B.O.B. exercise under £100

[munchh]

I thought I would start another thread instead of high jacking Bow’s original one, as this is sort of a spin off.

As an exercise I really enjoyed this, I felt my brain getting a bit stagnant, I have been trying out lots of different “gear” and i'm surrounded by it.
It also helped that it was my Brother’s birthday this week and he asked about something I couldn’t resist “I need one of those little gas cookers like yours”. Once we worked out why he did, I showed him cook kits to go with it, he hadn’t thought what he was going to cook on it with!

For anyone just starting, this is my way of thinking, it is not the best way, there will be lots of much better informed people telling me what I missed and that’s a good thing, there is a good chance that on your own, you will not have everything covered.

The scenario I’m working to is, you can see things going pear shaped and you know that you may need to go, just go, could be to a BOL, hit the road and stay mobile, start travelling toward another area where you have family/friends, or anything similar. Not fully in the wild, more likely in your car or bike, some camping along the way, with someone’s sofa or at least living room floor.

You have all you need ready, but there is someone else you want/need to take with you, they are the people you have either spoken to about this sort of thinking or you never have, either way, they never did anything about it. You need to get them up to speed quickly with their own essentials and for under £100.
It’s Sunday night and you need them ready to go by Friday after work.

Best case scenario, for the purpose of setting a baseline kit to work from, so you can order from anywhere as you can get anything delivered inside a week in the UK. Some stuff you can pick up locally.
(I will be using my favourite retailers, just because I would, not because I think anyone else should.)

What do they really need in their bag, it’s about the essentials, they will add clothing and personal stuff, but what are the things you know they must have?
There are choices (more than I have here I suspect).



First up has to be:

Backpack:
Military Mart has 3 choices for the budget.
N.I. Patrol pack, 38L, DPM, £19.99
Swedish L35 pack, Green, £14.99
But for the money and size it has to be,
Polish Puma pack 40-50L £4.99!

Cutting tools:
Hultafors heavy duty craftsman’s knife, online £4-8 delivered.
Folding pruning saw £4-8 Lidl/garden centre,
21” bow saw and spare blade £10 Screwfix/B&Q,
Stanley type blades £ shop.
Let’s see how it all adds up as to how many go in the bag.

Fire:
Ferro rod 8mm (just the rod no end or striker) ebay £3.65

2x mini clipper lighters,
gas and flints,
Swan type redhead matches,
Tea lights,
Cotton wool and tub of Vaseline.
£5 All from £ shop.

Cover:
Sleeping bags 1st as you can use them in the car or your mate’s sofa.
Czech bed roll (like a bivvy bag with wool blanket and liner) £9.99
Yugo swag bag (waterproof bottom) £19.99
British cold weather bag £20.00
All military mart.
Yugo bag covers inside and outdoors and warmer than the bed roll.

Dutch army poncho, DPM, £15.00
Polish Lavvu (works as 2 ponchos and a tent) £17.99
Both Military mart.

Bandana/tea towel,
2x small ground sheets £ shop £3.

Container/cook kit:
Hard to choose,
Yugo mess kit (bottle, mess tin/lid, cutlery, cup, pouch) M/Mart, Ebay £8.00
Swedish army trangia (mess tin/lid, trangia and stand) M/Mart, Ebay £8.50.
Swiss army ranger volcano stove (hobo stove, pot, bottle) £12.50
Woodgas stove, Ebay (uses trangias/gel/hexi, burns anything, can be adapted to take a gas burner £22.00
Gas commando cooker, gas can. Ebay £20.00

Cordage:
2x rolls Senne twine is synthetic and can be broken down to smaller fibres, comes in various colours, B&Q/Homebase £2 100m
(or similar)

Light:
Head torch or similar and batteries £shop £2
Tea lights

Other essentials:
Germoline (or similar)
Basic First aid kit,
Pain killers and any meds they are on,
Anti bacterial wet/wipes,
Alcohol hand sanitizer,
Sewing kit,
Compass,
Heavy duty rubble bags,
Ziplock sandwich bags,
Surgical masks,
Tissues/loo roll,
Bottle of thin bleach (unscented, used to purify water, much cheaper than purification tabs and not so heavy on your tummy so I am to understand)
All can be had at £ shop £12

3in1 coffee sachets while you are in there 

O/S map of your area or where you are going Ebay £6

Multi tool of some sort?




Polish Puma pack 40-50L £4.99!
Hultafors heavy duty craftsman’s knife, online £4-8 delivered.
Folding pruning saw £4-8 Lidl/garden centre,
Ferro rod 8mm (just the rod no end or striker) Ebay £3.65
Yugo swag bag (waterproof bottom) £19.99
Polish Lavvu (works as 2 ponchos and a tent) £17.99
2x rolls Senne twine
O/S map of your area or where you are going Ebay £6
£72.62 (but Torch and batteries are a must so £74.62)
But having trouble what the best cook kit is to cover all eventuality and the £ shop stuff below isn’t really kit, more consumables, so which cook kit with the money left,
£25.38?

