Invest them in a proper garden and perhaps even hunting gear/licenses. Things that can keep on rewarding themselves, even if you don’t end up in a SHTF scenario.
To add, a couple classes on how to grow and maintain produce. Or even a structured class in a skill.
If food shortage is the possibility, maybe information about substitutions of certain ingredients to achieve the same result, examples from 1930-40's cook books. But if you're talking more intense shortages that mean weeks between resupply, grow the most important produce and manage diet the best you can. Good personal health, pays back in dividends with all situations.
The biggest prep is going to be target practice, processing an animal, and preserving it. Anyone with a rifle can kill a deer. The rest is what you need to work on.
If you're worried about food, invest in food and the things to prepare it. There are a lot of pages out there, some filled with great info, and some filled with nonsense.
Step 1; ignore any BS about hunting, foraging, anything like that. Even IF you already had all the skills and inclination to become a great, great forager, and IF you were living in an area with any amount of game...well, in a collapse situation, there are going to be many, many people competing for very few calories.
Step 2; consider what you're concerned will fail. If there is a loss of utilities, how will you cook without gas or electricity? Solar cooking is one option; cold soaking is another. Hayboxes let you cook with much less fuel. Cooing in something like a wok takes WAY less fuel than an oven. Are you going to store wheat? Super, if you know how to process it; do you have a grain mill? It's one thing to store food and another thing to be able to cook it.
Step 3; start relatively small and learn as you go. Learn to store, to rotate, and to use what you store. 2K is plenty of buy, say, a good grain mill and several months worth of food with plenty of cash left over. Maybe you decide you're worried about more than food shortages, so you buy a small solar panel and battery to at least keep your phone charged and a flashlight or two going. Or maybe you focus just on food, and as time goes on, you learn what you like, can prepare, and want more of. Buy more of it and store more of it.
Thank you! I really believe that being prepared for the future involves financial prep as well as gear, my friend's uncle maxed out a bunch of cards for y2k and I don't want to let my worries turn into making my current reality hard.
$2,000 you say? I have just the thread for you. I return to it on occasion:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/comments/vnutev/if\_you\_had\_2000\_to\_put\_into\_your\_preps\_what\_would/](https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/comments/vnutev/if_you_had_2000_to_put_into_your_preps_what_would/)
Sounds like you're off to a good start!
I'd look into doing your own Mylar bags. This is a relatively cheap and effective way to store shelf-stable dry foods for longer periods of time. It won't last as long as freeze dried food but you're only paying regular supermarket prices plus the cost of bags.
Good items to put in there include oatmeal, beans (please don't ask this sub which kind of bean is best), rice, pasta, cereal, pet food, flour, pancake mix, and Bisquick. Some people put instant coffee in theirs but honestly I'd recommend just leaving that in its original container. Throw in an O2 absorber, seal with a clothes iron, and write the contents + date on the outside of the bag.
That will only take up a small chunk of your savings. Next I'd make sure you have basics like toilet paper, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, over-the-counter medications, and anything else that would be really, really bad to live without for a few weeks.
I'd also look around for some basic first aid courses in your area. And while you're at it, are there any courses for useful, practical skills like leatherworking or hunting that interest you?
Some people will tell you that hunting is useless because in a dire emergency, the gamelands are going to be filled with people trying to take down elk with their 380 or who think "dressing" goes on a salad. This is correct. However, there are infinite degrees of emergencies between "meat is getting hard to come by" and "civilization has collapsed". This sub sometimes goes straight to WW3, and it's important to keep perspective. Lots of people around here fill most if not all of their annual meat requirements from deer alone.
Honestly I expect to expire in a true apocalypse situation, I know I don't have the skills needed to function in a world with no wastewater treatment, no power, no real medical care, nor do I really want to try ro survive in that situation. I'm aiming to be prepared for short to medium term disasters. When I was a kid we had a couple weeks with no power due to a local disaster and my mom did her best to make sure we got through it without it being scary. It was just so boring and gross to me and I'd like to be more comfortable if it happened again.
That's an excellent perspective to have (as far as being prepared for the short-term emergencies). I agree, most people -- almost certainly including myself -- are going to lose if society completely collapses. Instead, I focus on things like job loss or supply chain disruption. Things that I stand a chance of buffering myself against.
I've got friends who daydream about TEOTWAWKI and it just doesn't seem worth it to me? Like, I love showers and creature comforts and I grew up eating clean, fully cooked food. I feel like food poisoning or poor waste management would take out most everyone. Plus who really wants to poo in a ditch for the rest of their lives? Not me.
Question about mylar bags, I'm just now looking into them. So if I have bulk food in individual packages (i.e. oatmeal, grits, cheese and crackers, nuts, etc) can I put the individual bags themselves into the mylar bags or must I buy bulk, think rice, sugar, beans, and pour that into the mylar bags, or will both scenarios work with the mylar bags? And must you heat seal or is that optional?
Get 7mil thick mylar bags from Discountmylar.com and get either an impulse sealer or a "Magic Seal MS300" which will do it all.
500gr oxygen absorbers.
Best to buy in bulk and divide into 5# per 11x14 bag.
Bulk food storage - $500
Fuel for heat and light (kerosene, propane, paraffin, etc) - $500
A non ICE vehicle and accessories (used bicycle or canoe/kayak) - $500
Solar panel, charge controller, and deep cycle battery - $500
Keep $500 of it in cash. Varying denominations. Add that to your preps. Some might say more, other people might say less. But 500 from that bonus might be a worthwhile amount without being too big of a chunk. Depending on the situation having cash on hand could be a potential lifesaver, because unless we go straight to a barter system cash will be king
This is an underrated comment. My preps and SHTF experiences revolve around hurricanes and storms. Hurricane Michael was an eye opener for me. We went 23 days without electricity. For the first 3 days or so, cash was the only way I could buy gas for the generator.
(Once we were able to get out and about, the old change jar came in handy at the Laundromat)
Our initial goal was to get three months of food and household items we use daily, such as food, tp, etc. After we achieved that, we started adding long term storage foods. Freeze dried, rice, beans, wheat, etc. in either #10 cans or 5 gallon buckets.
Beyond food the best way to prepare is to make a list of all the SHTF events that could possibly hit you, in your area, from job loss to global thermonuclear war. Order the list from statistically most likely to least likely and start prepping for the most likely. As you compete preps for one event, then move down the list to the next most likely event. The categories of items include, food, water, shelter, transportation, hygiene, medicine, protection, communication, self defense, first aid, financial and a few others I'm probably forgetting. Not all categories will be addressed in each event. For example, a job loss is not likely going to require anything to defend yourself. What you'll notice is that as you move down the list, you'll already have categories covered and the only things you'll need to add are specialty items, such as gas masks, iodine tablets, etc.
This way, you'll be prepared for the most likely events and you can add more obscure/unique items as you can.
Gun & Freeze dried foods. Those are usually safe bets. The LDS/Morman store has reasonably priced dried goods. Provident Living is the website. I’m not a Morman but it’s a good site for the basics. Augason Farms generally gets good reviews. Unless you want to be a farmer. If you just want to turn that $2k into a safety net, then firearms and 30-year shelf stable foods are a great option.
Buy some night vision. That's one thing that gets really overlooked. If there was an actual apocalyptic situation and people were out of control, you need to own the night. Either get a standard green tube setup or get 640 minimum, thermal monocular. You can find used ones now for less than $2500.
I think my comment disappeared so here we go. It sounds like you have covered the basics well. I would consider getting a reasonably sized grill/cooktop and several bottles of propane. Ca\*ela's carries a brand that can be extended and has all kinds of accessories if you are in the US - and it is packable with a nice carry bag, about $200. I think it's called "camp" something. Propane bottles last forever. A small wood chip stove is also good if you can only do indoors, just needs venting, and wood chips come with different smoke flavorings. A good set of cast iron because it will last forever.
