If you are wondering what to buy for prepping right now, you are not alone.
Prepping for survival events requires more than just making a grocery list and picking up a few extra items here and there.
Survival events are an evolving situation that is constantly changing depending on the politics, weather, and other important criteria of the world.
You have to pay close attention to what is happening to supply chains, weather patterns, political movements and more in order to plan your next steps and re-prioritize things in order of importance.
How To Decide What To Buy For Prepping
Right now, you can look at top news stories and listen to the buzz on social media to figure out what products may be in short demand, what decisions or situations might inflame people and cause civil unrest, etc.
With supply chain bottlenecks, Supreme Court decisions that are sure to cause riots, and droughts occurring in many places, not to mention wars in other countries, you can easily plan the items you will need to have as soon as possible.
This is the first step you must take in order to decide what to buy for prepping – regardless if you are prepping for a natural disaster, political or civil unrest or a zombie apocalypse.
Gardening Supplies For Self-Reliant Food Sources
While it might sound great to stock up on readymade food sources for survival, which is another task you should be doing now, you also want to plan for long term survival events that will sustain you in terms of food long after all of your supplies have been used.
Even if you have a year’s worth of food for every individual in your home, there may come a day when those supplies run out and you still have no access to the convenience of a grocery store or online food orders.
Most people don’t have enough room in their home to stock up food that will last them for five years or more.
Therefore, it’s imperative that you learn to grow your own fruits and vegetables as well as herbs or other plants that can be used for medicinal purposes, not just as a food source.
Even if you only have a small space to work with, such as container gardens or raised bed gardens, you should be learning how to grow your own food and actively planting and rotating crops through each season long before you actually need them.
Before it becomes an emergency situation, you can take your harvest and either can it for future use or even donate it to local shelters and food pantries that are in need of your excess produce.
Some of the supplies you may want to go ahead and invest in our books for gardening in your zone, tools that will help you nurture and rotate the soil, composting bins to recycle your waste in a positive way, products that will help keep pests away from your garden, and of course heirloom seeds in large quantities and of a wide variety that you can plant for your future crops.
Long-Term Food Products That Will Last Decades
For a shorter term survival situation that may or may not ever happen, you want food products that are pre-packaged that you can store at home that will be shelf stable for 25 to 30 years.
You don’t want to forget your pets in this scenario.
Because of grain shortages, due to war torn countries and droughts and other regions, you may find shortages of pet food in the near future.
In addition to pet food, you want to focus on acquiring pantry staples that you may need to bake bread, sweeten food, and cook with in the future.
These include things like salt, flour, sugar, etc.
In addition to normal pre-packaged foods such as canned vegetables or pasta, you also want to invest in some of the emergency survival food bundles that you can set aside and use anytime in the next several decades.
You can buy these in small amounts such as weekly bundles or in longer packages such as three months, six months, and even one year’s worth of supplies.
These emergency food kits usually only require you to add water.
Many of the larger food storage kits can give each individual 2,000 or more calories per day that will last you a long time.
The dehydrated food comes in packages for breakfast, lunch or dinner, snacks, drinks, and even desserts.
Some bundles come with entire meal plans, where the food is varied.
So one 6-month package from My Patriot Supply might provide something like 80 servings of Mac and cheese, 80 servings of chicken flavored rice, 40 servings of beef stroganoff, 40 servings of potato soup, 24 servings of broccoli soup, 40 servings of Alfredo pasta, 64 servings of chili Mac, and 32 servings of spaghetti as the entrees.
They may come with side dishes such as 96 servings of bread, 80 servings of southwest rice, 200 servings of long grain white rice, 64 servings of mashed potatoes, and 80 servings of mushroom rice pilaf.
This same bundle comes with 260 servings of pancakes, 224 servings of Maple oatmeal, 24 servings of strawberry cream of wheat, and a variety of snacks, desserts, and drinks such as orange drinks, powdered milk, chocolate pudding, dehydrated banana chips, and rice pudding.
