Night - Prepping On A Budget: How to Prepare, Survive, and Protect Your Loved Ones on A Budget

The purpose of prepping is to be ready for whatever disaster might come your way, be it an attack, drought, famine or severe storm. A major aspect of prepping is staying healthy and well. You also want to have adequate shelter and clothing. Here are some tips to help you do your prepping on a budget.

Make a list

First think about all the essential items you would need to survive for a long period of time. If the foods you eat and the personal care items, you need would no longer be available in retail stores, how would you survive? If you must take certain medications, where would you get those?

Is it possible that you could make certain lifestyle changes that might alleviate the need for medication? For example, some people who have conditions like high blood pressures or high cholesterol, and in some cases diabetes are able to make drastic changes to their diets and reduce or eliminate the need for prescription medications. However, this needs to be discussed with a medical doctor. For example, if you are a type 1 diabetic, you will need insulin, but how will you get it?

You can think about prepping in terms of what you would need if you were preparing a disaster supplies kit. There is a lot of information available regarding how to pack away enough food, water and other needs to make it through several days, or long enough for help to reach you. This information gives you a good place to start--but what you must remember is that in the case of prepping, you may be looking at months or years of needing to survive.

When your budget is limited, you may have difficulty making ends meet right now, so how can you possibly afford to stockpile items that for a situation that might happen? There are many places you can go to find the items you need that are basic to survival. Those include discount department stores, dollar type stores and surplus stores.

Purchase Items at the End of the Season

Many stores put outdoor equipment on sale at the end of the summer season. This is a good time to stock up on camping stoves, lanterns, coolers and just about any item you can think of that you would use for camping. Items that are metal can be stored in dry places where they are not affected by humidity and dampness. Large coolers can be a place to store smaller items such as manual can openers, small pots and other utensils. The same rule for end of season purchasing goes for clothing. At the end of winter, there are excellent sales on coats, sweaters, heavy socks and thermal underwear. Yard sales and closeout sales are good sources of clothing. If purchasing at yard sales, check for moth holes and other signs of pest damage---you certainly don't want to introduce pests into your clothing supply.

You can find good-quality blankets at army surplus stores, along with tarps and similar items that you night need to prepare a makeshift shelter. When you buy clothing and textiles, consider storing them in the space type vacuum bags. This will keep them dry, intact, and they can be stored without taking up excess space.

Purchase Low Cost Food Items at Discount Stores

When prepping on a budget, you can purchase all types of packaged and can foods at discount stores like dollar stores. Foods that you can buy include proteins such as canned meats, plant-based proteins like beans, nuts peanut butter, vegetables, powdered milk, pickled relishes and dried foods like pasta and crackers. These items are shelf-stable and can be purchased cheaper at these types of stores than at retail grocery stores.

Plan for How You Will Prepare Food

Although survival is the goal of prepping on a budget, it does not mean that the foods you store cannot be combined to create meals that taste good. Look at recipes for ideas on how to prepare food so you can stretch your budget. For example, you can cook box of pasta and stir in some dehydrated vegetables and a can or chicken or tuna, and you have a dish that can feed a family during uncertain times. Likewise, canned beans can be cooked with canned tomatoes and chili powder to create a meatless chili. The possibilities are endless with canned foods, but having a plan ahead of times means that you won't be tempted to simply open a can of beans and call it a meal.

Preserve Your Own Food at Home

Prepping on a budget can be done by preserving food by canning is pretty easy. All you need is the produce, an up-to-date food preservation guide, jars and canners. A pressure canner and jars will cost, but both can be purchased at stores that sell gently used household goods. The key in canning food safety is to follow the exact directs for the type of food you are preserving. If you're preserving fruits, jellies or pickles, your canning may be done in a boiling-water bath, which is simply a large cooking pot. You place the jars in the simmering pot on a rack and make sure that the water is about an inch over the top, then when the water comes to a boil, allow the jars to process for the amount of time recommended by the canning guide.

If you are using a pressure canner, follow the directions in the canning guide. Remember---if you are canning low-acid foods that include green beans, corn, okra, meats, etc., you must process them in a pressure canner using the proper instructions to make sure they are safe to eat.

Dry Foods

You can also dry many types of food. This process is called dehydration. You should follow the instructions found in a food preservation guide. Drying food removes excess moisture, allowing the food to be shelf stable until it is reconstituted for use later. Fruit, vegetables, jerky and other dried meat products can be preserved by drying. The key is to remove most of the moisture to prevent mold growth. The items should then be stored in a cool dry place in tightly covered containers.

Research diligently on related topics.

Everything must begin with the acquisition of knowledge about prepping and survival. Informed individuals will be better able to anticipate what they'll need in a crisis and create suitable plans for their family. There is an endless list of books on related topics and many can be read for free at the public library. Bloggers have also been generous in sharing what they have learned and experienced. Their articles can be excellent resources and educated comments often add value to the posts. Online forums should be considered as well because they offer novices the chance to ask questions and discuss issues in detail.