Then I would look at things that make cooking and eating more "pleasant". Things like bulk spices (cinnamon, garlic, oregano, Indian spices), good wine, freeze dried berries, dehydrated fruits like apricots and vegetables like tomatoes and peppers (jalapeños), cake mixes, gourmet coffees, chocolate bars, aged cheeses with wax rind that are shelf stable, caper, olives, artichokes, etc. I would be ready to grow a gourmet lettuce and greens garden in flats, as well as herbs, radishes, carrots, and maybe potatoes in bags or large pots. I'm all about having a big garden, but with climate instabilities, have some things in pots that you can bring indoors is maybe a good idea.
How are you for hygiene products? I have skin allergies and can't do certain brands or use any fragrance, so I learned during the pandemic to stock up on my detergent, dish soap, bar soap, deodorant, and toothpaste and floss brands, as well as large bottles of vinegar and bleach and, obviously, paper towels, toilet paper, and extra inexpensive hand towels and washcloths from Wal\*art. Finally, and this will sound silly, I have an extra 2-3 weeks of underwear still in the wrapping, in the event that we have to conserve water for a few weeks and can't do as much laundry.
My recommendation is to take a small portion of that money and invest in canning equipment and supplies, along with a food dehydrator.
If you don't already own, get some minimal processing equipment.
Get a proper spice and base ingredient selection. Learn how to use them. Everything from making your own pasta and breads, to learning how to create something akin to modern snacks.
Maybe nothing bad ever happens. In the end you'll understand and be in control of what you consume. Your budget and your body will thank you greatly. Plus, who the hell doesn't enjoy scratch pasta and bread?
Food dehydrator isn't gonna help much unless he's got power.
Don't need to can if you aren't growing anything.
Spices and bread on the other hand, definitely worth it. I've been working on my bread making for a couple weeks now. It's something you need to do a bunch of times to get it right.
Scratch pasta is kind of a waste of time imo. Plus if you're using a powered pasta maker, again, you'll need power.
You don't need to use your dehydrator and freeze dryer every time you're preparing for a meal. The whole purpose of them is to take fresh stuff that can't hold and process it so it can hold much longer, then start meal prep with much less resources necessary
Freeze drying is loads different than dehydrated food.
Dehydrating meat .maybe good for 9 months. Meat properly packaged can stay good for years frozen.
Freeze-dried beef is much better than dried beef, but a dehydrator can process some things that a freeze dryer won't handle well at a reasonable cost. Jalapeños and grains come to mind, as well as some random vegetables that dehydrate almost as well as freeze dry and cook easier co conventionally dried then freeze dried
No one mentioned freeze drying until you did. Freeze drying is definitely the way to go but you don't need to dehydrate most grains or veg. Canning would do vegtables better than dehydrating.
I included it because they also said minimal food processing equipment. Everyone needs to start somewhere and freeze dry is a kind of big investment to start with if you don't already have basic expierance, but dehydration is a easy step most people can make fine
I'd absolutely recommend freeze drying first to anyone with the money and will to learn, but a small freeze dryer runs 2k on its own before accounting for power or what you want to run through it. I'm not sure if that's within posters budget atm, and I'd rather then skimp on a dehydrating or canning
Undet the assumption that you're open to investing into a little bit of everything, canning and dehydrating is just as valuable as freeze drying simply because it gives you more variety of what you can put away. A good freeze dryer can be hard to find too so somebody starting out might want to start where it's simple and cheap
You can't make pasta with a roller and a knife.
Edit: can't was suppose to be can.
No one is recommending they can everything they eat.
Have dehydrated stock prior to a catastrophe has value. Nobody here said "hey don't worry about having power".
Most dehydrated stuff lasts 9 months or less. It's not generally better than canning for food preservation. The best thing to dehydrated would be meat. Who eats that much jerky on a regular basis though?
If you're going to dehydrated meat you might as well learn how to make a smoke house and do it with wood. Better skill to learn and use.
Dried fruits are fantastic. It was a practical way to enjoy them outside of their historical shelf life. Fruit leather is also a delicious treat.
Dried potatoes are an excellent staple. Easy to grow and able to be preserved without the need for cold storage. Portable as well.
I can also make pasta and dry it easily.
Smoke meats certainly have a place. There is not much debate about that.
I believe we possess a different scope of knowledge on such things. Surely it is more productive to use one's energy to gather knowledge than it would be to prejudicially construct dismissal.
Sure dried fruit is great, but it isn't as shelf stable as cans. Personally canned or store-bought.
Pasta is so cheap to just buy I can't see how making it is cost effective. Surely you can't make a box of spaghetti for less than $2 when you take into account the amount of time and electricity to dry it.
Potatoes can last up to 9 months with just proper storage. No processing needed.
Most dehydrated stuff lasts 9 months or less. It's not generally better than canning for food preservation. The best thing to dehydrated would be meat. Who eats that much jerky on a regular basis though?
If you're going to dehydrated meat you might as well learn how to make a smoke house and do it with wood. Better skill to learn and use.
The whole idea of a dehydrator isn't necessarily to use it in SHTF scenarios. It's to use it before the event so that you have long shelf life foods.
Agreed on breadmaking. I recently started making sourdough myself. Took me a few months to get it right consistently. Bread is too damn expensive to buy here anyway.
Not bad. I've been buying my organic flour through Azure Standard in 25# bags. Im making so much bread i go through a bag a month. Just a tad over $1 a pound. Best deal I can find on organic flour. Realized last year the conventional flour is full of glyphosate from all the herbicide they spray all over wheat.
Yeah, I'm still learning to bake, so I'm not trying to get super fancy yet with organic haha.
The end goal is to mill my own flour honestly. I'd love do grow wheat and do that.
What I'd really like is a few acres of farmland. That way I can rotate crops and store the excess for the years to come. One year do wheat, corn, potatoes, soybean, tomatoes, squash, beans, etc. Since it's only a 2 person household by the time I did the full rotation if probably still have some wheat berries left over haha
Pasta from scratch is excellent and extremely cheap and easy.
Most pasta makers are hand cranked not electric.
I fresh mill Khorasan wheat, just 230gr makes two huge servings, total cost about .25c
Don't need anything but wheat flour and water, total actual time spent making it is about 15 minutes.
It is also leaps and bounds better for you and more nutritious that store bought.
You need space to cook. Making pasta and bread is pretty messy, especially if doing by hand. Going to waste water on making a clean area to cook in? Going to make the pasta outdoors in front of the starving neighbors?
When making preps consider that you might have to abandon your home like if there is a wildfire, hurricane, war etc. Personally I want to be able to carry a lot of my preps with me in a backpack or something.
Given that you are already in good shape financially and have 6 months of food storage, and, given that you don't want to be as miserable in the past as you were as a child, maybe look at "luxury" stuff, like bulk spices, freeze dried berries, real maple syrup, freeze dried or dehydrated jalapeños, different types of wood chips for smoking or grilling foods, etc.
A few things I’ve picked up in the last few paychecks is knowledge, tools, fuel (propane), antibiotics, stored food and inexpensive consumables. If you look at Haiti and the situation in Gaza rn, when a prolonged period occurs, hospitals/ERs are overtasked or shutdown. Not saying be your own doctor, but there are books and basic training that’ll go far when there’s no options. Map out your area, know what’s where before Google maps goes out, heck even having a CB radio to communicate locally, shortwave/AM/FM to get news. Get a good backpack and boots/socks if you have to evacuate. I think stretching every dollar, and planning for the most likely contingencies as possible is maybe best. Imagine you’re sitting in Gaza or Haiti or wherever right now and make a list of what you wish you’d had in hindsight.
Since you already have a solid setup for water purification, expanding your food storage could be a smart next step:
- Stock up on a variety of non-perishable food items with long shelf lives, such as grains, legumes, powdered milk, seeds for sprouting, and canned goods.
- Investing in a quality food dehydrator could also allow you to preserve fresh foods for longer periods.
- Additionally, think about enhancing or starting a vegetable garden with gardening tools and heirloom seeds, perhaps even a greenhouse or cold frames to extend the growing season.
