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While Harvey moves away from Texas, it makes me start to mentally go over my preps and I start analyzing what I still haven’t done, or need to check on again. This happens almost every time there is a news story like this and it is with the full knowledge and belief that I am squared away at a level that I believe will keep my family fed and secure for a good bit of time. Could we last if everything descended into chaos tomorrow and there was wide-spread panic, looting, violence and wars? That, I don’t know. However, we have made a lot of preparations for our family so I don’t feel helpless if we are visited by a future doomsday scenario like that any time soon. I certainly don’t welcome it, but I don’t feel like we’ll be caught completely off guard either. I do think that it is wise to constantly be aware of your surroundings (as well as what’s going on in the world) and to take advantage of circumstances if you can, to give your family a leg up.

I will take the scenario and let’s say you have 12 hours advance knowledge of some event. Let’s say the stock market started tanking mid-day and the punditry and your own sixth sense was telling you that something serious was happening. By the close of business the market is down 30% and trading has been halted. Maybe the government declares a bank holiday, credit cards aren’t accepted and you only have the cash in your wallet or what you have hidden for a rainy day. You know you have to run to the store to get supplies before the rest of the world beats you to it and we will say that you have a limited budget of $200. What would you do? Where would you go and in what order would things need to be done?

Before I continue, I must say that this scenario, if it really was as dire as I am painting would be deadly for a lot of people. I don’t know that what you could grab from the store in 2 hours would keep you alive for years, but it could keep you alive for a week. Something as complex as financial Armageddon can’t be survived with a few cans of tuna fish and some pop tarts but you have to live to fight another day, right? It’s a start, but in a perfect world you would have begun your journey to being prepared a long time ago. We will assume this trip is just going to be adding to what you already have. You could just as easily apply most of the same concepts to a hurricane or flood. That said, let’s go!

What would you do?

Quickly define priorities

One of the first things that any prepper should do is take an inventory of what they need to have in order to survive any given period of time. Regardless of the disaster, the most basic list of priorities would be water, food, shelter and security. Ideally you would have prepared long ago for these basics, but in our scenario you haven’t or something happened and you need to resupply. I think it is safe to say that in terms of priority, if you don’t have all of the above already, security is going to be out so for now we will focus on food and water first and pray that you don’t need security.

It is right now that you need to quickly conduct a mental and physical inventory what you have and what you need. I say physical because I have been surprised in the past when a supply I thought I had plenty of was gone. (What do you mean all of the batteries I had ended up in the Wii remotes?) This is another reason to make sure you are constantly rotating your supplies and refilling when they are used. The time of year must be considered as well. Is it the middle of summer or the dead of winter? This is going to drive the priority of what you are looking for. In a time like this, if you don’t make it to the store quickly, there may not be anything left when you do. Provided you are paying attention and can act though you may beat the crowd before anyone even knows what is going on. Some quick examples are:

  • Do you have a gallon of water for everyone in the house for at least one week? Add more if the weather is hot and you may run into quantity limits if the news is out already. For a family of 4 you would need to have 28 gallons (4 X 7 = 28).  Do you have a way to capture and treat water after that?
  • Do you have enough food to feed everyone for 7 days that doesn’t require cooking?
  • Are there hygiene items you need or will need in the upcoming weeks?
  • Do you have basic first aid?

Make a Plan

Divide responsibilities if you have more than one person who can run to the store. Once you know what you need to get you can send one person to one store or even split up once you are in the store to grab the items you need quickly. One person can go to Sporting goods and the other person can run to the food aisles. Water is usually located in a couple of places, but they store a lot more of it back in the food section. 2 ½ gallon jugs are easier to carry.
Maintain communication – This is when those great two way radios come in handy. If you can radio the other person shopping, you will both be more efficient and can work better as a team. You can also find your way out of the store together if panic sets in.

Where would you go?

There are a lot of options from the corner grocery store to a convenience store to the big box retailers. I think that if you have access to them all, I would hit a Wal-Mart, or Target first over the other choices. The reasons are price and selection. You have to admit there isn’t much you can’t buy at Wal-Mart and if your time is limited it makes sense to go there instead of somewhere else. Now, can you get better food at Whole Foods or Fresh Market? Yes, but they will have less on hand, the stores are smaller so they will be more crowded and the cost will be higher. Even the parking lots are smaller so you might find your self unable to park, or worse, unable to get out. We are trying for survival here. If Wal-Mart isn’t available you will have to do your best, but that would be my preference. Why Wal-Mart and not a grocery store? Again, Wal-Mart or Kmart or Target each have more items than just food. They all have camping sections and in some cases Sporting goods and you won’t likely be able to pick up a box of 9mm rounds at the Piggly Wiggly.

If all you have is the local grocery store or even the CVS then by all means go there. In fact, the local drug stores have become more diversified in what they carry, but again they suffer from cost and variety. You may have to resort to shopping there, but it isn’t ideal. You will get less for your money and could end up with nothing.

What order would things need to be done?

Again, this depends on what you need the most. If you have a hundred gallons of water stored at home you would skip that possibly. Go for what you need the most of realizing that you can live without food longer than you can live without water.

  • Water first – Grab as much as you can. In our scenario above 28 gallons is going to cost you about $31. You can also get this from the tap for free if you have a means to store it.
  • Canned meats – think of canned meats like Tuna, Chicken or Ham. The cost on these is a lot higher though so you will need to augment your food with cheaper items. Plan on spending about $50
  • Canned veggies – Only grab what your family is going to eat and I would say get items that will go with the other ingredients in a stew. Corn, carrots, tomatoes, beans etc. $20
  • Rice and beans – or oatmeal. These will all keep for years and require just a little hot water to make them tasty. You can still get 50 pound bags of rice for under $20. – $40 for rice, beans and oatmeal to last.
  • Toilet Paper and Hygiene – It never fails that whenever there is some reason you don’t want to go to the store, you find out you are out of toilet paper. Same with other feminine needs. $12 for TP
  • Batteries and Flashlights – I prefer headlights that you can strap to your head. They make any task in the dark much easier than holding a flashlight. Make sure you have spare batteries to last you a week.  $30 for two headlamps and $10 for batteries
  • Peanuts and Pop-Tarts – Require no refrigeration and who doesn’t like Pop tarts? – Save the junk food for last because I think it will go first. $15

This list is limited and you may be thinking to yourself, that’s all I can get for $200? What if the power goes out? What about home defense? What if the gas stations stop pumping fuel? What about communications or protection against viral infections? Those are all great questions and I hope that if you haven’t started prepping yet, this post might make you reconsider. You do not want to be the person running around with no money trying to plan for your survival at crunch time. Please begin to take steps now, while the lights are still on to protect your family and hopefully this won’t be you.

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While Harvey moves away from Texas, it makes me start to mentally go over my preps and I start analyzing what I still haven’t done, or need to check on

In our family, I am the Prepper with a capital P. I am mainly responsible for acquiring the gear, skills and knowledge and I have an interest in the subject of prepping and survival that most of the rest of my family does not. My family, to a much lesser extent is aware of my plans and supplies and general knowledge of the way I have been preparing for various scenarios but the main job of prepping falls on my shoulders. This isn’t because nobody in my family is capable, but I think there is still very much a “that’s Dad’s thing” mentality and for the time being everyone thinks there are more important things in life. I don’t know that there isn’t still a small part of everyone who thinks I am a little crazy, but they do tell me they see the need and sense in preparing for what life throws at you.

This job of mine is one that I don’t mind doing. I enjoy, for lack of a better term, thinking about what my family needs to be safe and secure. That sounds weird I know and it isn’t like I am begging for a disaster, but thinking and planning does give me a sense of calm in that I can see our progress towards being more self-sufficient, more secure and more ready for events that 5 years ago would have caught us completely off guard. I don’t look at this as worrying, although at some point the motivation for your family’s safety is based upon a fear that something bad would happen to them. Being prepared gives me some measure of comfort although I don’t have a rosy outlook on the future of our country.

I imagine that a lot of you are like me in that you are busy getting your Get Home Bags ready to load into that big Bug Out vehicle. You peruse the daily websites and blogs that offer news not exactly covered in the main stream media and watch for signs of the S actually hitting the fan. Others live in an environment where they have to be more alert if they want to be the first ones out before the rest of the city or community descends into chaos. You have probably purchased several pieces of gear that can help you in a disaster situation and begun stocking up on food and water. Like me, I would guess that a considerable majority of you are doing this without the direct involvement of your spouse or significant other.

Food is a simple one, but the rest of our prepping gear has been purchased almost exclusively by me because I am the one thinking about it. I know what we have and what we still need to plan for because I started this years ago by myself. My family was still around, but I didn’t necessarily have the full consent of my wife. A lot of the purchases I made were greeted with rolling eyes at the beginning and sometimes even questions of “why do you need that”? Not to be deterred, I have continued trying to get my family and loved ones on-board with prepping and for the most part I think I have succeeded.

That still doesn’t change who is responsible for the actual Prepping part as that still falls on my shoulders but this can be a bad thing. How? What if you are hit by a bus or otherwise unable to get back home? Will your family know what to do if you are gone? Are you making sure that you are sharing your prepping knowledge with the people you most want to benefit from it?

What do we have?

Make sure the rest of your family knows where supplies are hidden.

