Prepping 101: The Ultimate Zero to Hero Guide to Prepping

survivalsullivan.com /prepping-101-the-ultimate-zero-to-hero-guide-to-prepping/

7/24/2015
NOTE: This article has been updated with more disasters you should prep for and/or other relevant
information. Well continue to add more information to it.
Forget the Zombie apocalypse. Real zombies are, in fact, starving mobs of people that will beg you for a loaf of
bread when disaster strikes and theyve got nothing to eat. Forget those reality T.V. shows, too. Those are just
exaggerations by the media to get increased ratings.

Prepping is like an insurance for a number of critical events that could harm you, your family, your home,
your town, or your city. You dont expect to crash your car and die every time you get behind the wheel, do you? Yet
you still pay insurance. Think of prepping in the same way. You have to take steps to ensure your long term-survival.

The warning signs are there!

Let me tell you about just a few of the things that are happening right now that are troublesome to say the least, and
demonstrate to you that people are dying all around us.

the number of terrorist attacks have skyrocketed globally as the result of the war on terror, mostly in the
middle east but weve all seen what happened on 9/11, the Barcelona attacks, Paris attacks and, of course,
the Middle East
the rising of the militant group Islamic State (IS)that, despite being defeated, it left behind who knows how
many radical islamists, many of them being infiltrated in Europe

California declared a state of emergency in Jan. 2015 as it entered its 4th year of severe drought 20
The U.S. power grid is not only vulnerable to an EMP attack but might collapse on its own because its really,
really old.
The U.S. debt has reached a sickening record high of $18.3 trillion dollars and its a miracle the dollar hasnt
collapsed yet.
The U.S. has a number of powerful enemies (Russia, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, North Korea, China) that would
do anything to take it down.
Recent riots and unrest have shown how they can take the entire country by storm (Ferguson, Baltimore).
Plus, dozens of thousands of Americans die each year from unnatural causes due to the critical
events below

The three main categories of events to consider prepping for are:

Category C: Small-Scale Critical Events

car crashes (37,000 people die in the US each year and over 2 million are injured 2)

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rape (almost 300,000 sexual assaults in
the U.S. each year 3)
firearm assaults (although this number is
decreasing, 2013 saw over 1.1 million
reported assaults 4)
electric shocks (200 people a year end
up in the ER 5)
drowning (3,500 deaths each year or 10 /
day 6)
food poisoning ( 1 in 6 Americans get
sick every year and 3,000 die each year
7)

heart attack (leading cause of death in the U.S. over 600,000 people / year 1)

rabid dogs attacks (40,000 U.S. citizens are treated for rabies after being bitten 8)

carbon monoxide intoxication (500 yearly deaths, 15,000 visits to the ER 9)

house fire (over 1.2 million fires in the U.S. 10)

car breaking down

biking accidents (726 of them died in 2012 11 and Im sure the global stat is way higher)

motorcycle accidents (over 4,000 die on U.S. roads each year 12)

hiking accidents (a whopping 200,000 people a year are treated each year U.S. only 13); snowboarding,
sledging and actual hiking are at the top of hiking-related injuries (over 300 yearly deaths 6)

boating accidents (over 300 Americans die each year 6)

sinking cars
pickpocket
weather related deaths (2,000 Americans die each year from the weather and a third of them from cold-
related issues, including hypothermia 31)
losing your job or your house
street fights

hail storms (the United States is hit by over 5,000 such storms each year 11)

accidental injuries (falls, cuts, gun accidents etc.) (over 130,000/year in the U.S. 1)
police brutality (it can happen during riots and it can just as well occur during peace-time, if they mistake you
for a criminal or your house for someone elses)

snake bites (7 to 8,000 snake bites a year, resulting in 5 or 6 deaths 15)

spider bites (spiders kill more people than snakes, 7 a year 15)
tsunami-like (seiche) waves on the Great Lakes (only 10 big ones have occurred in the last hundred years but
the last one in 1998 caused some parts of Michigan to be declared federal disaster areas 16)

