So I am a newbie prepper who is just getting started on this path. I had a budget of $300 to get going with some gear and supplies.
I hemmed and hawed for two weeks over gear and what our first steps should be as a family. Online prepper forums and YouTube prepper videos have been a great help for me and got me thinking about what we have and what we might need in various scenarios.
Before I tell you what I spent the money on, I wlll say we live in rural Maine. We already own a bunch of various firearms. We've got a fair amount of basic camping gear, cook stoves, propane, a generator, etc.. We have a manual water pump in an external pump house.
Honestly, I don't see us ever bugging out as we already live in primo bug out territory. In fact, I think one of our biggest problems is going to be people trying to bug out/invade our location during a crisis Another big problem will be learning to maintain a winter food supply.So given our situation, I think our three primary concerns are food/water sourcing and storage, security and heating. I plan to focus on those areas in the next year.
Here's what I got to get started:
1. All American Pressure Canner 21.5Q size. I got an amazing deal on this - $185 after I used a coupon at casa.com. I saw people selling used ones on Ebay at this price point.
2. A beginning supply of Ball jars to get started. I plan to pick up a supply of Tattler lids down the road too.
3. A couple of canning books including the Ball Blue book and Ball's complete book of home preserving.
4. A couple of books on foraging: Foraging New England: Finding, Identifying, and Preparing Edible Wild Foods and Medicinal Plants from Maine to Connecticut
Also: The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants - Samuel Thayer
5. I also started building a reserve of stored food and plan to just add a few items each week as I see deals.
How did I do? It seriously took me forever to choose this stuff. Any suggestions/feedback are greatly appreciated.
I hemmed and hawed for two weeks over gear and what our first steps should be as a family. Online prepper forums and YouTube prepper videos have been a great help for me and got me thinking about what we have and what we might need in various scenarios.
Before I tell you what I spent the money on, I wlll say we live in rural Maine. We already own a bunch of various firearms. We've got a fair amount of basic camping gear, cook stoves, propane, a generator, etc.. We have a manual water pump in an external pump house.
Honestly, I don't see us ever bugging out as we already live in primo bug out territory. In fact, I think one of our biggest problems is going to be people trying to bug out/invade our location during a crisis Another big problem will be learning to maintain a winter food supply.So given our situation, I think our three primary concerns are food/water sourcing and storage, security and heating. I plan to focus on those areas in the next year.
Here's what I got to get started:
1. All American Pressure Canner 21.5Q size. I got an amazing deal on this - $185 after I used a coupon at casa.com. I saw people selling used ones on Ebay at this price point.
2. A beginning supply of Ball jars to get started. I plan to pick up a supply of Tattler lids down the road too.
3. A couple of canning books including the Ball Blue book and Ball's complete book of home preserving.
4. A couple of books on foraging: Foraging New England: Finding, Identifying, and Preparing Edible Wild Foods and Medicinal Plants from Maine to Connecticut
Also: The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants - Samuel Thayer
5. I also started building a reserve of stored food and plan to just add a few items each week as I see deals.
How did I do? It seriously took me forever to choose this stuff. Any suggestions/feedback are greatly appreciated.