Survival Preparedness With Limited Resources
April 6, 2010, Submitted by: Ken Tweet
Survival prepping can be taken to the extreme, especially if one has enough financial resources and physical space. However lets look at the scenario where you have limited resources and are on a tight budget, but you are convinced and motivated that you need to begin prepping for an uncertain future. How do you prioritize your preparedness purchases as it relates to your expenses, what is the plan, and what do you do first?
First of all let me say that survival preparedness is not solely about having preps stored away, although this is an essential step. Preparedness really is a way of life, a way of thinking in your every day life. It is a mind set that is significantly different from the typical brainwashed citizen worker bee.
Okay, having said that, lets look at the situation. Number one, look at your budget. Assuming there is debt being serviced, be it credit cards or loans, take a hard look at your monthly essential payments for your expenses. Really strip it down to the basics. How much take-home do you need to survive in your present situation. Keep in mind that paying minimum payments on credit cards will not get you out of debt anytime soon. Have a quick read of my post that talks about credit card debt. There is always a way to trim your budget by giving up one convenience or another. Decide how much money you are willing and able to designate to prepping each month, and begin, even if it is not all that much. You will probably want to make a few mid-priced purchases that I describe below, but you can save for that if you are motivated.
With limited money and space, what should I purchase first for my survival preparedness?
Lets be smart about this and start with the necessities of life, Water and Food. IN THAT ORDER.
Water is First Priority for Survival Preparedness
Water is a resource which often gets ignored or overlooked because of it’s seemingly endless supply. Every day, we need to intake about 2 to 3 quarts of water. Some of this comes from the food we eat, maybe twenty percent, but the rest is from what we drink. Think about this… If the regional power goes out, it may not take long before the water pressure may drop, depending on your location, situation, and the municipal backup generator situation . You will not survive more than 3 – 5 days without any water. Period.
Water sources are often readily available, so long as you don’t live in the desert. Maybe a nearby reservoir, a river or stream that is not far away, or the lake or pond nearby will all provide alternative sources of water. That is all good and well, but remember that you will have to transport the water, so be sure you have the means to do so (simply storing water ahead of time will be easier and healthier). You will definitely need to have a filtration method to screen out any ‘bad’ stuff from collected water. I highly suggest investing in a good water filter. I personally have several – the main water filter that I use is a counter top filter named the Berkey. My secondary water filter is a smaller portable filtration system named Katadyn that I keep with my vehicle 72 hour kit as well as a spare at home just in case. Depending on the size of the Berkey
If you solely depend on a municipal water source, and you do not live right near a source of water, then you need to make other preparations. Either you need to be prepared to leave your area completely and during the first sign of trouble, or you need to be prepared by physically storing water. A potential problem with storing water is that it is quite heavy. One gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds making storage in large volumes nearly impossible to move (which may not be a problem for you if stored in a good accessible area).
How Much Water Do I Need for Survival Preparedness ?
A 200 pound person will need about 3 quarts of water per day, strictly for consumption. Lets add one more quart for a safe margin and make it a gallon of water per day, or 7 gallons per week per person, strictly for consumption. Do the math and figure out what you will need for your family and the length of time that you are preparing for. As an example, 2 adults for 4 weeks will require about 56 gallons of water. Water storage for the same two people for 3 months will require 168 gallons. Remember, even more water will be needed for cooking and sanitary reasons. For example, without water pressure, how many gallons does it take to dump into a toilet to flush it out? Answer, probably between 2 and 3 gallons. Add up all of your use-case scenarios and factor them into your water storage calculations. For those that live where you can count on rainfall throughout the year, you can utilize rain runoff from the roof and gutters into collection barrels. This would be great for secondary water usage requirements, but you will need to filter and purify this water for drinking.
How Do I Store Water ?
A guideline to storing water is to mix one eighth teaspoon (1/8 teaspoon), or about 8 drops of regular unscented bleach to each gallon of water for purification. You can safely store water in clean containers that had consumable liquids such as milk jugs or soda bottles. Best to store in a dark place away from heat. It is generally recommended to drain and refill the water containers every six months or one year. This is not critical because water will basically last forever, but a periodic check for impurities or problems is a good idea.
To store enough water for several people for one month or more, it may be practical to purchase water storage barrels, commonly available in 55 gallon plastic drums. Be sure that the plastic barrel you choose is food grade (HDPE #2). Although I’m sure these barrels can be purchased at many locations, here is one example of a 55 Gallon Water Barrel
The bottom line is to start with your water preparations so that you will live to utilize your next prep which is food.