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Category B: Medium-Scale Disasters
terrorist attacks (Im gonna give you the
global stats for this one because its more
interesting: 13,463 attacks in 2014 alone,
32,700 deaths, 34,700 injuries and 9,400
kidnappings and hostages 17)
flash floods (over 100 Americans die each
year from them 18)
earthquakes (over 1,300 of them occur
each year that have a magnitude of at
least 5 21)
volcanic eruptions ( 169 active volcanoes
in the U.S. 22)
tsunamis (devastating tsunamis are rare,
particularly in the Atlantic Ocean but the
last one destroyed the city of Lisbon in
1755 30)

wildfire (over 63,000 total fires in the U.S. in 2014 which burned 3.6 million acres 23)
straight line winds

ice storms (over 15 of them a year happen in the United States 24)
riots
home invasions (1 in 5 homes will experience a home invasion at some point, theres a burglary every 10
seconds and one property crime every 3 seconds 25)

avalanches (almost 30 people die in the U.S. each year as a result 26)

chemical spills (thousands of yearly oil spills across the U.S. 27)
drought
prolonged grid down situations

snow storms and blizzards (20 to 30 yearly deaths U.S. only 28)
heat waves

mud slides and landslides (25 -50 yearly deaths 29)

radiation leaks
localized Martial Law

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Category A: Large-Scale Devastating Events
nuclear attacks
war
viruses
tsunamis
hurricanes
pandemics
mega-drought
economic collapse
food crisis
natural or man-made EMP disasters
the Yellowstone caldera erupting
nationwide Martial Law
gradual collapse of society
asteroid hitting Earth (very unlikely)

Those are quite a few reasons to start

prepping if you ask me! If youre intimidated or even scared, I get it. You cant prepare for everything and you
shouldnt, otherwise, your whole life will revolve around prepping and thats just not for everyone.

How Likely Are These Events to Occur?

Over the last 10 years (relative to the time of writing this article, 2015), thereve been 699 major disasters declared in
the U.S. Thats 70 disasters a year! And this doesnt even take into account those small-scale critical events from the
first list.

The Financial Aspect of Prepping

A lot of people are wandering how much prepping costs and most preppers wont give you a straight answer. Its like
asking how much a house or a car costs, right? Well, I for one hate this type of answer so Im going to give you
several possible ones right now.

If youre a complete newbie and youre only looking to prep for catastrophic events that will last less than
3 weeks, you can get started with $10 / person / week. There are lots of things you can buy for this
money, things that fall into two categories:

quality survival items that are really cheap

cheaper versions of more expensive survival items (that are better than nothing)

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 If youre new to prepping and you dont have time AND you dont really want to learn a whole bunch of stuff
If you havent done any prepping at all but you have the money and youre also looking to put in the effort, a
$30 to $50 / week / family member should work quite nicely.
If you have the budget to spend more than $50 / week. DONT. Youre gonna make a lot of mistakes in the
beginning so, the more your read, the less likely you are to buy overpriced food, guns and gear. Sure, you
have to buy stuff but knowing which stuff to buy and having the right skills is much more important.

Now, the secret to minimizing your expenses with prepping is to put in more time and effort into it. For example,
you can:

use coupons
buy in bulk
monitor prices to spot real discounts
find no-name products that are cheaper than brand names yet just as good (there are some decent
companies out there which make excellent products as a way to get noticed and get market share)
hunt for garage sales
compare various products in the smallest of detail to make sure you get the most bang for your buck
consider bartering with your prepper friends or even online, on prepping forums
avoid buying MREs because theyre too expensive (in addition to them tasting bad and health issue)

Consider These Before You Start

Although sometimes its best to just dive into things head first and just do them, before you buy your first prep,
consider your unique situation:

your age (you may not be in the shape you once were)
your sex (you may not have the strength to fend off attackers, lift heavy objects etc.)
your family (they may or may not agree with prepping)
your location (you should prep for certain disasters first)
your financial situation (this can dictate how much you can prep and how long your stockpile will last)
any medical conditions (these will dictate what emergency foods you can or cannot stockpile)

Should You Keep Your Mouth Shut About Survival?

Ideally you want everyone on board but thats just not possible. The most important people to convince are the ones
living under the same room as you: your family. Everyone else, dont count on it and tell them about your endeavors
only if you notice theyre worried about their future too.

If you cant get your family on board, you should prep alone. If you can, you should develop a family survival plan.

How to Start Prepping

My approach to prepping is in steps and its layered. You first figure out your unique situation (location, number of
household members, types of events most likely to affect you), then you just have to apply my layered approach (for
the first 3 days, then 3 weeks, 3 months and 1+ years). Start with level one and dont move on the the next one until
youve complete it.

