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10-Day Survival Rations For $20

Planning ahead makes life easier. Foraging and gardening are great, but you want to have a "Plan B" as well. Disaster can strike at any time, and it's smart to have a pre-stocked emergency supply of food.

Certain emergencies (like a huge storm) may make it impossible to go outside. 

And depending on the time of year, it may be hard to forage for resources or grow your own vegetables.

That's why I'm sharing a simple, low-cost way to prepare yourself for the worst.

Below is an easy-to-follow blueprint for building your own emergency stockpile of 10-day survival rations. Why 10 days? Because this should give you more than enough time to recover from the initial disaster.

The Essentials

People can go days without food. But dehydration can set in after only a few hours. So, it's always important to have plenty of drinking water.

Fortunately, you can still buy a one-gallon jug of drinking water for under $1. These are widely available at most grocery stores and retailers across the country. Try to stock up on at least 2 - 3 bottles. 

Additionally, water purification tablets are easy to buy and commonly found at camping stores, pharmacies, and even online at Amazon (though they are more expensive there). 

And finally, you can boil water to purify it, too.

Which leads us to heat...

If you don't have a woodburning stove or place to safely light fires, you're going to want to use canned heat. Sterno is probably the best-known maker of canned heat products. And you can generally pick up a 2-hour can for under $3. 

There are other brands as well, and I've seen a few of these at the local dollar store. 

If you're on a budget and can only afford the absolute bare-bones supplies - remember that you don't need to use these heat sources constantly. Or even every day. One or two cans could be more than enough to carry you through a 10-day emergency.

Cheap, Effective Survival Foods That Don't Break The Bank

If there's one thing America excels at, it's cheap and calorie-dense food.

Most dollar stores and supermarkets have large packages of generic-brand cookies and crackers. These are excellent survival rations, since they aren't perishable and don't require any preparation.

Likewise, canned fruits and vegetables are often on sale and less than one dollar each.

Same with generic canned chili, or smaller cans of tuna and mackerel. 

And finally, staple items like peanut butter are inexpensive sources of protein.

Your home should already have seasonings and spices (like salt and pepper). But you can always find these cheaply at the dollar store, too. Or shake things up with inexpensive single-packs of instant gravy.

Lastly, be sure to check for sales at your local grocery store. You'd be surprised at the number of times a nonperishable good - with years before its expiration date - gets knocked down to a fraction of its original price.

Conclusion

Building up a 10-day supply of survival rations sounds tough, because it is. 

But, you are still capable of doing so. 

In fact, I ran out to test this idea and here's what I found:

  • 3, one-gallon jugs of water at my small-town grocery store for $0.75 each. $2.25.
  • Sterno and water tablets - I bought my tablets years ago and actually have a Coleman gas stove. But, looking only these were about $3 each. So $9 for two Sterno cans and a 30-day supply of water purifier pills.
  • This leaves $9, which doesn't sound like much. But remember, you're eating to survive. And (realistically speaking) you could add more to your food budget. I found a large box of saltine crackers for $3.28, a 16-ounce jar of Skippy's Peanut Butter for $2.62, and some generic-brand canned fruit for $1 per 15-ounce can.

Realistically, if you only wanted to buy a $10 stockpile of emergency food, four jars of peanut butter would be more than enough for one person to live on.

$20 doesn't buy much today. 

But it is still enough to keep you well-protected during a multi-day emergency.

And, you can (and should) expand on your emergency food supply until you feel comfortably protected during any situation. But, anyone can cover their basic preparedness needs for around $20. 

There's no excuse to not plan ahead.

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