UrbanSurvivalSkill.com received the following comment through e-mail:…. "Urbanman,....I remember reading a post comment on your urban skills site that someone left saying they only have $30 left over at the end of the month to purchase survival stuff. Can you reply to this?"
UrbanMan replies: First thing I would do is to compile of list of all your Survival assets. This would include, but not be limited to: Camping Equipment, stored food, firearms, tools, skill sets. Then consider what the threats are to you and your family. This may include utilities shut off, shortage of food, lack of transportation, physical threats from criminal groups or even just from bands of starving - desperate people.
You need to have Bug Out Plan on where you will go to be safer. This may be in fact, several locations. Even if you plan on Buggin In or staying in place, you still need to have a Bug Out plan. The reasons for this, is that it will affect your Survival Gear, Equipment and Supplies (food, etc.) procurement plan.
One common piece of advice for low order procurement,…spending minimal funds on a periodic procurement plan,…is to say, but $5 to $7 of rice/beans one week, then buy $5 to $7 of powdered milk the next,…and so on. The problem with this, although it is a planned and scheduled procurement, is that if the collapse hits somewhere during your procurement process, there will be somethings you will be missing.
I suggest that after you figure out what you current have in Survival Equipment and Material, then you make a list and prioritize that list. If you have to save 3 or 4 weeks to make a purchase, then so be it.
My priorities for just starting out would be firearms for protection and food. Water has to be extremely high on the list as you can’t live without it for more than a couple days. Completion of Bug Out Bags with the necessary equipment and material to get you from your present location to your safe location would be a priority as well.
If you had firearms for protection and Survival Bug Out Bags completed to support a withdrawal from your present home/location to your safe location, then the next hole to fill would probably be sufficient food/water stocks to survive a collapse (gradual or sudden) at your present location and/or to cache at your intended safe location. Having a sufficient supply of food and water at your home gives you more time to make a decision to Bug Out. The trick will be to make a timely decision and not stay too long. – See the Armageddon Videos at the top left side of this page.
On a small budget you can procure food stocks fairly easily. Rice, beans, boullion cubes, powdered milk, canned fruit, peanut butter, instant potatoes, oatmeal, nuts would all be high on my list. Salt, Sugar, Brown sugar are important as well, but maybe not as important than the actual foods. $5 a week is pretty minimal as it may only buy about 10 lbs of rice or 8 lbs of beans. One of the things a family I know did to prep was to save their pocket change and after six months they had almost $200 converted at the bank to paper money which they in turn spent at Wal-Mart for food supplies.
I hesitate providing a list of what you need to buy, since you need to do a Survival Equipment and Material survey of what you have, then develop your Survival plan including a Bug Out plan in order to determine what else you need. Good Luck.