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Now, there are two basic scenarios for you and your family when a catastrophe hits. You either bug in (meaning,
stay inside your home until its over) or bug out (leave your home and town or city and find safety somewhere else).

Your Customized Layered Survival 101 Plan

Sure, you could go hardcore right from the start and prepare for a long-term disaster from day one but, as I said,
youre gonna make some mistakes. Its much better to prepare for the layers Im about to give you. But before we
get into that, let me just give you the heads up on some of the most common mistakes:

buying too much without thinking,

focusing to much on buying things and too little on their skills,
talking about their preps with non-preppers,
storing too much of one particular type of food,
prepping for one specific event,
Waiting for the crisis or catastrophe to test their skills (shooting, cooking, bugging out etc.). These should be
periodically practiced in advance.
neglecting survival medicine,
and much, much more. You can find a full list here.

Layer 1: Your 72-Hour Emergency Plan (for absolute beginners)

The first thing you need to worry about is having the basics down to survive at least 72 hours. Most smaller-scale
disasters dont last longer than this, so it makes sense to take care of this first. To successfully pass the prepping for
beginners Level 1, you will need:

a DIY bug out bag (BOB for short)

a DIY first-aid kit (FAK for short)
a bug-out location (a place to run to should something happen)
a bug out vehicle
a few basic survival skills and a few specialized for urban scenarios if you live in the city
general physical preparation (GPP), meaning you need to be a little stronger, faster, more flexible and have
more stamina; nothing too fancy, you just need to get a little bit into shape
at least a couple of ways to start a fire (think Bic lighters, magnesium fire starters, steel wool and a 9V battery,
waterproof matches etc.)
at least one way to filter water such as the LifeStraw
at least a couple of ways to light your way (such as hand crank flashlights, candles etc.)
multi-purpose survival items such as duct tape, mil-spec 550 Paracord, baking soda, bleach
one emergency thermal blanket per person
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 Think about one-way and two-way emergency communications (you need to be the first to know when things
go bad and you need ways to contact your family, the police, the ambulance and so on). At the very least, you
should have an AM/FM emergency radio and extra batteries.
you need to have at least one home defense gun or an alternative non-firearm weapon
a 72-hour stockpile of food (consider at least 2,500 calories / person / day)
a 3-day water stockpile (at least 1 gallon
/ person / day)
Designate a safe-room necessary for a
wide array of small-scale disasters and
events.
Prepare mentally. The will to survive is
whats gonna make it or break it.
Know your bug-out routes. mark them on
printed and laminated maps. Focus on
the ones that are less likely to get
crowded when everyones trying to get
out of the city. Consider unconventional
bug-out routes such as rail tracks.
Develop your fight or flight instinct. Make sure youre always prepared to evacuate from impending danger
in a split second.
Get a good fixed-blade survival knife or, at the very least, a good folding knife.
Get a good multi-tool.
Worry about COMSEC and OPSEC. As one of my readers simplified it, COMSEC is about your resources,
OPSEC is about how you deploy those preps.

You can read more about the essentials needed in an emergency right here, I think I covered the topic pretty well.

Remember the rule of threes: you can live 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days
without water and 3 weeks without food.

This may come as s surprise but if youre out into the wild, shelter is more important than food.

Layer 2: Your 3-Week Plan

Obviously, your three week plan should expand on the previous one. I advise you to NOT move to level 2 until
youve fully taken care of level 1. Of course, there are exceptions. For instance, you may want to buy food in
bulk thats gonna last you a lot more than 3 days.

