Getting Prepared on the Cheap

With confirmed cases of Ebola in the US and all of the news about ISIS,  more and more people are looking at achieving at least a basic level of self reliance. The cool thing about self reliance is it is achievable with just time, patience, and a little money. You don't have to know how to grow anything to have basic self reliance.

I remember my wife and I trying to watch a couple of episodes of Doomsday Preppers. It was difficult. First it was different because the show made everyone out to be lunatics. I have been told that honest, well balanced people have been on the show and it was edited to make them look crazy.

The second reason I am not a fan of Doomsday Preppers is because of the sheer amount of money the people they choose to air have spent on gear. My wife and I made it through one episode. My wife looked at me and said, "They make it look like only rich people can be prepared". You know what? She was right. That show makes it look like you have to spend a ton of money to be prepared. This is not true. We are going to talk about how to achieve a basic level of preparedness on a low budget or no budget income.

Inventory

If you are just getting started you will need to take an inventory of everything you have on hand that would be a preparedness asset. You can either make one list with subheadings like food and supplies or you can make them separate lists, it is completely up yo you.The food list would include all canned and dry goods. Soups, beans, flour, sugar, spices, anything like that. I want you to list everything, everything in your fridge, pantry and cabinets. Put a star next to anything that does not require refrigeration. This is your food starting point. You already have this on hand. Once you have this inventory complete figure out how many meals with what you have on hand will make. Replacing what you have on hand will cost you no extra, you are just maintaining your stores.

I also want you to inventory your emergency supplies. Batteries, flashlights, candles, camping supplies, anything like that can and should go on this list.

Just compiling these two lists will give you a good idea of your starting point and how prepared you are now. No matter what these first two lists look like do not get frustrated, get motivated.

Focus on the primary Three

If you are trying to become prepared and you are on a tight budget, do not get sucked in by the gadgets. Gadgets are great, but you cannot eat them. You don't need them until you are well established with the basics.

The primary three are food, water, and shelter. You are living somewhere even if it is not where you want. For the time being you have shelter covered. So next you will focus on food and water. So far we have spent zero dollars. All we have invested so far is time.

Setting Goals

You need to set your own goals. Everyone can make suggestions, but I do not think I or anyone else should tell another adult what to do. You and your family will have to decide the minimums. If you are trying to prepare on a budget I wouldn't worry about maximums for a while.

Ready.gov suggests 3 days of food and water. The CDC suggests up to 14 days of food and 3 days of water. I would like to point out that this suggestion has increased from 10 days. As best I can tell this increase was published in February 2014. My thoughts are have a long-term, mid-term, and short-term goal. Each one is just a part or continuation of another goal.

I always recommended having goals in stages. This is critically important if you are having to take baby steps. If a person cannot achieve a goal quickly many will become discouraged and quit. So set small easily achieved goals that are moving you toward a larger ultimate goal.

Water

Water storage can be accomplished in a multitude of ways. Some can be very expensive and some are free or nearly free. If you are just getting started and you don't have a lot of money I suggest the basically free way.  Use washed out soda bottles. I talk about this in detail in my post Getting Prepared for Beginners Water. So far we have still spent zero extra dollars. You can have up to a couple of months worth of water and never have to spend an additional dime.

Food

Here is where we are going to start spending a little money. We are going to look at food from a thrifty consumer view. If you can raise any of your own food do so. It will be better for you and taste better.

Making Your Money Go as Far as Possible

We are going to go through a lot on food. We will discuss ways to make your money go as far as possible and once we get those bases covered we will work on how to start building a deep pantry. So hang on, here we go.

Unit price.

Any real discussion of food preparedness must start here. Lots of stores play games with labeling. Some products are labeled price per pound, some per ounce, and some per serving. You will have to decipher the true cost. 

Meat and bulk dry goods are pretty much always priced per pound.  Things like flour, beans, and sugar tend to be less expensive per pound if you buy more. The problem is you have to spend all that money at one time. If your budget is really tight, it may not even be feasible without saving up. Once a bulk purchase has been made, if you can pay yourself every time you use say 5 lbs. you will be able to continue the practice. This is not easy to do, it takes discipline.

