Practical Preparedness
without breaking the bank
Source: Alt-Market
A Primer For American Patriots And Preppers Facing An Uncertain Future
By Brandon Smith
This article contains excerpts from Alt-Market’s survival newsletter – The Wild Bunch Dispatch
The average patriot (or prepper) is usually a middle class conservative or libertarian with a tendency towards independent thinking and some experience with economic struggle in their past. Most of us have made something of ourselves from very little, or, we had parents that made something of themselves from very little and we watched as children while they climbed their way up the ladder through hard work and merit.
Our philosphy is based on experience and a willingness to look beyond the veil. Most of the western public is bombarded with endless messaging about how stable and safe and “prosperous” our society is. We are constantly slapped in the face with propaganda telling us that patriots are not only crazy, but also dangerous. We are the bumbling bad guys in every film and TV show. We’re the “extremists” that refuse to accept that the system works, and if we would just stop trying to be independent from the system, we will find safety and happiness.
We are told a lot of things that aren’t true, and this is really the first thing that sets the preparedness culture apart from everyone else – A healthy sense of skepticism when it comes to establishment claims and mainstream assumptions. We will NOT be sitting idle listening to the band play while the Titanic sinks. We understand, however, that there’s a considerable number of people out there that are content to do so…
There are numerous and unique motivations for people who delve into the patriot life and I think there’s a perception that it requires some kind of abnormal shift in routine or a complete upending of one’s existence. If you become a patriot or prepper you have to live in a compound and wear army garb everyday and be suspicious of everyone. It’s really a very simple addition to the daily grind, a hobby more than anything else. No one is joining a cult; all we are doing is seeking self sufficiency wherever possible and taking a second look at the claims made by people in power.
Which behavior is more bizarre? Being prepared and aware? Or, being willfully ignorant and constantly vulnerable?
It’s also about realism, not pessimism. It’s not about living under a cloud of constant doom, only accepting that there are extreme problems in the world that may require extreme solutions. All I can say is, as I balance the good with the bad I find that I still remain an optimist. I believe free people have a chance to turn the tide and dismantle the cabal of influence that has created the instabilities we now face.
But, to do this requires something beyond a vague understanding of freedom and a will to live. To change the path of our civilization requires a significant level of dedication to something greater. We need a personal foundation, a mantra, a philosophy that adds structure to our efforts. In other words, preparedness is not only about you. Survival is not the end game. Preparedness is just a means to an end, which is why patriotism is also essential – We prepare so that we can fight for a better future, a future some of us may not live to enjoy.
To this point, I will list what I believe are the top most important ideals for the modern patriot/prepper. These are the rules that I plan to follow in the chaotic world going forward, and I think that if a majority of those dedicated to liberty do the same we may just make it through the pyre with the majority of our humanity intact.
Rule 1: Prepare For Others, Not Just Yourself
In the midst of crisis there will come a time when you will have to help other people. You may not like other people, you may not trust other people, you might feel better crawling into a bunker and never dealing with another living soul until the breakdown has run its course. It doesn’t matter. If you have a conscience then you will be faced with the reality of need – Other people’s need.
Do they deserve what they get? Maybe some of them do, while others do not. Knowing which is which will be up to you. Having the means to aid the innocent is paramount. Trust me on this – You DO NOT want to find yourself in a situation where good people need your help and you are incapable because you failed to plan ahead. You do not want that weighing on your spirit.
Rule 2: Survival Alone Is Not Victory
If you are alive but the rest of the world is enslaved, then you have ultimately lost. “Winning” is not possible until the root enemy is erased from existence. If the oligarchy that sabotages us is able to use a collapse to gain power while avoiding consequences, then they have prevailed and no matter how well you think you can hide eventually they will find you too.
Do not think for a second that your life is worth more than the freedom of humanity as a whole. It’s not.