It could be wise to look into energy independence options as well, like solar-powered chargers and lights. This way, you’d be spending the funds sensibly across different areas of preparedness, ensuring greater self-reliance in the face of potential future disruptions.
Long and very long-life food, basic food, flour for making bread, pizza, cake, biscuits, rice, etc., creating a pantry, water purification system with activated carbon filters, 1 micron filter and adequate UV-C lamp, solar panels, regulator Victron MPPT charging system and inverters and DC-DC converters to power or recharge battery-powered devices directly without going through the inverter, LiFePo4 batteries, multiple radio communication system, CB, licensed GMRS, an SDRplay for radio listening, Starlink, an economical long-range communication system via meshtastic messaging powered by solar panels, works off-grid, miscellaneous equipment
Learn to garden and can/preserve what you grow. You could easily blow $2,000 on a garden/canning and preserving supplies like pressure canner, dehydrator, canning jars, etc. Learn to cook from scratch if you can't already.
Sit down and make a list with the thought, if I had to live with what I have stored for:
1 week
1 month
3 months
6 months
1 year
What all are you missing for the basics? Start from the lowest length of time and get what you need to fill in the gaps
You don't need to spend so much, seriously take it slow. You can buy basic things like packs of water (keep it in datk) and rice etc, wined up radio... seriously you could be some what prepared with 200... 500 you should be in a decent place. 2k is too much unless you are very financially comfortable and have money to throw. When you start looking in the 000s you seriously need your own place.
I mean, I own my house, have no debts, have six months of expenses paid. I don't really splurge on "fun things" but having a backup plan for food/water/shelter etc feels better to me. This bonus was unexpected so I figured I can indulge in my worry tendencies a little without actually hitting my real budget.
Tbh, it sounds like you are in a really good place 👍, so maybe we are the same place and I can't advise much, sorry.
I've been thinking if it's possible to build a budget shelter for a few thousand or re-enforce a room in my house, maybe that's something you could look at. I was thinking, what if I build a wood or concrete room underground, Could i do that for a few thousand, but maybe not.
I've made sure to have 2 shtf bags,
one in the car, with spare clothes, first aid pack 4 days work of food, water, basher sheet, rope, thin sleeping bag, small cooker, lighter..etc, radio...
Second in the house, 2 packed outfits, good boots, defence items, water storage, couple months food, candles, large first aid pack, waterproof jacket, radio..
I'd be interested to hear what you decide to do in the end.
Step one: Know thyself. What are you prepping for? You did pretty well describing your fears and that’s good. So, how much S and how big a fan? 😉
The first thing I did was to stock my pantry. Today, I keep two extra of just about everything and just use it in rotation. I keep several jars of spaghetti sauce, pickles, tuna and canned chicken, instant mashies, 20 pounds of beans, 10 of rice (plus instant), arou s 10 lbs of pasta. If food availability went to zero right now, I could eat for a couple of months exactly as I do now before things started getting tight. At that, I’d have another month worth of if I got cheap. Bill up on staples, get some honey, bullion cubes, salt, pepper, canned veggies. Your 2k will disappear quickly enough. A garden is a god idea.
Beans and rice stored in 5 gallon buckets are the cheapest way to store lots of calories on the cheap. My favorite comfort food is ready hour pancakes. They last 30 years but you need to pack them in buckets or something to keep the mice out of them. The bags they come in won't do that.
Of course, you need a way to cook them. A solar oven is a great choice if you live in a place with lots of sun. Propane camping stoves are great for cloudy days and short-term power outages.
If you don't have a secure source of water, I'd focus on that. There's lots of things we can do with out when times get tough, but water isn't one of them. If you're on a well, you can have a t put on your well head and have one side going to a hand pump with a check valve that doesn't interfere with your water pump. This also works for an irrigation well although the water quality isn't going to be as good as a deep well. If you don't have a well, you can probably have an irrigation well drilled for not much money, depending on what part of the country you're in. Also, if you're in a colder climate, you'll want to insulate it for the winter.
Traveling too and from to carry water will use up a lot of calories and may expose you to folks who don't have the best intentions. Plus, the water source is likely to become increasingly contaminated as people who don't understand what they're doing wash clothes and bath in it.
Happy prepping!
Start a daily journal of what you use every day and do that for a month. Then think of a PACE plan for all those things (Primary, Alternative, Contingency, Emergency). For example water. Primary is what comes out of my faucet, alternative is what I have stored in jugs, contingency is what I can pull from things like my hot water heater or rain barrel, emergency is what I can get from nature. Develop those stages for the essentials you use and scale to a month of supplies, then to maybe three months. This is fairly simple and will cover most emergencies you can think of. Water will probably be your biggest issue. You use a lot of it and it’s hard to store in quantity. If you look up Bear Independent on YouTube he has a prepper classroom series that mentally works you through the basics of prepping.
I'd get a food dehydrator, a vacuum sealer, a bunch of oxygenator food grade desiccant bags, a bunch of mylar bags, and start making your own survival.meals.
You said you can purify water, but water is heavy to carry. I'd look at rain catching systems you can DIY and use the extra water for gardening or something.
A cistern or a well would be a great value add.
A gun or three and a firearm training course if you haven't had one before. A handgun, rifle, and shotgun.
It doesn't matter how much you have prepped if you can't defend it when people try to steal it.
I'm gonna second developing a garden, fruit/nut trees and food production.
I'd also look into water catchment to go along with your sawyer filter.
Rather than hoarding mres or whatever I'd look into things that can give you a return on investment, be it food production, saving on water or other bills or even an investment, even more efficient appliances, thermal window film or insulation could do that. Plus much of that is eligible for tax rebates
Spend the money on a SOURCE of water. If you have a well, solar that thing. Hurricanes have taught me many lessons. Sometimes the emergency is routine. Power's out for a few days? I'd still like to be able to take a shower. Get a greenhouse, learn what you can grow in it, and how to grow well. If it's legal for you, learn how to grow weed well. That stuff will be better than gold.
Is your tank already always full and your pantry already fully stocked? Do you rent, or do you have a house that can use some some more protective surfaces? Do you have space to set up some composters and greenhouses?
2k will go a lot farther if you just set up your meal plans now and just use the extra money to volume buy today, but if your already good what you can do with it depends on what kind of space for projects you have
While I certainly would have things for water, more the drier the area, I would focus on two points: Food, and food preservation. A lot of this is stuff I grew up with. My grandparents lived through the Great Depression, my parents Boomers that were raised that way, and enough was passed down that it made an impact on me. A garden in your yard gives you stuff to grow, stuff that will feed you. My grandpa always grew strawberries, potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, okra, and some other odds and ends. All food waste went into the garden as compost. Every end of summer, and fall, all the women booted us out of the kitchen and canned the food. Now it's myself, and my wife that do this, minus the garden. We now live on the edge of the city, in an apartment. So your circumstances might be different. Regardless if it's produce from the grocery store, or stuff you grew in your garden, vacuum sealing and canning will preserve your food. In the long run, this means you will spend less money on food, and throw out less. For us, we canned meats and vegetables, many fruits were turned into jams and canned. They say five to ten years for a lot of that stuff, but the reality is that it will be good for many years past that. All that is dependent on the seals. All this severely dropped what we spend on our grocery bill. I moved away from freezing after we lost thousands of dollars of meat, eggs, and milk when the deep freezer gave out. We didn't find out until we needed something, and opened it up to pull some stuff.....
Other than that, get yourself a shotgun, and maybe a rifle or two for hunting. The only downside, if things go bad, is that everyone and their dog will be out hunting, too. It won't take long before everything is dead, or has left. Learning edible plants and fungi in your area probably wouldn't be a bad idea, too.
Just a few thoughts.
Hunting and gardening are all fine and dandy but thats 100% location dependent.
For me in my area id be lucky to bag a few squirrels for my dog to eat and I have the best possible weapon for that task, my 42 year old Feinwerkbau 124D air rifle, deadly accurate and virtually silent.
