Survival tips for low wage people

a reply to: Daalder

If all you ate was rabbits for a few weeks...you'd die of protein poisoning.

a reply to: Daalder

snails and greens aswell. the greeks survived quite well during ww2 after having their food stripped by soldiers by living off of little critters and greens.

Imagine your house had a power cut and it won't be fixed for days. It might be due to weather conditions (snow blizzard brought down power lines), strike action (Winter of Discontent 1979), or construction work (mini-digger cut through power lines).

You'll need torches (for light), rechargeable batteries or just packs of regular batteries and a solar power charger.
Long lasting food (packet rice, tinned meat/vegetables), fresh water
First aid kit along with extra dressings, antibiotic gels
Source of heat (portable gas cooker and cylinders).
Remember anything that burns oil/gas needs ventilation. That requires vents.

Extra refrigerator and power generator plus diesel fuel. A rural friend had one of these when their power went out for days due to a tree falling over a power line.

originally posted by: bananashooter
Learn to grow potatoes, and have a constant potato garden, if you eat them raw you almost can get all the nutrients you need. Get a little survival rifle and you will have a way to get meat.a reply to: sarra1833

Solid advice but don't forget the "eyes" in potatoes are poisonous when they are sprouts.
Be careful.

Cheese cloth works wonders for drying meats, vegetables, etc. Also good bandage in a pinch.
Just don't forget to cover meats in black pepper so flies don't lay eggs in your meat.

a reply to: TinfoilTP

I think you hit one of the most important preparation tips, "self sufficient neighbors". Where I live this is pretty much a way of life. I have no doubt many would survive since we live in a very cold area and some people have always lived off the grid. We are lucky enough to have plentiful clean water too. I have a friend that spent too much on Xmas so she used her bow and arrow to hunt deer for meat over winter. Many folks like that here.

We also know how to barter. I feel like that is almost a lost art! We have a farmer that trades food for work. Others that trade services for food. I think the city folk will be the ones in shell shock if something happened, and there will be lots of in-fighting before things start to spread to the suburbs and then to rural areas. The other people that will feel effects the most are those that are on too many prescription (or non prescription) drugs.

Do the best with what you have, research and gain knowledge.

It's gonna be a crapshoot for those who are left.

Learn about hypothermia and dehydration, how to build waterproof and warm shelter, then the basics of water purification and safe sources thereof.

Either of those will kill you faster than starvation.

a reply to: sarra1833

If you got some food that you could store stuff for ages, the problem would be how fast you consume it.

You really need to be able to make things and grow things and scavenge and hunt.

Here's the problemo. Most of the US population live near areas of wildlife abundance in The USA. If it became a free for all under SHTF scenario then it becomes another script of Walkin Dead without the zombies. All resources will be used up,or hoarded in a matter of days. All wildlife will become dead meat faster then they can reproduce. All farms of any type will become raided and decimated. Canibalism will become the norm. Fish will be polluted out from fallout and wiped out. Disease will take care of the rest. Anyone alive in an all out NBC global totalitarian wipe out will wish they kept that last bullet they had from that bad aim shooting that rodent that escaped instead of their own head.

First question is where you going to bug out to? Unless you live in a big city I suggest you stay put, or better yet have a plan to meet up with others at some location.

My advice is this:

If you are low income, # has all ready hit the fan for you. If something really ever goes down in the USA, the low income people will be the first to starve. Do yourself a favour and, (if you're truly worried about a SHTF scenario) start living like you've all ready bugged out.

Rice and beans for lunch and dinner every day. Maybe a bit of cheese. Try a Japanese style breakfast of miso soup and fish for protein and to help your gut.

Work out every day. Parkour style. You need to be able to nimbly get around your area. Work outs like this are free.

Identify all edible local plants amd animals.

Hit up your library. Read everything you can about survival skills. Don't rely on YouTube or the internet, a book will be easier to find if things go crazy and you need a reference.

Get a small seed store that's optimized for your location.

Take all the money you can save by living CHEAP and invest in shelter that you don't believe you'll be evicted from if things get crazy. A tiny house, a reliable camper van.