Rule 3: Fear Is Transitory, Regret Is Forever
Many people’s lives are ruled by fear. They are incessantly worried about what they could lose if they take action, if they deviate from the norm, if they upset the wrong people or rock the wrong boat. Human beings naturally seek acceptance and validation from their peers and from society. We want to belong to a tribe. We also want to remain comfortable and secure, avoiding struggle and conflict at all costs.
But there are worse things than struggle and pain and disapproval, such as regret. Knowing that we could have done something profound, yet we chose instead to sit on our ass and do nothing because standing up is scary. That kind of regret is a poison that eats most people alive, especially in old age when we are less physically able to intervene in the course of history.
Personally, I don’t really understand the fear of death, or the fear of confrontation or conflict, or the fear of facing adversity. I don’t get it. None of us is going to live forever, so we do what we can to make this life count. What I do fear, perhaps more than anything, is being useless when I’m called to make a difference. Do not let fear hold you back from what you know is right.
Rule 4: You Do Not Need To Become The Monster To Defeat The Monster
War is hell, that’s not in question. And make no mistake, we are in the middle of a war right now. But, ask yourself what you are fighting for in the first place. Is it a set of principles and beliefs, or is it simply to win no matter the cost?
On the other hand, there are also people with a tendency to use the “turn the other cheek” mantra to argue against taking any action in self defense. Sometimes they are afraid, sometimes they truly believe that principles must be held to the letter, even to the detriment of everything else.
It’s a razor thin line to walk between righteous non-violence and monstrous indifference. My position? When someone declares war on you, you fight back and put them down flat. Just make sure you don’t lose your soul in the process.
Rule 5: Be Invisible When You Must, Be Visible When You Must
Many preppers and patriots are obsessed with the concept of invisibility; the concept of the “Gray Man” and the tactic of blending in and going unnoticed. While this serves a purpose in some situations there are also advantages to being seen, to being visible.
There is an old story of a Roman General talking to a Roman Senator as they walk around the markets of the capitol. The Senator takes note that many of the slaves within Rome looked like regular citizens and lamented the fact that he could not tell them apart from everyone else. He suggested to the General that they force the slaves to wear armbands as identification.
The General spoke up, saying that the idea was a foolish one.
The Senator was shocked by the General’s opposition and asked why? The General explained – “The slave population is vast, but the slaves have no idea. As you say, they blend in with the citizens and the leadership. If we give them all armbands they will see how many of them there are. They will realize they greatly outnumber us and will be tempted to revolt. Better that they not know.”
There are times when visibility is more important that invisibility. There are times when invisibility is the path to defeat.
Rule 6: In Every Moment Of Chaos There Is A Moment Of Peace
Chaos is mostly a product of a mental reaction, a subconscious decision to panic instead of remaining calm and lucid. Chaos is created by people more than events; it’s how we process those events that makes them a disaster or a moment of triumph. That is to say, in every moment of chaos there is a moment of peace. The question is, can you restrain your impulse to panic and instead act with conscious and deliberate calm?
To be sure, preparedness has a lot to do with this. There is a common misconception about preppers that we are “always afraid and paranoid.” The reality is the opposite – We are rarely afraid or paranoid because we have trained ourselves to be ready for most dangers. The people that are afraid, the people who usually panic, are those that are unprepared.
Beyond this, though, is a deeper mindset that has embraced the inevitability of chaos. We know that the world is built upon a precarious house of cards and history shows us that this house of cards will inevitably fall. To assume otherwise is naive or insane.
Rule 7: What We Do Now Echos In Eternity
I can’t help but quote this piece of wisdom from Marcus Aurelius; I don’t think I could say it any better. Understand that the future is a summation of the actions we take today. Whether we are personally remembered or not is irrelevant; tomorrow is decided by what we do or don’t do. There is nothing that can stop this. We are the decision makers – Not the globalists, not governments, WE are the people who decide what the next era will look like.