Meat is also normally less expensive the larger the package you buy at once. Also the less it has been processed the less per pound you should have to pay. A good example would be boneless chicken breasts normally cost more than split fryer breasts, which costs more than a whole chicken. If you are willing to use all the parts whole chickens are normally more cost effective.

Caution: You still have to pay attention to unit price. I have seen 1 lb. packages that were actually a better buy than a 5 lb. package. This does not occur often, but it does happen, especially if a store is running a special on the smaller package.

Everything else it is best to break the price down to cost per ounce.

I pulled 3 different companies and sizes of peanut butter just to be able to give a good example of price per ounce.

Okay in order to calculate unit price take the total price divided by the amount of ounces gives the unit price, in this example we will use the Jif. $5.67 is the cost for a 40 oz jar. $5.67 divided by 40 equals 14.175 cents per ounce or $0.14175 if you prefer. 

Jif                                               $5.67 / 40 oz= $0.14175

Planters                                      $3.68 / 26.5 oz= $0.13886

Peanut Butter Crunch Time         $7.98 / 32 oz=$0.249375 (2 16 oz jars)

If you have a cell phone, odds are high that it has a calculator on it.If you have a smart phone there are unit price calculators, some will even compare unit price for different items. Unit price is the foundation on which all price comparisons should be made unless you are looking at different qualities of products. In that case you will have to determine the quality difference value.

Generics and Store Brands

We have been programmed for years that store brands are cheaper than national name brands. The programming has been so masterfully completed that many people will not even look at the national brands. This is a mistake. I have found several occasions lately where the name brands have been on sale and been cheaper than the store brands. Always look.

Sales Papers

Check the sales paper weekly. Make a list. We have found that the fewer trips we take to the grocery store the less likely we are to buy things that we don't need. We save money by spending more at once than if we spread it out a little each day. This is something we still struggle with. It is easy to stop by the store on the way home, but bad on the pocketbook. 

People can take using sales papers to the extreme. I suggest only using places that you either frequent anyway or drive by during your normal routine. If you have to drive very far out of your way to get a great deal on something, you just might spend more on gasoline than you save.

Coupons

Coupons can be a great way to save money on groceries, but they can also be a drawback if you do not think about how you use them. Many coupons are for desert type items or for things that are not normally on our shopping list. Be careful not to buy things just because you have a coupon. I think this is one of the reasons certain companies always have coupons available. 

There are apps for smart phones that will help you find and use coupons. There are entire sites that are dedicated to coupons. You no longer have to wait on the Sunday newspaper. You can still get coupons from the paper, but there are lots of other ways to get them.

Combining the Strategies

The best way to get the most for your money is to, when possible combine local sales with coupons. In a lot of areas there are stores that will double or even triple coupons. We do not have any around here that will do this, but if you have that option it is worth investigating. Some grocery stores have rewards cards that can be used to magnify you savings.

Rewards cards help companies keep track of the type of products each customer purchases. You do give up some of your privacy to the corporation in exchange for great deals. Some people have no problem with this practice and others will never allow that level of trace-ability.

 Developing Your Food Storage

After you have worked on saving as much money on your grocery bill as possible, you can start building your food storage. Remember, I had you make an inventory of all of the food you have on hand. We are going to start working on increasing your food stores.

While working through getting the most food for your money you will have noticed that there are certain food items that you buy more often than others. These are your family's staples. At first you should focus on staples. Every time you can save enough money on your normal groceries add one thing that will go into your pantry. You can actually grow your food storage rather quickly just using the savings by using the methods above. 

Whenever possible take advantage of buy one get one deals. Buy multiples whenever possible. After you get 5 of an item move on to something else for a little while. For example I have seen whole kernel corn for sale for $.50 a can.  I got 5 right then for $2.50. Great deal. Won't buy any more til I use some of it or my stores of everything else has caught up. 

You will be surprised how quickly you can store food spending only $5.00 on storage a week. If you don't spend all of the $5.00 you have set aside for a week, put what is left in an envelope. Slowly that money will build and you will be able to purchase larger items.