One of the items I need to work on personally is organization. I want to blame this on having a small house, but it really is my fault that we don’t have a better system for organizing all of our prepper supplies. I do have approximately half of our food, ammo and supplies stored in areas that my family knows about, but there are a lot of vital items that they would have to scour the house to find and that is only if they remember we have it. I have slowly been amassing a fair bit of prepping supplies, but they are in various places depending on what their use is. My family should know where everything is.

We go back to organization I think. Ideally,  I would have a place for everything and everything would be in its place. That sounds all well and good, but you haven’t seen our attic obviously. Having a place for everything is a hurdle but I know with the right organization system that can be overcome. What I should do is have binders with lists of all of the gear and where it is stored. This will lead to a much larger effort of putting things together, but that will assist anyone who doesn’t have the benefit of me telling them where stuff is in knowing what we have and how to find it.

For example, I have a pretty good selection of basic to medium level first aid and health related items, but these are in at least 3 different places. All of that should be in one place and inventoried ideally so that anyone could easily see what was on hand and wouldn’t need to rely on my memory.

What about items you have hidden? Do you have hidden caches of money, ammo and food somewhere? Does your family know where that is if you are out of reach?

Why do we need it?

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by all of the tools on my Dad’s workbench. There was something alluring about seeing all of the shiny metal objects in his tool box that had a specific purpose. As I was learning how to begin working on simple mechanical tasks, I learned what those fancy pliers were for and the weird set of taps and dies, how to use that black tape, the odd shaped file, and seemingly hundreds of other gadgets and gizmos. My dad was there to teach me whenever I had a need, but didn’t know what tool was best for the job I had. He would help me with the right selection and show me how to use it properly and my experience and knowledge grew with time.

In a disaster scenario, if your family has not been as involved in prepping as you are, if they haven’t sat through 498 hours of YouTube videos on each subject and digested the knowledge that you have picked up from books on alternative ways to do things, how will they figure out what is needed or possible? I imagine that there will be a lot of trial and error and being logical, smart individuals they will eventually figure it out, but I should share the knowledge while I am here so they can use it if I am gone.

Make sure everyone knows how to use weapons properly. Or else…

There are a lot of prepping items I have purchased that my family was literally clueless about. The first big example I can remember was probably my water filter. I purchased the filter and when it arrived my family looked at me like I had three eyes. Why do we need a water filter when the fridge gives us water anytime we want it? I then had the opportunity to explain what happens when the water shuts off and you need to get drinking water from other sources. That’s an obvious one, but something like a gas shut-off wrench would sit in the bottom of my tool box for years without anyone knowing what it did.

Everything you will depend on after an emergency has at least one purpose, maybe two depending on the situation. I like to pose hypothetical questions to my family whenever they see a new piece of gear and ask me “What’s that for” so they can imagine using this in their minds. Knowing why a tool or piece of gear was purchased will be important if they are looking for the right shiny tool and you aren’t there to help them out like your Dad was.

How do we use it?

Knowing where the supplies are is one thing. Does your family know how to use any of that gear you have purchased for them? For example, we talk about having the right firearm for self-defense on this blog and others, but if nobody besides you knows how to load and shoot it, what good is it?  Simple things like your propane lanterns, the kerosene heater, and the generator can all be extremely frustrating if you don’t know what you are doing even though learning how to properly operate them takes minutes. What about your radio gear that you have purchased in order to communicate with your family if the grid goes down? Does anyone in your family know how to use that?

It should go without saying that the more knowledgeable everyone in your family is, the better you will all be prepared. As skill and maturity allow, family members can take on additional responsibilities and may have to chip in more than someone normally would for their age. Your family is your first line of defense and they are the ones you are trying to defend. It makes sense to try to ensure they can watch your back just as much as you want to protect them.

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In our family, I am the Prepper with a capital P. I am mainly responsible for acquiring the gear, skills and knowledge and I have an interest in the subject

What if you would experiment the same thing that happened in Cyprus? For those who haven’t heard, the short story is that the IMF has pushed for a “wealth tax” in Cyprus which would involve taking money directly out of the bank accounts of the people. That’s right, stealing in broad daylight with no apologies whatsoever. The IMF is saying that the people of Cyprus need to pay back the bankers who stole and lost their money. This was done with the threat of being kicked out of the Euro zone if they refuse.

So, what can you do about it? Can you put your money in stocks? What about investments like property or fancy cars? My opinion is that nothing is safe. If your money is out of your reach and stored in any type of financial institution it can be stolen. Before I go any further let me state what should be obvious to most of you.

Warning #1: Whatever you do with your money, you do at your own risk.

Now, that being said, where would you put your money if you can’t stick it in the bank? Well, first let me address why we put money into the banks in the first place. It used to be that our money was safe in the bank and for the privilege of letting banks hold on to our money and invest it we were paid back in interest. Over time, neither of these two reasons is valid anymore. You will not see any return on a traditional checking or saving account and as recent events like the MF Global scandal prove, your money can be taken and there is nothing you can do about it.

The Prepper’s Guide to Caches: How to Bury, Hide, and Stash Guns and Gear

I recommend you keep only enough money in the bank that you need to operate your daily finances, cover checks and your normal Debit Card purchases. Any savings should be “stored” somewhere else if you don’t want to be like the people of Cyprus who flocked to empty ATM machines and were faced with a bank holiday for 4 days. Just imagine going to your bank and they tell you that you are unable to get any of YOUR money out for 4 days. Where do you put this money? Great question and it will really depend on how much you have, where you live, how liquid you need it to be and your resources. All of this falls under the umbrella of how afraid you are that something like this could happen to you and your tolerance for risk.

Warning #2: Just because you hide money doesn’t mean someone else can’t find it.

There are a ton of options for hiding things and they are only limited to your creativity. If you are going to hide money, I would take extra precautions. Especially, if you plan on seeing this money again someday. For ideas, here are a few:

Secret compartment in everyday items:

There are a myriad of places and containers that can be made to look like normal everyday items. There is a Scribd.com post with plenty of photos and ideas. My personal favorite is the VHS tape hideout. I can see this holding a few hundred dollars if you play it right. Another idea I have heard of is to hide bills in the contents of old bank statements, junk mail for home refinance, etc. Anything that looks like junk will be overlooked most likely, but remember… You don’t want to throw this away when you are cleaning up one day.

In the walls of your home:

This approach takes a little more carpentry skills and will leave a bigger mark when you go to find your money. Do you hide it all in one spot? No, so there is more work involved in this approach and you want to make sure your handiwork isn’t easy to spot. If you have never dry walled, it may take a little practice.

Read More: Embrace Your Inner Pirate: 5 Important Considerations for your Survival Cache

In the attic:

Hands down the easiest place to store your money. Unfortunately, this is also a logical place to look. If you are going to hide your money up in the attic, spread it out so that if your stash is found, they might not find all of it.

In the basement:

If you have exposed ceiling joists, you can hide money between the insulation and the floor above. For a little extra level of difficulty, you should hide the money above plumbing or HVAC ducting to make it doubly hard to get to.

Buried in the yard:

I like this idea, but the nagging fear is that someone will see me digging a hole and go dig up my money in the middle of the night while I lie in bed. You can combine this with a garden or yard fixture project where you are out digging anyway to avoid suspicion. Or, break out the new pair of night vision goggles you have been dying to try, get up at 4 am and dig your hole in the pitch black night when you have no moon. Imagine you are breaking out of prison for extra motivation.

Hidden in a secret cache in a remote location:

I talked about using the game of Geocaching to teach you how to find hidden caches. You can also use this to find a good hiding spot somewhere near (but not too near) your home. Make the place you are hiding money very well hidden so that nobody will stumble across it accidentally. I would recommend midway up a hill because you never know when a flood will come and buried several feet underground.

Warning #3: Just because you hide your money doesn’t mean you will be able to get to it when you need it.

Again, use your best judgment with these ideas. Having your money safe from bankers does you no good if it gets washed away or found by hikers out exploring. Worse, if your house burns down and all of your cash is in the attic. Take appropriate precautions with everything but consider an alternate place to store your money. You may need it soon and not have the ability to go get it from your bank.

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What if you would experiment the same thing that happened in Cyprus? For those who haven’t heard, the short story is that the IMF has pushed for a “wealth tax”

The bottom just dropped out all of your warning triggers are telling you that it’s time to pack everyone into the family bug out mobile and leave town before it gets worse. Much worse. You thought ahead which is fortunate for you and your family. You have a vehicle adequately equipped for the journey to your bug out location with essential gear, plenty of fuel with extra in reserve and everyone in the family has their bug out bags stowed safely away. Nervously, you pull out of your driveway in the middle of night to avoid most of the trouble already brewing. This may possibly be the last time you see your home and just like every trip before, you have that nagging sensation you forgot something.

Many disasters that preppers think and plan for could require you to leave the safety of your home, possibly forever. In a situation like this, your well stocked bug out bags and any other gear and supplies you are able to load and carry could be the sum total of all your worldly possessions. Some disaster scenarios assume the worst, a complete destruction through various means that leaves the civilization as we know it destroyed beyond repair for years. In a complete disaster like that, we make assumptions that normal commerce as we know it would effectively be over so the subject of bartering after SHTF comes to mind.

In other scenarios, which some might argue are many times more likely, the world won’t just stop spinning overnight. Every store won’t be closed and you will be able to buy supplies with whatever monetary instruments you have on hand that are still worth a commonly understood value. For most of the world, certainly here in the US we look to cash as the main fallback, but some people are saving precious metals as well to hedge against a currency collapse where that cash you are stowing away is worthless.