Food is Second Priority for Survival Preparedness
Beginning your food storage preps is actually pretty easy. Instead of starting off by ordering cases of MREs or 50 pound bags of rice and beans, it is far better to begin by simply buying a few more of the same items that you buy at the grocery store every time you visit. The point here is to buy what you normally eat. If you have searched around other sites, I’m sure you’ve heard this before, and it is absolutely true. Also, another great idea to keep in mind is to think ‘variety’. In addition to buying what you normally would eat, pick up some treats and sweets too.
Storing the extra food is also pretty simple, even in a small apartment. You can buy just about any size plastic storage bin these days, which make perfect containers for any food item. We also found some perfect sized bins that fit and slide right underneath your bed, which perfectly holds the typical size canned food. When determining how much food to store, you can calculate using 2,000 calories per day per person as a minimum requirement. Simply look at your food container and multiply the calories per serving times the number of servings in the container to give you the total for that item. I put together a food storage inventory spreadsheet that keeps a nice organized list of your items along with the survival day count based on calories. You can download it here.
Once you have built up a base supply of the foods you normally eat, then you can venture into other things like that 50 pound bag of hard red wheat. However you will need to learn proper ways to store it for long term, and you will need to be sure that you know what to do with it when you need it (making your own wheat bread for example). Also it will be a good idea to try these other foods first, to be sure you don’t have allergies and that your system can handle it 
So, there you have it. For your survival preparedness plan, first get started with water storage and then food storage. Then and only then, should you move on to other things. If you begin this way, the resource burden should not be too heavy or too expensive. Go at your own pace as your budget allows. Stick with water storage and food storage before you are tempted to purchase other preparedness items. Remember, you are doing this for you and your own liberation. This process will begin to change the way you think. Like I said, it is a way of life, even in good times.
Good write up, but I disagree the “average” person weighing in at 200lbs.
@Jon
Good catch regarding “The average 200 pound person…”. Had meant to write, “A 200 pound person…” (It has been corrected). No doubt the average is truly much less than that, depending on many factors – age, gender, etc…
@Jon & survival. I don’t know if 200# AVERAGE is too far off. You will probably lose weight in a survival sit. If you are working hard labor every day you will need between 3000-3500 cals/day. I passed my last PT test before I retired from the military June 2010 at 60. I am average ht and avg build and my wife is about avg ht for a 54 yo female. Together we avg just under 200# @ 190#. My buddy is prob 6′ and his wife is taller than avg and they prob avg right at 200#. I’ll bet it is closer, unfortunately, to being right than wrong. @ 2000 cals/day you will prob lose weight.
Ken, I was talking to someone about trying to survive what is coming up and I received a reaction that I considered typical of so many individuals. What’s the point?, so you survive I was told, you can’t hide from the military anywhere, they will get you. Furthermore in the opinion of this person was that everyone was going to be a slave of the Chinese anyway. This really got to me to comtemplating about the misconception of what people think about what modern surviving is really about. Many people like this do not understand that there are different degrees of survival and preparing appropiately. I have since then modified one of my charts I have to reflect this and give people a better idea of what they want to prepare for. This from the simple power outage caused by thunderstorms to the apocalyptic type of end times.
To many people the modern survivor is sadly perceived as an out of touch hippie type or some whacked out nut case living in a forest retreat armed with every type of illegal weapon waiting for the end of everything. There is also the misconception of preparation for survival means surviving for years after a nuclear war or something is ‘all’ surviving is about. This unfortunately scares away individuals from preparing. The desire to spend scarce money on ‘massive preparedness’ many people feel has already been spent on car, house and life insurance. A lot of people have not really given thought to the fact that they can choose the degree at which they want to prepare for some disaster. Even preparing for a lesser tragedy can make it easier and might give them enough time for outside help to reach them after something much more serious has occurred.
Plenty of people are convinced that their area is “never” going to face any catastrophe and the world is going to continue as is for the next 1000 years. Nothing is wrong with this feeling, but not preparing for something minor that might happen is not realistic. Minimum preparation at least gives someone something to get by for awhile and a smaller piece of mind of safety that is comforting.
The following chart is measure and magnitude of disasters that assumes that the disaster affects you directly. The chart uses the same type of scale as the Fujita tornado classification from 0-5. This disaster scale is abbreviated as DS 0 – DS 5.
Each catagory gives examples of what type of disaster to expect.
Chance of occurance within a time period.
Recovery time.
Level of likely impact from local to global.
Preparedness to get by and survive.