I know you can do this. I would love to hear how things are going with your preparedness. I also enjoy your questions. You can contact me at theruraleconomist@gmail.com

I wish you Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes

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Affiliate Link Disclosure: The post may contain affiliate links. I may receive compensation for links, endorsements, testimonials, or recommendations for any products mentioned on this blog. Any time you use one of our links for Amazon, if you purchase something The Rural Economist receives a small commission and it doesn't cost you any more. Even if you do not purchase the items I list. In this way you will help support us trying to teach people about self reliance and homesteading. Thanks for your consideration.

Getting Prepared for Beginners #17 A Case for Long Term Preparedness

This series has primarily focused on short-term preparedness, getting ready to keep your family safe and comfortable after a storm or other acute "all of the sudden" event. We have made it clear that until you are ready to deal with a hurricane, you will never be ready for the zombie apocalypse. Even now when we talk about longer term preparedness, we are not going to try to get ready for a Global Polar Ice Shift.

For the purpose of this discussion short-term preparedness is anything 10 days or less. So long term preparedness by default would be anything 11 days or more. You will have to look at preparedness a little differently when you consider longer-term preparedness.

What are some of the reasons that people who would never appear on Doom's Day Preppers get ready for that would be long term? Oh I am so glad you asked. So here we go.

Job Loss

Everyone has either been laid off from a job or knows someone who has. This is a very common event and there is nothing "out there" about it. I have found that the older you are and the higher you are on the pay scale the more difficult it is to find a comparable job when you lose one. 

If either my wife or myself were to lose our job our income would be cut in half. Ouch! It is very difficult to imagine how we would make it. I know that there would be unemployment, but that only pays a very small part of what either of us would normally make. Talk about painful. 

Enter preparedness. Say you have been prepping for some time and have accumulated, say a 4 month food supply. You have accumulated it a little at a time. The deep pantry has given you confidence. Now is a time to use those supplies. I am sure there are some that are saying, "But that is for an emergency." Here is the deal. For your family, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY. Just imagine how much stress can be taken away if you only had to buy very little food for 4 months while you are searching for another job. The money that you would have been spending on groceries can now be spent on other things that are needed. You can always put them back after you are working again.

Extended Illness

All of the things I said above also apply here, but there is more. If you have the opportunity to obtain short-term disability affordably through your work place, do it. Disability insurance pays better than unemployment would, but it is still not the full amount that you would normally get. In this case you might only use part of your food supplies, you might have to use some of your medical or first aid supplies. 

Skill Development

This is one place where a multitude of skills may come into place. Unless you are completely incapacitated you can still do something, even if you cannot perform your normal job duties. Small craft skills are great. If you can knit or crochet you can provide yourself a small trickle of income to assist the income you have from disability insurance. Gloves, toboggans, and scarves sell fairly well. I have even heard of people typing resumes and proofreading papers for college kids for some extra income. Get creative every little bit helps. 

A Death in the Family

I know this one sounds odd until you think about it. If you have small children or an aging parent and your spouse or parent dies you will have to step up and take care of the members of your family that are still with you. It takes time to get everything in order after a loved one passes. Trust me unless you have been through it you have no idea what you will have to go through.. 

When my grandfather died in April of this year, as bad as it hurt me, that was nothing compared to what my grandmother went through. My dad, aunt, and uncle had to slowly and methodically go through all of the insurance plans, all of the bills, file all of the paperwork to take care of my grandmother. In the end my dad and step mom moved in with my grandmother to assist her with the bills and because of her health. Dad and my stepmother had to change jobs and move in order to make sure that someone was always there for my grandmother. It was a big deal and a huge change. If it were not for food preservation and a lot of cost cutting, this situation could have been devastating. 

Preparedness Just Makes Sense

See, no zombies, no dirty bombs or anything like that. Just life. Life is so much easier if you are prepared. Four months of food is not excessive. Even a years worth (if you have the storage) is not a bad idea. You never know what life is going to throw at you, so it is better to be prepared.

