Your advice to someone new to prepping

[Bob]

Water:

Store it
Purify It
Find it
Collect it
Transport it

Be able to do all of those!

[Bob]

Also:

Get the basics now - and go cheap. Try things and use them, THEN get more expensive gear, and put the originals in storage (but don't discard!). Remember, one is none, two is one!

I have done this and now have my personal survival pouch, but also about two or three that are far better than nothing that I can hand out, or have if I lose my #1 pouch.

[Gnepig]

Use your stuff, I mean keep it in rotation. Say for instance can goods= eat what you prep and replace it with newer stuff eating the oldest first. Collect/ prep what you already eat= Stress AND a sudden change in diet will not help matters one bit...

Also if nothing ever happens (which would be awesome) you don't want to have to throw out a bunch of food stuff that went 5 to 7 years over date because you were busy and forgot it was there.

For us, the kids grew up/ moved out and I developed diabetes... After holding on to all this food that I/we couldn't possibly eat, we had to throw out big bags full of out of date food. The ones that killed me was the pancake mixes, I Love blueberry pancakes- LOTS of Krusty's products. A lot of canned fruit don't last to long after the best by dates either- the acids eat the inside of the cans. You can tell cause the fruit tastes like metal...

[David]

Also:

Get the basics now - and go cheap. Try things and use them, THEN get more expensive gear, and put the originals in storage (but don't discard!). Remember, one is none, two is one!

I have done this and now have my personal survival pouch, but also about two or three that are far better than nothing that I can hand out, or have if I lose my #1 pouch.

I want to echo and piggy-back on some stuff Bob stated. There is a TON of stuff that would be useful in an emergency situation (either to prevent or to help mitigate the situation) that is cheap. And by cheap I mean inexpensive rather than junky.

Mylar space blankets are cheap yet highly useful and potentially life-saving. You can easily buy one very expensive LED flashlight or you can buy 10 Sipik SK68's for a couple of bucks each that supply all kinds of light and have one by the bed, in the car, in a pocket, by the back door etc. You can buy a peanut lighter for $30 or you can buy them for $3 and have a bunch of spares. You can spend over $100 for a Maxpedition bag or you can get a much cheaper clone/knock-off for less than $10 that does pretty much the same thing.

Point is that you have lots of options NOW regardless of your budget. If you're in a position to get the best of everything then great. If you're living paycheck-to-paycheck you can still get the things you need NOW that will work just fine until you can replace them down the road. And on a lot of stuff, you may never actually need to replace anything. If it works...it works regardless of the price tag.

So never let your financial situation make you think that you can't be doing something positive now that will improve your situation later. You start slow and be consistent.

[Bob]

10 SIPIKs?

Skip that noise! I'm talking the $1 ones at Walmart. I use those things all the time!!! 10 one dollar lights are awesome. I hand them out, keep them everywhere.

But yeah - the SIPIK's rule also!!!! Of course I also have Surefire G2's and P6's...so I'm not saying don't get an ultra -piece of gear ion it is your thing (some dig knives, others flashlights, whatever...).

But be careful of Uber-Preppers. They will give you the "buy once , cry once " speech and you will be paralyzed for years trying to save up to buy the ultra knife, gun, water filter, fire gear, camp stove, solar panel, radio, etc...

Get the basics right away, and upgrade as you can, and stack the lesser gear for backups or donate it, or whatever.

[Bob]

This is not expensive and will filter a lot of water...

https://www.amazon.com/LifeStraw-Person ... DER&sr=8-4

[Gnepig]

This is also not expensive and filters even more water:

https://www.amazon.com/Sawyer-Products- ... 2C183&th=1

[David]

Some items to consider...

[Strayz]

My advice for those that are new and want to start.

Make sure your family is all on board with it as well. You can not do it all.

Don't be crazy. If people start looking at you like you are crazy dial it back by 20% and don't mention it again.

Start small. Slow and steady will mean you also do not get burned out. Prepper burn out is more real than most give credit to.

Buy small amounts extra over a long time. You can not afford to buy it all at once.

Keep a spread sheet of what you feel you need, and another for what you "Want."

Buying in bulk is only good for those things that are ok to store for really long term. Read as if it expires in less than 2 years don't buy a 5 year supply.

Start today.

Saving Money is very good. Clip coupons and use discount codes.

Learn to DIY.

Make like minded friends.

Don't be an island. We are a social animal, stay social.

Knowledge is more powerful than any tool you can buy.

Hand tools, you are going to need them. Learn how to be your own handy man.

Have other hobbies, it will keep you sane.

Learn to cook for your family over an open fire. You would be supprised how many people can not cook over a fire.

Buy cast iron cookware.

Matches, always have some as backup, then have more. Get the wooden strike anywhere.

Fire is a tool. learn how to make it and learn how to use it without burning down everything.

Guns are a tool. They are also a fact. learning how to use one is a good thing, even if you can not or do not have the ability to own them. There are other options, Bows, slings, trebuchet if you need them. Besides who doesn't need siege warfare equipment?

[David]

10 SIPIKs?

Skip that noise! I'm talking the $1 ones at Walmart. I use those things all the time!!! 10 one dollar lights are awesome. I hand them out, keep them everywhere.

But yeah - the SIPIK's rule also!!!! Of course I also have Surefire G2's and P6's...so I'm not saying don't get an ultra -piece of gear ion it is your thing (some dig knives, others flashlights, whatever...).

But be careful of Uber-Preppers. They will give you the "buy once , cry once " speech and you will be paralyzed for years trying to save up to buy the ultra knife, gun, water filter, fire gear, camp stove, solar panel, radio, etc...

Get the basics right away, and upgrade as you can, and stack the lesser gear for backups or donate it, or whatever.

I can see a rationale for 'some' things that are more expensive...too a point. For example, flashlights. If you want to EDC a more expensive light that has the options that you want then that's okay. But equally okay is having those 10 spare Sipiks or Walmart lights stashed or on duty in various parts of the house/vehicle. Light is light and in a pinch you're not going to care if that like is coming out of a $3 Sipik-clone or a $50 Nitecore.

And lights, with a LOT of lumens and LOT of features can be had for around the $20 mark. The Convoy S2+ or Astrolux S1/BLF A6 are good examples.

Of course someone that is just getting into personal preparedness I would recommend first getting flashlights that use commonly found/obtained batteries like AAA/AA. This is again were the Sipik/SK68 shines. Gets about 80ish lumens on a standard AA battery with the ability to bump up to around 300 lumens using a 14500. But the user doesn't have to be into lithium ion batteries to have a simply yet bright light.

Once they have a few areas covered i.e. home, vehicle, EDC then they can branch out into other areas and lights if they want. But the basics are covered.

Guns are a tool. They are also a fact. learning how to use one is a good thing, even if you can not or do not have the ability to own them.

Yep, and same principle applies to firearms. Right now is a prime time to purchase a firearm and there are a ton of very good choices in the $200 +/- range to choose from. Nothing at all wrong with starting out with a Taurus G2, Ruger EC9s, Walther PPS or S&W Shield. All in the same neighborhood on price, can be found easily on the used market and have good track records. If that is as far as you go on a firearm you're still way ahead of many people. Just train with it. Better to have a $200 pistol and shoot it once a month than have a $1000 safe queen you're afraid to scratch.