What to buy with the "rebate" checks?

OK, so many folks are gonna be getting a check from Uncle Sugar sometime around May. What I'd like to discuss is how to get the best Survival Bang for these bucks. I think that its $600 per person plus $300 per kid.

What kind of survival goodies could a single person get? A married couple? A family of four?

So let's say someone decided that they just had to spend this money instead of saving or paying down debt. What kind of preparedness for Sit X could someone get for the amount of these "rebates"?

I was at Target just a few days ago, and noticed that in the personal care isles, where the toothpaste, and other items are, they have urban survival kits.
They're broken down into like 5-6 catagories, pre-packaged per box, to last 3-4 people something like 4 days?
$29

I may grab a few, considering I have no kids to worry about, and 4 kits would last me quite awhile.

Have a down payment an another AK and 4k of ammo. Then will take a long weekend and put it away for when I need it.

mikell

When you are unsure Ammo is usually a good investment. It is always going up in price, stores well and is a useful trading item if you do not have cause to use it.

Yes, ammo would be a very lucrative investment when the world falls down around itself. Money would be worth nothing since everything is in such disarray, that looting would be the choice of shopping.

Defense would hold value and only go up when those who have cornered the monkey, inflate ammo value by squeezing the need. What use is a gun without ammo. Stock up now while the .gov gives you the opportunity!

supposedly the elderly and disabled vets will get $300 each.

if that $$ comes my way, the only thing that would work for me is to
make contributions into my Gold & P.M. mutual fund account...

because those commodsities are supposed to stay way ahead of
inflation, and presumably the share price will grow by another +12% year-over-year

compare stock tickers: VGPMX and SCGDX

reply to post by mikellmikell

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I've seen folk on here talking about buying an AK. Where exactly does one FIND an Ak first? Secondly, are they legal?

I'll either use the money to buy the gear I need for sparring, get some books, or put it in the bank. Probably put it in the bank.

Im gonna put my bribe from the government towards ammo, and maybe a couple cases of mres.

This might not be a rebate but a loan against your 2008 taxes. Governement has done that before about 5 years ago.

Anyway, I'd get more ammo and a few books.

Most larger sporting goods stores stock at least one model, these days most likely a WASR-10. They retail for about $300 to $350 in most places. Salesmen may try to push the single-stack(magazine) model, but get a double-stack version because extra mags are far cheaper. Regional chains like Dunham's and Big 5 have the best prices IMHO for commodity guns like AK variants, bolt-action Mausers, etc.

AK-pattern rifles in their numerous variations are legal to purchase, own, and possess everywhere in CONUS with a few notable exceptions: California and Cook County, IL are all that come to mind right now but there are a few other places. Pennsylvania has a few quirky hunting laws, but is pretty mainstream as far as gun ownership. You should find AKs galore near you, but take a knowledgeable friend with you when shopping.

I'm referring to semi-automatic AK versions only. Fully automatic weapons are tightly controlled by the BATFE, and unless you have some seriously disposable income don't bother acquiring one. Licensed full-auto AKs and AR15s start in the $10,000 price range.

[edit on 2/11/08 by ConserVet]

Heh, well, to be honest, we're using our $1500 to pay down the last of our credit card debt, and putting the rest into savings.

It's not a very exciting use of our money, but right now the largest survival issue we're not prepared for at the moment is if one of us loses our job. And with a recession taking place in the U.S., I'd recommend everyone keeping about 3 months worth of your and your spouses salary in the bank, just in case.

The wife would rather we spend it on wood flooring and a vacation, but I think we'll prepare first, and budget for luxuries later.

But if I could drop all $1500 into preparing for Situation X? I'd build an underground shelter in the back yard. Even without the threat of nuclear war, zombies, etc, we get a lot of tornadoes through the area, and the safest place to be with a tornado is underground.

(edit to add: It'd also give me a place to store all our reserve food, water, emergency non-food items, etc.)

[edit on 2/12/2008 by thelibra]

ill be using my rebate on something I'm not allowed to discuss

The best thing to do would be for everyone to pay off a portion of their credit with it. With less debt, the dollar will become stronger again. But to no avail, people will want to spend it on 'goods'.

You only get the rebate checks if you made more than $3,000.00. That means that the poorest people who would use the money to live on instead of get toys with it will not see any money.

Hence the reason (IMO) for the rebate; they want us to buy toys.

I'm thinking about saving it or buying something like food storage or maybe a new pocketknife.

reply to post by Arcane Demesne

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Ya know. That was my initial thought until my mind started grinding. What if this is the governments version of bailing out banks? They know a lot of people are going to use the money to pay off debt and the government cant just give the banks billions of dollars...so they have us do it for them! Everyone is saying this is going to do nothing to stop the recession...so i'm thinking it never was meant to stop a recession...or even slow one down.



[edit on 12-2-2008 by xEphon]

Face it... they don't give a rat's ass about the little guy.... the average Joe... the only reason we are getting this paltry sum is that its an election year.... if it was an off year we wouldn't see squat.

My god we have been infiltrated by a Bu#e..LOL . Paybills with it and what may be left over buy survival goods.

I'm buying ammo, water, MREs, a new med kit and a new hunting knife. The rest... pay off debt. When this house of cards comes tumbling down I don't want to owe anything to anyone - except for my mortgage - which is probably owned in some convoluted way by the Chinese!?