Have you gone through something that was made or could have been made easier if you had been prepared? I would love to hear your story.  Please share this post with someone who is not preparedness minded. It just might make them look at things a little differently. I hope this post has made you stop and think about what you can do to secure your

Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes

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You can like The Rural Economist on Facebook follow on The Rural Economist on Gplus. Or you can even follow The Rural Economist on Pintrest. We now have a YouTube channel and cover all kind of things. Hope on over and check them out, oh and don't forget to subscribe.

Other posts in this series:

#1 Why Prepare

#2 The Preparedness Mindset

#3 Priorities List

#4 Getting to My Family

#5 The Backpack

#6 Food Storage

#7 Basic Energy

#8 Water
#9 Security
#10 Medical
#11 Travel and Communications
#12 Fuel Storage
#13 Keep It Quiet aka OPSEC
#14 Building Community and Helping Others
#15 Skill Development (Home)
#16 Don't Fear the Reaper

Affiliate Link Disclosure: The post may contain affiliate links. I may receive compensation for links, endorsements, testimonials, or recommendations for any products mentioned on this blog. Any time you use one of our links for Amazon, if you purchase something The Rural Economist receives a small commission and it doesn't cost you any more. Even if you do not purchase the items I list. In this way you will help support us trying to teach people about self reliance and homesteading. Thanks for your consideration.

Every Family Should Can

I have been doing a fair bit of canning the past couple of weeks. I want to do a lot more. Canning is kind of a family tradition. I cannot remember when I had my first experience with canning. As long as I can remember when harvest time arrived the whole family would get together. It didn't matter if we were harvesting corn, peas, beans, or whatever the whole family was there.

The men would pick whatever we were harvesting. As we filled bushel baskets they would be taken to where the ladies were waiting. They would start shucking, shelling, or snapping.

Once everything was picked, we would start the shucking or shelling or whatever. The ladies would move to cooking and canning. We basically had an assembly line and once one task was done everyone shifted down. At some point everyone did every job. There were no men's and women's jobs, just jobs. Good thing I was raided that way. I have seen my dad, mom, and grandparents all can something.

I am the primary canner in my family now. So far I have canned jams, stewed tomatoes, and vegetable soups. Canning is a great way to preserve what you harvest. Canning can be used for more, much more.

You can can anything that comes out of your garden. You can can meats, leftovers, even take things you buy at the grocery and combine them into something more usable. The equipment you will need depends on what you intend to can.

Basic Equipment

For high acid foods, vinegar based foods like pickles, and sugared fruit preserves, jams, jellies, syrups and the like all that is really required is a water-bath canner. Basically a large deep pot. Helpful equipment includes a funnel, jar lifter, a lid magnet, and a rubber spatula. Oh and of course you need the canning jars. Several name brands are out there. Just pick one you like. So far I haven't had any problems with any that are labeled for canning.

I have made a funnel out of a 3 liter soda bottle that I cut and washed. You can sometimes improvise some of the equipment. Just remember everything must be clean.

For low acid foods like beans, peas, meat, and really everything else you will need a pressure canner. I have included a link to a pressure canner like I have. It works great, but I am saving up to buy a pressure canner that can take 1/2 gallon jars. Yup, I said 1/2 gallon jars. With my family I need larger size jars. I have made jam in the little 1/2 pint jars. Each jar only lasted one meal. I do not can anything smaller than a pint now.

Getting Started

If you have never canned before start with something you have on hand. Tomatoes are probably the easiest thing in the world to can, but jams are pretty easy as well. We have had a fairly good year when it comes to tomatoes.

To can crushed tomatoes all you need is your jars, a water-bath canner, salt, pepper, a knife, and time. If you want to peel the tomatoes first you can, I usually don't. I just core the tomatoes, remove any soft spots, and cut them up. I place all of the tomatoes in a large pot and start cooking them. Salt and pepper to taste. While tomatoes are cooking sterilize jars and put lids in a pot of water. Warm up lids to just below boiling.

There are two ways that I have used to sterilize jars. One, place in a large pot and bring to a boil. Allow jars to boil for one minute. Two, place jars in oven heat to 200 degrees for a minimum of 5 minutes. Either method works fine. Lately I have been using the oven method most often because it keeps the stove eyes open for other steps.

