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There are a lot of articles out there about building “budget” bug out, GOOD or get home bags, but this one actually provides some alternate sources that anyone can tap into, and builds the complete bag (less EDC items) for under $50.

I was out roaming around the neighborhood, stopping at garage sales a couple of Saturdays ago, and ran across a US Army medium Alice pack with frame for $5. Courtesy of Uncle Sam, I have many miles carrying and quite a few days and nights of experience in the field with Alice packs. While I don’t think they work as well as higher end commercial packs that I use backpacking, they are still decent bags, especially if you keep your load down to 35 pounds or (preferably) less.

The Alice pack was introduced right at the end of the Vietnam War. It is made of heavy nylon, with a divided main compartment, three exterior pockets and a cover flap that has a flat pocket for copies of orders, maps, etc. It also has external attachment points for other Alice gear or for the older style gear with the wire bails that dates back to WWI and for strapping on a sleeping bag at the bottom. It can be carried with or without a frame. With the frame, it has a quick release shoulder strap so you can drop the pack in a hurry in a combat situation or if you get into trouble crossing a stream.

usedmediumalicepack

Military Surplus Alice Packs are the first Bug Out Bag for many because of cost and durability.

At $5, this was a great buy, the problem was that I already have a couple of them as well as a large Alice pack, and that’s after I gave away two other packs to my son. I am trying to be a bit pickier when it comes to bargains, and was going to pass on this one until I thought it might make a good starting point for an article on putting together a budget Get Home Bag for the Final Prepper picked up two US surplus canteens with carriers at the same sale for $1 each, one of them was a WWII vintage 1943 Stainless canteen. They also came with one canteen cup, stove for the cup, and an unopened bottle of water purification tablets.

The budget get home bag challenge

I decided to sit down and make some “rules” for my challenge.

  • Minimize costs, if this gets stolen from my car trunk I don’t want to be out much.
  • This bag needed to support three to five days traveling by foot
  • It was OK to include footwear, underwear and socks I already own, but I would try to purchase or find whatever else I needed, rather than rely on stuff I already had
  • Cost of food would not count against total
  • Should be more grey man than tacticool
  • Quality stuff
  • Cheaper the better, but reliability trumps price
  • Minimize on-line purchases
  • Bag should support three seasons — spring, summer, fall. May do another article on winter additions
  • Need to be able to shoot, move, communicate, eat, water, shelter

Places I would try first to look for bargains are:

  • Dumpsters
  • Garage sales, estate sales, tag sales
  • Thrift stores (goodwill, Salvation Army, DAV, St Vincent De Paul, etc.)
  • Bargain stores (Dollar stores, Harbor Freight, etc.) I normally don’t shop at these stores, but have seen some folks talk about prepper bargains they got on Facebook
vintage

Yard sales are tremendous sources for cheap, gently used gear. You just have to be willing to look.

First, I took stock of my EDC (Every Day Carry) items, so I would know what I had and what I needed to supplement.
My edc includes:

  • Key ring with Photon micro lite, p-38 can opener that I got in basic training back in 1976, Swiss Key folding scissors/knife, and Craftsman four in one screwdriver
  • Gerber Applegate covert automatic tactical knife (legal in my state, if I am traveling in another state, I switch to a different lock blade non-automatic knife, non-gravity knife)
  • Sig P229 DAK in .40 S&W with spare mag. (My carry permits are valid in most states, however if I am driving through somewhere like the socialist republic of Illinois, I unload and store in a locked case in the trunk)
  • Swiss Army Knife
  • Wallet with emergency cash, ID and credit cards
  • Sunglasses
  • Bandana
  • Laptop and bag including small first aid kit (bandages, tweezers, triple ointment antibiotic, needle, hand cleaner), aspirin, and pseudo-ephedrine, Maglite 2AA cell flashlight (doubles as impact and compliance tool, like a kubotan), cell phone external battery pack (free at a trade show), sewing kit, glasses repair kit with screw driver and spare screws (also free), pens, pencils, notepad, Password protected thumb drives with various files including scans of important personal papers and “survival” manuals

EDC stuff kept in-car that would help with getting home

  • Case of water (replaced every three months)
  • Box of breakfast bars
  • Magnesium flares
  • Tool kit
  • 50 feet ½ inch rope
  • Highway maps
  • GPS

Building the get home bag

I gave myself a month to put this kit together and decided to try to keep it under $50 all told, less than some preppers pay for a knife. Here is what I picked up from each source:

