Preparation priorities and how you spend?

[Winter]

Hey guys,

I an wondering how you all prep-minded individuals choose your priorities for prepping? Being that this is primarily a firearms oriented forum do you put self defense high on the list or first?

The reason I ask us because any time I have some extra flow I would like to know maybe what I should be buying when that extra cash comes my way. For instance, my primary firearms are a bolt action .22, lever action .22, AI&P'ed 870 and a glock 19. I'm constantly torn between buying ammo for one gun and the amount, spare parts or upgrading guns. My G19 needs sights, ammo and parts, my shotgun needs spare parts and ammo and the same with my .22.

So how do you decide where to spend money? I do reload as well and could use some more stuff there.

sorry for the long winded post.
thanks

[PA PATRIOT]

Its hard to eat/drink bullets and firearms so I would suggest dividing your available funds by three.

1/3. Build up your food stores and buy something to store water in.

1/3. Buy some ammunition (I like the ten box approach to start), #1 Buck and 1 oz Slugs for the 12ga, 124gr H/P's for the 9mm and a Brick of .22LR to feed that lever gun.

Last 1/3. Goes for gear to support your guns and BUG In/Out gear.

Don't go delinquent on your bills trying to buy the above items but just a sensible approach as you can afford and your stash will be supplied with the basics in no time.

[Belmont31R]

Since you already have a variety of firearms I would have 30 days food/water stored per person. Varies on climate. Here we run into months of temps averaging over 100 so I would use 30 gals per person per day just in fresh drinking water let alone sanitation and cooking needs. Other parts of the country 1 gal a day would do for all 3.




As far as that goes Ive found you can quickly build up food stores by buying a few extra cans of food every time you go to the store. If you have a list of stuff for meals which has XYZ on it pick up some ABC stuff too. I grab a couple bags of beans, canned tomatoes, ect everytime I go to the store even if its just to grab a couple items. Sometimes Ill go to the store just to get 2 things I come home with 2 24 packs of bottled water which only cost 7 bucks.


You can do the same with ammo, too, if you shop at wal mart. Just swing buy and by a box or two at a time. For me it works easier than setting aside a chunk of funds each month just for prepping.

[docsherm]

As far as that goes Ive found you can quickly build up food stores by buying a few extra cans of food every time you go to the store. If you have a list of stuff for meals which has XYZ on it pick up some ABC stuff too. I grab a couple bags of beans, canned tomatoes, ect everytime I go to the store even if its just to grab a couple items. Sometimes Ill go to the store just to get 2 things I come home with 2 24 packs of bottled water which only cost 7 bucks.


You can do the same with ammo, too, if you shop at wal mart. Just swing buy and by a box or two at a time. For me it works easier than setting aside a chunk of funds each month just for prepping.

That is very good advice. My wife and I get ammo at Wal-Mart every time we go. If they have our pistol ammo we get a box of 50. Rifle, a box or two of 20 for what ever cal they have in stock that we need. It is very amazing how that builds up the stock without breaking the bank. We went back and checked how much we spend at Wal-Mart (before and after we started to get ammo) and we could not see the difference. Every once and a while they will have the 100 round FMJ pistol ammo. It is usually a great deal. then we spend a little more, but it is worth it.

We do the same thing with food. Here and there it adds up quickly. Just be sure to rotate it in your stores.

[Winter]

Thanks for the replies guys. I like the 1/3 approach and am going to try that out. Where food is concerned I don't have to worry about the 1/3 as I will include that in the weekly grocery list but as far as all the other stuff I'm going to use that method.

Thanks again.

[Brimstone]

I have my priorities as follows:

1) Food and Water
I have 6-12 months of food for a family of five. It just depends on where we are in the rotation/purchasing schedule. I also have five 55 gallon drums of water that I keep rotated and store with chlorine bleach. Along with the stored water, I have purification equipment as well. I am assuming a bug-in scenario here, but I do have a transportable seven day supply ready to roll.

2) Firearms/Ammo
This kind of takes care of itself. I probably actually have less than I would like, but I have around 2k of .22, 2-3k of 5.56 and maybe a few hundred 12 ga.

3) Medical
A decent stock for all family members of medical supplies. Aspirin, Ibuproen, Bandages/gauze, rubbing alcohol, Anti-biotics (if you have access), etc.

4) Fuel
Gasoline, propane, batteries, solar trickle chargers

You also want to have a plan. If you have a family, make sure everyone knows where to go and what to do when SHTF. They also need to know what to do if the first plan isn't going to work.

Do you need allies? It is hard to protect all of your preps by yourself. Make those alliances before things go wrong.

[Clint]

5) CASH
When the power goes out, so do credit cards and debit cards.
Keep some cash on hand, in smaller bills like $20s.

[PrarieDog]

One thing I have done is move away from 55 gal storage of water or fuel but rather I am using 30 gal containers. Reason being is that a 55 gal drum of fuel or water is tough to move around. If this is a shtf situation then you don't need to injure your as you will be come a burden to your family rather than an asset.
The big drums are fine if you have another person around but if you are the one providing the security and everything else then you need not hurt yourself and put your family or group at greater risk.

[PA PATRIOT]

One thing I have done is move away from 55 gal storage of water or fuel but rather I am using 30 gal containers. Reason being is that a 55 gal drum of fuel or water is tough to move around. If this is a shtf situation then you don't need to injure your as you will be come a burden to your family rather than an asset.
The big drums are fine if you have another person around but if you are the one providing the security and everything else then you need not hurt yourself and put your family or group at greater risk.

For security reasons all your prep's should be in the most secure area of the Bug-In location. Why would you want to move your 55 gallon drums around during a SHTF event?

[PrarieDog]

Couple of reasons, rotating stock around, need to consolidate, bugging out, repositioning drums. Many reasons why, if you have it stored and are going to start using it then I imagine most people will be moving there stuff around as will I to position needed supplies that have been in storage. Fuel and water being one of those along with buckets of food and other supplies.