Cook tomatoes until done. I taste mine for seasoning. Take sterilized jar fill using funnel to within 1/2 inch of top. Place lid and finger tighten band. FINGER TIGHTEN. If you tighten the band too much before the next step your jar will not seal properly. The band has to be loose enough to allow air to escape your jar.

Place jars in water-bath canner. Make sure to have at least one inch of water above the top of the jars. Bring water to a boil. Reduce heat just enough that the water continues to boil, but it does not boil over. Process for 10 minutes. Cut off heat and remove jars from canner with the canning tongs. Sit them on the counter to cool and listen for the "plink". Some may plink as soon as you take the jars out of the water while others may take hours. Once you hear that plink you know your jars are sealed.

Vegetable Soup

I am including my vegetable soup because I was specifically asked to do so. An honor no doubt, but also a little unnerving. Unnerving because my vegetable soup is never the same twice. I use whatever I have. One time my soup may have okra or even peas in it the next time not, just as an example. There are some staples in my soup though. A very heavy tomato base. I am talking crushed or diced tomatoes and lots of them. Corn, beans (could be lima, butter, or pinto), green beans, carrots, potatoes, and onion. 

Vegetable soup can be tricky. Either all the ingredients have to come in at the same time or you have to can in stages then used canned ingredients and recan. There is also a way to cheat depending on what you have planted.

I cook all ingredients until they are completely done. I have eaten a bowl while canning. While cooking I get everything ready as I stated above. Fill jars to within 1/2 inch of the top. Center lid and put on bands finger tight. When you feel resistance stop.

Here is where I deviate from the Ball canning book. The Ball canning book is like the Bible of canning. Ball says to use a pressure canner. Since I prefer to can vegetable soup in 1/2 gallon jars and don't have a pressure canner that is large enough to accommodate 1/2 gallon jars. So I use a water bath canner. Please note I am not suggesting you do so. I am just telling you I do. I process vegetable soup for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes I remove from the canner and wait for the Plink.

There is a cheat. If you have lots of tomatoes and you do not want to have to can and recan you can use frozen or even canned mixed vegetables you buy from the grocery. Use what you have and buy the rest. It will be a lot better than anything you can buy. If you are going to use canned veggies with your tomatoes, I suggest buying the big gallon cans, but that also depends on how many tomatoes you have.

If you are new to canning or want to expand your knowledge make the investment and buy the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. It is well worth the cost and you can always tweak the recipe, I do.

I hope you enjoyed this little venture into canning. Guys I hope you see you can do it too. This should be something the whole family does. Canning will help you make sure you have a full tummy and a healthy body, because you know everything that goes into your home canned foods. Now if you will excuse me, I have apple jelly to make.

I Wish you Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes.

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Affiliate Link Disclosure: The post contains affiliate links. I may receive compensation for links, endorsements, testimonials, or recommendations for any products mentioned on this blog. Any time you use one of our links for Amazon, if you purchase something The Rural Economist receives a small commission and it doesn't cost you any more. Even if you do not purchase the items I list. In this way you will help support us trying to teach people about self reliance and homesteading. Thanks for your consideration.  

Getting Prepared for Beginners #6 Food Storage

I have a confession to make. I have already written this post completely. When I reread it, I hated it so here goes another try.

It does not matter if you a hard core homesteader or a true blue apartment city dweller. The basics and first goals of food storage are the same. Let me explain. Homesteaders traditionally stored food to be able to make it from one harvest to the next and even a little beyond (you never knew if you would have a good growing year next year). For the city dweller, your first goal should be to have enough food stored that if something happened and you were not able to get to the store for a week and it was the day before you normally go grocery shopping you would be fine. So food storage at its most basic is to get you through the lean times. You do not have to be storing for for the end of the world. Oh I so wish I could put in sound effects and be screaming that like a madman.