There are moments in history, rare moments, when the confluence of events and crises rest at the point of a fulcrum. It is a nexus, a crossroads that will determine the course of civilization for centuries to come. There are people who will encounter this storm and do nothing more than sit back and drift along with the tides of fate. There are others who are battling for the chance to control the rudder of the ship, aiming humanity to either free shores or the depths of the abyss.
When all our lives are tallied in the great beyond we each may be faced with the terrible question: “What did you contribute?” As patriots and freedom fighters, I hope when that moment comes we will be able to say that we left nothing undone. That we conducted ourselves with honor. That we set the world right again.
Source: The Organic Prepper
10 Smart Ways to Prep Without Spending Money
by Daisy Luther
Are you convinced that you can’t prep without spending a whole lot of money? That couldn’t be further from the truth. There are all sorts of ways you can become better prepared without spending a dime.
The thing to remember is that there is a lot more to prepping than just feverishly filling mylar bags with food or stacking ammo to the ceiling. You need to think outside of the consumer mindset.
How to prep without spending a lot of money
Prepping on a dime is something I got good at by necessity. If you want to learn more, check out my paperback book How to Prep When You’re Broke. I know that it feels like prepping is a costly endeavor but there are so many things we can do and learn without spending money. You can’t necessarily buy your way out of a disaster or a collapse. Skills and mindset can be as important – if not more so – than physical goods.
Here are ten ideas to get your wheels turning.
#1) Fill containers with water
If you haven’t taken out the recycling yet this week, don’t! You can use those empty two-liter soda pop bottles and gallon water bottles to stock up on a drinking water supply. Count on a gallon a day per human and pet. (Two 2-liter bottles are approximately a gallon).
But don’t stop there. If you have other containers that shouldn’t be used for drinking water, you can fill them with water for other uses, like sanitation, flushing the toilet, and keeping clean.
Add to your supply each week, and soon you’ll have a month supply, quietly sitting there in your basement. Here’s an infographic to get you started on safely storing water. If you want to be more serious about your water supply, I have a book about it that you can get on Amazon.
#2) Do a drill
The absolute best way to know what you need during an emergency is to simulate a crisis. Get your family on board and spend a weekend without power and running water. Keep a list going for the entire weekend so that you can note what needs arose. (Leave the breakers on for the refrigerator and freezer – you don’t want to potentially have your food spoil.)
Can you make coffee and food? Can you keep warm in the winter and cool in the summer? Can you keep the kids entertained without the internet or phone service?
#3) Learn what edibles are wild in your area
Go to the library and grab a book on foraging. Then begin to explore your local area to find out what food grows wild there, formerly unbeknownst to you. Go on a nature walk and come home with goodies!
The fun doesn’t stop with just bringing the food home. Next, research how to best prepare the wild edibles you’ve acquired. You may find this at the library or you may be able to search for recipes online. Be sure to jot down in a notebook what you found and how you prepared it.
#4) Put together important information
Organize your essential papers and documents into a folder so that you can grab it quickly if you ever have to bug out. Include things like medical records, veterinary records, deeds, mortgage papers, insurance policies, social security numbers, and identification.
Don’t stop at just putting it in a folder. You should also scan these documents and save them in the cloud. Here is a preparedness based article on the topic and another article on whether or not this is a safe action.
#5) Prep for an evacuation
Now you need to pack a bug-out bag. If budget is a concern, use bags you already have along with supplies that you already have. The important thing is to have this stuff organized and be ready to go at a moment’s notice. Have a list of last minute items so that you know what you need. It’s better to think this through when you’re calm, not when the clock is ticking towards disaster.
You’ll want things like personal documents, extra medication, comfort items for children, and survival supplies that could get you through 3 days away from home. To take a look at the ultimate prepper’s bug out bag, look at this one from Graywolf Survival. Don’t forget sentimental items. They are truly the only things that could never be replaced.
