Prepping Advice: What are you hoarding for "the bad times"?

[Owen Lucas]

never let it get around the community that you are a prepper & have lots of supplies. very important to keep it as secretive as possible. keep only the most trustworthy people in the loop. the ones you prep with/have a plan of action with. when the Sh*t hits the fan, armies of people will come for you if they know you got it. if you are alone, it will be hard to fight of a large crowd, even if you are armed. for us, its myself, my wife & kids. very few close friends that also prep that we also share a second storage facility. we are very private regarding prepping.

it dont happen often but once food gets within 30-60 days of expiration its donated to local food banks & replaced.

cyber attacks worry me more than armies invading the usa. our power grid is extremely vulnerable. a bomb exploding a mile or so over a strategic point can knock out power for millions, for months. however unlikely it might be, it could happen.

the longer russia suffers from sanctions & the more the world is cutting off putin from the global economy, the more desperate he becomes. backed into a corner. he will likely become even more unstable and become more of a nuclear threat. hopefully it wont get to that point. however friday morning on the news i heard a commenter say we are on the brink of ww3.

Page 4 and you're the first to notice this.

Also physical fitness is important, as well as having a mountain bike in good shape and knowledge of local trails. If the roads get blocked or barricaded you can silently find your way around.

Being fit also helps keep many diseases down. If someone started a fitness regimen in 3/2020 they'd have had healthier lungs when Covid really got going. And you can outrun the typical "zombie."

These threads always turn into masturbatory fantasies that can be solved by shopping. "Oh, only three of my closest friends know." And what will keep their lips sealed?

Whatever your hideout is, you'll have to make it appear not lived in. No footprints, no smell of rotting trash, no pets making noise, nothing going up the chimney. Pollen and sap buildup on your cars, rusty brake rotors. Hope you have plenty of good reading material to read by daylight, your brain will be your worst enemy. If you have to go out, you'll not want to appear "well fed", do you really have the discipline to starve yourself like the others when you're sitting on all that rice?

PS get a shortwave radio so you can pick up the BBC, in case the internet goes down and local broadcast has "issues" telling the whole story.

Very good points and analysis. Putin becoming even more unhinged and his suicidal yes men are a huge threat.

 

[Astro14]

Let's keep the political commentary out of this, please, and stick to answering the OP question.

 

[PimTac]

One thing to consider is that you will likely not be eating three meals a day.

 

[PandaBear]

Whatever your hideout is, you'll have to make it appear not lived in. No footprints, no smell of rotting trash, no pets making noise, nothing going up the chimney. Pollen and sap buildup on your cars, rusty brake rotors. Hope you have plenty of good reading material to read by daylight, your brain will be your worst enemy. If you have to go out, you'll not want to appear "well fed", do you really have the discipline to starve yourself like the others when you're sitting on all that rice?

There goes the neighborhood.....

 

[loneryder]

What do you have in your prepper inventory? I've been stocking my basement shelves incase a major even happens that knocks out the food supply chain. I'm working on a 1 year+ food supply for 4 people.

What do you think of my prepping and what do you recommend? This is what I have so far:

GRAINS:

• 5x 20lb bags of rice
• 100x+ cans of beans
• 40x boxes of pastas
• 5x large boxes of steel cut oats
• 20x large boxes of dried potatoes

Canned Proteins & Veggies:

• 40x cans of chicken
• 30x cans of tuna
• 30x cans of spam
• 50x cans of various soups
• 50x cans of misc. veggies

Misc. (multiple containers of):

• Coconut and olive oils
• Peanut butter
• Salt & spices
• Honey & molasses
• Jell-O's
• Tea, instant coffee
• Condiments

Tin Foil Hat Section:

• Potassium Iodide kit (130mg) for 10 days
• Been keeping all of my old antibiotics and medicines for years
• Ammo

I know I have to at least triple the amount of food I have and am looking to add more 20lb bags dried beans and parboiled rice.

Access to a natural source of water without power but also have multiple cases of bottled water.

I didn't go the way of buying prepacked kits from my patriot supply or another reseller since I think those are just overpriced and repacked generic products.

What do you recommend?

Those canned proteins will go out of date. Will taste bad after a year.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Canned goods do pick up an unpleasant metallic canned flavor over time, especially after the expiration date. Also, cans can rust on the shelf because of humidity, and all you need is a tiny pinhole from corrosion to spoil the contents. I've had experience with both. Keep in mind today's cans are manufactured just well enough to do the job.

Wipe the tops and bottoms of newly bought cans of food with vegetable oil to delay rust if you're in a high humidity area or near water.

If you can find food items in glass jars, get those in preference to cans for long-term storage. Glass will not rust nor impart a flavor to food. Just keep the jars in a closed cabinet so light doesn't degrade the contents.

One poster mentioned shortwave radio. For North America that medium is essentially dead, except for some religious broadcasts. BBC, CBC (Canadian), and other old standard news and info sources stopped English–language broadcasts on shortwave to the Americas over 10 years ago. Even the Russians do little on shortwave today; Radio Moscow is long gone. That could all change after a disaster, but don't count on it.

 

[Lubener]

Guns, ammo and body bags. In the worst of times I would be robbing others of their resources. Survival of the fittest is the only thing to live by in that kind of situation.

They would likely stop you in your tracks before you do any robbing.

 

[Snagglefoot]

A bit of rotation.

 

[ZeeOSix]

One thing to consider is that you will likely not be eating three meals a day.

It would be a good weight loss program.

 

[ZeeOSix]

They would likely stop you in your tracks before you do any robbing.

Very true. If things really went sideways you'd probably see groups of people ban together with arms to protect the group / each other. But on the other hand there would probably also be a bunch of bad groups of people trying to take everything away from people who had supplies, etc. It would turn into a good vs evil survival war.

 

[CharlesInCharge]

Given how heavily armed Americans tend to be, being a "marauder" would be near suicide and the survival rate of "marauders" would be very low. Communities would have to band together, and any serious or strong-arm thievery would probably (rightly) be a executable offense... with minor thievery being a branding offense.

 

[M56959]

Some peoples seeming giddiness at the thought of the worst happening help no one.

Topic has run its course and gone off topic