I hear it all the time: “I can’t afford to be a prepper, I barely get by as it is.” I feel your pain. My budget is tight, too. But being prepared is cheaper than you think.

People think prepping is expensive because they think of those survival food buckets infamously hawked by guys like Alex Jones and Jim Bakker, which can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. But you don’t need them.

I have purchased similar kits in the past, and for all that money, you get some good stuff, but you also get a lot of bags of plain white rice and powdered milk. They don’t even include a way to store water, which is more important than food.

For World War 3, I bought a couple of buckets and hit the Dollar Tree.

(I tried to sell that jingle to Dollar Tree, but their marketing folks declined. Their loss.)

Having extra food on hand is always a good idea. Even if wheat prices weren’t rising alongside fertilizer prices, you could get snowed in, lose a job, or be forced to isolate due to contagious illness.

If you feel the need to stockpile food and water but don’t know where to start, this post could save you thousands of dollars. And it shouldn’t take you longer than an hour total to assemble this kit. Everyone should be able to find the money and the time, and one day your life may depend on it.

Unprepared

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