What do you do when the things you depend on run low? What things do you consider essential? Your assumptions about what’s essential may be skewed by the ease with which you can acquire almost everything right now.
Try this experiment. Buy only what you run out of for an entire month. If you drive to work, obviously you’ll have to buy gasoline. Perishable foods need to be replaced when you use up what you have. Don’t buy anything else. Don’t stop for a coffee at that cute little coffeeshop. Don’t hang out at the mall and buy snacks and trinkets. Don’t go to a store unless you absolutely need something and then buy only what you need to replenish.
Just for a month. You can do it because you know when the month is up, you can return to your usual buying habits, if you want.
Pay attention for that whole month to what you really, actually use, and what you really, actually need. Make a list of those things.
That’s what you should consider in your stockpiling. What things do you need that you use on a regular basis that you absolutely need and can’t make for yourself? Those are the things you need to stock up on. If that’s toilet paper, for you, then make sure you have a good stock of toilet paper. Ditto for ammunition, foil, light bulbs, and such.
Consider also things that aren’t consumable that you would need and might have a difficult time replacing: safety pins, straight pins, guns, sewing needles, scissors, knives, sharpening steels and stones, axes, hatchets, manual tools in case the power goes away and you need to do things. Don’t forget things like canning jars and lids – far more lids than jars as the jars are re-usable. If you bottle your own beverages ( beer, wine, sodas…), you’ll need to stock up on bottle caps/corks as well as bottles.
Don’t forget tools you commonly use, both for routine home maintenance and auto care and bike care, but also for your hobbies. Just because we enter a depression/recession is no reason to give up your hobbies. In fact, your hobby could be an alternate source of income if it comes to that, so definitely don’t neglect the tools for that. Remember, in the acquisition of tools and skills, what you can share and contribute to your community, because survival isn’t always an individual thing.
