In the Beginning, Part Four

A Full Shopping Cart (ca 2013)
photograph by
The Photographer

Lastly, you need to make a plan of what you and your family are going to buy to help you survive a disaster.

Buying in a Spiral
First, a shout out to Spartan, my brother, he came up with this method of buying stuff.

The idea is to buy a little (or complete a task) each month in each of the different categories to help increase you and your family's chance of surviving a disaster.

An Example of Buying in a Spiral

January '11 - Install new smoke detectors on every floor in the house
February '11 - 6 tarps and 50 feet of nylon rope for an expedient shelter
March '11 - Ten 5-gallon water carriers then fill them with tap water
April '11 - Two week supply of canned, boxed, and bottled food
May '11 - SKS rifle and 100 rounds of ammo
June '11 - First-Aid kit, one your family builds
July '11 - One pair of walking boots for everyone
August '11 - Weather alert radio
September '11 - 5 sets of bicycle tire tubes and an air pump
October '11 - Backwoods Home anthologies, 1st - 10th year
November '11 - $500 in an envelop, under the mattress
December '11 - Emergency kit for each car

the next year

January '12 - Family-sized tent
February '12 - Water filter (Katadyn or Berkey)
March '12 - 360 pounds (12 cases) of wheat from the Mormons
April '12 - SKS rifle repair parts and 500 rounds of ammo
May '12 - Extra prescription medicine
...

You get the idea.

The Reasoning Behind this Method
Buying in a spiral pattern allows you to buy a little bit of prepping supplies in each category, every month or week. This prevents you and your family from over-prepping in one area. Instead of having a multiyear supply of food but no firearms to protect the family, you and your family can eat for a month and protect yourselves, and treat a minor injury, and bike to the store, and make an emergency purchase, and ...

An Organization Tool
Needless to say, you and your family are going to need something written down to keep track of what y'all are going to buy over the next year.

One method is a basic grid.

What I did is take a sheet of paper and write down each item category.

Next, I add one or two items, the top priorities, under each heading.

As the year passes by, the plan is to buy one of these items each month.

PS.
Folks, depending on your financial situation, you may decide to make a prepping purchase every week, instead of every month, buy larger quantities, or buy less often. It's your choice.

PS, Again.
Even though I focused on purchases, you and your family can use this method to identify skills or tasks that you want to learn or complete to increase your chance of surviving a disaster.