And if its a true SHTF situation then it wouldn't take long at all for most everything to be gone.
If you live in an area where gardening is even possible and you start a nice garden it will most likely get picked clean in the night or at gun point.
Your best and safest bet is to have actual food with long shelf life stored up. And to have everything you need to grow INDOORS.
Indoor growing nobody knows what you got, you can grow year round, no bugs, as much light as needed if you can supply electricity.
Solar panels and batteries are your best bets there.
What I chose for my indoor grow is Mushrooms and Micro-greens and sprouts, three things that grow very fast, constant harvest, highly nutritious and in the case of mushrooms also medicinal.
Mushrooms can take the place of meat completely you can literally grow your own fresh steaks inside your house and neither mushrooms nor sprouts require much light at all.
Sprouts go from seed to harvest in as few as 3 days up to 7 days, Micro-greens between 6 to 10 days.
Mushrooms you just need to do grain spawn and then substrate bags about once or twice a week and in about 5 weeks you have a constant daily supply of mushrooms for as long as you have grain and oak wood pellets.
I have at least a years worth of both right now and plan to add much more and grain and wood pellets store indefinitely in good conditions.
I have currently over 400 pounds of various wheat berries, have Rouge de Bordeaux, Turkey Red, Yecora Rojo, Hard White, for bread, rolls, buns, have Khorasan wheat for pasta, and White Sonora for cakes cinnamon rolls, tortillas etc.
All packed in 11x14 thick mylar bags with oxygen absorbers 5# per bag, 30 year shelf life.
Same thing with dried beans have 100#
Same with rice have almost 100# and most of it wild rice all stored in mylar.
Wild rice is far more nutritious than white and stores better.
I would also suggest to get freeze dried food that comes in large #10 cans with oxygen absorbers, its also 30 year shelf life and alot of it just as good as fresh like corn, peas, broccoli, potato shreds, chopped onion, all taste like fresh.
I have about 40 cans of that so far.
My wife and I are vegan so hunting/fishing would be kinda last resort if we are going to starve if I don't type thing.
If it comes to that I am very proficient at both.
We have an emergency water supply that is a stream that runs behind our house which in 30 years has never dried up and we have a military spec water filter.
For emergency cooking I have a Kamado grill and a wood fired pizza oven on back deck.
Our deck is 20 feet off the ground because we are on a hillside and its 18' x 50' so decent size, I can grow potatoes in the large 25 gallon fabric pots i have, and tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers etc. But that would just be to subsidize the stored food because it would only be just a few months in summer and fall that you would get anything.
But at least on a deck 20 feet in the air and I have bright led motion lights on deck it would be fairly easy to defend from every kind of critter both 4 legged and 2.
So build up long term storage food, and the supplies to grow your own meat daily (mushrooms).
and for sprouts all you need is seeds and some trays with silicone mats, or even just mason jars.
Broccoli sprouts especially are a nutrient powerhouse and the sprouts have 100x the amount of the anticancer compound "sulforaphane" and they grow in 5 days.
Also, take at least $500 cash in small bills put it in a safe and forget it exist.
Or just build up so much damn food you can barter with food.
Keep the guns and ammo to protect the house.
How much food do you have stored away? I'd try to get to at least one month, and make sure you can cook it in a power failure.
Whatever's left after that - retirement account. Or if you can start a garden, consider that.
Ohh cooking food is smart! I've got around six months in my pantry/freezer, but I'd be struggling to cook for more than a couple of days if I had no power.
is that 2k after taxes? I got a nicely sized bonus with 5k taxes taken out. I hope all the illegals are appreciative
wife wants a greenhouse out of it.
Figure out what you absolutely cannot do without and make a list ranked by priority. Everyone is different. If you live in a major urban area, that money might be best spent as a down payment on some nearby rural property so that you can get out of dodge without becoming homeless. If you have family members with chronic health issues it might behoove you to invest in stockpiling meds and identifying naturopathic substitutes that you can grow yourself. If you have young kids, stockpiling bulk dry goods should be high priority so that you can feed them. It really depends on your situation. Lots of people spend money on expensive stuff like night vision, weapons or communication equipment but most people haven’t provided for their real needs. Identity those and prioritize them first.
Yep. Retirement for myself and my spouse matched by our work and maxed out. I figured preparing for a world where I'm 70 and nothing major happened made the most sense first
Prioritize investments based on your specific needs, vulnerabilities, and areas where you feel you could improve your preparedness the most like perhaps getting a power generator and or self defence gear?
- You could also consider creating a water storage system at home where you wouldn’t have to worry about water for at least 3 months
- Also to be considered are CCTVs and motion detectors around the home for surveillance and security plus
- Id also suggest investing in other self sufficiency equipment/infrastructure i.e. rainwater harvesting systems, greenhouse structures, or an aquaponics setup
If you’re going for expanding your gears supply -
[50 Doomsday Apocalypse Survival Items](https://alaskanarrows.com/50-doomsday-apocalypse-survival-items/)
Other than that you could also consider just saving the money for now and creating a simulation of a SHTF at home, turn the mains and water off for about 8 hours and see what needs start coming up and start there
Ammunition- depends if you're into shooting sports, but it's good because you can use ammo for things you regularly do so it's not just one of those things that sit there forever.
It's valuable and a good trade resource and it's pretty expensive. 2 grand of food may require a fair bit of space, ammunition not so much.
If you don't have a deep pantry.
Fill up your pantry.
Write down everything your family eats in a month that is shelf stable, and buy as much if thise foodnitems as possible. With a focus on the ones that are staples.
Also look online at a few lists of "pantry staples" which are the basics everyone should keep in their pantry to be able to put meals together easily. Stock up on all thise items you use frequently as well.
Get a couple 55 gal drums of Facebook or Craigslist and use them for bulk water storage and or as rain barrels.
We have about six months worth of pantry basics already, I was food insecure as a kid so having plenty of basics makes me feel comfortable. I appreciate your comment!
Honestly a lot of freeze dried prepper cans were on sale last month I would check those out and get a nice little freeze dried stash built up.
Or buy some ammo.
Invest them in a proper garden and perhaps even hunting gear/licenses. Things that can keep on rewarding themselves, even if you don’t end up in a SHTF scenario.
Thanks for the good suggestion! I'm living in a different climate than I used to so starting a garden now seems doable
To add, a couple classes on how to grow and maintain produce. Or even a structured class in a skill. If food shortage is the possibility, maybe information about substitutions of certain ingredients to achieve the same result, examples from 1930-40's cook books. But if you're talking more intense shortages that mean weeks between resupply, grow the most important produce and manage diet the best you can. Good personal health, pays back in dividends with all situations.
If SHFT is a hunting license really necessary?
You won't need a license in SHTF. But you do need a license to use the gear and practice now. And you better practice hunting now...
The biggest prep is going to be target practice, processing an animal, and preserving it. Anyone with a rifle can kill a deer. The rest is what you need to work on.
SHTF is not the same as TEOTWAWKI
Having a license means you can practice hunting **now** without fear of being fined.
I meant before.
No but you want practice before SHTF
Yes. Practice is important and don’t be that one cunt hunting without a license
Even if it isn't same, wildlife officers won't be enforcing laws at that point. They will be assigned to help local law enforcement
Tactical grid gardening goes hard af
If you're worried about food, invest in food and the things to prepare it. There are a lot of pages out there, some filled with great info, and some filled with nonsense. Step 1; ignore any BS about hunting, foraging, anything like that. Even IF you already had all the skills and inclination to become a great, great forager, and IF you were living in an area with any amount of game...well, in a collapse situation, there are going to be many, many people competing for very few calories. Step 2; consider what you're concerned will fail. If there is a loss of utilities, how will you cook without gas or electricity? Solar cooking is one option; cold soaking is another. Hayboxes let you cook with much less fuel. Cooing in something like a wok takes WAY less fuel than an oven. Are you going to store wheat? Super, if you know how to process it; do you have a grain mill? It's one thing to store food and another thing to be able to cook it. Step 3; start relatively small and learn as you go. Learn to store, to rotate, and to use what you store. 2K is plenty of buy, say, a good grain mill and several months worth of food with plenty of cash left over. Maybe you decide you're worried about more than food shortages, so you buy a small solar panel and battery to at least keep your phone charged and a flashlight or two going. Or maybe you focus just on food, and as time goes on, you learn what you like, can prepare, and want more of. Buy more of it and store more of it.