My Wife's Reaction When I Said We Needed to Start Storing Food

I hope the TV show Doomsday Preppers has done someone some good, besides the producers and advertisers. It sure didn't help me at all. When Doomsday Preppers first came on I tried to watch an episode or two. I never made it through any of them. I hope the people who they had on that show are good, well meaning, levelheaded people. If they are that show made them look like fruitcakes.

When I told my wife I wanted to start storing some food she thought I was turning into one of those crazy people on TV. She only agreed if I was buying stuff that we eat anyway and I didn't go overboard buying stuff. I agreed of course.

When we would go to the grocery I would throw a can of beef stew or an extra box of macaroni and cheese in the buggy. She would ask when I was going to eat it and I would just tell her I didn't know, but it would not go bad in our house. Slowly, ever so slowly we built up a fair backup food supply. If I got sick and missed a day of work or if the children wanted something quick to eat, we would go to the pantry. (Buying multiple items when they are on sale is a great way to save money).

My Birthday Gift This Year

When my wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday I told her I wanted a camp stove. She looked at me funny. I told her I was serious. She said are you doing this for that prepping stuff. I said partially, but I would really like to camp more this year. My birthday is in February. A week later a snow storm hit. We had about 6 inches of snow. I know for many of you who live up north six inches of snow is no big deal, but here in Alabama it is a HUGE deal.

The snow started about 2 am. Big nice fluffy flakes. I loved it. Checked the roads, yup they were closed. No work this day. The power went off about 6:30 am. My wife woke because the fan had stopped running. I get up and start a fire in the fireplace. About 8:30 still no power. I get the camp stove that I was just given and fire it up to make breakfast. We fixed breakfast and lunch on the camp stove and lunch came out of stored food. My wife looked at me and actually ask, "How did you know?"

No more questions about storing food.

How to Start Storing Food.

I have already mentioned the best method for most people to build up the food storage. It is loosely called copy canning. When you are buying something at the grocery buy one extra of something you are buying any way. I suggest either heat and serve items like soup, canned veggies, canned meats, and things like that or things you only have to add water to. I do suggest having powdered milk and powdered eggs as being part of you long term storage. Sometimes you just want to cook something.

Do not rely of frozen or refrigerated foods for storage. You are only one extended power outage away from being hungry.

Your first goal for food storage should be 7 days. This is a minimum. Just think. If everyone had just 7 days of food stored in their home they could make it through the majority of crises that they would face and be no worse for wear.

Next Step

After you have achieved 7 days of food storage I greatly encourage you to consider having a months worth of food stored. I do not want you to even think about a months worth of food till you have seven days covered.

I can hear some of you now thinking, Okay he is getting crazy. But I want you to think about it. First, you already have 7 days. You will only be adding 21 days more of food. Second, if you were to get ill and miss a full week of work wouldn't it be nice to not have to worry about going to the grocery or even having to worry about spending money that is needed somewhere else for something to eat. You already have it taken care of.

Long Term Food Storage

After you have achieved the 7 day minimum food storage you can start sprinkling in long term store-ables. Things like freeze dried meats or just add water deserts make things a lot easier. I know for me if things are stressful anyway a brownie makes things a lot better.You can buy individual items or some places have packages for a certain length of food storage. As an example at The Ready Store you can buy a big can of brownie mix or a years supply of food. My caution here is do not buy things you will not eat. Plain and Simple.

I hope you are enjoying these posts on Getting Prepared for Beginners and I hope they will help someone become more self reliant.

Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes to you.

You can subscribe to The Rural Economist by email by simply filling out the form at the top right of the page. Your information will never be sold or given to anyone else. You can like The Rural Economist on Facebook follow on The Rural Economist on Gplus. Or you can even follow The Rural Economist on Pintrest. If you do the Facebook thing I have a poll going on right now and I would really love to have your input.

More Posts in this series:

#1 Why Prepare

#2 The Preparedness Mindset

#3 Priorities List

#4 Getting to My Family

#5 The Backpack

#6 Food Storage

#7 Basic Energy

#8 Water
#9 Security
#10 Medical
#11 Travel and Communications
#12 Fuel Storage
#13 Keep It Quiet aka OPSEC
#14 Building Community and Helping Others
#15 Skill Development (Home)
#16 Don't Fear the Reaper

#17 A Case for Long-Term Preparedness

Affiliate Link Disclosure: The post contains affiliate links. I may receive compensation for links, endorsements, testimonials, or recommendations for any products mentioned on this blog.