Garage sales $20.25

  • Alice pack and two canteens $7
  • Surefire flashlight (CR123) $1
  • Package of four plumbers candles $.25
  • Frog Toggs rain gear jacket and pants $2
  • 8×10 plastic green/brown tarp $1
  • 2 – One liter water bottles (in free stuff box)
  • Boy scout compass and signal mirror $1
  • Army mountain sleeping bag $5
  • Ski poles $3 (make great trekking poles)

Dumpster / Free $0

  • Broken sledge-hammer handle (use as self-defense baton)
  • Strip maps of route (print out free from Internet)
  • Tooth brush/paste (free from dentist)
  • Old stained tennis shoes (put them in the bag instead of throwing them away)
  • Ball cap from a local business
  • Soap (free from hotels)
  • Duct Tape (wrapped about 15 feet around one of the water bottles)
  • Two pair underpants
  • Three pair wool socks
  • Two wicking t-shirts
  • Hiking boots
  • A couple of books of matches (free from store)

Estate / Tag sales $13.50

  • Older Plumb hand ax $2 (handle was loose, but easily fixed)
  • Folding pruning saw $1
  • Pack of 5 new Bic lighters $1
  • Hand cranked Eton AM/FM/weather radio with cell phone charger and light $5
  • A dozen hand warmers $.50
  • First aid kit $2 (various Band-Aids, gauze pads, triangle bandages, burn ointment, antibiotic ointment, tweezers, scissors, scalpel, alcohol wipes, surgical tape)
  • Two bath towels $2

Thrift stores (goodwill, Salvation Army, DAV, St Vincent De Paul, etc.) $10.69

  • Finnish hunting knife $.50 (it was mixed in with the kitchen knives)
  • Zip up fleece shirt/jacket $1
  • North face windproof jacket $4
  • Columbia hiking pants (Polyester to dry fast) $2
  • Watch cap $.50
  • REI two person three season tent $2.99 before veteran’s discount, $2.69 final price

Bargain stores $4.50

  • Work gloves $1
  • Magnesium fire starter $2.50
  • Toilet paper $1

So excluding the food, total cost for the Get Home Bag was $47.94. It is well within the abilities of almost anyone to put together a bag like this.

Food $20

  • Two pounds rice and two pounds dried beans (stored in one liter water bottles) $5
  • Bouillon cubes $1
  • Three packs tuna $6
  • Two cans Spam $4
  • Misc. spices and salt $4

Weapons

Although beyond the scope of this “challenge”, I also checkout out some local pawn shops, a gun show and some Facebook firearms buy sell trade pages to see how cheap I could pick up guns to leave in the car. The best deals I picked up in each category during this time frame were:

  • Center-fire rifle – Refinished Spanish Mauser in .308 for $100 (I also picked up a “sporterized” Spanish Mauser in 7mm for $50, but it had no sights, and would have been more that $100 total after adding the sights)
  • .22 Rifle – Marlin/Glenfield model 60 spray painted green – $45
  • Defensive handgun – S&W 909 with two magazines and holster — $125
  • Backup handgun – WWII Nazi marked Mauser HsC in .32 Auto — $35 (it was in rough shape, and I had to straighten the frame, but it shoots great now and is also the ugliest gun I have)
  • Stevens 12 ga. pump with barrel cut off crooked at 20 inches and spray painted black stock $75 (I cut the barrel back to 18.5 inches and added a bead)

What bargains have you found for your Get Home Bag and how far were you willing to go to save some money?

2 Comments

  There are a lot of articles out there about building “budget” bug out, GOOD or get home bags, but this one actually provides some alternate sources that anyone can tap

We all have witnessed the militarization of our local police forces over the years and most of you have probably felt a growing sense of doom. What used to be a man in a uniform you could depend on to at least care and try to “protect and to serve”, has turned into a quasi military goon who shoots first and then asks questions. This trend stinks and you have to add this on top of the giant steaming pile that already lingered from countless other movements the government has made in the face of the American people. There have been numerous posts, articles and hand wringing associated with your friendly neighborhood SWAT teams and how they are increasingly used to perform basic law enforcement tasks. I am not going to preach about how I agree that this slide into a militarized mindset of these departments and agencies is dangerous; well, at least not in this post. What I did want to talk about briefly is the latest escalation it seems in the war between law enforcement and the regular citizens. The most recent upping of the ante comes to us in the form of surplus military trucks called MRAP’s that the government is literally giving away to anyone who seems to want one. Everyone, that is except you and me.

The Pentagon is giving away 13,000 of these Mine-resistant, ambush-protected trucks because they have outlived their purpose according to someone, so they have “notified our friends and allies that we have MRAPs available and if they want them they can have them,” said Alan Estevez, deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisitions, technology and logistics. Isn’t that special.