Cost and personal effort to prepare.
How likely before outside help eventually aids you?
Difficulty of keeping supplies organized.
Chance of surviving with little or no preparation.
Impact to world economy.
What will it do to social order, how much breakdown?
Willingness of people to prepare for it.
It is a person’s own personal decision to how much time, money, and effort they want to put into what they want to survive the level of a disaster they want to prepare for. The following chart should help them decide.
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DS-0. Very local, small area affected.
Examples of disasters: Severe thunderstorm outbreak damage, small act of terrorism such as shooting, suicide bomber, blackout of power grid for not more than 24 hours, flash flooding, smaller tornado, hurricane, earthquake.
Chance of occurrence in 5 year period- Certain.
Recovery time- Hours to a few days.
Level of likely impact to world- Very minimal.
Preparedness to get by and survive- Enough to get you by for a couple of days, small survival kit.
Cost and personal effort to prepare- Cheap and hardly any time or work.
How likely before outside help arrives to help you?- Help will be there probably very soon.
Difficulty of keeping supplies organized- Not much at all.
Chance of surviving with little or no preparation- Excellent, only likely to suffer some burdens because of not being ready.
Impact to world economy- Extremely little, probably none.
What will it do to social order?- Not much at all unless media overworks and milks the story.
Willingness of people to prepare for- Very much so, people are being encouraged all the time to have very small survival kits.
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DS-1. Local- City size affected.
Examples of disasters: Moderate size earthquake, terrorist attack such as the Oklahoma City bombing, wave of smaller terrorist attacks, large tornado or hurricane hits city, blackout that last for more than 24 hours, flooding, wildfire, blizzard, or other weather related that downs the infrastructure of an area.
Chance of occurrence in 5 year period- Very probable, 85-95% chance.
Recovery time- A few days to a couple of weeks.
Level of likely impact to world- Minimum, could be greater if fear is stoked by news.
Preparedness to get by and survive- At least a 72 hour survival kit to 2 weeks of supplies.
Cost and personal effort to prepare- Cost of a medium size television.
How likely before outside help arrives to help you?- Help will come but there might be some delay.
Difficulty of keeping supplies organized- Little, the only problem would be if there was very limited amount of space.
Chance of surviving with little or no preparation- Very good, but without preparing there will be hardships and problems for you.
Impact to world economy- Little to some, depending on potential or possible more future events.
What will it do to the social order?- Some because these news quality events are exaggerated.
Willingness of people to prepare for- Some, people are more into short term prep kits than willing to go a little more.
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DS-2. Local to regional, many cities to countries affected.
Examples of disasters: Very severe tornado outbreak that also hits populated areas, Gulf wars, Japanese 9.0 earthquake, Haiti earthquake, Deepwater Horizon disaster, major hurricane hits major city such as New York City, larger scale terrorist attack such as 9/11, the smaller Israel and Arab wars, the severe flooding of Midwestern U.S., volcano erupting (volcanic explosive index 6) partial collapse of world economies.
Chance of occurrence in 5 year period- Coin flip, 50% chance.
Recovery time- Weeks to months.
Level of likely impact to world- Some, anything like this is going to affect many people.
Preparedness to get by and survive- 2 weeks to a month survival plan, also possible evacuation plans.
Cost and personal effort to prepare- More costly, about the cost of a major appliance and a fair degree of your time.
How long before outside help eventually aids you?- Help may or may not come for a long time.
Difficulty of keeping supplies organized- Some becuse of there being more supplies, but still not overbearing.
Chance of surviving with little or no preparation- Good to fair, will a lot depend on getting outside help from others as soon as possible.
Impact to world economy- Moderate, some events could be expensive.
What will it do to the social order?- Could be severe, probably not unless something to economy is affected, or overreactions lead to much fear.
Willingness of people to prepare for- Marginal, higher costs and more time necessary to be ready a factor, and most people feel it is overdoing it.
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DS-3. Regional to Global, many countries (continent) to worldwide.
Examples of disasters: Korean or Vietnam wars, Israel and Arab war using weapons of mass destruction, volcano erupts (volcanic explosive index 7), World War 1 or 2, smallpox or other contagious deadly pathogen affects about 1/4 of the world population, complete collapse of the world economies, EMP knocks out large areas of world’s infrastructure, Pakistan and India war.
Chance of occurrence in 25 year period- Possible, 30-40% chance.
Level of likely impact to world- Severe, this is going to hurt.
Preparedness to get by and survive- Several months minimum, means of evacuation, possible ways of self reliance.
