# $500 to start Prepping.... where to start



## MBRIDER (Nov 9, 2012)

Okay, I finally have my wife on board to start prepping, the problem is where to start. 

Here is my question. If you were handed $500 to start prepping what would be the most important items to get. 

Basic information about me. Family of five. wife and three children from ages 5-1. Also have a black lab.

I also have plenty of guns and ammo and always getting more :grin:

I have all the room I could want to store things in the unfinished side of my basement but have no room for a garden in my yard. I live in Wisconsin.

My plan is to get a basic foundation and build upon it every week until I reach a goal. 

There is a lot of information out there on prepping and to be honest it all runs together after a while.

I do have my local grocery store saving up some food grade 5 gal buckets for me for any bulk items I may want to store down the lone.

So lets here it.... what do you people who have walked the walk have to say?


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## Jeep (Aug 5, 2014)

Start with a Pen and paper. Make a list of everything, including a list of your lists. How much food and water will you need say for a year for all. Pick a spot in your basement and either build or buy shelving and start couponing. Look into a Berkey water filtration system. Chickens and a coop design.


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## A J (Oct 16, 2014)

There are certainly more knowledgable folks than me on here. That being said, I recently reviewed the things I needed to beef up on and decided that I'd be bugging in if possible, so I needed to look specifically at the home front.

1) I have a basement and it has a sump. I already had a generator, but decided a 12v sump pump would be a huge improvement if the grid was down for an extended time, so that was first on my list.
2) I'm on well water, so got parts to manually pull water from well ($15 at home depot).
3) Upgraded my ancient water filter with a Sawyer .02 filter.
4) 4 months of food on the shelf was next. We started beefing up the stuff we use every month (peanut butter, canned veggies ...)
5) Bought a hand grain mill and bought some wheat/rice/beans/sugar from the LDS store locally (much cheaper if you pick it up than if you order online).

That was my recent priority list.

Of course I already had generators, and always keep 20+ gallons of stabilized gas for them (they burn 1gal/8 hours). I also have the 'defensive' situation handled.

Hope this helps,
AJ


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## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

Most important item in your climate would be an alternate source of heat.


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## MrsInor (Apr 15, 2013)

Welcome to the group. Glad to see your wife is on board, it makes your new "hobby" so much more fun.
I would start with water - a combination of bottled and a way to filter water.
Then as Jeep says start making lists. The LDS folks have their book available free online. There are many lists available. Another good book we have found is Dare to Prepare.
Wish I had five hundred to play with.


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## tinkerhell (Oct 8, 2014)

Warning: I'm a newbie so I might get this all wrong.

Things like water and food need to be worked into you regular cash and become part of your lifestyle, so I would save the $500 for a big ticket item.

What would that be? Now that is an interesting question.

I think you will need that pen and paper that Jeep spoke about.

I started my lists with capabilities rather than shopping lists. I asked myself about general categories like first aid, self defense, bugging in, bugging out, etc. Then I looked at big ticket items, for me it was a $400 generator, and about $1000 for firearm as I'be been away from hunting for over 10 years and didnt have any.

I've got many camping and shelter supplies, are the complete? Probably not. I could dump $500 into camping gear easily but my true deficiency was firearms so that is what I went after.


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## tinkerhell (Oct 8, 2014)

Gosh I hope I didn't sound like someone that stays up late stroking his firearms. But $500 can be spent quickly when you don't have any firearms. A sling shot is not going to help me.


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## taps50 (Sep 28, 2013)

First off welcome from another Wisconsinite. Sounds like you've decided your going to be bugging in, in that case I would think about setting up some sort of garden in your basement, and a canning set up. A generator may be a big ticket item you may want to get. And in my opinion the most important this is security, don't broadcast that you are prepping, the less people that know the less people that will become a threat. Best of luck and again welcome to the forum.


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## tinkerhell (Oct 8, 2014)

MBRIDER,

You mentioned that you have a good space for storage but no space for gardening. I might be in the same situation. 