The MRAP vehicles aren’t old at all and most it seems were built as recently as 2004. The government is cutting costs they say and rather than keep these vehicles that protected our troops, or scrap them, they have decided that local law enforcement, Universities and even our allies should get these to take care of their own people. I can’t even fathom how these vehicles are so urgently useless as to warrant giving them away. When I was in the military we had equipment that was easily 40 years old and we still used it daily. I know I drove a jeep that was used in WWII. You can drive past any national guard armory today and see ancient, or at least three times as old as the MRAP trucks parked in nice rows, ready for action. Aren’t HUMVEE’s still in service? I guess our troops as well as the National Guard are too good to take these MRAPs so we need to give them away. Something smells fishy.

Seeing these heavily armored vehicles have been rolling into small towns everywhere, this has understandably created a huge buzz with people who worry that these vehicles will be used to wage war on the American people. I can see that angle. What I don’t share exactly is the panic that I think some are experiencing. While I agree that overall this is one more troubling development, I don’t see these on the surface as that much of a threat; at least not so much to tremble if the local constable wants to get one of these.

What is the MRAP designed to do?

The MRAP by the very definition of its name is Mine Resistant and Ambush Protected. It is really a beefed up troop carrier. This vehicle is certainly tough and I am glad our troops had it in places like Afghanistan and Iraq and wherever they are going next. For our local police, Sheriffs and Universities, they will undoubtedly roll around in these heavily protected vehicles as often as they can, showing up at the State Fair, schools for show and tell, parades and busting down the doors of some poor old lady who didn’t pay a $5 fee for an overdue library book. They are daunting, but the MRAP isn’t perfect. They have several weaknesses that maybe the people who believe the government is coming for us should consider before we get too upset. I know there are others who are already planning to capitalize on these weaknesses and maybe that is one reason why Uncle Sam is giving them away.

 For starters, these MRAP vehicles can’t drive themselves. They require a crew of at a minimum, one person. They also do not yet have a transporter beam that I know of so the crew will need to use doors to enter and exit the vehicle. I don’t see a local police force for the average town with one of these using them to round up people or offensively attack large numbers unless the citizens are foolish, disarmed or incarcerated first. The people using this vehicle are safe from small arms fire so there is no point shooting at it. They are also presumably safe from mines so no point in trying to blow it up.

What they can’t do is fly. They also have a very large turning radius so it would be very easy to block them into a box and close the box so they couldn’t escape. What kind of box? This could be a roadblock hastily set up with vehicles too heavy for the MRAP to move. It could be that a tree is dropped behind them blocking their escape or some additional vehicles. You could also dig a pit if you had enough time. The MRAP can’t climb out of a box so if you make one long enough and about 4 feet deep, the MRAP and everyone in it would be stuck. You don’t even have to make the hole too big (see below) to get one of these heavy vehicles stuck.

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The MRAP also doesn’t have a grocery store so if the occupants are trapped inside, you don’t have to do anything. If left in there long enough, they may die of starvation. They will come out on their own, or die trapped in that can. Once they run out of gas, that AC will stop working too.  Again, the doors have to open for people to get in or get out.  My point is, that these vehicles are again glorified troop transports. Can they be upfitted with arms, sure but not likely at this point. Local authorities who are foolish enough to engage an outraged citizenry could be easily outwitted and this heavy behemoth could become a trap.

I am not advocating violence. All I am trying to illustrate is that even if the local police offices are getting these vehicles and have plans to use them against citizens, they aren’t unstoppable. Should things get so bad that you are forced to flee from the people who are supposed to protect and serve you, it could be that we the people would be in charge of these MRAPs before it’s all over.

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We all have witnessed the militarization of our local police forces over the years and most of you have probably felt a growing sense of doom. What used to be

First aid in grid down scenarios is something that a lot of people take for granted. Our society has become overly dependent on medicine and the easy availability of Emergency rooms, family practice doctors and 24 primary care facilities. Well, maybe we aren’t as dependent as I am making out, but we certainly don’t suffer from not having medical options. I think advances in medicine and treatment are a good thing as it has led to longer lives for most of us and solutions to some problems that would have killed millions in earlier times.

 

This evolution in medical care has a downside though and that is a society that views medicine as a right and not a privilege we have. Your doctor will always be there and should give you any treatment for free. They can talk to the insurance company if they want anyone to pay them for their time, material and services we demand. No, I am not trying to get on a soap box to shout about the unconstitutionality of recently enacted laws, just pointing out a phenomenon that will catch a lot of people off guard if the grid goes down.

What if there are no hospitals?