I think I would be inclined to say both:
Yugo mess kit (bottle, mess tin/lid, cutlery, cup, pouch) M/Mart, Ebay £8.00
Swedish army trangia (mess tin/lid, trangia and stand) M/Mart, Ebay £8.50.
As it’s a lot of kit for £16.50.

Bringing it to £91.12
Plus the £shop stuff below!

All £ shop:
Stanley type blades,
2x mini clipper lighters,
gas and flints,
Swan type redhead matches,
Tea lights,
Cotton wool and tub of Vaseline.
Bandana/tea towel,
2x small ground sheets,
Head torch or similar,
batteries,
Tea lights,
Germoline (or similar)
Basic First aid kit,
Pain killers and any meds they are on,
Anti bacterial wet/wipes,
Alcohol hand sanitizer,
Sewing kit,
Compass,
Heavy duty rubble bags,
Ziplock sandwich bags,
Surgical masks,
Tissues/loo roll,
Bottle of thin bleach
£24

Taking into consideration postage, you would need to get as much of it from the same sellers or with free P+P.

Kit wise it’s close to the wire, but doable.

Not a bad kit for £100 ish.

What you recon?

[munchh]

I should have put the torch, batteries, lighters, mathes, cotton wool and vaseline on the top list, possibly the 2x groundsheets.

there are other things I left out onstead of the things I used, like the survival blanket for a good sleeping bag as they cost the same.

The post was long enough

[Yorkshire Andy]

I've taken the mindset that the £1 shop is expensive for most things and mainly sells tat that doesn't last...

We have a local independent pile it high sell it cheap shop

He's turning lighters out at 10 for £1 small tubes of sun lotion at 75p etc shop about

[munchh]

Yep totally,

I know I can buy both the knife and the saw for £4 each saving £8 straightcaway, but I used the higher prices id seen just to see how close it was.
I did id as if there was a time limitcand you were just handing your mate a list of what and where tk get it.
some thingsxare cheaper in tesco than the £ shop

[jansman]

it is a great thread, love it! Only trouble is,if things are going pear shaped between Sunday night and Friday afternoon, I would not rely on * ordering* stuff online. I would use the old fashoined shop.

[Wulfshead]

I used one of those £1 single army style mess tins/cook pans at our recent 3 day camp and was quite surprised how well it performed.
As I'm getting my 7 year old grandson into the camping/survival mindset in the coming year I will have no problem trying him out with a cheapie rather than a more expensive double set he will never use again.

One thing I did notice while looking around the two different £ shops is that there are 2 different versions of the same clip together camping cutlery sets. One was real flimsy and the other set was quite good and more robust.
If I remember right, the better cutlery sets had a orange and green cardboard label they were attached to.

Wulfshead

[munchh]

it is a great thread, love it! Only trouble is,if things are going pear shaped between Sunday night and Friday afternoon, I would not rely on * ordering* stuff online. I would use the old fashoined shop.

Totaly agree, the fact is I know if I go to my local surpluss store, this will all cost alot more.
Depending on the time of year you could get stuff from bootsales, but only at the weekends, I also like charity shops as you can get many bargins, there are various warehouse outlets you could try for similar stuff, this is just thinking out load to see if you could do it in a time scale and a budget.

I recon like you say it would be chancing it a bit, I have trouble getting stuff delivered here when the world is normal!

if nothing else it defines a real BOB check list I suppose, you can then fill it with your own version of gear.

[jansman]

How about... If you knew shtf may be coming, have a look around your house/property and see what you can adapt?
I don't own the latest 'must have' rucksack for instance, but I do own a 40 litre rucksack. If I did not own a decent knife, I have plenty in the kitchen. Water bottle? How about a 2litre pop bottle?
You get the drift.

[Smudge]

How about... If you knew shtf may be coming, have a look around your house/property and see what you can adapt?
I don't own the latest 'must have' rucksack for instance, but I do own a 40 litre rucksack. If I did not own a decent knife, I have plenty in the kitchen. Water bottle? How about a 2litre pop bottle?
You get the drift.

Thats a very good point jansman, you can even get a good backpack for free with things like freegle/freecycle.

I'd opt for 1ltr squash bottles over 2ltr pop as they're a little more rigid (maybe thicker plastic)

A good boning or butchers knife out the draw will cover all your cutting needs.

[munchh]

You could do this far cheaper, I have done a hobo cook set for under a fiver, so alot of this is doable for less, I love bootsales and charity shops, friday add has a "for free" section, but there is no garuntee you will find it all if you only had 5 days to do it, I have alot of stuff that if put together as a BOB may only come to £30, but it took all year to accumulate.
I was just trying to do it by ordering the best of what I have found available in a time frame of 5 days.

there are plenty of cheaper alternatives, but that stuff you have to wait for normally.