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.