CONTEST POST: Prepping on an Extremely Small Budget by G.R.

money-coinsFor the last 18 years, I have supported a family of 6 to 10 people on under $18,000 a year, an extremely small budget, but through it all I have managed to be a prepper. Until the last couple of years, I did not know I was a prepper, it has always been a way of life for me. My prepping has always been a means to feed my family in case of job loss or natural disaster or just for day to day life.  Recently my oldest daughter, now the mother of 2, asked me how I was able to always have plenty of food. This is what I told her.

The main thing is to start small. Just $5.00 a week will buy a lot. There are three stores within 10 miles of my home, I shop at all three on a weekly basis so I know the prices of most of the things I buy on a regular basis.  This is the first thing to know so you can shop for deals. Most things are much higher at my local store, the only store in a small tourist town, but they have very good sales on a weekly basis. The nearest store outside of our town is HEB, a chain store here in Texas, their prices are comparable to Walmart, the other store I shop at, but HEB has several items that are lower priced than Walmart and they have better sales.

So here is a short list of what $5.00 will buy you.

  • 15 7oz bags of pasta @ 3 for 1.00
  • 4-5 1lb bags of beans @ .88 to 1.29 each
  • 10 lb of rice @ 5# for 2.42
  • 5 cans of Chef Boy-Ar-Dee pasta or ravioli @ .86 each
  • 3 Jars of Pasta Sauce @ 1.69 each
  • 7-8 cans of vegetables @ .62 to .66 each

This is just a small list of the items that $5.00 will buy in my area. I am sure that anyone who wants to prep food on a budget can find similar deals in their own area. By prepping in this way, I have enough food now for a good 6 months, maybe more. My daughter has followed my advice and is well on her way to being just as prepared.

Don’t think that food is the only item that I prep. I also keep an eye out for deals on other daily items like personal hygiene, laundry, household and other items. I recently picked up 20, 9 LED flashlights for .99 each. Last year, after hurricane season, I picked up 15 oil lamps on clearance at my local store for $1.00 each. A couple weeks ago when bad storms came through the area and the power was out for 5 hours, I was glad I spent the money. This is why I prep for every day, you never know what might come up and what may be needed. At the present time, I have 8 alternate means of cooking, three grills, a large homemade solar cooker, two rocket stoves, one homemade, the other bought and two parabolic cookers, one homemade and one bought. I have many alternate means of doing almost anything that needs doing, from laundry, large tubs and clothes lines, to getting water, three shallow wells, without pumps, on the property. We dug the wells ourselves, luckily we have sand to dig through and water starting at 4 feet. We use a Waterboy or a manual slide pump to extract the water.

The point of all of this is to show everyone who says “I can’t do it!”…Yes you can!

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My latest book, The Survival Blueprint: How to Prepare Your Family for Disaster, can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJ49Y5X4

Comments

8 responses to “CONTEST POST: Prepping on an Extremely Small Budget by G.R.”

  1. Donna

    Just a side note, this post is by D.B.

    1. Sorry Donna. I think I just went by the email signature.

  2. Charles,,,,

    Whoaaaaaa, now that is an inspirational post, thank you so much GR for sharing, I have never seen pasta three bagz for a dollar but I’d take a small loan and buy the store out if ever I did, minor pasta freak, addict sort of…… and the candle wrapped in aluminum, who’d daa thunk, added perk in the winter is the aluminum will gather more heat to reflect, I think. So I am off to the three local stores to begin learning their dealio’s, lol.

    1. T.R.

      It does create some heat , not much , but thats what makes it work so well . Pilar candles sometimes burn unevenly and either run down the sides or leave high sides because the sides are cooler than the center which is burning . The foil prevents any possibility of wax loss off the sides and also warms up the sides so the candle burns up all of its wax . A single wick , 6″ pilar candle will burn about 5 days on its own , at 8 hrs. per day . With foil , you can easily squeeze another 2 days out of it on average .

    2. Donna

      Thanks Charles, The only place I’ve found the pasta is at HEB, a chain store here in TX. It’s from Mexico, but it, very good pasta. I’m a Major Pasta Freak myself and can relate!

  3. T.R.

    Also , If you find pilar candles at goodwill or the dollar store , you can extend the life of the candle by wrapping them with aluminum foil . What this does if force the candle to burn al the wax instead of some of the wax dripping off the sides . You can gain several hours of burn time by doing this .

    1. I hadn’t thought about that one, thanks!

  4. T.R.

    If you live in a city , a treasure of bulk foods can be found cheaper if you go to an Asian market .Rice , mushrooms , peppers , tea , other dried goods . Mexican markets are good for that as well .

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