Prepping & Supplies for SHTF

Just don't let food or water come into contact with garbage bags. Most have rat poisoning in them!

Getting several 5 gallon buckets with lids and making sure they are food grade will be so very useful. If it rains you can collect water. Store grains, beans, dried goods in the buckets.

LOL, guess you know by know I am a prepper. No I don't have most of what I need for my family, just keep getting as much as possible when possible. Economy doesn't allow a middle class family to prep!!

First I started with one months worth of food and water. Water is hard to store as it takes so much room but one month is the goal and I met it. Then I worked on having 3 months of food. After that you work on what is called long term storage or LTS. Got most of my lists on my prepping forum [link to www.getreadyforum.com]

Lol...when shit happens the ones so confident will probably be ill-prepared. You don't know what is going to happen, so why prep not knowing that? Why even prep? Fuck it. I'm going to treat it like a game, it is Survival of the Fittest after all. I'll bank on my wit.

You did great, and I see you have some good responses. Someone else said herbs and spices, I would second that, and tea. Vitamins too.

It's been good for me buying herbs and spices and tea in bulk by the pound at San Francisco Herb Co. [link to www.sfherb.com] I recommend them highly for quality, service and price.

My first round of establishing a pantry I got potato flakes too. I found they did not keep very well so maybe plan to use them and rotate them.

Thank you for your most excellent definition of what a moron is. You are utterly devoid of wit. You are a nit wit.

leonine .... DOGS

To trade with the Chinese for rice ?

Thank you for clarifying this. My post was sloppy in that regard. I had no intention of of suggesting storing food in garbage bags. With that said, I still would consider using them to "harvest" edibles, and then quickly remove upon returning home.

Preppers live in fear. Why bother? That's no way to live

Preppers live in fear. Why bother? That's no way to live

OP, are you also planning an escape plan as well as the hunker down plan you have in progress?

Everything you buy===use cash. If they start looking for hoarders, your credit records will bring them right to your door. Cash. Cash. Cash.

Preppers live in fear. Why bother? That's no way to live

Here is a good site: [link to givemetheinfo.com] You want to read this site and then print it out. In my searches I found the plan below. Simple, relatively inexpensive. You can buy a year worth of food for less than $200

The whole plan is as simple as;

200 lbs of pinto beans (per person)

300 lbs of yellow whole kernel corn (per person)

35 lbs of liquid shortening (per person).

And that’s it. This will supply almost 2000 calories per day for 365 days. You may notice there’s no freeze dried caviar on the list. [Image: icon_smile.gif] But if you don’t die of epicurean boredom you will survive until the end of the year.

And it’s a very good diet too. Both traditionally and scientifically.
The Native Americans grew beans, corn and squash, They called them The
Three Sisters. They thrived on the diet. The squash was a good addition.
Scientifically, a beans and corn diet give a complete array of all the
amino acids your body needs to live. They call it a complete protein.
You can get a little more information here on complete proteins.

[link to www.fitsugar.com]
***********************
Beans, no matter how well you stored them, get hard as a rock over time. Yup, they are still good, but hard. A trick to help with this is adding 2 teaspoons of baking soda. I haven't tried it, but it is suppose to help soften the beans and make cooking time less. I store pinto beans as I grew up in the Southwest and to me it is the only REAL bean there is. They have one of the highest protein contents. There are two more but I don't remember which, you will need to research the kinds of beans you like and prep those. You can't cook those beans over a stove all day, so what do you do? You soak them overnight in water, in the morning (currently I dump this water as it helps to remove the reason beans give GAS - after a SHTF you won't be doing this), you heat the beans to a boil, then as you are conserving on fires, you remove from the fire and put in a warmer with a tight lid. This can be done by wrapping the put in a blanket and putting into a bail of hay. The idea is the beans keep cooking all day and by night time they are ready for supper. I think the above link has more info on this.

Lard and solid shortening lasts longer than liquid oils, so I don't agree with the above on this. I prep veggie shortening like Crisco. Their site states it lasts 2 years - I know it is fine for 5 and that is opened. Okay, I don't always cook so things sit around, lol. Here is a link to their site: [link to www.crisco.com]

Lard lasts a long time. There isn't an exp. date on the containers for a reason. Here is an interesting link: [link to digitaljournal.com]

Any idea where to get non-gmo corn? Also, in a pinch, could you crush the beans into a flour? Have not had time to check out your links yet, but thanks for all your help!!!

I'm on a tight budget also and can get things here and there. When I buy food...I try to buy high caloric food,canned, eat it cold...no cooking. Smells draw attention. Really trying to stock up on feminin hygiene stuff. Powdered milk...it's pricey. Water,water,water...try to get some at every shopping excursion. You sound like you're on your way, though. Good start...better than no start. Now you can build on it a little at a time. Cheap vitamins. I've been wandering about those canisters of protein supplements that body builders use to gain weight. Something you just add water to. Don't care about flavor as much as I do the fuel. Oh yeah...lamp and lamp oil maybe. Boy I'm gonna stop now....I'm jumping all over the place and got my prepping juices flowing. About to go to bed to stare at the ceiling, running scenarios. Sorry for the babbling.

Preppers live in fear. Why bother? That's no way to live

I put antacids and anti-diarrhea tablets in my supplies. I figure the stress and unusual eating might upset my stomach a bit. Also, a small bible.

I've never considered myself a prepper, but with all the potential doom happening in the world, I'm trying to start. At least get something useful put together. I know its kinda late in the game to start a collective project like this, but I'm on a small budget, so looking to see what type of items would be the utmost essential. I literally bought all of the below tonight, and plan to make another trip tomorrow to get other items, just not sure what else. Only managed to spend $98 on the supplies and $60 on the food which didn't seem too bad.

I know I'll still need a bottle of bleach, antiseptic & burn ointment, and some protein bars....but I'm just thinking off the top of my head here.

What items should I add to what I already have?

Current supplies

Tools & Medical
Large toolbox, which contains the following:
20'x50' plastic sheeting (for sealing doors & windows)
Large roll of Duct Tape
4 bottles of water purification tablets
50' black nylon paracord
3 boxes sterile gauze pads
2 boxes Bandaids
2 boxes Alcohol pads
3 ace bandage wraps
Bottle of rubbing alcohol
Bottle of hydrogen peroxide
1 large pack of fine texture steel wool (for starting fires)
4 boxes waterproof matches
Large magnesium fire starter
Handheld pocket saw (the metal rope kind)
LED flashlight & batteries
6 large green glow sticks
2 emergency blankets
2 boxes of large instant heating pads
2 packs sterile vinyl medical gloves
2 packs of athletic tape
1 bottle ibuprofen
1 bottle acetaminophen
2 large bottle aspirin
1 bottle saline eye drops
1 jar of Icy Hot (not sure why I grabbed this)
1 jar of vasoline
Cotton balls & q-tips
Manual can opener
Spoons, forks, knives
Plastic sandwich bags
6 little travel-sized Kleenex
Hammer, screwdrivers & Allen keys
First Aid kit in my car, with road flares
Spare tire, jack & jumper cables

Food:
15 gallons of distilled water
3 large boxes mashed potato flakes
20 large cans of various soup (beef, veggie, chicken, etc.)
2 large bags of plain white rice
20 cans of vegetables & fruit
3 packaged boxes of Top Ramen (it was on sale)

Clothing
5 complete change of clothes
Sturdy tennis shoes & extra socks
Hairbrush, toothbrush & general toiletries (still need to find a dry shampoo)