My recent post has had me thinking about prioritization for a few days. Aside from skills and luck what we need to survive is stuff. Skills are great but it is about impossible to win a gunfight without a gun and even the best mechanic can't fix much of anything without appropriate tools. It can be debated exactly how much stuff we need or what exact kind of stuff but there is a pretty general consensus on the need for some stuff. If you are anything like me the way you buy this stuff is by saving up for it. Sometimes you know that you are saving for X. Other times you don't really have anything in mind and you just stash cash until you build up a decent pile and then figure it out.
As noted before what we buy and how much of it we should get can be debated from many valid angles. Without delving into the exact deals of every supply you may need I think we can all agree that getting the right stuff in the right quantities is important. While there are few items that are downright useless for survival the real issue is that we are dealing with a finite amount of money. If you spend a thousand dollars on a fancy fly fishing rod you can not spend that same thousand dollars on a whole bunch of food, a few cans of gas, and a shotgun with some ammo or in any other more useful way. [Not to say you shouldn't want or can't have a nice fly fishing rod. We've all got hobbies and if you can afford it then by all means indulge yourself. I am just saying that your preparedness dollars could be better spent elsewhere.]
Anyway I am going to try and lay out a general set of guidelines for prioritizing future purchases and making smart choices with your limited resources. This might not answer the question of if you should buy wool blankets or shotgun shells or AA batteries next month. However hopefully it at least gives you some things to consider to getting toward the right path.
-First be a little human. Is there something that is really bothering you? Within reason (a retreat or a thousand dollar rifle is not what I am talking about, big purchases should be planned) if the lack of something is really worrying you then get it. Maybe your lack of canned meat is an issue or not having any stored gas is driving you nuts. Buying a case of SPAM or a couple 5 gallon cans of gas is darn cheap peace of mind. Peace of mind is what preparedness is all about. What causes these emotions in us is generally not logical so we can't let this rule our purchases but from time to time indulging this emotion is OK.
-Second be dispassionate. The list of lists available in
How To Survive The End Of The World As We Know It by Jim Rawles is a great place to start. That alone is worth the price of the book IMO. You might disagree with Rawles on many things and I am not saying you need to take this list as a bible but it is a really good place to start.
Going along with this you need to realize the areas you have a hard time being dispassionate about. We are after all human and we like stuff. Lots of us like guns and others like woodworking tools and others like fishing gear or motorcycles. We tend to indulge in the things we like out of proportion. Not saying I am perfect here, none of us are and I am probably a bit gun heavy. Just saying it is something to beware of.
-Third look at cost. If you spend two dollars on something you could get for one dollar that is a buck that can't go elsewhere. We do have to be specific and make sure we are talking about like items and comparing what we actually are looking for. For example the categories of "rifle" and "rifle that is capable of rapidly engaging multiple targets from 0-400 meters and is quickly reloaded" are pretty different.
Within a category costs should be considered. Lower costs will let you either put more resources elsewhere or pick up spares of the same item. I recently purchased a Cold Steel Voyager for about 50 bucks (can't remember). I could have chosen a 230 dollar
Benchmade switchblade which are really awesome. I totally want one. However for the price of that Benchmade I could get 4 Voyagers and a couple books or any varying combination of 1,2 or 3 knives and other stuff.
-Fourth is to focus on more probably scenarios and then move to less likely ones. These scenarios will guide your purchases. What would you need for a power outage or some sort of local civil unrest? Well a pistol and a shotgun with a couple hundred rounds of ammo each would be nice. At a minimum they are comforting to have around. You will also want enough food and water to just sit at home for a week or maybe two and a plan for heating and lighting would be nice. Some cash and a few other odds and ends would be nice. Maybe a couple cans of gas to fill up the vehicle so you can drive to Grandma's in a safe area.
What about a regional disaster like Katrina? Well I would want all of the above mentioned stuff to start. Throw in a rifle with plenty of ammo and make it enough food and water for at least a month. Instead of a wad of ones and a couple 20's I would want at least a few hundred bucks in cash. Having some plans for sanitation and such would be good. A solid first aid kit and some training would be advisable as going to the local ER or calling 911 might not be an option. Instead of gas to get to grandma's 100 miles away you might need to be able to travel 200-300 miles with a lot of stop and go to get to a place that is in the clear.
Of course for a pandemic all of that stuff would be good but you would want food and water for 90 days to 6 months. In addition to the good all around first aid kit you started out with I would stock up on lots of OTC cold meds and some other stuff.
-Fifth think of proportion. The goal is to have every area more or less proportionate to the others. Having three years worth of food and a dozen guns is fine and dandy but it is really hard to fit all that stuff in the family car you are living in when you get kicked out of your residence because you lost your job and had no emergency fund. Being able to shoot like a total killer is useless if you are in such disgusting shape that you have a heart attack when you hear a voice in the garage at 3am. I think you get the point.
You are only as good as your weakest link so don't have any weak links!
-Finally I would say that record keeping is important. Have you ever thought you had a lot of a particular item and then later found out you didn't? Have you ever all of a sudden found out that you have a whole bunch of something you didn't think you have much of? Both have happened to me. For big ticket items like guns or solar panels or gold coins it is pretty easy to keep track in our heads. However off the top of my head I can't tell you exactly how many Glock mags or tarps or machetes we have, I could probably get close but not dead on. With items that are stocked in large variety and quantity like food it is just not realistic to keep that stuff in your head. To navigate you need to know where you are and were you are going. Record keeping tells you where you are.
I think those 6 guidelines are at least worth thinking about. Thoughts?
-Merry Christmas
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