Figure out where you’ll go. Is there a friend or family member in another area who would welcome you? Is there a pet-friendly hotel (if you have pets?) Where is the usual shelter in your area during natural disasters? Knowing all this ahead of time and mapping routes will help you to evacuate faster.
#6) Bookmark some websites
The internet is a wonderful place, and best of all, this knowledge can be found for FREE! The more you know about crisis situations, the more ready you will be to face them. Some sites are friendlier to beginners than others, so if you stumble upon a forum where people seem less than enthusiastic about helping people who are just starting out, don’t let it get you down. Move on and find a site that makes you feel comfortable. Following are some of my favorites, and the link will take you to a good starting point on these sites. In no particular order:
The Organic Prepper (obviously – and subscribe here for the daily newsletter)
#7) Learn a skill
A huge part of prepping is your skills. In a big enough disaster or one that lasts much longer than expected, there’s every possibility your supplies will be destroyed or run out. Knowing what to do then is vital to your survival.
Your public library and the internet are great resources. I learned to run a homestead with videos from YouTube. Seriously, there’s nothing you can’t learn to do if you have access to these things.
So think about a skill you’d like to acquire that doesn’t require expensive equipment. I already mentioned foraging but there are loads of other things to learn. A few suggestions:
sewing by hand
mending things
repairing things that are broken
building a shelter using found items
cooking over a campfire
trapping with a snare
research first aid and basic medical information
learn to upcycle the things you’d generally throw away into something useful
take free classes
You get the idea. Anything that is an old-fashioned skill would come in handy during a survival situation.
#8) Map out your local area
It’s a good idea to locate important resources in your area well before you need them. Here are a few reasons why:
You may plan to travel or may unexpectedly be required to travel to another location during a disaster, which may require you to use alternate routes. You can use maps to determine these routes for yourself rather than just following the crowd
You may want to determine the location of dangerous weather (tornados, hurricanes, winter storms, etc,) in relation to where you are
Determine the location of resources that you might want to travel to and alternate routes to get there (Part 4 will provide more information on this topic)
Determine locations and direction of travel of mobs, crowds, or potential enemy forces that you might hear about on the radio or TV
Locate military intelligence type information about potential or actual threats to your location that you might discover talking to fellow travelers (source)
There are many free maps available for download. You can find them with a quick internet search.
#9) Meet like-minded people
Now, when I say you should meet like-minded people, I’m not necessarily talking about preppers. There’s a broad array of folks that could be the makings of a fantastic survival community.
Get to know folks in your area who garden.
Meet your local farmers.
Make friends at the shooting range.
Members of local homesteading groups are already independent thinkers
Community watch members on social media
Attend free county extension office classes on canning, gardening, and food preservation
As I’ve written before, you are shortchanging yourself if you think only preppers will be likeminded. Here’s an article on finding a community.
#10) Get fit.
One thing preppers often overlook is the importance of their physical abilities. Even if you are disabled, there are things you can do to improve your fitness and stamina.
Search for exercises online that you can do whatever shape you are in or limitations you have. And, if you DO have disabilities, you need to figure out smart ways to work around your limitations. (Find more info for disabled preppers or those with a chronic illness here.)
The easiest way to start your journey to fitness is by lacing up your most comfortable and supportive shoes and going for a walk. You can begin to challenge yourself to lift and carry heavier things. You can stretch using an online yoga video. The big goal is to just get started. And, if you are carrying around too much weight, you may want to work on losing a few pounds to make things easier on your joints during a crisis situation. (If you are really serious about getting fit, here’s a great book on the topic, written just for preppers.)
You can prep without spending a fortune. You just need to be smart about it.
Don’t let your budget get you down.
Of course, we’d all love to be able to grab a five year supply of freeze-dried foods, load up on guns and ammo, and move to our fully-stocked bug-out retreats in our Hummers, but for most folks, that isn’t at all feasible. What IS feasible is focusing on the things we CAN do. (If you have a little bit of money to spend, check out this article on $1 preps.)