Assuming that money in the common forms we are talking about here (cash, precious metals) is able to be used to our benefit during a bug out scenario, have you ever thought about how much you need to put into your bug out bag?

A reader asked me about this subject today and after he pointed out that I hadn’t really addresses the subject on my site, I decided to write an article.

Question from Sam:

I have one question, how much money or other valuables (gold, silver, etc.)do you have in your bug out bag to buy/trade or barter with? I have looked on many prepper sites and have not found an answer to this. Can you please give me some guidance or advice for me?

First, let me thank Sam for this great question and I would encourage anyone else who has questions, or comments about anything you have seen or not seen addressed on Final Prepper to please contact us.

Back to Sam’s question, so how much money do you have in your bug out bag? That part is simple. I have as much “money” as I can carry but I will break this down into specifics with my reasoning why below.

What are some reasons to have money in your bug out bag?

Why have any money in your bug out bag in the first place? Well, there are many good reasons I can think of. Imagine a scenario where the power is out, possibly for weeks. You wouldn’t be able to use ATM machines because they rely on power. Stores couldn’t run credit/debit card transactions without power because they all go through the internet now which relies on power. If the electricity is out, the way we commonly get access to our money or conduct electronic transactions is gone until the power comes back.

You could just drive to the bank and pull out as much as you need, right? Not necessarily. You only have to look to the people of Greece who still can’t get more than roughly $50 out of the bank each day. Would you want to have your cash reserves limited by what the banks could or would allow you to take out? No, I wouldn’t either and that is the main reason why I advocate keeping as much money as logical for you personally out of the banking system.

So having a supply of cash makes sense for the simple fact that you might not be able to get it when you need it most, but what could you possibly need cash for if you were a good prepper and have your fully stocked bug out bag and your BOV with a full tank of gas? I can see situations where a cash bribe might get you past security or could buy your temporary safety. There could be checkpoint guards who could be swayed to let you past if you empty out your wallet and having some cash could facilitate your escape. What about being able to purchase a ticket on a train, plane or some other means of transportation out of a country that is collapsing? It happened all of the time in Germany back before WWII. There isn’t any reason to think we in the US would be immune from needing to migrate ourselves if it got bad enough.

Cash might still be able to be used to purchase supplies if you were out ahead of the panic or were prevented from leaving. If you needed to purchase additional fuel along the route for example and you found a gas station that was only accepting cash, you would be in luck. I think the majority of people might not realize the effects of a currency collapse or revaluation of the dollar, but if you were on top of your gain, you could find someone still accepting cash that could for all intents be worthless.

How much money do you keep in your bug out bags?

I try to keep as much cash as possible where I can access it relatively quickly without needing to go to the ATM or bank. If I had to bug out I would be taking all of the cash I had with me. I don’t have tens of thousands of dollars or anything like that so weight isn’t really a consideration. Money in smaller denominations will probably be better to take with you on one hand because people might be less likely to make change. I don’t imagine anyone is going to worry about getting change for a dollar back but if you needed something that cost $5 and you only had a $100 bill that might hurt a little more. $20, $10 bills seem to make the most sense for regular day-to-day transactions where in a society like Greece, the stores are open but capital controls are keeping you from freely accessing your cash. You could use these small bills at stores to purchase food, pay for meals etc.

In a total collapse though, $100 bills might be needed or could be used more appropriately for extreme inflationary prices. If gas went to $100 a gallon, and you could find someone selling, that $100 bill could spend nicely. Flashing a $100 bill to buy your way through a checkpoint is instantly recognized and might get you through faster than a stack of $20s. I keep a mix of both, but the overwhelming majority is smaller bills ($20). I think if I had $1000 in my bug out bags that would cover me for most conceivable disasters so that is what I plan for.

I would not keep all of your money in whatever form together. I would store some in a shirt pocket maybe. Some in one pants pocket, some in the wallet, maybe more in a fake wallet, maybe a shoe or elsewhere. You don’t want to get robbed of all of your cash in one instant. Diversifying where you have your money could allow you to act like you are giving a bad guy or even a someone driving a hard bargain that you have given them all you have.

Should you take silver coins in your bug out bag?

Is silver and gold a good idea for your bug out bag?

But the other part of Sam’s question had to do with Gold and Silver. Do precious metals make sense for your bug out bag? I think they could, but the situation would need to be pretty unique I think. Some advocate buying 1/10 ounce gold coins because they are worth less than a standard 1 oz coin and they rationalize that one of the biggest complaints about having gold would be reduced. Most people would have a hard time bartering a 1 oz gold coin because they are worth about $1200 each today. Can you imagine trying to get some groceries and giving the person at the register a gold coin? Even if they knew what it was and the worth of it, do you think their manager would allow them to take the coin in the first place, much less give you the accurate change for your transaction? I don’t see that happening.

The 1/10 oz. gold coins are worth about $130 now so the change factor might be lessened, but you would still likely not be able to purchase anything at a traditional store with Gold. What about Silver? The benefit of silver is the value is much smaller. The lesser value makes this precious metal easier to purchase for preppers with limited funds and would seem to be easier to trade with because the change factor wouldn’t seem to be as prominent. You go buy $100 worth of groceries and give the person at the register 5 Silver coins. However, I still think you would have the same problem using these after the grid goes down, at least for a very long time.

Do I keep precious metals set aside for bugging out? Yes I do but I am not counting on using them in the short-term. I probably wouldn’t take more than 10 coins per person with me for the reasons I mention above and their weight.

I know that some will say that Gold and Silver always have value so their worth after a collapse would only go up. I disagree with that from the standpoint that anything you are talking about only has value if the person you are trying to conduct business with agrees with you on the value. A gold coin might be worth $10,000 after an economic collapse, but what good is it if you can’t get anyone to give you something worth $10,000 for it?

If you are talking about taking a box with all of your precious metals to another country and finding someone to give you fair market value, then that does make sense, but getting back to the Bug Out Bag scenario, I think precious metals have a low potential for usability in the days and months after some calamity and that is why I am not taking too many along with me.

That’s what I think anyway. How much money do you have in your bug out bag?

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The bottom just dropped out all of your warning triggers are telling you that it’s time to pack everyone into the family bug out mobile and leave town before it

As Preppers we take steps to plan for disasters that could force us out of the comfort and safety of our homes. These threats could range from regional weather incidents like Tornadoes, Earthquakes or Hurricanes to longer term disasters that might not be caused by Mother Nature. Even these relatively common regional weather events can cause massive damage in some places, but shelter and safety is usually within a short drive or walk from your home. To reach safety, it may be necessary to throw your Bug Out Bag into the car or on your back and get the hell out of dodge as quickly as possible before the roads are clogged or leaving is no longer possible. The hope is that you will be able to come back home as soon as the disaster has passed and conditions are safe for your return.

When you are preparing to Bug Out, there’s a lot of advice on various aspects of preparing like how to select the right bug out bag, or how to load your bug out bag. We can give you lists of supplies to actually pack in your bug out bag but in some cases, you simply won’t be able to carry everything you will ever need to in one pack.

The perfect bug out bag will give you basic supplies, food and shelter to live for at least 72 hours, hopefully longer without being so heavy that it will kill you. A bug out bag is designed to give you what you need to survive without the benefit of your home and all its supplies but it is only a short-term solution because it will be impossible to carry every single thing you would ever need for any potential scenario. What if the disaster is longer than 72 hours? What if you aren’t able to come back home ever again for some reason? What if the grid goes down and you can’t get to your money any more due to bank holidays, power outages or some currency crisis?

How can you protect your money?

There are a lot of things that we put in our bug out bag but a supply of money is one of those at the very top of the list when we start to consider what we might need in order to survive. I am not talking about lost in the woods survival here but surviving in a society that still operates in cash. Until we have some TEOTWAWKI event, money still has purchasing power so having some extra cash on hand is wise. You might not be able to access the money you have in the bank anymore like the people in Cyprus, so I recommend keeping a relatively large amount of cash hidden somewhere that nobody can find it outside of your bank. Having all of your money in the bank makes this a single point of failure so having a decent amount of cash on hand, as long as you take precautions could save your rear if the banks decide they can’t or don’t have to give it back. How much should you keep out of the bank? That’s up to you but I try to keep as much as possible outside those doors that can lock me out.

Zimbabwe Dollars ranging from 10 to 100 billion printed within a one year period. The magnitude of the currency scalars signifies the extent of the hyperinflation.

Maybe your money will still be accessible, but with inflation it simply won’t buy you anything at some point in the future. This isn’t without precedent as it has happened in the Weimar Republic after WWI and also in Zimbabwe. As a hedge against actions beyond our control; some people are storing precious metals for long-term protection against inflation. Holding physical gold and silver could be crucial to your family’s survival if the currency collapses so many preppers are acquiring silver and gold coins should the Dollar fail someday or the banks prevent you from accessing the money in your accounts.

While those beautiful shiny coins could save your life financially speaking if the fiat money you have ends up being worthless, they also have their disadvantages. When it comes to bugging out, you have to consider the weight. If you have been quietly purchasing precious metals for years in anticipation of an economic collapse, have you given thoughts to how you will take all of that with you?

There are a lot of options when it comes to precious metals. Some people like James Wesley Rawles advocate using pre-1965 US coins because of their silver content. Smaller denominations, in easy to understand measurements would be easier to barter with other individuals he reasons and I agree with that theory. Instead of spending my weekends sorting rolls of quarters from the bank though; I have settled on 1 ounce Silver coins as my precious metal of choice. I chose silver coins because they were more affordable than gold and I could see paying someone with a silver coin being much easier than chiseling off a piece of my gold coin. Gold coins because of their worth are easier to carry, but harder to make change for. I could carry one gold coin or 70 silver coins. When you are bugging out that weight will start to add up.

