how to start

[Moose-Knuckle]

I have been reading and watching stuff and it all seems so overwhelming. How do I start ? My wife and I desided to dedicate $200 dollars a month towards the prepping. What now. Water, food, medicine. What's first?

Well you are off to a good start by reading this sub-forum. There is a lot of solid information on this particular site. It is good that you are doing this with your wife and that y'all have established a budget . . . you're way ahead of the curve. The name of the game is common sense. Don't go into to debt and don't neglect your daily life. One thing that helped the wife and I right out of the gate is looking for sales and coupons. With manufacture coupons from the Sunday paper you can save quit a bit of money on everything from canned foods, first-aid supplies, personal hygiene items, et al. If you hit garage sales/flee markets in your area you can score a lot of stuff on the cheap.

[u_not_i]

One thing to address is what happens to your body if an abrupt change of diet occurs. Going from a regular diet to, say nothing but MRE'S or even freeze dried only can play Hell on your system. Keep some laxative and anti-diarrheal handy. Either can ruin an otherwise good day. I was reminded of that very recently.

[MurtaughF3]

I think your on the right track and lots of good advice here. Defiantly eliminate as much debt as possible makes doing things a lot easier. Set small goals, achieve them, then set some more. Stick to what you know, and maybe set a goal to learn one new area/thing a month to build your skills. Good luck.

[HeliPilot]

I think a good way to start would be to plan for small time-length disasters first, then work your way up to long-term disaster preps. What I mean is, don't try and prep for a total economic collapse in which you would have to sustain yourself and family for months at a time. Begin with the standard 3 day back-up supply. Then work your way up to a week, two weeks, a month, etc. Accumulate food, water, security measures first then worry about comms, advanced medical supplies, and everything else that is a survival aid but not necessarily an essential. When it comes to food, if you do decide to stock up on MRE's avoid the cheese spread.

[SOW_0331]

I think a good way to start would be to plan for small time-length disasters first, then work your way up to long-term disaster preps. What I mean is, don't try and prep for a total economic collapse in which you would have to sustain yourself and family for months at a time. Begin with the standard 3 day back-up supply. Then work your way up to a week, two weeks, a month, etc. Accumulate food, water, security measures first then worry about comms, advanced medical supplies, and everything else that is a survival aid but not necessarily an essential. When it comes to food, if you do decide to stock up on MRE's avoid the cheese spread.

This, except the part about the cheese spread.

You need a plan. Actually you need several plans and you need to make sure they're realistic. All the supplies in the world won't matter if you don't know what the next step is, at that point you're dead and you don't even know it. Start with a list of three categories; Common - Uncommon - Unlikely. Put your concerns and history in there before you assess your budget and cover your "common" section first.

Common - Flat tires. How new are your tires and is your spare good, how long can your Vic run without seeing a mechanic. Those will get you before the zombies. Health. Think of the most miserably sick you've been in the last five years and how you kicked it. Being able to shoot weak-side with your pistol out to 100m is neat, until you have a fever of 105 and fry your brain.

Unlikely - Flaming socialist zombies riding the horses of Revelation into your living room to confiscate your guns and force you to become a Muslim.

Somewhere in between there is floods, earthquakes, ice storms, etc.

Don't throw away the cheese spread. It's like a paste of duct tape, there's really nothing it can't do. You can use it to patch a boat, build a brick wall, pave a runway for a C-130, bait for mice and catfish, or you can plug your bum when the inevitable dirty water evacuates your contents into your unsuspecting undies. While everyone was calling Rush Limbaugh about buying gold and silver, I was buying cheese spread. I'm good.

[cristinaferrari]

I know security is an important concern and since you are in the prepping stage, I would suggest you to prep your house first. Like FloridaWoodsman said, u need to secure your family and belongings. The best way is to use home improvement methods, like installing impact windows and doors. These impact windows pompano beach provide security from storm, flying debris and burglars.