Introduction

Money

Believe it or not but prepping can save you money (sometimes a lot) and should be integrated into your daily life. It's often too late to prepare right before disaster stricks. Prepping should be part of your day to day business.

Make sure to bring on-board your family (children, husband, spouse, partner, etc). However DO NOT advertise it to anyone else. You never know what people might do in desperate times.

It's also very important to rotate and eat your emergency stockpile in your daily life (many preppers and guide forget about this) For three reasons:

Make sure to have some cash. Credit card and online banking network might be disrupted during emergencies.

Water

Water is one of the most important aspect during crisis time.

A good rule of thumb: One gallon or 3 liters of water for each person in your familly per day for at least 5 days. The easiest and cheapest way is to simply get a bunch of water bottle and stockpile them.

You should rotate them every 6 months or so: Drink them or use them for coffee, cooking etc. Drinking water everyday is a good general advice. Sugar drinks and other soda and not versatile (you can't really cook or clean surfaces with a soda).

Why not using a water tank? While water tanks can hold more water, you need to make sure the water inside stays clean (algee and fungy can quickly grow and can render it unsafe). This is possible but it is hard to do it right. The easiest is to go with bottles.

While not strictly water, its always useful to have:

Those will help you to keep your moral and provide comfort during hard times.

Food

Stockpiling food is equally important, especially if you are under quarantine in your home.

Dried food

Dried food is easy to store of course depending on your preference you might want different dry food. An important rule is to only stockpile things you know you will eat. Because you will have to rotate them to not loose your food and your money this also insure your stockpile is always ready and fresh. As an example:

If you want to go further:

Do not store dried food in bags or cardbox, because bugs could get inside and trust me you don't want to see your emergency food rotten by worms.

Hermetic reusable glass jars are amazing. First they will protect the food from bugs and other insects. They are transparent so by just looking at the shelf you will know how much is left and you can easily sterilize them. They can last a lifetime so it's a great investment.

Buy two medium sized jar for each dry food item you want to store. Why two medium? First it's easier to move them around (imagine moving a big rice jar) and when one is finished, let's say the rice one you can clean it and put it on a special shelf. At your next grocery shopping you will know what you need to buy (in this case rice). Not only you will never run out of stuff with this system but you can also save money by waiting when the food is on sale (I told you that prepping can save money on the long run).

Canned food

While it's possible to do your own canned food it's not recommended because if you don't know what you are doing it can create unsanitary conditions. Industrial canned food can last a long time.

Again similar to dried food make sure you are doing rotations. Buy in sales to save money and replenish your stockpile.

Ready to eat food

You might not have access to a hot stove (no electricity or gas). It's always good to have ready to eat food like:

Medication

Over the counter medication

It's always good to have some of those at home:

Medication for an existing illness

If you have an existing illness (diabetes, severe allergic reactions etc), make sure you have enough prescription drugs you need for at least 2 months. You never know if something goes wrong with the supply chain.

Cleaning and Medical Supplies

Home

It is important to keep your house/flat/pantry clean. Not only it is nicer and more relaxing to live in a clean home, you will make it easier if disinfecting is needed. As we learned in the food section, bugs and other worms can quickly degrade your food and make it unsafe to eat. Ideally because you rotate and use your stockpile everyday this should not happen.

General purpose useful items

Those items can help you during hard time and will come handy in many situations.

Pets

Cats and Dogs, are our best friends. During emergencies it is important to not forget them. Make sure their needs are covered too in your emergency supply. Make sure they have their vaccines up to date.

Gardening

While you will not be able to be self sustainable with a garden in your balcony, making a small garden with vegetables can provide a few comfort food. This is also a cool project that helps coping with possible quarantine. If you know nothing about gardening, we recommend you to choose plants that grow in the climate / region where you live.

Prepping can be quite easy and save you money on the long run especially with dried food storage. The key is to start it and progressively build up. Don't forget to rotate your food and use from time to time your emergency gas stove to cook to make sure to know how to use it. Label all containers, food jars and your storage places so you can easily find stuff when needed. Print basic instructions and informations about the medications you need. Again without internet you might have to rely on those. Paper always works no matter what.

This document is released under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE V3. For more information you can read the LICENSE file. Any suggestions and contributors are welcome. Sources can be found on GitHub.