If things truly go nuts in the US, 300 million + people will be trying to survive. It won't be just about food. It will be about being stronger, faster, smarter.

even if you become the greatest hunter and gardener in the world, you would still need to know how your ancestors preserved that food, especially if you live in the colder climes that don't have a year long growing season. the modern day food dehydrators are great, but they need electricity to work and by what I hear, it kind of sounds like they might be a little rough on the electric bill. my grandma used to dry string beans in her gas over, I believe she just used the heat from the pilot light. funny how I really don't like string beans, but for some reason, her bean soup was one of my favorites whenever we visited her.

my suggestion would be to head over to you tube, there's videos on how to make solar dehydrators, solar heaters, solar overs, and oh, ya, since you asked specifically about food...
search for "meals in a jar"...

a reply to: JAGStorm

Best answer,the land is a constant,nature,and this is how our ancestors survived.Well for them this was business as usual.Modern people are frightfully inept in general.I myself still have quite a bit to learn about survival off the land too.

Btw poverty is in general a teacher i think, to be used to having little- and stretching the bit you do have,is something chronically poor people are adept at.Been there.Even when times get better financially,by that time,the lessons of poverty,the parsimonious habits it instills,stays with one.EVERYTHING is useful for Something.

Learn basic survival skills,learn how to grow your own food,big food storage be overrun by pests and thieves,don't waste money on high tech items which will be usesless

a reply to: sarra1833

Just remember the zombie hoardes are all the people who didn't prepare and they will counting on stealing whatever you have.

a reply to: Atsbhct


Ehhhh parkiour is in no way more functional than working on strength and endurance....

Running around jumping over stuff and trying to do acrobatics is the quickest way to find yourself dead in a survival situation .That cut you just got, that laceration or broken bone from being reckless? Yeah that just killed you.

You need to be methodical and plan and be deliberate when getting around, that’s going to be your safest bet. This isn’t Maze Runner

The idea that wild game will disappear after a STHF scenario is a real concern. I once read an article in an outdoor magazine describing how wild game, particularly the white tailed deer, became extinct in some rural areas during the 1930s because of over hunting and a lack of regulation. It took decades for people to see even some deer tracks. Unregulated hunting pressure killed off the passenger pigeon entirely during a time when they blackened the sky for days when on the move.

An online article I read was from someone who did a lot of small game hunting in his area said in regards to rabbits, they hadn't disappeared altogether but had changed their habits to being completely nocturnal after the hunting pressure. Running around in the woods causes the game animals to change their habits, so I expect that trapping would become a really important skill to have at that point.

Wild foods can be hard to take if you aren't used to them or have some really good recipes to prepare them. A bowl full of snails and weeds would be hard to eat and keep down if you're use to grocery store foods. Spices will be needed, esp. salt as you can't live without salt and it is a good preservative. The rule of threes, three hours to find shelter in extreme weather, three days to find clean water to drink, three weeks to find food or you'll starve.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

Spices will be needed, esp. salt as you can't live without salt and it is a good preservative.

I couldn't agree more and I always have a spice kit with me now.
I learned when I ate squirrel with nothing,in the woods,that while it was good....I sure wished I had some salt and pepper!!
I raid any fast food condiment stands now for anything I can use to make food better.
Even the chicken spice from a ramen noodle package would have made that squirrel tastier!!

The rule of threes, three hours to find shelter in extreme weather, three days to find clean water to drink, three weeks to find food or you'll starve.

I added another.
3 months with no human interaction OR companionship....it is not a NEED,but its kind of an important factor.
Watch someone spend 3 months alone and see how sane they would be.

a reply to: sarra1833

The answer is, you don't make food designed to last twenty five years.

You learn how to hunt and make fresh food from more of the available biomass that already exists. You learn also how to scavenge, how to identify uninhabited areas, buildings and structures, and reap them for any tidbit that remains viable.

In essence, you learn to live off the land again, like we always should have been, rather than relying on pre-prepared food which costs money to buy and to store. You learn to live day to day, not paycheck to paycheck, you hunt every day, you gather every day, you build up your shelter every day, you never stop, its never easy, nothing is ever easy again, and you learn to LOVE the fact that it is not easy, to thrive on adversity, to stomp all over its face and laugh as it dies beneath your bootheels, and enjoy the method of its passing.

Theres no twenty five year supply of MRE that are ever going to compare with learning those necessary skills.