Hi guys,
My name is Mike. I live in Wisconsin with my wife and stepson. Like the title says we are new to this and a little unsure where to start. So any help would be great.
Thank you
I am pretty new as well. I am 47, my husband is 53. Our three kids 19, 23, 27 all live at home. My oldest daughter is a former pharmacy tech and has been a CNA/EMT for several years. She is now pursuing her paramedic certification. I study orthomolecular and natural medicine. We have plenty of meds, including Rx's and natural meds along with medical supplies. Do some research on Fish antibiotics. They are the same thing that humans take and are really cheap. Keep some on hand. We bought an SKS almost thirty years ago and we also own shotguns, various handguns and a Ruger 22 takedown rifle that breaks apart to fit in a backpack. We plan on getting another rifle and also an AR-15 or two. We live across from a lake but nonerof us fish. So, we went out and bought fishing supplies for the entire family along with a couple of "how to fish" books. We will be getting some training from others on how to fish. Someone sent me a link to a tutorial on how to build a water purification system with two 5 gallon buckets and a ceramic candle filter bought off of Amazon. Total cost around $25. Then I found a tutorial on how to make rain barrels for my home for practically free. I will be putting in at least three of these. That is at least 150 gallons of water. I am putting security film on all my windows to make them shatter resistant. We have a lot of new construction in my area and they will give you pieces of free plywood that you can cut to fit the size of your windows. When SHTF, you can screw them in on the inside and use a router to put peep holes in them. You can also get brackets with long bolts and metal bars to barricade your exterior doors from the inside. There is a lady that puts together bins of a weeks worth of meals. That way, she knows exactly how much food she has and can just pull one bin out at a time. Buy the foods that you like and are used to when prepping. Buy a pressure canner and learn to can. You can use the same canner as a water bath canner just don't tighten the lid down. You can can chicken and ground meat, even bacon. Buy wheat berries which are pretty cheap and have a long shelf life and a hand grinder. You can make your own solar oven for making bread. Dig a fire pit, stock some wood and learn to use a dutch oven. I make my own laundry & cleaning soap. A $1 bar of Zote soap and a cup of borax makes 10 gallons of soap. I have been using it for a couple of years and even in my fancy new HE washer, it is the best soap I have ever used. Found a link on youtube for a compost toilet basically using a toilet seat, five gallon bucket and some saw dust &/or peat moss. They swear there is no smell. I am going to build one for my camper and we shall see. There are many things that you can do for free or little money. You can make thing into family projects and staycations instead of expense vacations and knock a lot of this stuff out in one swoop. In my opinion, your list of priorities should be this:
1. Bug out bag which should include extra Rx's that you might be on.
2. Handgun, ammo and firearm instruction for everyone. If you can get a CHL, get one.
3. Water. Store some bottled. Make a filter system and keep extra bleach on hand. Make rain barrels.
4. Food & Medical supplies. Equally important.
Medical: Learn CPR and first aide. Get a snake bit kit and quickclot kit and learn how to use them. Do not wait for an emergency to learn how to use medical supplies. Get some antibiotics from pet supply stores. Add natural medicines and get some books on how to use them.
Food: Put together the 7 day bins. Vary your diet for the best nutrition and to keep things as normal as possible. Can as much already prepared as you can but make sure that you have dehydrated and small portions of ready to eat items for your bug out bags. Put a bottle of vitamins in your BO bag and have plenty at home. If you have a garden, buy extra seeds at the end of the season when they are cheap and store them in a cTakool dark place. Also have extra canning jars and supplies. You can ask around and there are a lot of people, especially elderly people that can no long can that would be happy to give you their jars.
look around the forums, there is plenty to learn. Congratulation on starting to prep. Don't get sucked into the cooperage "survive anything" stuff. Start small, what I did was instead of buying 1 can of beans (lets say) I bought 2-3 and put the extra aside. I've only been prepping for a short time (under a year) but I think I'm better off than 95% of the people in the world. It doesn't have to be expensive also, I spend less than 5 euro a week.