Getting Prepared for Beginners Series #3 Priorities

Thus far we have discussed the most common reasons to get prepared and the frame of mind that is needed to start preparing. This week we will begin forming your priorities list either in your mind or on paper. 

There are at least two lists that I want you to think about. List one is which emergencies you are statistically more likely to face. Here in Alabama the most common emergencies are tornadoes, snow/ice storms, power outages, drought, and even hurricanes. These are just the things that are naturally occurring. Personal emergencies can include job loss, sickness, injury, or death in the family.

A priorities list whether mental or written will help give you devise an action plan. The plan will be to take simple steps to getting yourself and your family more prepared. You have already taken two important steps if you have been following along. You realize that there are reasons you should be getting more prepared and you have at least started working on a survival mindset.

Now I hope you have started thinking about the most likely emergencies that you could face. When I first started writing this post, we were under a tornado watch. The watch turned into a warning and I actually wrote part of the article while in the local tornado shelters. Due to some technical difficulties the original article was lost. That is the reason that the post is going out a little late.

General Priorities list

I would like to take a moment and introduce you to the rule of three.

In a dire situation you can survive three minutes without air, three hours without shelter, three days without water, and three weeks without food.

I know that there are extenuating circumstances that will change the above statement, and that each person will be a little different, but the point is still valid. These are the basic things you need to stay alive. I also believe that if you cannot breathe, instincts will take over and try to rectify the situation. 

Water, shelter, food, security, and transportation are needs that require thought. We all know that we need water, food, and shelter but security is one thing that a lot of people never think about. The reason that so many people never even consider security is because as long as nothing Bad ever happens a person can live a very long time and never have to worry about security.

I am also not going to go into shelter because if you are reading this you most likely have shelter.

My Priorities

My priorities will line up a little differently.

1. Getting to my family. Depending on what happens and when. I may need to either make it back home, meet at a pre decided location, or go to where my family members are. I tend to be the one who stays calm no matter what is happening. My wife might argue too calm. My First objective is to get to my family alive and well and to make sure they are alive and well also.
2. Food. I know according to the list above that water should be first. Let me explain to you why it is not first for me. First, where we are there are water towers so even if the power is off and for some reason the backup generators are down, there will still be several days of water. We also have a well on our little homestead, I can make a way to get water.
3. Basic Energy. Basic energy can be anything from flashlights to a whole house generator. But if you are like I am you don't have $10,000 to drop on an emergency system. Right now for us our backup energy consists of a propane camping stove, charcoal grill and charcoal, battery powered lanterns, flashlights, and oil lanterns. I am sure I have left something out.
4. Water. You must have water to survive. Plain and simple.
5. Security. I must be able to keep my family and our property safe.
6. Transportation. I know that transportation is covered some in Getting to my Family, but we also live an hour outside of a major metropolitan area. If things get real bad I want us to have a way to get out of here with everything we need.

I know I haven't covered any of these topics in depth, but over the next several weeks we will. 

I hope this series makes it easier for you to have:
Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes

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Other posts in this series:
More Posts in this series:

#1 Why Prepare

#2 The Preparedness Mindset

#3 Priorities List

#4 Getting to My Family

#5 The Backpack

#6 Food Storage

#7 Basic Energy

#8 Water
#9 Security
#10 Medical
#11 Travel and Communications
#12 Fuel Storage
#13 Keep It Quiet aka OPSEC
#14 Building Community and Helping Others
#15 Skill Development (Home)
#16 Don't Fear the Reaper

#17 A Case for Long-Term Preparedness

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Hopefully this will help you have...

Rural Dreams and Homestead Wishes

You can subscribe to The Rural Economist by email by simply filling out the form at the top right of the page. Your information will never be sold or given to anyone else. You can like The Rural Economist on Facebook. Or you can even follow The Rural Economist on Pintrest.

Other equipment you might need. 

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