Thank you! I really believe that being prepared for the future involves financial prep as well as gear, my friend's uncle maxed out a bunch of cards for y2k and I don't want to let my worries turn into making my current reality hard.
$2,000 you say? I have just the thread for you. I return to it on occasion: [https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/comments/vnutev/if\_you\_had\_2000\_to\_put\_into\_your\_preps\_what\_would/](https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/comments/vnutev/if_you_had_2000_to_put_into_your_preps_what_would/)
Lol I shoulda looked it up first
Sounds like you're off to a good start! I'd look into doing your own Mylar bags. This is a relatively cheap and effective way to store shelf-stable dry foods for longer periods of time. It won't last as long as freeze dried food but you're only paying regular supermarket prices plus the cost of bags. Good items to put in there include oatmeal, beans (please don't ask this sub which kind of bean is best), rice, pasta, cereal, pet food, flour, pancake mix, and Bisquick. Some people put instant coffee in theirs but honestly I'd recommend just leaving that in its original container. Throw in an O2 absorber, seal with a clothes iron, and write the contents + date on the outside of the bag. That will only take up a small chunk of your savings. Next I'd make sure you have basics like toilet paper, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, over-the-counter medications, and anything else that would be really, really bad to live without for a few weeks. I'd also look around for some basic first aid courses in your area. And while you're at it, are there any courses for useful, practical skills like leatherworking or hunting that interest you? Some people will tell you that hunting is useless because in a dire emergency, the gamelands are going to be filled with people trying to take down elk with their 380 or who think "dressing" goes on a salad. This is correct. However, there are infinite degrees of emergencies between "meat is getting hard to come by" and "civilization has collapsed". This sub sometimes goes straight to WW3, and it's important to keep perspective. Lots of people around here fill most if not all of their annual meat requirements from deer alone.
Honestly I expect to expire in a true apocalypse situation, I know I don't have the skills needed to function in a world with no wastewater treatment, no power, no real medical care, nor do I really want to try ro survive in that situation. I'm aiming to be prepared for short to medium term disasters. When I was a kid we had a couple weeks with no power due to a local disaster and my mom did her best to make sure we got through it without it being scary. It was just so boring and gross to me and I'd like to be more comfortable if it happened again.
That's an excellent perspective to have (as far as being prepared for the short-term emergencies). I agree, most people -- almost certainly including myself -- are going to lose if society completely collapses. Instead, I focus on things like job loss or supply chain disruption. Things that I stand a chance of buffering myself against.
I've got friends who daydream about TEOTWAWKI and it just doesn't seem worth it to me? Like, I love showers and creature comforts and I grew up eating clean, fully cooked food. I feel like food poisoning or poor waste management would take out most everyone. Plus who really wants to poo in a ditch for the rest of their lives? Not me.
Not just daydream. I have friends who are rooting for it. Never have understood the mentality.
Question about mylar bags, I'm just now looking into them. So if I have bulk food in individual packages (i.e. oatmeal, grits, cheese and crackers, nuts, etc) can I put the individual bags themselves into the mylar bags or must I buy bulk, think rice, sugar, beans, and pour that into the mylar bags, or will both scenarios work with the mylar bags? And must you heat seal or is that optional?
Get 7mil thick mylar bags from Discountmylar.com and get either an impulse sealer or a "Magic Seal MS300" which will do it all. 500gr oxygen absorbers. Best to buy in bulk and divide into 5# per 11x14 bag.
Bulk food storage - $500 Fuel for heat and light (kerosene, propane, paraffin, etc) - $500 A non ICE vehicle and accessories (used bicycle or canoe/kayak) - $500 Solar panel, charge controller, and deep cycle battery - $500
Where are they gonna store $500 of propane, kerosene, paraffin?
I store my propane in a tank, my kerosene in cans, and parafin in a plastic bag inside a box. You seem very new to prepping.
Kerosene expires. It degrades after around 5 years. Unlike propane, that does not degrade.
Keep $500 of it in cash. Varying denominations. Add that to your preps. Some might say more, other people might say less. But 500 from that bonus might be a worthwhile amount without being too big of a chunk. Depending on the situation having cash on hand could be a potential lifesaver, because unless we go straight to a barter system cash will be king
Thank you! That's a great idea.
This is an underrated comment. My preps and SHTF experiences revolve around hurricanes and storms. Hurricane Michael was an eye opener for me. We went 23 days without electricity. For the first 3 days or so, cash was the only way I could buy gas for the generator. (Once we were able to get out and about, the old change jar came in handy at the Laundromat)
Our initial goal was to get three months of food and household items we use daily, such as food, tp, etc. After we achieved that, we started adding long term storage foods. Freeze dried, rice, beans, wheat, etc. in either #10 cans or 5 gallon buckets. Beyond food the best way to prepare is to make a list of all the SHTF events that could possibly hit you, in your area, from job loss to global thermonuclear war. Order the list from statistically most likely to least likely and start prepping for the most likely. As you compete preps for one event, then move down the list to the next most likely event. The categories of items include, food, water, shelter, transportation, hygiene, medicine, protection, communication, self defense, first aid, financial and a few others I'm probably forgetting. Not all categories will be addressed in each event. For example, a job loss is not likely going to require anything to defend yourself. What you'll notice is that as you move down the list, you'll already have categories covered and the only things you'll need to add are specialty items, such as gas masks, iodine tablets, etc. This way, you'll be prepared for the most likely events and you can add more obscure/unique items as you can.
Food reserves, you already have water, next is medical supplies, then hunting/ self sustaining supplies such as gardening or farming.
Gun & Freeze dried foods. Those are usually safe bets. The LDS/Morman store has reasonably priced dried goods. Provident Living is the website. I’m not a Morman but it’s a good site for the basics. Augason Farms generally gets good reviews. Unless you want to be a farmer. If you just want to turn that $2k into a safety net, then firearms and 30-year shelf stable foods are a great option.
Buy some night vision. That's one thing that gets really overlooked. If there was an actual apocalyptic situation and people were out of control, you need to own the night. Either get a standard green tube setup or get 640 minimum, thermal monocular. You can find used ones now for less than $2500.
Electric generator and panel. Go bigger than you think or need.
If you are looking for long term shelf stable food, checkout the LDS online store. Selection is limited, but you can’t beat their prices.
I think my comment disappeared so here we go. It sounds like you have covered the basics well. I would consider getting a reasonably sized grill/cooktop and several bottles of propane. Ca\*ela's carries a brand that can be extended and has all kinds of accessories if you are in the US - and it is packable with a nice carry bag, about $200. I think it's called "camp" something. Propane bottles last forever. A small wood chip stove is also good if you can only do indoors, just needs venting, and wood chips come with different smoke flavorings. A good set of cast iron because it will last forever. Then I would look at things that make cooking and eating more "pleasant". Things like bulk spices (cinnamon, garlic, oregano, Indian spices), good wine, freeze dried berries, dehydrated fruits like apricots and vegetables like tomatoes and peppers (jalapeños), cake mixes, gourmet coffees, chocolate bars, aged cheeses with wax rind that are shelf stable, caper, olives, artichokes, etc. I would be ready to grow a gourmet lettuce and greens garden in flats, as well as herbs, radishes, carrots, and maybe potatoes in bags or large pots. I'm all about having a big garden, but with climate instabilities, have some things in pots that you can bring indoors is maybe a good idea. How are you for hygiene products? I have skin allergies and can't do certain brands or use any fragrance, so I learned during the pandemic to stock up on my detergent, dish soap, bar soap, deodorant, and toothpaste and floss brands, as well as large bottles of vinegar and bleach and, obviously, paper towels, toilet paper, and extra inexpensive hand towels and washcloths from Wal\*art. Finally, and this will sound silly, I have an extra 2-3 weeks of underwear still in the wrapping, in the event that we have to conserve water for a few weeks and can't do as much laundry.
