Help me spend my money!

[MustangGal]

I unexpectedly got some extra money for prepping. Lately, most of our extra cash has gone into chickens (chickens, coop, waterers, feeders, and so on) and goats (goats, housing, fencing, feed....). Anyway, I have about $300 to spend.

Weapons: We are well armed, an extra 12 gauge pump shotgun would be nice, and maybe another semiauto pistol, but that would probably be the only place we are short.

Ammo: need .45, buckshot, slugs, maybe a couple thousand more rounds of .22. We are solid on birdshot, .223 and 8mm.

Food: I have been buying extra food, but we have no long term storage, like wheat. I have found a local, reasonable source.

Water: Need a filtration system - looking at buying the bucket system Matt (Oklahoma) posted about.

Medical: Working on 1st aid kits, have purchased a years supply of several OTC medications.

So, what would you do with $300?

[Irish-Tech]

Have you thought about just saving the money as a financial reserve? otherwise work on the food storage. you have a the animals so there is some, but a few cases or beans/wheat wouldn't hurt. wheat is only thing i don't use all the time. not my idea of a fun time to grind it and then make some bread.

on a side note your in the country so im guessing you have a water well. that should give you clean water even after SHTF. So maybe a windmill or solor power so that when the grid goes down you still have water. just a thought. it amazes me how cheap wind power can be. batteries will run you some money, but a single truck battery and 100watt inverter should easily run a water well pump for quite a while.

[MustangGal]

Unfortuantely we don't live in the country. We live in a very small town (population around 400), but it does have city water. We do have vehicles that should run, post SHTF, so we have access to a very, very cold local stream, plus we are working on getting some rain barrels. Gotta keep my livestock properly watered too!

Actually, it is a very good recommendation to keep some of the money in reserve, and we are doing that with the majority of the money. The $300 is just what we decided to spend on prepping gear/food.

[Irish-Tech]

then water filtration it is. thats my next major purchase i need to talk my wife into.

[Jerry D Young]

Water filtration and then ammo.

[Lowdown3]

Have you thought about just saving the money as a financial reserve? otherwise work on the food storage. you have a the animals so there is some, but a few cases or beans/wheat wouldn't hurt. wheat is only thing i don't use all the time. not my idea of a fun time to grind it and then make some bread.

on a side note your in the country so im guessing you have a water well. that should give you clean water even after SHTF. So maybe a windmill or solor power so that when the grid goes down you still have water. just a thought. it amazes me how cheap wind power can be. batteries will run you some money, but a single truck battery and 100watt inverter should easily run a water well pump for quite a while.

100 watts isn't a lot. Assume you meant 1,000 watts? Check the HP on the pump. Might run a shallow well pump.

We run a bank of 24 L16 batteries and Trace 4024 4,000 inverter/charger. It's a MAJOR drain on our batteries to pump water from our main deep well with the system.

A generator is a better option IMO to run a deep well pump. Pump your water up to an elevated tank or otherwise fill a 300 or so gallon tanks, then shut the genset off. If you size your genset correctly, you could be charging some batteries while pumping water at the same time.

BTDT, for over a decade now ;)

That being said, I'm looking forward to a solar deep well pump.

Sorry for the sidetrack.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Buy several of the filter systems, LT Food, Ammo or one good Berky filter maybe I dunno

[Irish-Tech]

my only real reference is a shallow well, and it runs less than 100 watts. i just looked up some others and they do run 2000+ watts. nice fast water pumping with those models too.

learn something new every day.

[protus]

water- you need it everyday.
whats left over dump into some LTS.
if you have extra then , b uy ammo

[Hidden Agenda]

Based on the available info...I'd have to suggest water filtration as well. If there's any $ left over, put it towards ammo.

[trkarl]

I'd say the filter system first then add food and shoot for a year first. You mentioned wheat. Do you have a grinder for it?

[MustangGal]

I don't, but I have one in a virtual shopping cart right now! lol

I also have a filter system (in a virtual shopping cart) with a backup and some mylar bags and oxygen packs.

[runtothehills]

I agree with Protus, water is #1.........look here through the threads on filtration, there is a bunch of good idea's!

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

1. You can live three seconds in a firefight --- you have weapons and ammo, so you are covered
2. You can live three minutes without oxygen --- you have air to breathe so you are good here (except in chemical warfare)
3. You can live three hours without shelter --- I hope you have shelter
3. You can live three days without water --- Need help here
4. You can live three weeks without food --- LTS could be useful here

Here is a link to a water filter that will run you about $30 if you supply the buckets

As far as long term storage, you can get a years supply of Hard Red Winter Wheat already packed for long term storage for about $270 HERE.

There, I spent your $300 easily. I love spending other people's money :D Hope that helps you.

[MustangGal]

Okay, thus far I have ordered:
Water filter (like Matt used) $20
100 lbs of hard red wheat $50
wheat mill $50
50 lbs of rice $18
mylar bags w/ oxygen absorbers (5 gallon and 1 gallon sizes) $50
25 lbs of flour $8

roughly $200 so far