricity. Your gas supply

will be cut off. The water mains may be polluted.

The supermarket is out of bread, crackers and canned

foods. Everything available will have to be cooked

somehow. The looters have taken everything down to the

last package of hot dog buns.

The aisles are all out of water, milk, juice, beer and

carbonated beverages. Even expired items are becoming a

hot commodity.

There are no candles and no lamp oil. The flashlights are

gone, but that doesn't matter much since so are the last

of the batteries.

If stores had once stocked blankets and camping gear,

there is no sign of that now.

Where do you go from here? What about children? And pets?

When you prep, you ask these questions while life is still

comfortable so that you never have to live through that

panic and fear.

* How to get started

So, you want to be prepared, but you don't know where to

start?

There are many strategies to prepping. Stay with us, and

we will discuss a few of them in the coming posts.

But if you are impatient to get started - and who wouldn't

be? - best begin with the basics. Start by making a list

of who you are prepping for.

It's such a simple thing, but many people overlook this

step. Instead of making sure that they have supplies for

all family members and pets, they wing it. Preppers never

wing it; preppers consider all the details.

Now that you have a list of all the people, and pets, you

will be prepping for, start with the easy everyday things.

Do you have a sufficient first-aid kit? Does it really

cover all of your bases? Is there enough for the amount of

people in your household? Do you lack pet-specific health

care items?

What about a brief heating failure on a cold day? Do you

have enough extra blankets to keep all of your family

members warm throughout the night?

What about your car? Is there a small but mighty first-aid

kit in there? Are there warm clothes or rain ponchos for

everyone in case of a breakdown in bad weather?

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