Initialling, I said to myself 'no problem, I'll just stockpile food that I buy, who needs a garden, besides gardening takes too much time'

Some of that was correct but the guys here have straightened me out on a few things. Having enough food for a few months or a year is great but eventually I would need to educate myself on how to homestead otherwise I will have to learn it all after the SHTF. It is easier for me to dabbled and experiment with my very small backyard, and use the internet as a resource for learning. Much better than waiting until I need to learn this stuff. Waiting til SHTF is too late, I could die or end up someone's bitch


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

first off, welcome to the group from Arizona. I guess I'd start with what I need this moment, water and food. You've got shelter, but what about heating the house in winter?


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## alterego (Jan 27, 2013)

Make a list of items you use daily 
Water
Toilet paper
Soap
Etc.
Set a first guideline. The federal government says three days.
I would then shoot for a month then three then six months. Any thing beyond six months should be thought of as a sustainability prep.
Make sure that you have a variety of food that emulates your current diet. Don't buy all canned vegies. If you are forced to live on your preps you will get a stomach ache if you do not have the same sugar and salts that you are used to.


Do a dry run. Come home on Friday and shut the breaker off to your house until Monday morning. Write down what you learn that you are lacking.


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## pheniox17 (Dec 12, 2013)

Well $500 is a really good base shot

First, PLAN PLAN PLAN, run through some events with your wife, start easy, major storm, then go a little harder (ebola) then go as extreme as you can (zombies) 

While planing work out what items your short, your good with guns, maybe alternative water storage?? Or some inch bags, I don't know what you have so I can't scream "you have to purchase this!!" 

But since your new and for anyone else, get into the habit of weekly food shopping, and
Look for specials on long term goods and purchase (this won't touch your $500 but will slowly build a food stash) outside that... Enjoy your hobby (do some research on pre industrial age history and order the SAS survival guide asap )


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## Arklatex (May 24, 2014)

Buy a good water filter and locate a water source. Then start stacking your food and ammo deep.


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## Florida Patriot (Oct 25, 2014)

I am starting out too, well sort of. I have always somewhat prepped. I was in New Jersey during Hurricane Sandy and without my preps I would have been in some trouble. But now I live in Florida and have let my preps slip a bit. But I am ready to get back on track, moving into my new apartment with plenty of space with my girlfriend (she is on board thank god lol). The one thing I learned through my brief disaster experience is this: Security, Shelter, Water, Food in that order. After the hurricane, emergency services were stretched thin. If someone wanted to do me harm, it was up to me and my shotgun to fight them off. I would put that money into buying a firearm to be honest and then slowly start putting back food. It is of no use prepping if someone with a gun can just take it form you...


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## hansonb4 (Aug 17, 2014)

Welcome. I read this somewhere and took it to heart. I am a flatlander, barely, honestly I'd love to move 10 miles north and be in Wisconsin. In any event, the saying goes "you can go 5 hours without shelter, 5 days without water, 5 weeks without food."

With winter coming up, I would focus on that first. I just posted something about a Sengoku kersosene heater, that is next on my list. That and the fact that the wife told me she had no sugar for her coffee, so I went to the food storage and opened up a box of C&H sugar packets. Add that to my shopping list as well!


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## wesley762 (Oct 23, 2012)

Food and water always the best place to start.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Welcome
What Jeep said is a good start.

Since you have Shelter, I would look at Water first; A filtration system as well as some extra gallons of water set back in your basement. The Berkey system is our choice and will set you back about $250 Berkey Water Filter Systems - World Leader in Portable Water Purification

Then some extra cans of food every week, stored by Exp Date and Rotated accordingly. You can easily store a couple of months worth of canned grocery store food fairly inexpensively if you do it every week. Then graduate to Bulk Long Term Food Storage using your 5 gallon buckets. Mylar and Oxygen absorbers. Consider a rainwater catchment system. A 500 gallon tank will cost you about $300 or less.

After Shelter, Water and Food think about Tools and Items to make your life easier should a crisis hit. Lights, Batteries, Hygiene Products etc. Sounds like you already have Firearms and Ammo but don't forget cleaning supplies. A dirty semi-automatic is not a good thing.

Good luck!


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