New to prepping

[Sussexnoob]

Hi, I'm a noob as it comes to prepping

I'm 18, have just moved out with my girlfriend, she's open to the idea of a bit of prepping,
I don't have a massive amount of money to throw at this venture, I'm thinking of adding food preps to the weekly shop, things like pasta, rice, canned goods.
I don't have a garden so grow your own isn't on the cards

I want to start doing a bit of bushcraft but don't know if it's a good idea to wonder off the track in the woods?

In the way of bugging out I have 2 plans, get to the woods with a water source over 12 miles from where I live or make an escape to the local marina with bob or even the car filled with gear and aquire a bout and live at sea?

Like to know what you think?

[preppingsu]

Hello and welcome.

What are you prepping for?

It never too young to start to prep and learn skills. Starting with food is a great idea, store what you eat and eat what you store is a good mantra to have. Don't forget to add water to your stores.

You need to think about why you might need to be bugging out and why you might need to run to the woods.

Take a good look around the site, it is a wealth of information to get you started.

[Sussexnoob]

I'm prepping for civil unrest, this is a thought that plays in my mind a lot, when you look around Europe and see these governments getting over turned, civil wars starting, you never know when your going to need to leave.

Things like power cuts don't really fade me as there usually fixed within a week, unless the country losses all power then shtf - get out as soon as it looks like it's starting, I live in the centre of town you see, so escape is the only real option when people are burning the streets down or running good gangs at the shops, obviously these things would happen after 1 month of no power

I like the sound of the food idea and will start stocking up on water as soon as possible

[Ginger Ranger]

Hi i'm a newbie just like you and think much the same, as well as food/water preps look for BOB,GHB etc equipment in places like poundland, homebargains etc really cheap and a great way of getting some kit together on the cheap.

[izzy_mack]

Welcome, you sound as though your well on your way, mentally at least, the food and water preps will come.
You can build up your skills while you are saving for the costs-money stuff, for free. Start with a trip to your library, they'll have lots of books on how to build stuff and camping skills as well as ray mears and bear grylls books. Check out the book section of this forum for some ideas and request books your library doesn't have.
Go camping and practice skills for the future and take walks, lots of them, round your town and look out for foraging food (books in the library on that too).
Learn to make things for yourself and "make do and mend" as much as possible, this will increase your skills and save money which can then be spend on preps.
Good luck and don't worry about what life throws at you, as a prepper you will at least have a chance of coping with anything in the future, read some of the older forum comments and you'll see what I mean.

[Hamradioop]

Lots of useful documents to down load here http://www.shtfinfo.com/
Looks like all the books have been converted to epub format as well as PDF

[junmist]

you don't have to grow your own (though you will be surprised what you can grow on a window sill) get a good foraging book and see what you can find in hedge rows and the streets then learn to use them.

[Ghost Prepper]

I'm prepping for civil unrest. when people are burning the streets down or running food gangs at the shops, obviously these things would happen after 1 month of no power

honestly I think 3-7 days of no power would be really bad. maybe more 5-7 but people would panic quite quickly IMO

[Galen]

G'day SN,

Sounds like you have a plan. Damn good start mentally. The trouble with bugging out is that this is a tiny island, with a LOT of people living on it.

If you know a secret place in the woods, then so do hundreds, if not thousands of other people. If society has collapsed and law has broken down, from a tactical point of view, a house/building/flat is easier to defend than a tent in the woods.

As far as stockpiling, get a few extra items each week - it soon adds up. Buy a camping stove and a dozen or so at least of butane cartridges. Water purification tablets for when the water goes off (it will) and £1 solar garden lights are better and safer than candles, you can recharge them every morning.

I've taught bush survival craft in Australia for many years, but living rough gets old real fast, it's very much a last resort, especially if the SHTF in winter.

Your brain is your best survival tool. Stay strong, focused and remember ...

It's a cruel world.

[2ndRateMind]

Your preps will be, and should be, personal to you and your world view.

As far as priorities go, you can live around three minutes without air, three days without water, more than three weeks without food.

How far you defend against these threats to your well-being will depend on your individual assessment of the magnitude of the risks that confront our civilisation. Biological or chemical attack by a rogue state/terrorist tendency? Severe and prolonged climate change induced drought? The collapse of the free-market system of supply (along with convenience stores) due to economic meltdown? Unexpected unemployment? Take your pick amongst these scenarios, and any others you can dream up. Assess their possible impact and chances of happening.

Then (and prepping is basically do-it-yourself insurance) decide how many hours and how much money in the way of a premium you are willing and able to commit to protecting yourself and your loved ones from these awful possibilities.

And keep reviewing this decision, every three months or so, or more often if circumstances seem precarious.

Once you have done this exercise, and decided your budgets of time and cash, then and only then are you in a reasonable, rational position to decide an appropriate level of investment for you in the equipment you want to buy, the skills and knowledge you want to gain, and the consumables you want to stockpile.

Best wishes, 2RM.