Don’t Break The Bank: 4 Ideas On How To Start Prepping On A Budget

*All information in this post is my opinion and gathered through my own research. Please do your own research before following any information in this post. This is for information purposes only. Also consult your doctor before taking any supplements*

**This post contains affiliate links. I receive a commission from any purchases that are made. This in no way changes the price for you. I am paid directly from the manufacturer.**

In today’s post I am going to give you a glimpse into my home and allow you to see how we try to be prepared for life’s circumstances while on a smaller budget.

If you read my about me page you would have seen that we have a family of five so lots of our resources go to everyday expenses, so that’s where the how to start prepping on a budget comes in.

In today’s post I will be taking you around our house to show you some things we have done to be prepared for the unexpected. I had a good friend tell me that if you don’t have at least two different ways to take care of a problem then you aren’t truly prepared.

I have tried to keep this advice in mind with all of my preps. This post is just an overview and I plan on going into more detail in future posts.

Let’s dive into How To Start Prepping On A Budget….

A little background first

I tell you all this stuff just to give you an idea of what our situation is like because yours may be vastly different from ours and could change the way you prepare.

Here are my 4 ideas of How To Start Prepping On A Budget………

We live in a smaller down home feel town. Our house is located in town but little out of town as well. It is a quiet neighborhood and we have really good neighbors. We have a retired couple right across from us, two police officers, and a judge right by us.

Don’t Break The Bank: 4 Ideas On How To Start Prepping on a budget

1. Liquid gold (aka water)

A consensus is that you can survive for about 72hrs without water. Of course this changes based on the individual and lifestyle habits. For this reason water is one of the most important things we need to prep for.

A general rule of thumb you should have 1 gallon of water per person per day. When you are coming up with your calculation don’t forget to add in any pets that you have that will require water.

A side note I wanted to mention that there are tons of different options for finding and storing water but in this article I am just going to be sharing what we have done at our house. I will go into more details about these options in a later post.

Our first line of defense is bottled water. I like to keep 10 to 12 cases of bottled water in our basement in case of emergencies. This is a cheap way to have immediate access to drinking water.

Like the story I shared in my about me page when we had a water line break these cases of water came in very handy. All we had to do is go downstairs and get the water we needed. We were also able to supply water to our neighbors.

Our second line of defense is potable water tablets. These are tablets that you can find in many stores and online that are used to treat water to make it potable. These are inexpensive and easy to use.

Because water is so important we also have a third option. For this we have a personal water filtration straw for each of us.

For these we went with the life straw brand. They are very convenient and can be used to drink any water that is not known to be potable or not.

2. Food

There are many options here as well. What we have chosen to do for our family is to buy several weeks worth of nonperishable groceries.

Basically all we have done is look at the things they we buy regularly and buy several weeks extra of these items.

This has worked out very well for us because this way we know we will use the food we buy. We just rotate the stock and replace it as we use it.

We also will buy in bulk when our local grocery store has sales. For our meat we buy it in bulk from a local butcher and store it in our deep freeze.

Like I said in the beginning of this article this is just a brief overview of what we do on a budget but I plan to have future post that go into detail about various options of storing food.

3. Heating/Cooling

For heating and cooling our main source is our natural gas powered furnace and central air unit. In the event of a power outage both are dead in the water…. For our first heating back up we have two natural gas vent less heaters.

One of our heaters is located on the wall in our finished basement. With just this one heater running we can keep our whole house at a comfortable temperature.

Our second vent less heater is a set of gas logs in the fireplace in our living room. This has been very nice because we can use these to enjoy in the winter and also to produce a lot of heat in the event of a power outage.

Our last back up for heating is a wood burning fireplace that we have in our basement. We have a wood pile in our back yard that we got from splitting wood at one of our neighbors property so all it cost was some sweat equity.

Cooling is a little more tricky for us. Thankfully part of our basement is underground so it stays pretty cool down there.

Other than that we have battery powered fans to help keep us cool. We also have options to go to families members houses that don’t live in the city in case it is needed.

4. Home Protection

Unfortunately during a crisis situation people can be led to do things that they wouldn’t do in a normal situation. I have seen this several times with different emergencies that have happened in our community.

People become very tense and if they see something you have and they need it they are more likely to try to take it if they can. I am the type of person that if I am able to help them I will definitely do what I can but there are situations that you need to keep and protect what you have.

Our first line of defense is to not flaunt what we have. This is kinda like not leaving your purse sitting in plain sight in your car while you run in to get something. Out of sight out of mind.

Our second line of defense is that we have alarms on all of our doors and windows. These are battery powered so they will work with or without the power on.

These are individual alarms that don’t ring into the police station but just alarm to let us know someone has entered the door or window. We also have installed dead bolts on all of our outside leading doors.

If they make it into our house I have several firearms depending on what is needed for the situation. I have hand guns, shotguns, and rifles.

Of course, I hope to never have to use any of these weapons in this manner but like our motto says “Not Scared Always Prepared”.

Another very good line of defense is know those that live around you. This way when things happen you already have a relationship built and are able to jump in and help each other.

In Conclusion

To wrap up this post I wanted to remind you that this is just a brief overview of some things that we have done at our house to be prepared for some of life’s circumstances.

I plan on writing many more posts that will go more in depth about all of these topics and more. Thanks for reading…….

Happy prepping,

About The Author

My name is Robert, and those who know me know that I like to research and always be prepared the best I can for whatever life brings my way. This website was born out of putting those two things together. I am married with 3 children: a dog, 2 hamsters, 3 fish, and a gecko.

There is plenty of adventures and fun situations that happen at my house. We live in a rural area and like to enjoy lots of time with our immediate and extended family. My primary job is in the medical field which can be an adventure of its own at times.

I desire this website to be a place where you can come and find products and information that will help you be prepared for whatever life throws at you.

Thanks For Reading,
Robert

**This post contains affiliate links. I receive a commission from any purchases that are made. This in no way changes the price for you. I am paid directly from the manufacturer.**