As Tess Pennington says in her best selling preparedness book The Prepper’s Blueprint: “If we have learned one thing studying the history of disasters, it is this: those who are prepared have a better chance at survival than those who are not.”  The time to prepare financially for an economic depression was last year, but there are a few food preps you can get now to reduce spending over the next six months.

Storing at least six months’ worth of foods can go far in beginning a preparedness program on your own.  Keep in mind, you should consider your climate and environment (meaning you may be able to garden, or you may have a short season.)  You should also think of items you can add to barter with.  Think about what you could trade someone else for foods you may not have thought of or foods you can store and trade for other useful items.  In the event of another Great Depression, you will need to be able to barter if you have no money.

5 Foods You Can Be Stockpiling All The Time To Enhance Your Food Inventory

10 Items To Help You Start Your Emergency Food Storage

After all, people cannot eat gold or cash, so having items on hand that could be useful to many will help you get through. I have been storing the largest bottles of olive oil I can find.  I know there’s a small chance I’ll use it all, but when the prices are good, I’ve been stocking up. Here are a few other items myself, and other preppers suggest you store:

Canned Goods – Just start getting as much of these as possible. Store vegetables and fruits as well as beans and soups. You should also have some kind of canned meat, such as chicken, tuna, or spam.

Peanut Butter – A great source of energy, peanut butter is chock-full of healthy fats and protein. Unless the jar indicates otherwise, you don’t have to refrigerate after opening.

Rice – this is kind of a no-brainer, but it’s an easy filler for meals.

Dry beans – much like rice, this can be a great filler.

Wheat – using wheat will enable you to make bread, which can be filling during an emergency.

Make sure you have a can opener, and continually add to your food supply.  You will also want to know how to safely collect water and filer it. 

Prepping: DIY Rainwater Harvesting System

Survival Water Filter DIY – What to do in an Emergency!

I personally, like the Life Straws, but others prefer the Sawyer water filter. Make sure you have something to filer water in your bug out bag.  It may be necessary to leave your preps in order to survive, and you’ll want to make sure you can drink water safely without getting sick first and foremost.

Forgetting Something? 5 Overlooked Bug Out Bag Items

Across the ages, in every survival story, a disaster of some sort plays a prominent role. Sometimes the part is played by the government, sometimes it is played by Mother Nature, and other times, the role is taken on by a random mishap. If we have learned one thing studying the history of disasters, it is this: those who are prepared have a better chance at survival than those who are not. A crisis rarely stops with a triggering event. The aftermath can spiral, having the capacity to cripple our normal ways of life. Because of this, it’s important to have a well-rounded approach to our preparedness efforts. Due to the overwhelming nature of preparedness, we have created the Prepper’s Blueprint to help get you and your family ready for life’s unexpected emergencies. To make a more comprehensive, easy-to-follow program, The Prepper’s Blueprint has been simplified and divided up in a way to help you make sense of all the preparedness concepts and supply lists provided. We have divided the chapters into layers of preparedness.