Of course, you don’t have to purchase the pre-made survival food that will last decades, as long as you know how to package your own food so that it is shelf stable for decades to come.
Most people simply like the convenience of ordering anything from a $25 three day supply to a one year supply that costs up to $3,000.
That way, they know that everything has been measured out and carefully packaged for safety they no longer have to worry about.
Hydration Supplies For Storing Or Securing Clean Water
For many people, access to clean water is dependent upon the electric grid.
Others, who are on well water, do not have to worry about that.
However, in a major survival situation, it would be almost impossible to save up enough water to last your entire family for a long period of time.
If you are relying on things like store-bought gallons of water, you would need to save one gallon of water per person per day, and when you multiply that by 365 days in a year, not many people have the space for that type of supply.
It is good to have some emergency water on hand. You can store that in things like 5-7 gallon emergency water storage tanks with spigots or water bricks that are easily stackable in your home.
But you will eventually need to be able to use some sort of water filtration system to clean natural water sources that you can use for drinking, cooking, and cleaning.
You can save these options for a time when water is not expected to be easily available for the foreseeable future.
Some people have the minimum requirements on hand, such as water purification tablets.
Others have invested in one or more water filter straws that can be immediately placed in any water source to drink clean water.
However, you want to have even more tools at your disposal to keep your family hydrated, since this is the most important survival resource you will need.
Start by having a way to gather and collect rainwater.
There are some places that do not allow this, but most areas will allow homeowners to collect rainwater on their property. you can use this water for drinking, cleaning, cooking, as well as to water your garden since you won’t have the ability to simply turn on a sprinkler.
You can also buy water filtration gadgets that will allow you to take larger amounts of water and run it through the system to remove bacteria, chemicals, and viruses that are found in lakes, streams, ponds, rivers, etc.
Property To Build A Homestead Outside Of The City
Another top thing survival preppers are purchasing right now is property.
Even though it is at a high price point, the immediate need to have a place to go if the city is uninhabitable or enduring civil unrest is important.
Many people are not yet building a on this property, but instead are simply purchasing the space that is available where they will be out of the city limits.
They are looking for land that has natural resources for water on it.
They are also looking for property that would serve for farming needs, including both growing their own crops as well as raising farm animals in fields or in a barn.
There is a lot of land that can be purchased at a cheaper price point than property that already has a homestead on it.
Once they have the property, preppers have begun putting temporary buildings in place so that they have and escape when and if they need it in the near future, and a place to stay if they want to work on building a more permanent homestead.
One way they do this is by putting a mobile home on the property.
Some people even have temporary campers there.
There are a few individuals who use shipping containers to build housing on the property that can be equipped with plumbing and electricity.
If you look on some of the social media platforms like TikTok, you will see many survival preppers who are building tiny homes on these properties for the mean time.
In fact, there is a trend going around right now where people buy things like outdoor storage sheds that look like tiny homes.
For example, at Home Depot, you can buy a wood storage shed that looks like a tiny home that has a large loft area, ventilation, shutters for your windows, etc.
This particular shed is under $10,000.
There are other buildings you can buy that have multiple rooms, such as a log building kit that includes a porch.
Not only are people buying these to put on homestead properties outside of the city limits, but due to rising costs for home ownership and rent, some people are putting these in the backyard of their parents property so that they can live at a lower cost.
You can look for a property in your own state, or look in some of the most popular homestead states such as Idaho, Wyoming, Texas, and Montana.
You will usually be able to find both small plots of land of half an acre to one acre as well as many acres available all at once that are on some sort of water front and that have many trees to hide the property.
Solar Gadgets For If The Grid Goes Down
Another item that many preppers are investing in now is anything that will give them power from the sun.
Solar gadgets are rising in popularity for people all around the globe.
Not only can they charge your phone, but they can help you cook meals or stay warm in cold weather.
Many people in the north part of America are used to relying on generators during blizzard situations when electricity would be down for days.
