SHTF for $25?

[redneckmedic]

What does your SHTF budget look like?

Are you a buy once cry once kinda fella or stretch the dollar as far as it will go? Do you buy big buck quantity or a little here and a little there? These of coarse are just rhetorical. The point is if you can sacrifice $25 a week here are few simple ways to start stock piling for when the balloon goes up.

First and for most buy this book. Patriots: Surviving the coming collapse. This will explain more than you have questions for, plus its a great story.

But back to the point of this thread. $25 a week great buys to start putting back. Idea is bulk, easy to store (weather/moisture/ext), and of all necessary.

My weekly shopping (ideally) rotates, but here is where I start.

• .22LR wal-mart $16 550 (I don't buy Remington)
• 12g #7 2 3/4 wal-mart $22

Feed Salt (granulized) 50lb bag $6; find at your local feed store

• salt has more uses than I will ever know for SHTF Great investment.

Rice 25lb bags $25 bags

Heirloom Seeds... I buy from here.

What do ya'll have to add?

 

[Sailor]

Food, mostly once every couple of months as we rotate through the storage pantry. I did all the long term stuff at once. Its sealed up and if need it then its bad.

Ammo for rifles by the case, except .22 which I pick up when I can.

Set your crew up with the same gear and spend some money on training.

 

[redneckmedic]

Food, mostly once every couple of months as we rotate through the storage pantry. I did all the long term stuff at once. Its sealed up and if need it then its bad.

Ammo for rifles by the case, except .22 which I pick up when I can.

Set your crew up with the same gear and spend some money on training.

 

[Eddie]

We started

We started by adding the following to our grocery budget: one case of bottled water, one box powdered milk, one can vegetables, one can fruit, one can meat, one can of soup and one bag of either rice, beans or noodles. Bit by bit it added up until we had a shelf full of each item. Then we would put the new on the left and take one from the right of the shelf to rotate the stock.

At the same time I put a dollar into ammo and a dollar into gear every day. It slowly piled up and I bought boxes of ammo for each gun, a pressure cooker, water purification tablets, medical supplies and other items.

The key is to be patient, set your money aside, do research and prioritize.

 

[Steve]

Foood stuffs are pretty simple. Just buy a few extra cans a week and rotate your stock. Ammo is just a matter of catching it on sale.

The real deal is the "buy 1 get 1 free" sales at Walgreens, CVS, Kroger, Marsh, etc. Pay close attention to their ads and think outside the box. Tylenol, Asprin, various ointments, gauze, antiseptic creams, reading glasses, multivitamins,antihitamines, deoderant, toothpaste, toilet paper, tampoons, soap, etc. Anything that you can use or barter later down the road (what would a pair or reading glasses be worth to you if you broke your last pair?). Buy 2 of the items and stock up with 1 of them and put the FREE one in a future needs bag or box. That squeeze bottle of calamine lotion could be worth 3 boxes of spagetti or 2 cans of beef stew down the road.

I firmly believe that within 30 days of the SHTF event, bartering will become a way of life. Having a variety of goods to trade at that time will be worth more than money in the bank.

 

[Big John]

I watch for sales..

Last week I added 20lbs of different pastas for $20
week before it was Lipton noodle and/or rice dishes for $1 a piece also got 20
Wally world once every 2 weeks.. TP, Soap, UA deodorant, Tooth paste, and toothbrush $50
Aldi or Save-a-lot $100 a month canned stuff.
between 12-30 fresh eggs a day.. (FREE eggs for INGO show up at my house with empty cartons)

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Funny this thread should come up today.I have been trying to educate my wife about keeping a surplus of food items for years and she just doesn't grasp the concept. We went shopping together today and for every item she put in the cart, I put 2 more of the same. The sad thing is that she won't bother to replenish until all 3 are gone. I buy beans, rice, salt, corn meal, flour, etc.....between 10 and 20 pounds of each, every time I go to the store. I also buy 5 gallon buckets w/lids to store it in. Today I also added a supply of baking soda and baking powder, but no yeast, long term storage of yeast isn't really going to work if the power goes and I don't want to keep a supply of it growing. I should probably work something out since distilled spirits will be like gold when the SHTF. Oh, I also started stocking bleach today, much cheaper than water tablets and just as effective. Ammo is a buy it when I find it sort of thing and when there is extra money in the bank I order bulk on line.

 

[Big John]

5 gallon buckets are nice but it is easier for me to store in #10 cans...