My recommendation is to take a small portion of that money and invest in canning equipment and supplies, along with a food dehydrator. If you don't already own, get some minimal processing equipment. Get a proper spice and base ingredient selection. Learn how to use them. Everything from making your own pasta and breads, to learning how to create something akin to modern snacks. Maybe nothing bad ever happens. In the end you'll understand and be in control of what you consume. Your budget and your body will thank you greatly. Plus, who the hell doesn't enjoy scratch pasta and bread?
Food dehydrator isn't gonna help much unless he's got power. Don't need to can if you aren't growing anything. Spices and bread on the other hand, definitely worth it. I've been working on my bread making for a couple weeks now. It's something you need to do a bunch of times to get it right. Scratch pasta is kind of a waste of time imo. Plus if you're using a powered pasta maker, again, you'll need power.
You don't need to use your dehydrator and freeze dryer every time you're preparing for a meal. The whole purpose of them is to take fresh stuff that can't hold and process it so it can hold much longer, then start meal prep with much less resources necessary
Freeze drying is loads different than dehydrated food. Dehydrating meat .maybe good for 9 months. Meat properly packaged can stay good for years frozen.
Freeze-dried beef is much better than dried beef, but a dehydrator can process some things that a freeze dryer won't handle well at a reasonable cost. Jalapeños and grains come to mind, as well as some random vegetables that dehydrate almost as well as freeze dry and cook easier co conventionally dried then freeze dried
No one mentioned freeze drying until you did. Freeze drying is definitely the way to go but you don't need to dehydrate most grains or veg. Canning would do vegtables better than dehydrating.
I included it because they also said minimal food processing equipment. Everyone needs to start somewhere and freeze dry is a kind of big investment to start with if you don't already have basic expierance, but dehydration is a easy step most people can make fine
I'd absolutely recommend freeze drying first to anyone with the money and will to learn, but a small freeze dryer runs 2k on its own before accounting for power or what you want to run through it. I'm not sure if that's within posters budget atm, and I'd rather then skimp on a dehydrating or canning
Undet the assumption that you're open to investing into a little bit of everything, canning and dehydrating is just as valuable as freeze drying simply because it gives you more variety of what you can put away. A good freeze dryer can be hard to find too so somebody starting out might want to start where it's simple and cheap
You can't make pasta with a roller and a knife. Edit: can't was suppose to be can. No one is recommending they can everything they eat. Have dehydrated stock prior to a catastrophe has value. Nobody here said "hey don't worry about having power".
Most dehydrated stuff lasts 9 months or less. It's not generally better than canning for food preservation. The best thing to dehydrated would be meat. Who eats that much jerky on a regular basis though? If you're going to dehydrated meat you might as well learn how to make a smoke house and do it with wood. Better skill to learn and use.
Dried fruits are fantastic. It was a practical way to enjoy them outside of their historical shelf life. Fruit leather is also a delicious treat. Dried potatoes are an excellent staple. Easy to grow and able to be preserved without the need for cold storage. Portable as well. I can also make pasta and dry it easily. Smoke meats certainly have a place. There is not much debate about that. I believe we possess a different scope of knowledge on such things. Surely it is more productive to use one's energy to gather knowledge than it would be to prejudicially construct dismissal.
Sure dried fruit is great, but it isn't as shelf stable as cans. Personally canned or store-bought. Pasta is so cheap to just buy I can't see how making it is cost effective. Surely you can't make a box of spaghetti for less than $2 when you take into account the amount of time and electricity to dry it. Potatoes can last up to 9 months with just proper storage. No processing needed.
Most dehydrated stuff lasts 9 months or less. It's not generally better than canning for food preservation. The best thing to dehydrated would be meat. Who eats that much jerky on a regular basis though? If you're going to dehydrated meat you might as well learn how to make a smoke house and do it with wood. Better skill to learn and use.
The whole idea of a dehydrator isn't necessarily to use it in SHTF scenarios. It's to use it before the event so that you have long shelf life foods. Agreed on breadmaking. I recently started making sourdough myself. Took me a few months to get it right consistently. Bread is too damn expensive to buy here anyway.
Bakery bread that turns hard as a rock within 2 days is like $3/loaf here. Good bread is like $6 or $7. I bought 5lbs of flour today for like $6.
Not bad. I've been buying my organic flour through Azure Standard in 25# bags. Im making so much bread i go through a bag a month. Just a tad over $1 a pound. Best deal I can find on organic flour. Realized last year the conventional flour is full of glyphosate from all the herbicide they spray all over wheat.
Yeah, I'm still learning to bake, so I'm not trying to get super fancy yet with organic haha. The end goal is to mill my own flour honestly. I'd love do grow wheat and do that.
That'd be impressive. An insane amount of work, but I bet it'd be the best damn bread/baked item ever.
What I'd really like is a few acres of farmland. That way I can rotate crops and store the excess for the years to come. One year do wheat, corn, potatoes, soybean, tomatoes, squash, beans, etc. Since it's only a 2 person household by the time I did the full rotation if probably still have some wheat berries left over haha
Pasta from scratch is excellent and extremely cheap and easy. Most pasta makers are hand cranked not electric. I fresh mill Khorasan wheat, just 230gr makes two huge servings, total cost about .25c Don't need anything but wheat flour and water, total actual time spent making it is about 15 minutes. It is also leaps and bounds better for you and more nutritious that store bought.
You going to keep your kitchen clean enough to make pasta in SHTF?
Clean enough? I am not even sure what that means to be honest.
You need space to cook. Making pasta and bread is pretty messy, especially if doing by hand. Going to waste water on making a clean area to cook in? Going to make the pasta outdoors in front of the starving neighbors?
I plan to have plenty of water and my countertop will be clean. We have a stream running near or back yard.
Home electrical generator.
When making preps consider that you might have to abandon your home like if there is a wildfire, hurricane, war etc. Personally I want to be able to carry a lot of my preps with me in a backpack or something.
A nice S&P500 Index Fund ...
Given that you are already in good shape financially and have 6 months of food storage, and, given that you don't want to be as miserable in the past as you were as a child, maybe look at "luxury" stuff, like bulk spices, freeze dried berries, real maple syrup, freeze dried or dehydrated jalapeños, different types of wood chips for smoking or grilling foods, etc.
Solar of some sort
A few things I’ve picked up in the last few paychecks is knowledge, tools, fuel (propane), antibiotics, stored food and inexpensive consumables. If you look at Haiti and the situation in Gaza rn, when a prolonged period occurs, hospitals/ERs are overtasked or shutdown. Not saying be your own doctor, but there are books and basic training that’ll go far when there’s no options. Map out your area, know what’s where before Google maps goes out, heck even having a CB radio to communicate locally, shortwave/AM/FM to get news. Get a good backpack and boots/socks if you have to evacuate. I think stretching every dollar, and planning for the most likely contingencies as possible is maybe best. Imagine you’re sitting in Gaza or Haiti or wherever right now and make a list of what you wish you’d had in hindsight.
Lot of good suggestions here. I would add that whatever you get, at a minimum get 90 days worth to start and build from there.
Since you already have a solid setup for water purification, expanding your food storage could be a smart next step: - Stock up on a variety of non-perishable food items with long shelf lives, such as grains, legumes, powdered milk, seeds for sprouting, and canned goods. - Investing in a quality food dehydrator could also allow you to preserve fresh foods for longer periods. - Additionally, think about enhancing or starting a vegetable garden with gardening tools and heirloom seeds, perhaps even a greenhouse or cold frames to extend the growing season. It could be wise to look into energy independence options as well, like solar-powered chargers and lights. This way, you’d be spending the funds sensibly across different areas of preparedness, ensuring greater self-reliance in the face of potential future disruptions.