Cost and personal effort ot prepare- Costly, the price of a good used car to the cost of a new car, much effort and time, probably at least a few hours of working on it per week.
How long before outside help eventually aids you?- You are likely going to be on your own for a long time, eventually possible, don’t depend on it.
Difficulty of keeping supplies organized- Time consuming, but manageable.
Chance of surviving with little or no preparation- Not good, unless you have something there your life will depend on help from others.
Impact to world economy- Severe, these events are going to break the bank of almost all economies.
What will it do to the social order?- Major breakdown, things will definitiely not be the same even after there is a recovery.
Willingness of people to prepare for- Lacking, few people don’t have the desire to spend the money and time, most people do not want to take up much space with food, water, and other emergency provisions.
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DS-4. Global. Affects most if not the entire world.
Examples of disasters: Very extreme solar flare cause EMP and severe atmospheric damage, World War 3 with limited amounts of nuclear weapons used, very dangerous (50% fatal rate) contagious virus affects whole world, limited super volcano blows up, less than 1000 cubic km. of ash.
Chance of occurrence in 25 year period- Possible, 20-25% chance.
Recovery time- Years to decades.
Level of likely impact to world- Catastrophic, this is quite horrible.
Preparedness to get by and survive- Massive, enough supplies to last minimum of 2 years, must have relocation plans ready, probable will have to be self reliant to survive after supplies are used up.
Cost and personal effort to prepare- Extensive cost, that of possible of 1/2 to 3/4 new home value, great dedication to the cause of surviving.
How long before outside help eventually aids you?- Only help will come from other survivors.
Difficulty of keeping supplies organized- Great organizational skills are needed.
Chance of surviving with little or no preparation- Only being extremely “lucky” or other survivors will save you.
Impact to world economy- Almost or complete collapse of everything.
What will it do to the social order?- Total breakdown, no social order left other than in rare unaffected isolated areas.
Willingness of people to prepare for- Only those ‘true’ to the heart survivalists spend that much money and time to prepare for this.
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DS-5. Global. Affects entire planet and everyone.
Examples of disasters: Full scale global nuclear war, super volcano(es) fully erupt, asteroid impact of at least 2 miles wide, gamma ray pulse hits planet from nearby supernova, very rapid pole shift like the movie ’2012′, worldwide pandemic with 95%+ fatality rate.
Chance of occurrence in 25 year period- Possible, 10% chance.
Recovery time- Decades to centuries, if ever.
Level of likely impact to world- Worst case, total chaos nightmare.
Preparedness to get by and survive- Full self reliance necessary, full relocation plans a must, complete stockpile of supplies to last many years.
Cost and personal effort to prepare- Unless you are quite wealthy, all money you have (probably need family to pool money together also) that goes to the project of survival, complete commitment and time devotion.
How long before outside help eventually aids you?- Only help will be from the few remaining survivors left.
Difficulty of keeping supplies organized- Very extreme organized skills are an absolute must, being organized to this level is a job in itself.
Chance of surviving with little or no preparation- Almost none, only the mercy upon you from those that did prepare will keep you alive.
Impact to world economy- Complete and utter collapse of everything.
What will it do to the social order?- Complete collapse, people will not recognize the why things change to the remaining civilization that might survive and recover.
Willingness of people to prepare for- Practically none, only those people that are convinced that the end is imminent are going to prepare for something like this to this extent.
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Back on topic. One way to save some money is to buy “syrup” barrels from soft drink makers. Their syrup comes in 15 gal blue barrels with standard bungs. I actually prefer them, have you tried to move 55 gals of h2o? Some even use 35 gallon ones. They are significantly cheaper than new ones. I rinse them and put bleach and water in them and let them sit in the hot sun for a few weeks and then double rinse them and use them for water. ONLY buy them from the user, otherwise you don’t know what was in them. Also, most places throw out 5 gal food grade buckets that held pickles (McDs etc.), frosting, flour (bakeries) etc. Depending on what was in them, some are easier to clean than others. Pickles are the worst as the smell may “contaminate” whatever you put in there i.e. pickle smelling milk. I clean them out with dawn 2x, put clean water in, lots of bleach and let them sit in the sun for a few weeks. Then I wash with dawn and put water and baking soda in them for a few days in the sun. You can buy new lids from U-line for $1.80 if you buy a bunch and you have a new bucket for your work and some cleaners. You can pack your own beans and rice from Sam’s in them and save $5-10 a bucket plus the shipping if you had ordered it from whoever. You can save a few hundred $ or more this way. Hope this helps someone.