Let’s say it was the end of the world and you had to bug out with only the items in your bug out bag, your trusty AR15 or preferred end of the world firearm and all of the money you have. If you had one gold coin you could easily carry that around practically anywhere, but the problem comes in when you wanted to purchase something with it. You couldn’t go to a restaurant and pay for a meal with a fraction of your gold coin. You would want some smaller bills (coins) so to speak.

So, instead of gold you chose silver and now all of your silver is loaded in your bug out bag. Just 200 silver coins will weigh over 14 pounds. What if you had more silver? What if you had cashed in your 401K and have 1000 silver coins? That would be over 60 pounds and I don’t care who you are, adding that much weight to your bug out bag will hurt you sooner or later. Not to mention, if you lose your bag or someone steals it, all of your money is gone.

A bug out plan with Precious Metals

So what is a good prepper supposed to do? I still recommend having some precious metals because I don’t have faith the long term health of our monetary system. Does that mean I am right? You have to investigate that for yourself and make up your own mind. If you do plan to purchase some precious metals how can you plan to bug out on foot with all that coin?

You can’t.

What? Is that your great advice? Well, not exactly but you have to plan on this happening. I have some silver and this works for my me and my family, but I would not load it all into my Bug Out Bag. I also might not load it all in my vehicle if I was bugging out either. So what would I do?

I would bury it. Yes, I would bury my precious metals in containers I could dig up later. This poses a couple of problems too though. What if I can’t make it back to my buried treasure? What if I couldn’t find it after it was buried? These are the realities of storing all of your money outside of a central location but they can easily be mitigated. If I had a bug out location, I would bury some, probably most of my silver there. I probably wouldn’t bury much more than a handful of coins if any along the route. I would also bury a lot at my current location. If I was planning to bug out and had time I would dig it up and take it with me, but if the plan was to bug out on foot, I would only take a small amount with me in my BOB and leave the rest buried.

How much would I take? For a bug out scenario I would probably take 20 silver coins and several hundred dollars. All of this money would be divided into different hiding places and probably with different people. This way if one person gets robbed or lost you don’t lose all your money.

You may be asking what the point of buying silver is if it is going to be so hard to carry. You may be saying the same thing about bugging out. This article may be bringing up more problems than solutions but these are things to consider if you plan on bugging out. Having to bury your money in the ground isn’t ideal but neither is losing all of your money when the banks need a bail-in. Having to bug out isn’t ideal either and it helps to plan for how you are going to take your money with you or keep it safe until you can get back.

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As Preppers we take steps to plan for disasters that could force us out of the comfort and safety of our homes. These threats could range from regional weather incidents

Prepping is all about giving yourself a chance to survive. By preparing for disasters, you are proactively taking steps that give you higher odds of making it through or out of whatever circumstances you are faced with. If you have stored up emergency food, you will be less likely to go hungry if there are food shortages. If you have backup power, then you will not feel the same effects as your neighbors if the electricity goes out. These are actions you have to take in consideration of your family well in advance of bad times. FEMA or your local government doesn’t have your best interests at heart, only you do and the responsibility to be prepared for emergencies is yours.

We talk about Prepping or preparedness almost every day on Final Prepper and there are so many facets, so many needs we all have. There are no shortages of disasters that happen every day to prepare for and as preppers, we strive to act now so that we will have the advantage of tools, resources and skills needed for an emergency. We discuss storing water so that everyone in your family will have at least 1 gallon a day to last for some extended period of time. We talk about stocking your pantry with food that your family will eat should the grocery stores be out of food, or become unreachable because the roads are closed due to weather. We talk about all manner of preparing both from the standpoint of purchasing or setting aside supplies as well as becoming more self-sufficient so that you don’t rely on the stores for your food, the electric company for your power and even the police department for your safety.

Most of the topics of prepping are simple common sense (at least to me) and they usually fall into the buckets of having stored provisions for times of trouble and working towards backups when those stores run out. You have several months’ worth of food stored as well as a garden to supply additional food when the pantry is bare. The security aspect we discuss as preppers is different though. Security must be considered in some ways the same as food or water because without sustenance, you will die. Likewise, if you are defenseless you could fall prey to people who want to do you harm.

When it comes to security, I make no qualms about saying that I believe every responsible adult who is legally able should own a firearm. When it comes to firearms there is a whole world of different models to choose from, equipment that will augment these firearms and additional supplies you could purchase. It isn’t hard to start spending too much time, money and your focus on the latest gear or the proper outfit and instead of prepping we find ourselves falling into the Tacticool trap.

By tacticool, I mean that instead of focusing first on what you need for your families’ safety you focus on looking cool. I think some of this is simply part of being a man in that we want on some level to live out our Navy Seal fantasies while we are living our Homer Simpson reality. One simple example of this concept are these two hilarious videos below from Highjak86 who roast the tacticool crowd in a brilliant and funny way . These two videos illustrate the absurdity of some people’s focus on gear without any logic.

The first video is titled the “Most tactical AR15… Ever!!!”

The second video is titled the “Most Tactical Loadout….Ever!!!”

Is tactical gear necessary?

That is a great question and one that I have to ask myself anytime I want to purchase something new because none of this gear you see people running around in comes cheap. To answer the question though, it really depends on what you are preparing for and when it comes to self-defense what type of situation you foresee. Tactical gear intentionally mimics the gear soldiers wear into war. Actually, a lot of the suppliers to the military sell to the civilian market as well so you are able to purchase equipment that our soldiers actually use in conflicts.

Preppers see the usefulness in purchasing gear like this because over time the gear our soldiers wear has been tested. We know what works and what doesn’t and there aren’t many better options for their intended use. Now, the next question is what was it designed to be used for? That is simple. Tactical gear is designed to accompany a person into combat and carry the supplies you need to function as highly as possible so that you will have a better chance of coming out of combat alive.

Can you wear camouflage out hunting? Of course. Can you take a IFAK with you as part of your car survival kit? Absolutely. Would you ever take a bulletproof plate carrier with 6 AR magazines, 3 pistol magazines, a dump pouch, radio pouch and your IFAK to the grocery store? Probably not. Not unless you were picking up groceries during a Walking Dead zombie apocalypse.

What gear makes sense?

There is a lot of gear that the average prepper can purchase that makes total sense when you are purchasing it with the idea of possibly going into combat. By combat, I don’t mean you are part of the military, enlisted for 4 years and shipping out overseas for a tour of Afghanistan. Have you ever seen riots? Have you watched the news of ethnic cleansing in Africa? Have you seen the footage of people being shot in the street or having their heads chopped off for believing in the wrong religion?

Combat isn’t reserved in all cases for our armed forces and bloodshed and chaos can visit you on your street as history has proven time and time again. All things in moderation though, right?

I think that there are those who genuinely love gear and I fall into this camp sometimes. I think there are a lot of cases where purchases of tactical gear are perfectly valid and I’ll even cover some of my purchases and recommendations in upcoming articles so you can make your own decisions. There are some people who just love to buy things and when something catches your eye, you reach for your wallet. This is when the prepper can get into trouble.

When does it go too far?

Prepping needs to be viewed across a wide spectrum of needs spread out over your available resources. For me the most important things a prepper needs to worry about are additional food, water and shelter. This is what is the easiest to acquire and what is most likely you will need in the highest percentage of cases. You are probably a thousand times more likely to go through a natural disaster or even a relatively minor weather event that disrupts your town than you are to go through a civil war. You are more likely to lose power than to have the government collapse and your family is much more likely to need food than they are to need you standing in the front yard in all your tactical gear shooting zombies as the shuffle toward you.

Prepping should be a balance of priorities and your first priorities should be food, water and shelter. Security follows that, but before you go and spend $2500 on a high-tech sniper scope I would spend $2500 on long term emergency food. I am not saying don’t spend anything on security, but don’t become tacticool at the expense of feeding your family. Don’t look like Rambo if you don’t even know how to shoot that rifle. Don’t invest in a high-dollar night vision scope, if you can’t last the winter without heat.

There is nothing wrong with wanting gear as long as you are training with that gear and purchases are balanced with your other needs. Let your wife see you are thinking about her and the children by taking care of the needs they feel are important and think long and hard about your tactical purchases. I still think they have a place for those who can see a potential use, but judgment and moderation will make your choices wiser.

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Prepping is all about giving yourself a chance to survive. By preparing for disasters, you are proactively taking steps that give you higher odds of making it through or out

I have heard it stated somewhere “intent plus capability equals threat”. I believe it is an old formula used by people smarter than me when they are planning how to distribute defensive resources. I actually heard that phrase again recently while listening to the radio and it caused me to consider this formula as a basis for planning your response to different potential threats.

As a prepper, I believe it is vital to have a plan for security.  The world can be an ugly place in times of crisis and depending on the situation, once reasonable, kind and rational people can become killers. Even if they don’t become killers, you could face a threat from incredibly desperate people who while not wanting to hurt you would do anything to protect or provide for their own loved ones. It is times like this that you could have to depend on a firearm to save your life.

