[goose3]

How many dollars have you spent on prepping and survivalism?

Include:

food preps (including mylar and O2 absorbers or other storage media)
water preps (including containers)
equipment (cooking, canning, mills, radios, lights, battery chargers, generators, etc.)
extra fuel and/or heating fuel
weapons
reloading equipment and components if bought for this purpose
first aid
consumables (TP, heirloom seeds, fertilizer, canning lids, batteries, etc.)
morale boosters (playing cards, games, music, coffee, whatever).
barter items
learning (books, classes taken, lessons, etc.)

and anything else you've spent money on for prepping/survivalism.



If you are willing, indicate in a post how long you've been prepping and how much money you've spent over that time.

 

[wilhelm]

Land, house, tools, equipment, supplies all add up to a good bit of money, but even if nothing happens, I need all that just to live.

This is my lifestyle, and I'm pretty frugal with my money so I can stretch $20,000 a long way. I moved out here from the big city 10 years ago, but already knew this area from growing up here.

 

[Wombat]

Lots of it was free. Even more of it was under a buck.

 

[hank2222]

It more than $800,000 dollars since i started doing the whole prepping

 

[OhioMan]

It more than $800,000 dollars since i started doing the whole prepping

WOW...you have got to do a picture thread :thumb:

 

[Rascals]

I cant really account for the money becasue I use alot of the stuff for my investments and hobbies. Also most of my preps are just things I have put away that I use but I dont need for 5 or 6 years. So its not really wasted its just buying when its at the best value. When someone complaines about Nikes going up to 140.00 a pair and I have the same thing I bought on sale 3 years ago and I still have 5 pairs left that I only payed 39.99 is that a waste or a cost savings. I belive its an investment in the future. I know Ill need them and I know price will go up. Or availability will go down or quality. So Yes I have invested alot into it but I also use the items all the time so its not wasted.

 

[357revolverfan]

Well over $20K Goose. I've been into this, fairly seriously, since about 1985, and it's only been the last 5 years that I've put any effort into tracking costs/expenses. Just over the course of those five years alone, I'm over $20K.

 

[freeak]

I guess you can say we have been doing it for ~ 2 months; it's really subjective though...

I bought my carbine in 2008 and counting the price of that since I recently bought toys for it finally with the intent of "prepping."

Before we started "prepping" or realizing that is what we were doing, we had already been stocking up (~30 days worth) on food and other items for various reasons. Once the 30 day supply is complete, then will move towards 6 months and then 1 year.

 

[Jerry D Young]

Not sure exactly how much I've spent, but I wouldn't take less than $50k for what I consider preps that I have. And then I'd just replace everything with the money.

 

[MaKettle]

I chose 'I don't know'.

I don't think I've bought ANYTHING specifically for shtf that I don't USE.

Everything I've gotten we either USE, HAVE USED, or PLAN to use. And the food stores etc I purchase only what I saved.

When I shop I use coupons and shop sales, grow our own etc The food budget has not changed. It's been $500 a month for many years. It used to be 'just this month' but I've gotten wiser and become more self sufficient so that same budget now also includes 'extra bonus' items to add to the resources on hand.

We bought the land and house because we needed a home. We chose this type of life with 'prep' being 1 factor but not the only factor.

We bought and built up the chickens to improve our current diet and planned it to include 'future events' as a part of responsible ownership.

We grow the gardens and orchard for current use to improve our diets, lives, etc. We make good use of our time and efforts by storing that for the future.

We keep appropriate outdoor equipment because we love the outdoors, for health, and educating for the future is a part of that. But again... not the ONLY factor. It's not just stuff we bought to store for the future.

We have bobs for current possible emergencies and add other things as we come across them for future possibilities.

So I can't really say how much has been spent on 'the future' because we use most of it now or didn't spend anything extra on it.

ETA: a large family on a single income. We don't have 'extra' money to spend. So I'm frugal by necessity. Although I would LOVE to have a big ole berkey water filter .... it's just not in the budget.

 

[Kansas Terri]

Nothing. Zippo. Nada.

The money that I save in the kitchen by having an oversized pantry just about covers the food, the kerosine heater and the dehydrator.

I am aware, however, that my lack of equipment is a very real weak point. Our only water filter is a one-man thing, I only have 40 pounds of grain (rice), and we have no real firepower.

On the good side it was free: on the down side it is wimpy. Still, it is a month's worth of food for a family of 4 (when you include everything in the pantry), and it was free. Money is always tight and free is lovely.

 

[BadgeBunny]

I'm one of those "I don't know" folks ... Like others, much of what we spend for preps is also what we spend for hobbies. We shoot and reload our own ammo, we garden, we cook, I like to sew and quilt, he likes to camp and hunt.

So ... I guess the answer is about $1000 a month (his "mad" money and my "mad" money). I have no idea what I spend on groceries ... depends on what I can catch on sale in any given month so some months it will be more and some it will be less ... but I do tend to buy in bulk (whatever it is). Last week I gathered up about 75 lbs. of spagetti 1 24-oz package at a time ... It was on sale 2 for $1 and 50 lbs. of hamburger meat ... It was on sale for $1.50/lb. But I hadn't spent any money for groceries for the month up to that point because we eat what we store.

 

[hank2222]

WOW...you have got to do a picture thread :thumb:

I have been doing it for now 1982 time frame so i have figure it had to be in the area of the amount i said

 

[Mountain]

Every dime we had and then some, but then our preps became our way of life. Boy what an awsome way of life it is.....:thumb:

 

[Smokeyr67]

Do we include food that we rotate?

 

[AZSrvr]

its hard to really give that a number because i think about how most things i buy would work in a survival situation. I liked my house because of how it was constructed, and my shop, and its proximity to a reservoir since we live in the desert. Also my BOV, BOBs, camping, hiking equipment, weapons, tools, etc. Id say over 200 grand probably if u count the house which i had to have to live in anyways

 

[goose3]

Well over $20K Goose. I've been into this, fairly seriously, since about 1985, and it's only been the last 5 years that I've put any effort into tracking costs/expenses. Just over the course of those five years alone, I'm over $20K.

Do you have any kind of a breakdown, in rough categories, of where that money has been spent?

Mine breaks down approximately like so:

Water, 2 percent
Food, 40 percent
Weapons 28 percent
Reloading Equipment 19 percent
Other Equipment 11 Percent

 

[spec ops]

I have been seriously prepping sense obamer got elected and I've spent anywhere from $3,000 to $6,000 on mostly firearms and my B.O.B.
I have just recently started my long term food preps, MRE's and canned foods.

 

[Jash]

Not much really. Everything I buy is stuff I'll use if the S never HTF. There's nothing I've bought that is SHTF specific (except my GHB/BOB which cost around $450), just more of the stuff I use everyday than most people have.

Some people have a weeks worth of food, I have a years worth. Some people keep 20 rolls of TP, I keep 300. I live in an ordinary house with an ordinary life. The only thing that makes me different from the sheeple is the knowledge and preparation that will make my life easier when TSHTF.