Think I will be building this in my garage..

http://www.kirkhams.org/Canned%20Food%20Rotator%20brochure%206-1-06.pdf

 

[infidel]

Being in school, I'm getting used to looking for deals at the grocery store. The thing is, I think having a month of food set back is good because if it is worse than that, I will be going home. So when I find things on sale that I eat I buy a lot of it - easy mac, spam, and ramen noodles to name are staples. By buying a lot of these at once it keeps a "liquid" flow of food I know I will eat, while not effecting the food I set back. Most of the time I will throw a can/box of what I bought into my doomsday closet.

 

[Greg.B]

I'm also glad to see this thread come up, and am gaining interest in this as I prepare to move from a mobile home to an actual house this next weekend! That gives me possibilities as far as expanding my readiness!

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Think I will be building this in my garage..

http://www.kirkhams.org/Canned%20Foo...e%206-1-06.pdf

Great tutorial. I wish I had time, energy to build it. I seem to have a hard time bringing myself to buy the #10 cans too, they are a bit more expensive than just buying off the shelf. For example, I can get 25-50 pounds of flour in a bag for the same price of 2-3 #10 cans of flour. The cans may store a bit longer than a 5 gal. pail, but the pail allows for easier and cheaper rotation. To each their own though. Whatever works for each of us is a whole lot better than the sheep that aren't even trying!!!

am gaining interest in this as I prepare to move from a mobile home to an actual house this next weekend!

Congratulations! That's got to be a great feeling.

 

[Big John]

I buy my own cans and throw in an O2 absorber or two. I still buy in bulk I just store in cans.

 

[Dr Falken]

I have this book and have been re-reading it- "Emergency Food Storage and Survival Handbook by Peggy Layton. It has a good plan to get set up in a little biit at a time method. Also good information on how to store and things to worry about.

We have a good supply of food, most of it on a shelving unit, all set up in what we now call the pantry, but without an inventory method, I know we have too much of some things and not enough of other things. I try to buy a little extra of everything we buy, soap, tp, dish soap, etc. I have some bottled water, but mostly I have 2 litter pop bottles filled with water, and some 5 gal. "Gerry" type cans. We have a filter to filter more water, but our next buy is a Berkey water filter.

I think the one of the best things to do is to make a list of things you think you need, research it, figure out what you really need, then price and budget it in. Don't go into debt to buy stuff. If you have a plan, you will not be panic buying, and by starting now, even a little at a time, you'll be surprised how much you'll stock up on.

Just a pet peeve, while I know bottle water is very convienent, I can get 2,000 gallons of potable water for $16. out of my tap, and it is just as good, if not better than bottled water. Reuse or buy some containers and use the water from the spigot, it's a heck of a lot cheaper! Bottled water is a several thousand percent markup in price. Plastic containers to hold water are very easy to come buy, especially if you recycle.

 

[Sailor]

And some granulated pool shock can make a metric sh*** ton of bleach to disinfect and treat water. All for about 6 bucks.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Just a pet peeve, while I know bottle water is very convienent, I can get 2,000 gallons of potable water for $16. out of my tap, and it is just as good, if not better than bottled water. Reuse or buy some containers and use the water from the spigot, it's a heck of a lot cheaper! Bottled water is a several thousand percent markup in price. Plastic containers to hold water are very easy to come buy, especially if you recycle.

+100 I hate bottled water. Another concern with bottled water is the expiration date. Yes, I said expiration date. The bottles used slowly leak toxic chemicals into the contents and there is an expiration date that should definitely be adhered to. Soda bottles suffer from this same malady. I have a decent sized fish pond in my yard, so stocking up on bleach to purify it is all I'm worried about, maybe a filtration system at some point....

 

[Sailor]

Keep in mind bleach degrades over time.

 

[redneckmedic]

Garage Sales are Great for hand tools! You can never have enough, as they will be great to barder with also!

 

[Eddie]

The thing to remember

In the books and movies, it is always some multimillionaire that builds a state of the are underground bunker and stocks it with everything imaginable. That's not the real world. Start small. Invest your time in researching what you need while you set a few bucks aside. Save your pennies, buy an extra can of soup, make a wish list and prioritize it. You can't do it all at once, but with patience and discipline you can build up a really impressive stockpile.

 

[Cat-Herder]

I wouldn't think most of you would care, but this has me rethinking my stocking up and i'm breaking out my pressure cooker again this season! bpa leaches into the food over time, and as a result of heat.

several results from a "bpa in canned food" search

BPA Danger may be greater from Tin Cans than Water Bottles : TreeHugger
Consumer group finds BPA in canned foods
Naomi Starkman: Tests Find Wide Range of Bisphenol A in Canned Soups, Juice, and More

 

[evansvillethompsongunner]

Keep in mind bleach degrades over time.

{{citation needed}}