On Final Prepper I advocate that everyone become prepared to handle the disruptions in life that we see every day on the news. There are earthquakes that disrupt entire communities, hurricanes that destroy the homes of thousands, tsunamis that impact entire regions, nuclear meltdowns that threaten everyone, virus outbreaks that are flown around the globe, chemical spills that poison the water and on and on. These are normal events that happen in our lives. These aren’t crazy conspiracy theories, they are real and my mission has been to wake people up to the potential for events like this coming to your town. Because if you take some simple steps now you can begin to prepare for these “disruptions” in your life. With planning you can become more self-reliant in the face of disaster.

There are some threats though that can’t be avoided by having a good food storage plan. There are some troubles you could face that aren’t washed away with gallons of stored water. Sometimes, you can’t plan for all contingencies or you may be faced with something you haven’t considered before. I believe that there are levels that we need to prepare for and obviously how affected we are by the disasters makes all the difference in the world. It doesn’t matter initially if your town experienced an earthquake if your home, neighborhood and family are fine. If the stores down the street are still working as normal, your preps aren’t going to be needed as much as in other situations. Like I said last week, everything depends on the disaster.

But as I frequently do, lets take a hypothetical disaster for the purposes of discussion. We have used the threat of EMP too much lately so I will use something like an Ebola pandemic. The scenario is an Ebola pandemic has ravaged the country and decimated 50% of the population. Everyone has been ordered into their homes for over two months now and you are still holding out. Your supplies have dwindled but your family is healthy and you can last a few more months. The power is intermittent due to personnel shortages, many have died, so you do face some days without power. The water is still on, but rumors are spreading that it isn’t safe to drink.

OK, so that is our hypothetical and during an event like that I could easily see many situations where your security could be threatened. I say all of this as an introduction to a question a reader sent me a couple of weeks back.

A reader of Final Prepper; Jeremy sent me the following:

In reading the book Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected (One I would recommend HIGHLY as a preparation for the realities of everyday life, let alone for what people very well could and would be like following a major disaster/period of civil decay) the author is speaking about determining our capacity for dealing with violence and, in turn, inflicting violence on others to protect ourselves/the ones we love. He speaks of determining, ahead of time, your capability vs. your capacity. The example he uses is that of a person coming at you with a butcher’s knife. They have the intent, means and opportunity to kill you. You have nowhere to retreat, but are armed. This is a shoot/no shoot scenario. The question is do you shoot? Are you OK with shooting the person and killing them?

I have not read this book but the question he posed was interesting. Judging by the question so far, it seems pretty simple doesn’t it? It may not be that cut and dry for everyone, but I would like to think I would be able to pull the trigger to defend my life or the lives of people I love. The person coming at me would be a threat because they would be walking towards me (intent) and they would be holding a butcher knife (capacity) regardless of the specifics of castle doctrine or duty to retreat (he says you have nowhere to retreat) I would feel justified in shooting the person who I viewed in this example as a threat to my life.

But I am no lawyer. I have also never shot and killed anyone so take what I say I would do with a grain of salt.

Then he says the following –

“Now change an element. The Threat is twelve years old. Do you still shoot? Kill? Are you okay with that? If the Threat were six years old? Four? A woman? A pregnant woman? A mentally disabled person who can’t realize what they are doing? Your own spouse? Your own child? What if the Threat’s toddler children are watching? What if cameras are rolling? The threat is the same—even a four-year-old with a big knife can kill and there are no degrees of dead. Do you feel the same about all of those scenarios? I don’t. Even knowing full well how dangerous a knife is and how many people die from overconfidence I would have a hard time shooting a child. I might feel differently about the other scenarios but would act the same—I would just feel worse about it later. Think about this. Explore it. Listen to your gut feelings before you try to logic it out. When you do try to logic it out, pay special attention to when you are rationalizing—when your logic is serving not to make the best decision but to justify the decision that your gut wants.”

 Miller, Rory (2011-04-01). Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected (Kindle Locations 339-352). YMAA Publication Center. Kindle Edition.

Now, that is an interesting turn of events or elements as the writer states. Have you thought about what you would do? Would you be willing to shoot someone? If the answer is yes to that question I think the writer’s larger point may be that you probably have a vision of who this hypothetical bad guy is. I know I did. In my mind the threat was a menacing looking man in my home and my children and wife were behind me. I can see the knife in his hand right now and can feel my firearm in mine. I don’t have much hesitation when the question becomes do you shoot. In my mind that is.

But, the author does give us a challenge and the first is to change the element to a child. Being the father of children I have to give this one a little extra consideration. Then he says “what if the child is four”. I know I could disarm a four-year old. I could disarm a 6 or 12-year-old while we are at it so I don’t think I would view a child, under some reasonable age as a threat if they were holding a big knife. Is there a chance I would be cut, most likely if I didn’t do something right, but I still wouldn’t shoot someone who I feel I could overpower. In this case I discount that one aspect of the hypothetical, but the overall message is still one that is compelling to consider.

What if the bad guy isn’t your imaginary bad guy?

What if this person were your neighbor who was retired and had always been the best neighbor in the world to you? What if this was his wife? What if it was another neighbor’s child? In this case, not 4 or 6 but 18? Would you shoot him or her? What if it was a pregnant woman? What if it was someone you worked with who knew about your preps because you didn’t practice good OPSEC and had come to your home because her husband was sick and starving to death? What if she was holding a gun and her daughter was right beside her? Would you shoot first or let her shoot you?

I know most of the arguments for charity and setting aside food to give away and all of the rational approaches to dealing with family members before SHTF. I don’t have the answers to all my hypothetical scenarios, but I do think the exercise of thinking about this ahead of time is valid. It may be that none of us can even think about what we would do in a situation like that. Honestly I don’t know what I would do and I can’t even tell you how I would deal with that scenario. Maybe I would freeze?

We deal with topics of security all the time and there are simple baselines I believe in like having the ability, the training and the resolve to defend your home. Admittedly this defense is always from my imaginary bad guy, but reality always gets a vote. Thinking about these unthinkable scenarios could give you some ideas with respect to how you are prepping. If nothing else, it might change how you view security and what you are willing to do.

Have you thought about this before? Would you be willing to shoot?

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I have heard it stated somewhere “intent plus capability equals threat”. I believe it is an old formula used by people smarter than me when they are planning how to

According to Wikipedia, Normalcy bias is a mental state people enter when facing a disaster. It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster and its possible effects. This may result in situations where people fail to adequately prepare for a disaster, and on a larger scale, the failure of governments to include the populace in its disaster preparations.

I had heard this term myself for what seems like years, being used to describe what we have all seen, dozens if not hundreds of times in the media, whenever some disaster struck. Images of people acting completely shocked that something horrible happened even with a fair amount of advance warning. I don’t mean something unexpected like a tragic shooting incident; I mean threats that were publicly discussed. It wouldn’t matter how many days the news of the impending hurricane was incessantly broadcast on all forms of media; once it reached land and caused it’s predictable havoc, shell-shocked looking individuals would always be filmed, sadly walking around in a daze – looking at the destruction around them, picking up a family photo lying in the wreckage and wondering why they were suddenly without power, food, water, shelter or protection. It is if they never thought for a second that everything they were being warned about could happen. It always strikes me as sad that these people are living through a real tragedy but at the same time I wonder why they didn’t do anything. Normalcy bias was the answer to that question.

As preppers we need to fight against this normalcy bias ourselves and I believe that for many practicing preppers we are doing just that. We are preparing for disaster whatever form it may come in. We do not underestimate threats out there. If anything we are more in-tune with them. We don’t look at normal events that cause destruction and say ‘that would never happen to me’, and we don’t downplay the severity of any crisis. We prepare for the worst case scenario even though we hope for the best.

A reader of the Final Prepper commented on a post a while back and posed the question: Do preppers have our own normalcy bias? It was a compelling concept and this got me to thinking. Maybe we do have our own mental state that we get into when facing a disaster that could, contrary to all of our collective thoughts on preparation, leave us more vulnerable than we think we are. Could we be missing something in our preparations that could leave us at greater risk in a disaster? Could being a prepper in some cases actually worsen the effects realized, simply because we are already thinking ahead and have made some preparations to help our family? It was an interesting thought.

Overestimating Disaster

It seems counter intuitive at first doesn’t it? How can being overly prepared for a disaster work against you? Wouldn’t having food stocked up enable you to eat longer, stay healthier and as a result, come out in better shape than someone who didn’t prepare? Wouldn’t your water storage make life so much more possible than for someone who didn’t have any stored up? How can having the basics needed to sustain life put you in danger more so than someone who has nothing?

I think it could work against us in a few ways. First, we could be seeing the worst in situations. I have been prepping for over 8 years now and I swear the feeling that something big is “just around the corner” has pretty much stayed with me the entire time. As soon as I “woke up” to the threats I saw around me I have been on guard and have placed myself in a mini race to the end. Like a lot of you I have been preparing as much as possible with the resources I have and getting ready for SHTF has been a daily thought, regardless of where I have been and what has happened in my life.

Try not to let what you think you know blind you to reality.

Has this caused me to miss out on some of the joys of life? Have I been too consumed to the point of ruining relationships with my spouse or family? I don’t think so, but that could happen if we aren’t focusing on what is important and listening. Wisdom is one of the many things I pray for and it works in all aspects of my life. I truly believe in my soul that my responsibility as a father and husband is to take proactive steps to protect my family but if I do so in a way that pushes them away from me I have failed.

It is easy to become consumed in preparing and I would say that sometimes that is perfectly fine –  even required, but you have to stick your head up out of the foxhole fairly often to make sure the reason you are prepping doesn’t hate you. Your family or the people you are prepping for are the most important thing. Don’t let your prepping alienate them or you might be left at the end of the world alone with your beans holding that family photo.

