-Mark
While this is a simplistic video, she does bring up some good points.
One thing she doesn't bring up is the fact that damned near all the distribution centers for stores are located in or near bigger cities. Even if your rural area is safe from rioting or looting, the cities where these centers are located may not be and your supply chain may be cut off.
Stock up while you can. Even if shit doesn't play out the way we all fear it will, it's better to have and not need than to need and not have. If things don't turn bad, you'll be giving your budget a break after the beginning of the year.
Buy canned goods. Lots of canned goods. That includes canned meats as well as vegetables. Buy a few bucks worth of canned goods every time you shop. Consider going to your local off-brand canned foods store - here it's Save-a-Lot - where prices are about half of what you'll find at Walmart.
Stock up on rice and beans too. Matter of fact, remember what the stores couldn't get or keep in stock at the beginning of the coronavirus scare and stock up on that. Here it was baking supplies, TP, rice, beans, and milk. Milk freezes well, so if you have room in your freezer, buy that too.
Water - clean water is a must. There's plenty of filtration systems out there, so you can shop around. I've got a Sawyer gravity fed system HERE that's good for something like 2 million gallons. They run about 40 bucks.
Once you have that, all you need to do is figure out a water collection system. If you live in an area that gets plenty of rain, buy or make yourself a gutter diversion system.
First aid supplies - get 'em while you can. When that coronavirus bullshit happened, you couldn't find rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide to save your life. It's on the shelves now and it's cheap, so stock up while it's still available. As far as infections go, you can buy fishmox (amoxicillin) antibiotics in 500 mg capsules without a prescription at chewy.com, shipped right to your house.
Bathroom stuff - toilet paper is back on the shelf, buy it while you can. Soap is inexpensive - Ivory soap is something like $3.50 for a 10 bar package. Don't forget deodorants and toothpaste too.
Got a generator? A freezer full of meat ain't worth a damn if the power goes out. When we first moved here Lisa insisted on buying a generator, remembering a freeze that they had when she'd lived here before. Power was out for 10 days. I didn't want to spend a thousand bucks on a generator so my father-in-law suggested going to Harbor Freight and buying one, which I did. I picked up a 4000 watt generator HERE for 350 bucks. Harbor Freight is known for cheap shit but I have to tell you I haven't had a one bit of problems with my cheap one in the 4 1/2 years we've had it. We got a freeze our first winter here and that generator ran like a champ for 3 solid days until we got power back on. I don't have power in my shed so if I need a light or power for a tool, I have to use my generator. I haven't started it in a week or two but I know I can walk out there right now and it'll fire on the first or second pull of the rope. A full tank of gas, about 3 gallons as I recall, lasts about 8 hours. Yes, they make a California approved model as well.
Of course that generator doesn't do much good without gas. Buy some gas cans and keep as much Sta-Bil treated gas on hand as you can, and rotate it out so it doesn't go bad. And if you hate those fucking spouts that come with the cans as much as I do, you can buy free flowing gas spouts with vents online from Tractor Supply.
I learned my lesson when that pipeline down in Alabama blew up a few years ago. Wisco emailed me that night advising me to go fill up while I can, but I put it off until the next morning. When I did get out and about the next day, there wasn't a drop of gas to be found in the entire county. I had a quarter tank of gas in my truck and one 5 gallon can for my lawn mower to last the week until the stations started selling again. Now I keep my mower full, I have 35 gallons in cans and anytime my truck gets down to 3/4 of a tank, I top off. And yes, I plan on getting at least another 3 cans in the next couple weeks.
If you can keep chickens where you live, consider getting some hens. They'll provide you with a steady source of protein in eggs during the warmer months and they eat damned near anything. I've got 4 and they give me a dozen eggs every 4-5 days. A 50 pound bag of laying feed costs me under 20 bucks and lasts for a couple months. You can build a coop and henhouse out of chicken wire and scrap material.
Guns and ammo - I don't know what to tell you there. Anybody and everybody that reads this blog knows that if (and that's a big if) it can be found now, the prices are outrageous. I damned sure can't afford to buy any ammo myself. I'm sitting on what I have now.
So there it is. Take stock of what you use the most and what you have on hand, then plan accordingly.