Heres what you should do or improve to prepare for a catastrophe that will last at least three weeks:
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Think about shelter in case youre out in the woods somewhere. A survival tent or a tarp are both
good choices, although tents will keep you safer from the temperatures and insects outside.
Learn about all the ways to find water.
Learn and prepare for more ways to start
a fire.
Expand your first aid kit with more of
what you have as well as new stuff, such
as a fire extinguisher.
Build a 3-week water supply. Use BPA-
free 55 gallon water storage barrels.
Build a 3-week food supply by focusing
on foods with long shelf life and means
to properly store them. This list will help
but you can start with:

white rice,
dried beans,
pasta,
canned fruits and veggies,
honey,
peanut butter,
salt and sugar,
jams & jellies

Since things will go from bad to worse, you need to be able to blend in withe everyone else and avoid being a
target. This means you cant look cleaner, healthier, more satiated or happier than everyone else.
Start reorganizing your home to accommodate your increasing stockpile. Think ahead.
Fill plastic bottles with water, then let them freeze to be able to keep your food longer in case of an extended
power outage.
This could also be part of your level 1 preparation but you need to fortify your home to make sure no one gets
in unless you want them to.
Make sure theres always enough gas in your car to reach your bug out location and even keep an extra gas
can in the trunk.
Dont neglect firearms. Get a second one, stock up on ammo and get a gun cleaning kit.
Expect to abandon your vehicle at some point during the bug out, so keep items that will help you keep
moving:

a skateboard, a kids scooter, even an inflatable canoe

Assemble a get home bag (GHB), a car bug out bag (car BOB) and your everyday carry kit (EDC).
Consider stashing some food for your pets and farmyard animals.
Do functional fitness 2-3 times a week to stay in shape.

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Layer 3: Your 3-Month Emergency Plan

A three months+ disaster means a lot of bad things will happen. Since most people wont last for more than 3 weeks
without food, the ones that do probably have a lot of power: guns, ammo, food, communications, physical strength
and so on. These people are going to be more dangerous, than your typical unarmed zombie begging for food,
because they know exactly swhat theyre doing.

Depending on the nature of the disaster, there are certain things you need to consider:

Martial Law may be in effect, meaning the Government will be gone.

There might be no law at all, meaning gangs of people would rule regions or just certain areas and
neighborhoods.
Many of your liberties will be gone, including the right to free speech or to a fair trial.
Federal agents may knock on your door and take away your supplies to share them with others.
You might be under foreign occupation.
The power grid may be down (its weak as it is).
Food and water will be rationed.
The transportation system will be down, meaning no food or water in stores.

Consider the following for your 3-month emergency plan:

Split your preps between your home and your bug out location because you dont know where youll end up.
Save more food for your pets and animals and make sure your cat or dog has its own bug out bag.
Come up with the disaster scenarios that are most likely to happen, develop plans of what you can do in each
of them and practice them (ideally with your family).
Start growing a small garden, maybe just a few plants in pots or buckets.
Learn self-defense moves.
Consider hiding your preps and your guns from looters.
Improve your health by reducing carbs intake and focusing on clean food.
Get a really good survival knife and keep your folding one as a back-up.
Make sure you have means of cooking without electricity (propane or alcohol stoves).
Have plans B and C for everything. Remain flexible because, if something can go wrong, it usually will.

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Layer 4: Prepping for a One Year+ Disaster

OK, this isnt exactly part of the prepping 101 thing but, if youre ready for the ultimate level, heres what you should
do:

Start stockpiling seeds to ensure you have fresh, delicious foods for the long term.
Rotate your food stockpile at least twice a year (when you change the clock back and forth is a good idea) or
even make survival food part of your weekly diet.
Dont stockpile foods you wouldnt eat or youre allergic to.
Go off grid.

Start using alternate ways to collect energy.

Start collecting rainwater.
Learned advanced skills to be able to fix and do things on your own, such as woodworking, plumbing,
sewing, gutting animals, working with clay and on and on.
Start a survival garden.
Consider an aquaponics system.
Start raising backyard animals such as chickens, goats, ducks, pigs etc.

Build a network of like-minded individuals that are as (geographically) close to you as possible.
Learn bush-craft skills to be able to survive in the most adverse conditions.
Take survival classes and have a professional trainer guide you through many of the things that you read and
find harder to apply.
Focus on renewable sources of food, water and on medicinal plants.
Get out of debt.
Consider selling your home and moving in a rural area, either in a small town or even on a boat!
Following the two is one, one is none rule, start doubling some of your most important items:

get a second survival knife

procure and practice more means to start a fire
learn other ways to purify water instead of relying on your LifeStraw
get a second AM/FM radio

Learn a second language, such as French or Spanish, so its easier to communicate with others, no matter
where you go.
Get a 4X4 vehicle. Its a much better choice for bugging out.
Consider all the various places to hide your preps, including inside fake air vents or burying them in your back
yard.
Learn to forage and recognize wild edibles. These arent just backup food sources, theyre jam-packed with
vitamins and fiber.
Modify your home and bug out location to keep it cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
Get a dental kit and pay extra attention to brushing, flossing and even using mouthwash. If you wont have a
dentist available post-collapse, you can avoid a lot of pain by sticking to your daily routine.