Ohh I have the space for a garden! I grew a bunch of potatoes in college for fun and it was pretty enjoyable.
You might enjoy [Epic Gardening](https://www.youtube.com/@epicgardening) on YouTube. They focus specifically on gardening within the prepping context.
Here’s a good video to start with: [Surviving Off My Garden](https://youtu.be/3RNEsbjEyFc?si=cf5iiQY9GCXa9yBe)
Long and very long-life food, basic food, flour for making bread, pizza, cake, biscuits, rice, etc., creating a pantry, water purification system with activated carbon filters, 1 micron filter and adequate UV-C lamp, solar panels, regulator Victron MPPT charging system and inverters and DC-DC converters to power or recharge battery-powered devices directly without going through the inverter, LiFePo4 batteries, multiple radio communication system, CB, licensed GMRS, an SDRplay for radio listening, Starlink, an economical long-range communication system via meshtastic messaging powered by solar panels, works off-grid, miscellaneous equipment
Learn to garden and can/preserve what you grow. You could easily blow $2,000 on a garden/canning and preserving supplies like pressure canner, dehydrator, canning jars, etc. Learn to cook from scratch if you can't already.
Tools. Make sure you have tools for the things you can fix/replace. If you can't fix your transportation yet, get a manual and some tools.
Is your pantry already deep and on rotation?
Take 1/4 of whatever you got and put it your retirement account. Put another 1/4 into savings. The other half will be spent in the blink of an eye.
Sit down and make a list with the thought, if I had to live with what I have stored for: 1 week 1 month 3 months 6 months 1 year What all are you missing for the basics? Start from the lowest length of time and get what you need to fill in the gaps
Cheeseburgers
You don't need to spend so much, seriously take it slow. You can buy basic things like packs of water (keep it in datk) and rice etc, wined up radio... seriously you could be some what prepared with 200... 500 you should be in a decent place. 2k is too much unless you are very financially comfortable and have money to throw. When you start looking in the 000s you seriously need your own place.
I mean, I own my house, have no debts, have six months of expenses paid. I don't really splurge on "fun things" but having a backup plan for food/water/shelter etc feels better to me. This bonus was unexpected so I figured I can indulge in my worry tendencies a little without actually hitting my real budget.
Tbh, it sounds like you are in a really good place 👍, so maybe we are the same place and I can't advise much, sorry. I've been thinking if it's possible to build a budget shelter for a few thousand or re-enforce a room in my house, maybe that's something you could look at. I was thinking, what if I build a wood or concrete room underground, Could i do that for a few thousand, but maybe not. I've made sure to have 2 shtf bags, one in the car, with spare clothes, first aid pack 4 days work of food, water, basher sheet, rope, thin sleeping bag, small cooker, lighter..etc, radio... Second in the house, 2 packed outfits, good boots, defence items, water storage, couple months food, candles, large first aid pack, waterproof jacket, radio.. I'd be interested to hear what you decide to do in the end.
Why not invest the hobby of backyard gardening? You could get a little greenhouse from Harbor Freight and grow some of your own food.
I have a 3 month kit... https://www.mypatriotsupply.com/collections/emergency-survival-food
Step one: Know thyself. What are you prepping for? You did pretty well describing your fears and that’s good. So, how much S and how big a fan? 😉 The first thing I did was to stock my pantry. Today, I keep two extra of just about everything and just use it in rotation. I keep several jars of spaghetti sauce, pickles, tuna and canned chicken, instant mashies, 20 pounds of beans, 10 of rice (plus instant), arou s 10 lbs of pasta. If food availability went to zero right now, I could eat for a couple of months exactly as I do now before things started getting tight. At that, I’d have another month worth of if I got cheap. Bill up on staples, get some honey, bullion cubes, salt, pepper, canned veggies. Your 2k will disappear quickly enough. A garden is a god idea.
Beans and rice stored in 5 gallon buckets are the cheapest way to store lots of calories on the cheap. My favorite comfort food is ready hour pancakes. They last 30 years but you need to pack them in buckets or something to keep the mice out of them. The bags they come in won't do that. Of course, you need a way to cook them. A solar oven is a great choice if you live in a place with lots of sun. Propane camping stoves are great for cloudy days and short-term power outages. If you don't have a secure source of water, I'd focus on that. There's lots of things we can do with out when times get tough, but water isn't one of them. If you're on a well, you can have a t put on your well head and have one side going to a hand pump with a check valve that doesn't interfere with your water pump. This also works for an irrigation well although the water quality isn't going to be as good as a deep well. If you don't have a well, you can probably have an irrigation well drilled for not much money, depending on what part of the country you're in. Also, if you're in a colder climate, you'll want to insulate it for the winter. Traveling too and from to carry water will use up a lot of calories and may expose you to folks who don't have the best intentions. Plus, the water source is likely to become increasingly contaminated as people who don't understand what they're doing wash clothes and bath in it. Happy prepping!
I would get a freeze dryer.
Generac
Start a daily journal of what you use every day and do that for a month. Then think of a PACE plan for all those things (Primary, Alternative, Contingency, Emergency). For example water. Primary is what comes out of my faucet, alternative is what I have stored in jugs, contingency is what I can pull from things like my hot water heater or rain barrel, emergency is what I can get from nature. Develop those stages for the essentials you use and scale to a month of supplies, then to maybe three months. This is fairly simple and will cover most emergencies you can think of. Water will probably be your biggest issue. You use a lot of it and it’s hard to store in quantity. If you look up Bear Independent on YouTube he has a prepper classroom series that mentally works you through the basics of prepping.
I'd get a food dehydrator, a vacuum sealer, a bunch of oxygenator food grade desiccant bags, a bunch of mylar bags, and start making your own survival.meals.
A good quality grain mill and wheat berries are a good investment as are a good quality medical kits.
You said you can purify water, but water is heavy to carry. I'd look at rain catching systems you can DIY and use the extra water for gardening or something. A cistern or a well would be a great value add.
A gun or three and a firearm training course if you haven't had one before. A handgun, rifle, and shotgun. It doesn't matter how much you have prepped if you can't defend it when people try to steal it.
I'm gonna second developing a garden, fruit/nut trees and food production. I'd also look into water catchment to go along with your sawyer filter. Rather than hoarding mres or whatever I'd look into things that can give you a return on investment, be it food production, saving on water or other bills or even an investment, even more efficient appliances, thermal window film or insulation could do that. Plus much of that is eligible for tax rebates
Spend the money on a SOURCE of water. If you have a well, solar that thing. Hurricanes have taught me many lessons. Sometimes the emergency is routine. Power's out for a few days? I'd still like to be able to take a shower. Get a greenhouse, learn what you can grow in it, and how to grow well. If it's legal for you, learn how to grow weed well. That stuff will be better than gold.
Is your tank already always full and your pantry already fully stocked? Do you rent, or do you have a house that can use some some more protective surfaces? Do you have space to set up some composters and greenhouses? 2k will go a lot farther if you just set up your meal plans now and just use the extra money to volume buy today, but if your already good what you can do with it depends on what kind of space for projects you have
While I certainly would have things for water, more the drier the area, I would focus on two points: Food, and food preservation. A lot of this is stuff I grew up with. My grandparents lived through the Great Depression, my parents Boomers that were raised that way, and enough was passed down that it made an impact on me. A garden in your yard gives you stuff to grow, stuff that will feed you. My grandpa always grew strawberries, potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, okra, and some other odds and ends. All food waste went into the garden as compost. Every end of summer, and fall, all the women booted us out of the kitchen and canned the food. Now it's myself, and my wife that do this, minus the garden. We now live on the edge of the city, in an apartment. So your circumstances might be different. Regardless if it's produce from the grocery store, or stuff you grew in your garden, vacuum sealing and canning will preserve your food. In the long run, this means you will spend less money on food, and throw out less. For us, we canned meats and vegetables, many fruits were turned into jams and canned. They say five to ten years for a lot of that stuff, but the reality is that it will be good for many years past that. All that is dependent on the seals. All this severely dropped what we spend on our grocery bill. I moved away from freezing after we lost thousands of dollars of meat, eggs, and milk when the deep freezer gave out. We didn't find out until we needed something, and opened it up to pull some stuff..... Other than that, get yourself a shotgun, and maybe a rifle or two for hunting. The only downside, if things go bad, is that everyone and their dog will be out hunting, too. It won't take long before everything is dead, or has left. Learning edible plants and fungi in your area probably wouldn't be a bad idea, too. Just a few thoughts.