The most important ways to prep are to keep learning, keep organizing, and be alert. If you do those three things, even without spending a lot of money on supplies, you’ll be far, far ahead of the unprepared masses. Sometimes I think those of us who live with a very tight budget may just be better off when things go sideways because we already know how to sacrifice and get by on less.
Do you have any other ideas for free ways to prep? Are you prepping on a tight budget? Share your suggestions and ideas in the comments section.
About Daisy
Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, adventure-seeking, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites. 1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty; 2) The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived; and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. Her work is widely republished across alternative media and she has appeared in many interviews.
Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.
Source: The Organic Prepper
This Is Selco’s Favorite Survival Exercise.
by Selco
We all tend to pay much attention to acquiring stuff – physical things – in order to be more prepared, but we often fail to prepare ourselves more, physically and mentally. When working out a survival exercise, you need to be preparing for the things that are most likely in your regular, everyday life. Then expect that you’ll be under immense pressure.
Everything is different when you’re under pressure, but you can prepare yourself for this, too.
There are many ways how we can prepare ourselves more, simple and fun things like hiking or camping are great to test some of your skills and gear too. A popular myth is that we have to be physically prepared only through more “macho” activities like martial arts or shooting at the range and similar.
It is person-to-person based and sometimes we are limited by our own living conditions to practice some of the above activities. If you are living a day to day life in a big city with your family and kids, working a regular job, you find yourself very easily in a situation where all your prepping activities are based on watching YouTube videos or similar, maybe, and finding a way to implement that into your own settings.
You have to prep based on your everyday life and situations.
Actually, you need to prep based on your own situation, and if that means day to day job, big city, kids, public transport… you need to implement all those factors in your prep plan.
We have people living in cities that form their survival philosophy based on the idea that they gonna be surviving in the wilderness, or people preparing for the end of the world because they think asteroid will impact while they do not see that they are living actually next to the part of the city where organized crime rules.
If organized crime is very powerful now, they should conclude that it is going to be much stronger once when the SHTF.
We should all prep for the time where there are not enough resources for you and all the people around you. Because when that happens, violence will come.
Of course, you need to know how to start a fire or set up a shelter in the woods simply because you may find yourself in the woods and wilderness because you ran away from the city when SHTF.
But it makes sense to pay more attention to your immediate surroundings.
Try the “everyday life” survival exercise
It does not have to be all physical training either. Start it on an intellectual level.
Use one week of your ordinary life as the beginning of your setup.
Monitor and write down your daily activities every day of the week, and then throw in an everyday imaginary SHTF event. A very basic and simplified example may look like this:
Every day you drive to your job at 8:00 (or using public transport)
You are at a job from 9-5 (your kids are at school from 8-3)
You are driving back from work from 5 to 6
Now, imagine for the sake of that exercise that something big and bad happened:
while you are driving to your job (and while your kids are at the school)
while you are at work
while you are driving back from work or school
Now gradually throw in complications. For example, the usual road home is blocked, cell phones are not working, you do not have enough cash or fuel, or nobody accepts cards at the gas stations…
How much food or weapon or ammo should you have with you? What is an alternate way of communication with kids? Do you have pre-arranged meeting points with the kids if something bad happens? Have you built a cache somewhere?
The examples of possible complications are numerous and my point here is not to go and talk about all possible complications. I want you to take one ordinary day of your everyday life and imagine something bad happening in the middle of it. Then start a mental exercise of solving that situation.
An important thing here to mention is that please do not let this make you become paranoid, No matter how well you plan, you can not cover all possibilities and complications. Also, your plan cannot be too complicated, otherwise you’ll fail for sure.
Think about the basics: safety and security, being together with your family when something bad happens, and getting to a safe location.
Stop planning for far-fetched scenarios when you haven’t covered the likely ones.