Your disaster is a forgone conclusion

I am guilty of thinking on more days than not, that our world is headed for a crash. I don’t know what that is, but my motivation isn’t for a hurricane or tornado even though a hurricane, winter storm or loss of a job is many times more likely than an economic collapse or the abuses of a tyrannical government. It is with these thoughts again in the back of my mind that I prepare, but I don’t believe that we are powerless to do anything and I am doomed.

I prepare because I want to live. I want my family to live – to survive and thrive so I will not be disappointed if nothing bad happens. Too many preppers get into this lifestyle because of an event like Y2K or the Mayan calendar, Global warming or the Yellowstone volcano. The danger of using these as motivators to start prepping is the let down or fatigue that can set in if nothing happens. How many of you know people who sold all their prepping supplies after Y2K came and it wasn’t the end of the world as we know it?

If the economy never tanks, if no winter storm ever happens that wipes out our power for weeks, I am not going to feel bad. I won’t throw away my preparations because they aren’t only intended for a specific event. They are for any event and it doesn’t matter to me if we never face disaster. Actually, I would prefer that. I think as preppers we should focus more on if something happens instead of when something we think will happen. Stepping back just that small amount will give you breathing room and perspective. Rather than throwing everyone in the bug out vehicle and heading off into the woods at the first sign of trouble, you can analyze what is happening and clearly consider the options you have. Instead of selling every piece of food or gear you purchased because some ancient tribe of people didn’t accurately predict the end of the world, relax with the knowledge that whatever happens, you will be able to better look after your family. We should be diligent in watching for threats, not disappointed if they don’t happen.

I know the predictable effects of any disaster

We have a lot of common themes we talk about when we are prepping like food shortages, power outages, rioting and widespread diseases. All of these things can definitely happen but don’t let what you think will happen blind you to reality. One area I think we might be overlooking is our neighbors when the grid goes down. Yes, I imagine that I have thought about prepping and maybe stored up more food and supplies than my neighbor, but I don’t know that. I believe that with a few exceptions, we are better situated to handle the medium duration effects of anything horrible, but I don’t want those thoughts to cloud my judgment if something does in fact happen. We think usually of hungry survivors clawing at our doors because we are the only ones with food. You don’t know that will happen.

I can easily anticipate the possible bad effects of a disaster and I don’t have any illusions that during that same disaster everything will be sunny and rosy, but we shouldn’t default to thinking the worst of people in every situation. None of us will be able to go it alone. There will always be people who are good people and some may need your help. Rather than thinking the first thing they will be doing is kicking down your door while you are imagining how you might have to shoot them; think about how you can help someone. It could be that your neighbor, even if they have zero supplies and no skills could be an extremely valuable asset. Use that wisdom I think we should all be asking for. Don’t assume you know what every situation will be. Rather than expecting the zombie horde at your doors, you might just find your own survival group. Sure, they won’t be bringing all of their own resources, but they could be a great advantage to your family.

Would you kick someone with medical skills to the curb simply because they had no food and couldn’t even spell garden? By that same token, what if your neighbor only brought his shared desire to protect his family and home? Conventional wisdom says we should show him the door because we don’t have enough for him but is that really smart in the long run? Another reader on our blog said that when it comes to looking at people for a possible survival group, they are “looking for the mindset more than the inventory”. I think that is very profound.

Instead of thinking of everyone who isn’t prepared as a threat, maybe we should be looking for partners. Any disaster is going to be different than you can plan or expect so I am trying to think of prepping in a different way. I want to make sure my normalcy bias on what could happen doesn’t put me in more danger.

What are your thoughts? Do we have our own normalcy bias?

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According to Wikipedia, Normalcy bias is a mental state people enter when facing a disaster. It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster and its possible effects.

 

Practical Preparedness – Planning by Prevalence

When we jump on preparedness sites, sometimes we’re immediately struck by the enormous loads of things to buy, do, and learn. We immediately start hearing about WROL, battle rifles, ammo counts in the thousands, pressure canners, INCH/BOB bags and locations, pace count, and primitive skills. World- and nation-altering events such as nuclear war, internet-ending viruses, Nibiru, Agenda 21 and NWO, and the like pop up. They all have their places, but sometimes things get missed and it can make for a very overwhelming introduction. It can make it hard to prioritize where to spend our time and financial budgets even for those with experience and years of exposure to the prepared mindset.

To make it a little easier to prioritize, we can work in stages. We can look at what is most likely to occur in the near future and our lifetimes, and use that information to help us decide where to focus our time, efforts and resources.

Zone-Ring Systems

In permaculture, planning is based on zones. The basic premise is that you start at 0 or 1 with the self or home, and move outward through 2-4 and eventually into Zone 5. The inner rings have the most immediate contact with the resident, while the outer rings are visited less frequently. Other systems also use similar ring concepts of involvement, frequency and impact.

The same can be applied to preparedness, just like we modified a Health Wheel to fit our particular interests and needs. In this case, instead of looking at the frequency with which we’ll make contact with an area, we’ll be looking at the frequency with which things occur and impact our worlds.

Like permaculture, I’ve gone with five general categories. In this case, they are: Daily, Seasonal/Annual, 5-10 Year, Generational, & Lifetime/Eventually/Maybe. There are some examples for the average Western World resident. Later in the article there’s a few tips for planning for and around those most and least-prevalent scenarios.

Zone 1/First Ring – Daily Occurrences

A layoff can be just as devastating as a zombie invasion if you aren’t prepared.

Daily emergencies are those that strike somebody somewhere every single day in our English-reading modern life. While some affect larger groups, these tend to be personal or family related items. They’re the kinds of things the neighbors might not even notice. Some examples are:

  • Layoff, cut hours, cut wages
  • Major bills (roof, medical, HVAC, veterinary)
  • House fire
  • Major injury/developing disability
  • Theft, burglary, mugging
  • Vehicular accident & malfunction (temporarily removing transportation)
  • Temporary power outages (hours to 1-3 days)
  • Personal physical altercation (mugging, home invasion, the drunk at a bar, date rape)
  • Missing person(s), family death

When considering the financial aspects of preparedness, also consider the things that might not affect jobs, but do affect our income and-or our ability to offset daily costs. For instance, an injury that prevents gardening and picking up overtime or a second job as a stocker, pipe-fitter, or forklift driver, or a developing disability that renders an arm/hand weak or unusable and prevents needlepoint, canine grooming, or weaving.

Zone 2/Second Ring – Seasonal/Annual Occurrences

These are the things we can consult our Almanacs and insurance companies to consider. They regularly tend to affect a larger number of people. It might be a block or a street in some cases, parts of a town or county, or might impact a whole state if not a region. They’d be things like…

River ice jam flooding

 

  • Busted water mains
  • Boil/No-Boil water orders
  • Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes
  • Wind & thunderstorms
  • Wildfire
  • Significant or extreme snowfall
  • Summer drought
  • Temporary outages (2-5 days)
  • River ice lockups and floods
  • Active shooter or bomb threat, terrorist events

Let’s hope that last stays firmly in the “annual” category or shifts back to the third prevalence ring for most of us. Let’s also acknowledge that in some places and nations, it’s already more common to be caught in crossfire of some sort than it is to live peaceful lives, and for some of them, it’s as or almost as common as paying monthly bills or going out to eat.

Zone 3/Third Ring – 5-10 Year Occurrences

These are the things that happen regularly, but infrequently. Some occur on cycles. Some, as with the natural disasters above, are a nearly predictable cycle. Some aren’t really predictable, per se, but as with tornadoes in one of the nations’ tornado alley or hurricane-prone areas, you learn to expect them. We can expect them to affect a larger area or more people in many cases.

  • Natural Disasters from above
  • Mudslides
  • Major industrial or business closures/layoffs
  • Drought (personal & widespread impacts)
  • Widespread livestock illnesses (such as the avian diseases that pop up regularly)
  • Temporary outages (3-14 days)
  • Changing life phases (child-birth & toddlers, school-age kids, driving-age youths, empty nests, retirements)
  • Fuel cost cycles

Zone 4/Fourth Ring – Generational Occurrences

The span covered by the term “generation” tends to change if you use the strictest definitions. Most account for a generation to cover about 20-30 years. Some examples of things that very much tend to be generational include:

  • Major wars (mental & physical disabilities, income effects good & bad)
  • Recessions, depressions
  • Fuel cost cycles (more extreme)
  • Serious multi-year “weird” weather (droughts, floods, late or early springs)
  • 25- & 50-year flood levels
  • Some diseases

Zone 5/Fifth Ring – Lifetime/Eventual/Possible Occurrences

A lot of these are going to affect not just a region, not just one nation, but many. In some nations and regions, they may fall under the fourth ring of prevalence instead of the fifth. Some of these are also the big-fear “gotcha’s” or clickbait types that seem to draw folks in. Some are truly believed in, and I try not to judge people on what they believe. Poles have shifted in the past, Yellowstone has erupted, we’ve had serious solar effects on power, and asteroids have struck our earth. Will they happen again in our lifetime or eventually? Some almost certainly. Some are a firm “maybe”. Some are … possible.