If we are faced with a grid down scenario, the medical care we have come to think of as a right may be non-existent. It doesn’t matter what you think you are due, if there is no one to treat your illness or injury you are SOL. (look that up if you don’t know what it means).

In my quest to cover as many of the First aid bases as I reasonably can, I have tried to acquire basic medical supplies that we would need as part of normal life. I started with the assumption that we would not be able to get to the store, or that the stores would not have anything left after some crisis so I got the basics of Alcohol, band aids, bandages, Neosporin, Hydrogen peroxide, Aspirin, Advil and children’s aspirin. Moving out from there, I purchased face masks to reduce infection, latex gloves for instances where you might come in contact with fluids and larger bandages.

I bought large blood stopper bandages, and clotting solutions like Celox to stop massive bleeding quickly and further backups of bandages and sterile dressings. I also bought Epsom salts and vitamins for both us and our children to handle vitamin deficiencies.

After the basics, I moved on to first aid kits. I have one for camping, one for each vehicle that are also stocked with blood stoppers, a large family kit and a combat medic kit I bought at a gun show that is slap full of excellent gear like sutures and a stapler and lots of bandages and antibiotic creams. Lastly, I bought a set of medical instruments, just in case I need to do surgery. Do I know how to use all of this gear? Not all of it, and I haven’t had any formal medical training so I bought some books.

I bought Emergency War Surgery and The Survival Medicine Handbook as resource guides along with some additional books on natural remedies and herbs for treating various ailments. Eventually, my plan is to take some classes on first aid at the local Red Cross, but our local chapter seems to be lacking in that area, at least from my most recent search on their website. All of the gear above is just equipment. Not knowing how to properly use the items above won’t do you much good. I know how to stop bleeding and treat minor wounds, but this assumes I will not be the one injured and/or that I have access to all of our supplies and someone who can either read or hopefully has read up on some of the guides above.

What if you are on your own?

Now, after that long introduction I get to the IFAK kit. What the heck is an IFAK kit you ask? It is the military’s version of your own personal little first aid kit. The IFAK or “Individual First Aid Kit” as it is normally called (some branches say Improved instead of individual) is given to ever soldier going into combat. The contents vary slightly, but they are generally what are listed below.

NSN

Nomenclature
6515-01-521-7976 Tourniquet, Combat Application
6510-01-492-2275 Bandage Kit, Elastic
6510-01-503-2117 / 6510-00-058-3047 Bandage Gauze 4-1/2″ 100/Pkg
6510-00-926-8883 Adhesive Tape Surg 2″ 6’s Roll
6515-01-180-0467 Airway, Nasopharyngeal, 28fr, 12s
6515-01-519-9161 Glove, Patient Exam 100/Pkg (4ea)
6545-01-531-3647 Pouch, IFAK
6545-01-531-3147 Insert, IFAK (has folding panels, with cord attached)

What do all these handy-dandy items give you? It gives you just the essentials to treat yourself or your buddy if you aren’t near or can’t make it to medical facilities. You have exam gloves, a tourniquet, a nasopharyngeal airway tube and a bandage. The two most important items I see are the tourniquet and the bandage. You won’t be using the airway tube on yourself, and without training probably won’t use that on anyone else either. The airway tube is designed to clear the airway in an unconscious person so that their tongue doesn’t cause them to suffocate. If you are interested, I found some instructions for using this here.

If we encountered a situation where I was forced to leave home for any length of time, I would want to carry something like an IFAK with me. I wouldn’t take my combat medic bag because it would be too big and bulky. I wouldn’t take the traditional hiking first aid kit either because if I am armed to the teeth and leaving home, I probably won’t need to put a band aid on a scratch. I will need something a little more intense.

Better to buy or make it yourself?

Just looking at some of the contents in the main list and comparing prices, I wanted to try to see if I could save some money by building my own. I shopped around for all of the main nomenclature items on Ebay, Amazon and other sites to see what the best price I could find was.

So, looking at just the cost of the items individually my cost would be $50.31 and that obviously doesn’t count shipping. I think its safe to say that you can buy your IFAK cheaper or certainly more simply than you can make one yourself. Could you buy in bulk and save more? Probably, but if you are only going to buy a few, I wouldn’t go through the trouble myself.

In summary, you should plan on having first aid gear even if the grid never goes down or the zombies invade. If you can foresee going out on patrol or being mobile away from your home base, an IFAK would be a necessity I think. There are lots of options out there so check before you buy.

0 Comments

First aid in grid down scenarios is something that a lot of people take for granted. Our society has become overly dependent on medicine and the easy availability of Emergency