The main point of this is: there is no sense in learning high-end skills if you do not have a setup to deal with an immediate SHTF that happened during an ordinary day.
Or to put it another way…
There is no sense to know how to start fire with a bow drill if you do not know an alternative and quick way to your home if something bad happens, if you don’t keep enough fuel on hand… and if rest of your family does not know what to do until you get home (or if you do not get home.)
SHTF situation often comes without warning and instructions.
Then add pressure.
I am a big fan of training under the pressure, and that does not necessarily mean that you have to deal only with a heavy backpack.
Now pressure and comfort zones are very important in order to understand how good or how bad your plan is.
In one of my last articles, I used a perfect example, and we saw again in the comments how easily people (preppers in this case) are getting “kicked” out of their comfort zones.
For some of them, the shock was so bad that they actually do not want to “play” anymore. They won’t read the words of a person who has been through difficult times because some of the words are uncomfortable.
The major thing about an SHTF situation is that you will be under pressure and out of your comfort zone during a lot of the time.
You need to get familiar with it.
Panic, confusion, misinformation, fear, and insecurity are all things that WILL happen to you, no matter what you think about it today.
Now without going into the psychology of how those things work, you need to recognize how you operate under those feelings and conditions, so that you may correct yourself today before the SHTF.
Here’s an example of the effects of pressure.
During my last live course, for one of the exercises, after a nice and calm discussion, the students were instructed to leave the house in a hurry and enter the vehicle with all of their gear. There were five of them and they had not used that car before.
The car is OK for four people, but definitely not for 5 of them with all their gear.
They managed to fit somehow. Then, during the driving, the instructor told them to – in 10-15 seconds – reach into their equipment and find important items like knives (weapons), maps (navigation), bandages (first aid) and similar.
The car was driven by the instructor fast and rough, on narrow roads with pretty heavy traffic. The heavy metal music inside the car was blasting very loud.
Most of them failed to find the requested items.
Some of them put important items deep inside their bags (bad organization of equipment – remember layers?). Others could not concentrate because of the unsafe driving (fear) or because of the very loud music (distraction). Some of them just feel very uncomfortable trying to perform the task.
These are examples only again, but it is a great idea to see how you and your equipment work under pressure when you’re distracted, and how well your equipment is organized.
And it would be even better to check all that in your immediate surroundings – where you live and work. Not somewhere far away in that cabin in the woods at your bug out location where all is peaceful. Because remember you need to reach it first.
The survival exercise may look very different for you.
I am not advocating that you sit in a car and drive fast and yell at your family in order to see how they react. Start slowly and see how you and your family or group perform under small amounts of pressure and just outside of your comfort zones.
For you, it may be practicing and testing your equipment and skills while you are without electrical power for 24 hours, or without running water or similar.
Start slowly and with the basic things in your everyday life before moving on to more elaborate scenarios.
What are your thoughts?
In what ways can you add some pressure to everyday scenarios? How can you prepare for the things that are most likely? What survival exercise do you do on a regular basis?
Let’s talk about it in the comments section.
About Selco:
Selco survived the Balkan war of the 90s in a city under siege, without electricity, running water, or food distribution. He is currently accepting students for his next physical course here.
In his online works, he gives an inside view of the reality of survival under the harshest conditions. He reviews what works and what doesn’t, tells you the hard lessons he learned, and shares how he prepares today.
He never stopped learning about survival and preparedness since the war. Regardless of what happens, chances are you will never experience extreme situations as Selco did. But you have the chance to learn from him and how he faced death for months.
Buy his PDF books here.
Buy his #1 New Release paperback, The Dark Secrets of Survival here.
Take advantage of a deep and profound insight into his knowledge by signing up for his online course SHTF Survival Boot Camp.
Learn the inside story of what it was really like when the SHTF with his online course One Year in Hell.
Real survival is not romantic or idealistic. It is brutal, hard and unfair. Let Selco take you into that world.
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