  • Great Depression
  • Devastating Midwest seismic activity
  • National or global pandemics in the Western world
  • Major Ring of Fire activity
  • Significant volcanic eruptions (the atmosphere-blocking ash type)
  • Major global climate change (for the hotter or colder)
  • EMP, devastating solar activity
  • Nation-crippling electronic-based virus(es)

Alternative Scale Systems

Like permacuture’s zoning, the business world can also give us some scale systems to apply. High-probability, high-reward, urgent-response items are given priority, while lower-chance and less-likely risks are tended to later. We can create the same for our preparedness.

Another way to look at the five rings would be to apply a timespan for event duration. Perhaps 3-7 days, then 3-6 weeks, 3 months, 6-12 months, and 18-months+.

Like using prevalence, using time spans creates a measurable scale that works off a “most likely” basis. Most of us, at some point inside 1-5 years, will have some sort of financial upheaval or power outage that makes the supplies in the first few rings useful.

Ensuring we have everything we need to cook, clean, stay warm (or cool), and pay bills for those periods will keep us more balanced in our preparedness, and make us better prepared for the things that are MOST likely to occur in our near future and our lifetimes.

Applying Prevalence Rings

It’s inarguable that if you’re ready for the New World Order to freeze the planet and then send out FLIR drones to drop nuclear bombs in the midst of a planned or unplanned foreign-nation bank account hack while satellites are inaccessible due to solar storms’ interference, you’re pretty much good.

That’s not a particularly practical place to start and it might not be the best plan for resource allocation unless everything else really is covered.

There are a world’s worth of things that occur on a small-scale, inside homes and towns, that happen a lot more frequently than the dinosaurs and mega-mammals die out.

I see an awful lot of people hyped on one thing that can go wrong and might one day go wrong, but they exclude all kinds of things that do actually happen.

They forget that we sometimes have disasters that mean daily life is taking place all around us, or in the rest of the county, state, nation and world. They neglect fire extinguishers and smoke detectors for the sexy-cool aspects of preparedness like the rifles and Rambo knives.

Fact is, most of us will experience something from the first tier or two in our lives at least once, and for some of us, they’re regular parts of life.

In many cases of upheaval and crisis, we’re still going to want electricity, most likely.

We will still have a job or need to find a new one, will still be expected to present ourselves showered and with money to receive services, will still have doctor’s appointments, hunting and squatting in county-state-national parks will still be frowned on, and combat gear in the streets will still be the exception rather than the rule.

In some cases, the duration of our life-altering events might only be a few hours or days. However, in many parts of the world, those hours or days can be seriously inconvenient if not downright deadly. The ability to keep a CPAP machine running, repair a down or wrecked vehicle, and continue on with life after a squirrel invasion or a tree comes down is just as important as defending the home from looters and making beeswax candles.

Being able to repel the zombie horde does me little good if my vehicle is in poor repair on a daily basis and leaves me stranded on my way to work. 5K-10K rounds of ammo times my 7 platforms sounds nice, unless I don’t keep oil, coolant, jumper cables and fix-a-flat or a mini air compressor in my vehicle so I can limp my way home to them safely – on a daily basis.

Prioritizing instead of jumping willy-nilly – and tracking instead of continuing to add to whatever my favorite prep stash is – can help prevent daily disasters from truly causing upheaval.

Overlap Between Rings

The nice thing about seriously assessing what is likely to go wrong based on prevalence in the past is that we can sometimes make just little twitches.

We don’t have to be ready for all-out neighborhood wars over food, grazing rights, and tickets to the Earth Arks to create that overlap.

A bug-out bag serves as a shelter-in-place kit as well as a “standard” wildfire or hurricane evac kit. Having a month or two of food (or far more) means we can also weather a big bill because we can skip buying groceries.

Image: How’s your insurance coverage?

Preparing by Prevalence

Resources like the Ready.gov site and our insurance carriers can help us determine what goes wrong in our area. We might be well served making maps using the information they give us about regular, fifty-year and hundred-year floods, wind storms, and snow/hurricane routes to apply to our walk-out and drive-out plans.

We can also use their information – like, what is the number-one thing that causes job-loss or vehicle and home damage in our area – to make sure we’re buffered against it.

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  Practical Preparedness – Planning by Prevalence When we jump on preparedness sites, sometimes we’re immediately struck by the enormous loads of things to buy, do, and learn. We immediately start hearing

Although some are quick to write off  an air rifle as a weapon of choice, there are many advantages to carrying an air rifle versus a crossbow or center-fire rifle. There are a wide range of air rifle offerings that extend well beyond the traditional BB gun that you may have used as a kid to ward off crows or prairie dogs. They can be used for hunting, training for self-defense and for effective target practice.

Lewis and Clark carried them when they journeyed across the United States and brought them to the Native Americans. The caliber offerings range from a .177 to .50, and gun enthusiasts can choose from air-compressed, single-pump or multi-pump action. Choosing the right air rifle or pistol for your needs depends on the amount of firing power and use you require from a weapon.

Pistol Uses

Not all air pistols are recommended for self-defense. While certain varieties are ideal for hunting due to their lightweight and quiet nature, they are most useful to defend crops against birds and small animals, as well as for target practice. A lower pressure, small-caliber pellet or BB is ideal for a first time or young shooter. It allows them to become comfortable with reloading, cocking and shooting an air pistol so that it becomes seamless when they have harnessed enough experience to make the transition to a higher-powered gun.

Pellets vs. BBs

One of the great advantages of carrying an air rifle is its accompanying lightweight ammo, which is typically inexpensive. You can easily carry 2,000 rounds on your person and never notice any issue with it weighing you down. The ammo you choose is indicative of what kind of shooting you will be doing.

Smith & Wesson M&P Airgun

BBs are small, round balls that you can typically load large numbers at a time. They are best utilized for target practice and plinking, but are not ideal for causing physical harm or hunting. BBs have the risk of ricocheting off buildings or other objects and are not intended for long-range aim due to the size of the ball and its loss of velocity over long distances.

Pellets come in a large range of sizes and shapes and are designed for accuracy. Like firearm ammunition, there are varying nose shapes to correspond with your end goal of your shooting weapon. Using a heavier pellet in a lower powered air pistol will reduce the sound made by the weapon. One highlight of air pistols is that the ammunition is significantly lesser in cost than that of firearms, making it a more cost-effective option as a weapon.

Pre-Charged Pneumatic (PCP) Air Rifle

Benjamin BPBD3S Bulldog .357 PCP Hunting Rifle, Black

The highest powered option, the pre-charged pneumatic air gun, uses either a pump or an air compressor to “precharge” the pressure within the pistol. They tend to also be one of the higher priced air pistols on the market, ranging from $400 to $2,000. There are additional pieces of equipment that can be added to the these lightweight guns to add desired velocity and pack more punch with minimal recoil. Check out the Bulldog .357, designed specifically for hunting. One of its drawbacks is the tiny holes in which you load the pellets and the models that require a special external pump to fill the reservoir.

Break-Action Air Rifle

Gamo 611009154 Bull Whisper Extreme .177 Caliber Air Rifle

Break-actions are known for their ability to project ammo at a high velocity. This air rifle option uses a heavy-weighted spring that when cocked and released pushes a piston forward to create enough air pressure to expel the pellet. The spring produces a downfall noisy “thwang” sound that would not be advantageous for hunting. It also only holds one shot before having to reload. These guns are ideal for using as target practice before moving on to a fire rifle.

Variable Pump/Multi-Pump Air Rifle

Winchester Model 77XS Air Rifle

The variable pump/multi-pump air rifle is typically the most traditional firearm gun enthusiasts are used to thinking of when broached about the subject. This rifle, which is light in weight and compact in nature, is great to put into the hands of a first-time gun holder, as it has variable pressure levels and is intended for many uses. Reloading this gun takes a while, but provides great practice for beginning shooters. The gun, which typically runs between $75 and $100, will need to be pumped eight to 10 times after each shot to re-pressurize the reservoir. Due to its limitations, this type of gun is not favored for hunting due to the amount of movement and noise that occurs when reloading it. Instead, it’s best intended for getting rid of unwanted pests.

CO2-Operated Air Rifle

By vaporizing CO2 internally using small cartridges, CO2-operated air rifles can shoot pellets at about 600-700 feet per second. This makes this air pistol an ideal weapon for hunting small animals, such as gophers and rabbits. The rifle has a reservoir that can store enough gas to power a number of shots by only loading the projectile. In addition, CO2-operated air rifles are easy and fast to reload, with a lot less movement that a multi-pump or PCP rifle may need. And, carrying extra CO2 gas cylinders is not a setback for this rifle due to its compact and light design.

Air rifles are versatile, offering a number of ways to use them, from hunting to self-defense to target practice. They’re a great firearm shooters of all levels should have in their arsenals.

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Although some are quick to write off  an air rifle as a weapon of choice, there are many advantages to carrying an air rifle versus a crossbow or center-fire rifle.

Earthquakes happen virtually anywhere which reminds us that this natural disaster is a fact of life we could reasonably expect to see at some point in our lives. There are over 15,000 earthquakes on average each year worldwide. Granted, most of these earthquakes are on the smaller side rating under a 4.0 but nevertheless, there seems to be no place that is completely safe from the potential of an earthquake happening.

In the US alone deaths from earthquakes seem to be relatively low, but it is the aftermath that you have to worry about. You may make it out of your home or office only to find that once the earthquake is over, you have no place to live and all your belongings are buried. We will never be able to stop earthquakes although there have been great strides made at predicting them, but as Preppers our job is to make sure we live through them and survive after an earthquake.  The earthquake in Chile touched off landslides that blocked roads, knocked out power for thousands, damaged an airport and started fires that destroyed several businesses. Some homes made of adobe were destroyed in Arica (Chile), another city close to the quake’s offshore epicenter. Are you prepared to deal with the effects of an earthquake if it hit your home?