Hunting gear/training, Rain water collection, education, decent clothing and sleep options. Some dried meals/MRE's
One good bodae can replace a whole lot of toilet paper.
Whatever you go for, work it into your daily diet/routine. It is no good to to have a prep, and not know how to use it.
Hunting and gardening are all fine and dandy but thats 100% location dependent. For me in my area id be lucky to bag a few squirrels for my dog to eat and I have the best possible weapon for that task, my 42 year old Feinwerkbau 124D air rifle, deadly accurate and virtually silent. And if its a true SHTF situation then it wouldn't take long at all for most everything to be gone. If you live in an area where gardening is even possible and you start a nice garden it will most likely get picked clean in the night or at gun point. Your best and safest bet is to have actual food with long shelf life stored up. And to have everything you need to grow INDOORS. Indoor growing nobody knows what you got, you can grow year round, no bugs, as much light as needed if you can supply electricity. Solar panels and batteries are your best bets there. What I chose for my indoor grow is Mushrooms and Micro-greens and sprouts, three things that grow very fast, constant harvest, highly nutritious and in the case of mushrooms also medicinal. Mushrooms can take the place of meat completely you can literally grow your own fresh steaks inside your house and neither mushrooms nor sprouts require much light at all. Sprouts go from seed to harvest in as few as 3 days up to 7 days, Micro-greens between 6 to 10 days. Mushrooms you just need to do grain spawn and then substrate bags about once or twice a week and in about 5 weeks you have a constant daily supply of mushrooms for as long as you have grain and oak wood pellets. I have at least a years worth of both right now and plan to add much more and grain and wood pellets store indefinitely in good conditions. I have currently over 400 pounds of various wheat berries, have Rouge de Bordeaux, Turkey Red, Yecora Rojo, Hard White, for bread, rolls, buns, have Khorasan wheat for pasta, and White Sonora for cakes cinnamon rolls, tortillas etc. All packed in 11x14 thick mylar bags with oxygen absorbers 5# per bag, 30 year shelf life. Same thing with dried beans have 100# Same with rice have almost 100# and most of it wild rice all stored in mylar. Wild rice is far more nutritious than white and stores better. I would also suggest to get freeze dried food that comes in large #10 cans with oxygen absorbers, its also 30 year shelf life and alot of it just as good as fresh like corn, peas, broccoli, potato shreds, chopped onion, all taste like fresh. I have about 40 cans of that so far. My wife and I are vegan so hunting/fishing would be kinda last resort if we are going to starve if I don't type thing. If it comes to that I am very proficient at both. We have an emergency water supply that is a stream that runs behind our house which in 30 years has never dried up and we have a military spec water filter. For emergency cooking I have a Kamado grill and a wood fired pizza oven on back deck. Our deck is 20 feet off the ground because we are on a hillside and its 18' x 50' so decent size, I can grow potatoes in the large 25 gallon fabric pots i have, and tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers etc. But that would just be to subsidize the stored food because it would only be just a few months in summer and fall that you would get anything. But at least on a deck 20 feet in the air and I have bright led motion lights on deck it would be fairly easy to defend from every kind of critter both 4 legged and 2. So build up long term storage food, and the supplies to grow your own meat daily (mushrooms). and for sprouts all you need is seeds and some trays with silicone mats, or even just mason jars. Broccoli sprouts especially are a nutrient powerhouse and the sprouts have 100x the amount of the anticancer compound "sulforaphane" and they grow in 5 days. Also, take at least $500 cash in small bills put it in a safe and forget it exist. Or just build up so much damn food you can barter with food. Keep the guns and ammo to protect the house.
How much food do you have stored away? I'd try to get to at least one month, and make sure you can cook it in a power failure. Whatever's left after that - retirement account. Or if you can start a garden, consider that.
Ohh cooking food is smart! I've got around six months in my pantry/freezer, but I'd be struggling to cook for more than a couple of days if I had no power.
Don’t spend it all on prep. Set a limited budget and do practical prepping.
AR-15, ammo.
is that 2k after taxes? I got a nicely sized bonus with 5k taxes taken out. I hope all the illegals are appreciative wife wants a greenhouse out of it.
VFIAX
AR15 + training
Power generation, water filtration, bulk food, and durable goods (weapons, ammo, tools). Comms if you have anything left over.
Figure out what you absolutely cannot do without and make a list ranked by priority. Everyone is different. If you live in a major urban area, that money might be best spent as a down payment on some nearby rural property so that you can get out of dodge without becoming homeless. If you have family members with chronic health issues it might behoove you to invest in stockpiling meds and identifying naturopathic substitutes that you can grow yourself. If you have young kids, stockpiling bulk dry goods should be high priority so that you can feed them. It really depends on your situation. Lots of people spend money on expensive stuff like night vision, weapons or communication equipment but most people haven’t provided for their real needs. Identity those and prioritize them first.
If your refrigerate many medicines they last for many many years. I would assume that one erythromycin pill would go for $200.
Do you have actual investments? Open a fidelity account and put it in a mutual fund.
Yep. Retirement for myself and my spouse matched by our work and maxed out. I figured preparing for a world where I'm 70 and nothing major happened made the most sense first
Prioritize investments based on your specific needs, vulnerabilities, and areas where you feel you could improve your preparedness the most like perhaps getting a power generator and or self defence gear? - You could also consider creating a water storage system at home where you wouldn’t have to worry about water for at least 3 months - Also to be considered are CCTVs and motion detectors around the home for surveillance and security plus - Id also suggest investing in other self sufficiency equipment/infrastructure i.e. rainwater harvesting systems, greenhouse structures, or an aquaponics setup If you’re going for expanding your gears supply - [50 Doomsday Apocalypse Survival Items](https://alaskanarrows.com/50-doomsday-apocalypse-survival-items/) Other than that you could also consider just saving the money for now and creating a simulation of a SHTF at home, turn the mains and water off for about 8 hours and see what needs start coming up and start there
Eco flow power station
and what would it be? the same old perpetual motion energy crap?
Lol what?
hahaha I was wrong I answered in the wrong place, sorry
Ammunition- depends if you're into shooting sports, but it's good because you can use ammo for things you regularly do so it's not just one of those things that sit there forever. It's valuable and a good trade resource and it's pretty expensive. 2 grand of food may require a fair bit of space, ammunition not so much.
Don't waste your money right now. If anything get antibiotics and keep them refrigerated as they will be worth more than gold.
antibiotics? what about the expiration dates? won't they need a prescription? what happens if the power goes out?
If you don't have a deep pantry. Fill up your pantry. Write down everything your family eats in a month that is shelf stable, and buy as much if thise foodnitems as possible. With a focus on the ones that are staples. Also look online at a few lists of "pantry staples" which are the basics everyone should keep in their pantry to be able to put meals together easily. Stock up on all thise items you use frequently as well. Get a couple 55 gal drums of Facebook or Craigslist and use them for bulk water storage and or as rain barrels.
We have about six months worth of pantry basics already, I was food insecure as a kid so having plenty of basics makes me feel comfortable. I appreciate your comment!
Good that is a healthy pantry right there.
Honestly a lot of freeze dried prepper cans were on sale last month I would check those out and get a nice little freeze dried stash built up. Or buy some ammo.
Mmmm MRE's
I would need to be really hungry for those lol. Did not enjoy my first attempt at eating one.
High elevation land.
for $2000??????????