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 Get ready to build a post-collapse society with you as its leader. In dark times, people will look up to you.
Last but not least, consider how much youll be bored when theres no Internet, no playstations, no tablets.
Keep in mind these old-school ways to have fun.

A Few Acronyms
Im sure youve read about a lot of acronyms and wonder what they meant. Here are a few of the most common
ones.

SHTF stands for S*it Hits The Fan and describes the situation or situations all preppers fear, when chaos
descends, we emerge into darkness, its total mass and social break down call it whatever you like.

Bugging Out is the action of leaving your home in face of disaster of collapse, preferably to get as far away as
possible.

Bugging In is somewhat the opposite of bugging out, meaning you fortify and stay inside your home until the whole
thing is over.

BOB stands for Bug Out Bag, which is the backpack filled with survival essentials youd need to leave your home in
face of impending catastrophe.

A BOV or a Bug Out Vehicle is the means of transportation you will use when bugging out.

See more acronyms in a dedicated article.

Further Reading
There are a lot more things to talk about and, although Ive given you plenty of links throughout this article, you
should also consider these:

120+ Survival Tips That May One Day Save Your Life , for example:

you need to keep your bug out bag as light as possible

always keep your food, water and meds in cool, dark, dry places, away from light, rodents and other
pests
use Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers to maximize the shelf life of most emergency foods
never store water in milk jugs or juice boxes
start hoarding as much water as you can in every container around the house the moment you hear
that something bad has happened

A huge collection of 500 military manuals. ( link)

Fast onlines huge collection of PDFs on every topic you can imagine related to survival and homesteading
(link)
A similar directory of eBooks, only this one has over 4000 ebooks to choose from ( link)
The famous One Second After (Amazon link) book that has changed the lives of so many preppers.
Another great book, Tess Penningtons The Prepper Blueprint (Amazon link).
And if youre looking to get deeper into homesteading, try The Backyard Homestead (Amazon link).

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Word of advice: dont fall into the reading trap. As you read, you should also apply. Avoid being just a survival
junkie whos read everything there is to read but is a sitting duck if disaster were to strike right now. Your life and
that of your family is at stake here.

Sources and References

1. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm
2. http://asirt.org/Initiatives/Informing-Road-Users/Road-Safety-Facts/Road-Crash-Statistics
3. https://www.rainn.org/statistics
4. https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/november/crime-statistics-for-2013-released/crime-statistics-for-2013-
released
5. http://files.esfi.org/file/Workplace-Electrical-Injury-and-Fatality-Statistics-2003-2010.pdf
6. http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/Water-Safety/waterinjuries-factsheet.html
7. http://www.cdc.gov/foodborneburden/
8. http://www.cdc.gov/features/dsrabies/
9. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5402a2.htm
10. http://www.nfpa.org/research/reports-and-statistics/fires-in-the-us
11. http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812018.pdf
12. http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/motorcycles/fatalityfacts/motorcycles
13. http://www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/2008/r080610.htm
14. http://www.rmiia.org/catastrophes_and_statistics/Hail.asp
15. http://ufwildlife.ifas.ufl.edu/venomous_snake_faqs.shtml
16. http://www.earthmagazine.org/article/history-tsunami-waves-great-lakes
17. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/terrorstats.html
18. http://www.ucar.edu/communications/factsheets/Flooding.html
19. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant
20. http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/californias-drought/
21. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php
22. http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/about/faq/faqhazards.php
23. http://wildland-fires.findthedata.com/
24. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_storm#cite_note-irland-3
25. http://www.lockjawsecurity.com/pdf/LockBumpingFactSheet.pdf
26. http://avalanche.state.co.us/accidents/statistics-and-reporting/
27. http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/hazards/spills/
28. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/hazstats.shtml
29. http://landslides.usgs.gov/learn/ls101.php
30. http://geology.com/noaa/atlantic-ocean-tsunami/
31. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cdc-weather-kills-2000-per-year-top-culprit-surprising/

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