Jim’s Daily Rant. Emergency Prepping In A Bubble. Part I - Cheap Prepping.
To begin with, right now you should be prepping for a short term emergency. If money is tight, don’t try to fix a short term problem with an expensive long-term solution. Do it cheap and down and dirty.
Food Wise, purchase for 3 months but plan on needing it just for one month.
This means you can fill the freezer with hot dogs, bologna and bread. No need for T-bones. Then fill the pantry with a 20/50 lb. bag of rice, egg noodles, and cans of vegetables, all kinds of beans (Kidney, Pinto, black, Pork N Beans, etc. Throw in cans of Cream of Chicken and Cream of Mushroom, tomatoes sauce and jars of bullion cubes and Peanut butter. Note that all canned food is pre-cooked.
Did you know that if you eat beans with or within 8 hours of each other, it produces protein in the body? Did you know that it takes the same amount of energy to cook a small amount of rice as it does to steam a large amount? So cook two days worth at a time. The rice and egg noodles is the cheapest way to get calories into a body.
The Military used to deliver crates of food to the front lines each day with the cooks trained to use them. Now some cooks are dropped behind enemy lines with “local” butchering skills and rice and noodles. Their marching orders are to “Serve protein over rice or noodles.”
Hide the non-freezer foods in totes under the beds.
Water Wise. Get a bottle of bleach and learn how to purify water with it. Fill empty containers with water and bleach. As things get rough, line the bathtub with a shower curtain and fill it up and refresh it every few days.
When the water goes off, flush once a day or make a bucket toilet with a garbage bag. One third of home water usage is toilets; you just lessened your problem. If necessary, use a tube sock filled with sand to filter standing water through. Never drink swimming pool water as it has algicide in it not meant for human consumption.
Security Wise, purchase four (or eight) sets of Swing Action Door Locks and install them on the exterior doors and the hall bathroom (for the kids). Replace the door hinge screws with longer ones that screw deeper into the double studs and door.
Any intruder who tries to kick through the door will scare himself with the noise, non-results and unknown gun on the other side, and will seek easier pickings elsewhere.
Get a Handgun. If an intruder tries to enter, warn and then fire high or low through the door. The door repair will only cost about $5.
If unable to secure a gun, then after he somehow enters, watch him loot the Freezer. Understand he is not there to scalp you or the locked up kids. You still have the bulk of the hidden food.
Be certain to beg for some of the freezer food. He is not a hardened gangster, just a hungry human, He will take the food a run away from your family.
Hang A “Closed “ sign. Be prepared to nail 2 X 4 boards across the front windows on the inside of the house. Position them horizontally about 10 inches above the window sills. This will telegraph intruders and neighbors that you are armed and closed for looting.
They will appreciate the warning so swallow your pride and be the first to admit you are nervous (and closed). No need to do it to all windows; the intruders have already passed you up.
See also: Family Prepping for more ideas.
Has it come to this? If the road we followed led to this, what is it worth? The common people have been murdered, smoozed, tricked, lied to and lead to destruction by our leaders and pleaders. Our own leaders!