So with that in mind, I wanted to pull together this earthquake safety checklist which hopefully will point out any areas in your preps that you might need to work on. You can also find more information from FEMA’s Earthquake Safety Checklist downloadable as a PDF file and all the Earthquake information you can shake a stick at (no pun intended) on the USGS Earthquake hazard site.

How to prepare for an earthquake?

  • Know where you are at all times and how to get out of the building. This is more important if you are in a strange place like a hotel in another city.
  • Select a safe place in your home for everyone to wait out the earthquake if needed
  • Practice earthquake drills with your family
  • Keep flashlights and sturdy shoes available.
  • Bolt gas appliances to walls (water heater, oven, dryers)
  • Know how to shut off the gas in your house and have the proper tools on hand if you need to do this.
  • Keep emergency supplies/bug out bags in a safe location.
  • Have a plan for power outages before you are faced with one.

What should I do during an earthquake?

If you are indoors

  • Move to your safe place as quickly as possible; make sure your head is protected from falling debris.
  • Stay away from windows and glass.
  • Stay indoors until the shaking stops.
  • Use stairs instead of an elevator in case of structural damage or power outage.

If you are outside

  • Find a clear spot away from any buildings, power lines, trees or streetlights.
  • If you are in a vehicle (and notice the shaking in the first place) pull over to a clear spot and stop. Don’t pull under an overpass or anything that could fall and trap you.
  • If any power lines are down stay away even if the power appears off. Especially if there are power lines on vehicles, do not touch the vehicle.
  • If you are in the mountains or near cliffs watch out for rock-slides or unstable features. Landslides and avalanches can be triggered by earthquakes.

What do I do after an earthquake?

  • The initial shock-waves may only be the first of many that could still cause injuries. Expect aftershocks and use the time between instances to get to a safer place. If you are anywhere near the coast Tsunamis could occur so immediately seek higher ground.
  • Check your family or group for injuries and move injured people to a safe location.
  • Make sure you are wearing appropriate clothing, footwear and protection for your hands if there is a lot of debris.
  • Make sure any fires are extinguished as quickly as possible.
  • Check radios for extent of the damage and any emergency notifications.
  • You should already have stored water, but if not and the water is still working, it may make sense to fill your bathtubs (providing your house is safe) to use the water for hygiene if the water is cut off.
  • Stay away from power lines and out of damaged buildings as much as possible.
  • Contact your loved ones if possible and let them know you are OK.
  • Go to your prearranged rally point if you are able to do this.
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Earthquakes happen virtually anywhere which reminds us that this natural disaster is a fact of life we could reasonably expect to see at some point in our lives. There are

 

Security is a 24 hour requirement. If you can’t surveille, detect, and defend when the sun goes down, then you will vulnerable to the bad guys. It doesn’t matter how much food you have, if you can’t protect it, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to keep it, no matter where your location is. And, you can’t do it by yourself. There are cases made that it will take 10 to 12 adults to provide 24 hour security, gather, grow, and prepare food, tend to community hygiene and medicine, local and wide communications, power production, water sanitizing, gather fuel, and many other mundane chores necessary for continued operations after SHTF. During the early phase of SHTF, security will demand an intensive manpower effort. This article is about providing yourself with options for force. It’s just not a prudent plan to go directly to the AR-15 to solve your defense problems. A good defense plan includes options for dealing with problems at the lowest level of force up to deadly force. Redundant detection and warning are essential to a good defensive action plan.

Graduated Levels of Force

There should be a range of possibilities for security you can employ. You could take on the look of a previously ransacked position with a grey-man concept…there is nothing of any value here…it’s all gone…don’t bother even looking here. There is a lot of “hope” involved with this attitude, but may be your only defense if you are of few numbers. Or, you might employ a well thought out layered defense with graduated levels of force to be used to defend your position. This will require a formidable effort of manpower and equipment. You won’t be relying on hope to defend your group. Your position will be known and possible intruders will suspect that you have things of value they would want. You’re objective is to persuade them that it just isn’t worth the risk to get nosy.

Early Warning

At the extremes of your perimeters you could establish a warning line; a string holding paper signs in document protectors warning the intruders to “DO NOT COME CLOSER….DEADLY FORCE”. They have been warned. There very well may be legal consequences after society is reestablished, so proper levels of warning and force should be considered.

After intrusion detection, an announcement with a bullhorn from a security post could be the next level of warning. If necessary, a conversation with the intruder could be conducted from afar. Simultaneous with that, a warning would be made via walkie-talkie or whistle to the rest of the group for additional support. They would drop everything, arm themselves, and respond to their predetermined security support positions.

Pyle-Pro PMP30 Professional Megaphone/Bullhorn with Siren

Redundant Detection

Detection is a very important aspect of security. You can’t engage somebody you can’t detect. Detection should to be redundant and reliable to be effective. I have been using a Chamberlain CWA2000 Wireless Motion Alert System to detect motion with a range as far as a half mile, and they are passive in nature. One base unit can support eight sensors and everything works on battery power. Each sensor causes a unique alarm at the base unit. It’s a little pricey, however you don’t have to line you whole perimeter, just the areas of probable access. Intruders probably won’t choose to wade through obstacles. They’ll take the easiest route.

For redundancy I like GE window warning alarms used with trip wires to sound an ear-piercing alarm that can be heard from a distance. Use a mono-filament fishing line at ankle level as a trip wire to separate the magnet from the alarm. You can use several trip wires with each alarm. The batteries last a long time and a large supply is fairly cheap.

Escalating the Force

Back to the increasing levels of force; wasp and hornet spray killer can accurately spray up to 25 feet. Maybe that will turn them around when you hit them in their face. You might not want to allow the intruders to be that close to you. This is just an option under unique circumstances. If you allow them to be close, a 26 Inch-Self Defense Stick may offer a viable option in your inventory short of going lethal.

If the intruders are still coming, it’s time to escalate the force. Here are some options in order of use. A 12 ga. Super-Sock Bean Bag Impact Round. It’s an attention getter and can reach out and touch someone without permanent damage. For graduated levels of force, I would load a shotgun with one or two rounds of these first, followed by some #7 bird-shot, followed by 00 buck shot. Yes, you need a magazine extension kit for your shotguns.

Are the intruders still around after the bean bags? How about a BB gun, followed by pellet gun, followed by a .22, followed by #7 bird-shot? These are escalations of force options as appropriate. You just can’t go straight to the AR-15 to solve your problem. Your threats maybe anything from an unarmed mother with two kids to a mob of 25 armed animals. You need to be able to respond accordingly.

Security at Night?

Mr Beams MB393 300-Lumen Weatherproof Wireless Battery Powered LED Ultra Bright Spotlight with Motion Sensor, Brown, 3-Pack

Night operations are much more complicated and sometimes expensive, but if you can’t provide security 24 hours a day, then you don’t have security. It’s a must. Bad guys are hungry at night as much as in the day.

I can’t afford generation 3, Night Vision Goggles for three security posts for night ops. That would be $10,000 plus. So, here’s what I’ve got lined up. In addition to the motion sensors and trip-wired window alarms, I’ll use Mr Beams MB393 300-Lumen Weatherproof Wireless Battery Powered LED Ultra Bright Spotlight with Motion Sensor. They are easily mounted to trees, eaves, posts, etc. The four D cell batteries will last six months to a year. I’ll locate these on avenues of approach and areas that are hard to detect intruders. The best place for these is as the next layer after the motion sensors and window alarms. After that line I think a light that the security position can remotely turn on like: Mr. Beams MB371 Remote Controlled Battery-Powered Motion-Sensing LED Outdoor Security Spotlight.

Each weapon needs to be able to light up the intruder. I like the u-Box 2000LM C8 CREE XM-L T6 LED 5-Mod Flashlight Torch Lamp with Remote Switch Pressure Tail Switch Wire Extended Switch and Flashlight & Laser mount for Gun/Rifle/Shotgun plus 1x 18650 Rechargeable Batteries and AC Charger Complete Set. Yes, it’ll give your position away, but it is more important to detect the bad guys than flounder around and bump into them. This is a 2,000 lumen light. It’s bright and can blind and disorient the intruders.

Got more money? I’ve looked at these for increasing my night capabilities:

Equinox Z Digital
Bushnell Equinox Z Digital Night Vision Monocular $276.77

12X X-Sight
ATN DGWSXS312A 3-12X X-Sight Night Vision Rifle $449.99

 

As I said previously, your main goal is to just make the intruders think there is just nothing in your position that is worth dying for.

Sometimes you might be able to get more bang for your buck with something that might cause the intruder caution or reconsideration. I like this UniquExceptional UDC4 silver Fake Security Camera with 30 Illuminating LEDs. For $9.36 each this fake camera shows infrared capabilities which could cause intruders to take a second thought on their safety.

Maybe just sticking some utility easement flags at various locations would cause concern with the intruders. It’ll make them wonder what they are for and do I want to take a chance finding out.

During SHTF there will be a lot of good people doing bad things. Have options for a full range of force levels and detection that has backup in all conditions, day or night.

If you can’t protect it, you won’t be able to keep it.

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  Security is a 24 hour requirement. If you can’t surveille, detect, and defend when the sun goes down, then you will vulnerable to the bad guys. It doesn’t matter how