However, in the South, people were not used to extreme cold weather conditions when a snowstorm hit Texas and crippled the grid for days.
This caused everyone to lose power, sending their temperatures in their homes to at or below freezing levels.
Since then, many people have begun ordering generators that are not only gas powered, but solar powered as well.
They know that gas is a commodity that may not be easily accessible at all times.
Communication is also a strong factor in why people want to rely on solar gear.
A simple solar phone charger is $25 or less, which is affordable for most survival preppers looking for reassurance that they will be able to stay in touch with loved ones when the grid goes down.
You also want to get a solar radio, or one that is operational with a hand crank as opposed to batteries or electricity.
Some of these have outlets on them that allow you to use them to charge other devices, in addition to being able to listen to emergency broadcasts.
In grid down situations, you need to be able to cook, there are many different ways you can cook without electricity.
Some people choose to cook over a fire using a cast iron pan, others prefer to use a grill or some other means of cooking food.
But you can also get a solar cooker that will allow you to bake and cook food using the sun.
This could be beneficial if you are ever in a situation where you don’t have access to wood or charcoal to be able to light a fire several times a day.
There are also solar gadgets that will serve as flashlights or lanterns during the night when the grid is down.
You can charge your solar lantern by letting it hang off of your bug out bag as you are hiking, and then pop it open in your tent at night so that you can see.
There are also solar freezers and coolers that you can use if the grid goes down and you have food in your freezer or refrigerator that you need to stay cool.
The top of the cooler is a solar panel that recharges a battery that keeps the inside of the cooler cold for you.
Hot And Cold Weather Gear For Bugging Out Or Loss of Electricity
If you live in a state or region where extreme weather conditions are likely to happen, whether it’s hot or cold weather, you want to be prepared to survive those situations if you don’t have access to conveniences like central air conditioning or heat.
Whether you are bugging in at your home or bugging out to a location such as the wilderness, you need to be prepared for prolonged heatwaves as well as cold weather conditions that can even be fatal.
You may want to invest in a solar powered fan or have plenty of batteries on hand for hand operated fans that can provide you with a mist of water to keep you cool.
We’ve already spoken about water needs, but in extreme heat situation, this is even more important.
You also want to get some cooling towels that you can wet and wring out and put around your neck or wrap around your head to stay cool in hot weather situations.
Make sure you insulate your home to keep hot weather out, and black out your windows to keep the sun’s ray from warming up your home’s interior.
It is equally important to prepare for cold weather events.
You can’t just pile on blankets and expect to survive comfortably.
You may want a generator to heat up your home, but you’ll also want heat sheet or mylar blankets to keep your body’s warmth inside.
You want to be able to layer your clothes and cook without electricity.
Some MREs (meals ready to eat) have built in heating elements to warm up your food.
But a warm drink or soup can warm you up even if you have to use another method of cooking.
You might want to stock up on hand warmers you can activate that will give you 12-18 hours of heat.
You can also stock up on gloves and headwear as well as thermal clothing and socks to keep the warmth of body from seeping out.
Security Supplies To Protect Their Belongings And Loved Ones
Security can be accomplished in many different ways.
You may need it for civil unrest, an intruder, or a major SHTF event where chaos is looming at every corner and you have to protect your supplies and your family.
In addition to learning how to fight using hand combat and martial arts which can be taught to every member of your family, you also want to make sure your home and other areas like your car have some sort of protection.
You will have to decide what type of protection is right for you, and look at the laws in your area to see what’s allowed for every individual in your family.
You might be using pepper spray, some sort of taser, a baseball bat or firearm to protect yourself.
You also want to work on fortifying your home from any unsavory activities.
Make sure you have windows and doors that are solid and not easy to break into.
Get video surveillance for your property and install flood lights that easily show you where someone is lurking.
If possible, create a safe room in your home that an intruder can’t access.
You want to make it difficult for anyone to enter your home, and that means looking at every detail down to the type of landscaping you use to deter people from walking right up to your windows and peeking in.
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