subject: Budget Survival Kits - A Low Cost Solution For Survival [print this page] By now, most of us know we should have pre-assembled survival kits, "ready to go" supplies in our homes, our cars, and at our workplaces. But, if you do much of any research into "survivalism," you'll quickly learn that many of these supposed experts apparently figure we're all independently wealthy and able to drop thousands of dollars on survival supplies at a moment's notice. While I think most of us would love the opportunity to have umpteen acres of wilderness in a remote location, complete with a fully stocked secure cabin, that's just not in the cards for most of us. Most of us have to work for a living and often those jobs are far removed from the remote corners of the country.
Budget survival kits provide a solution for those in that situation.
These are kits that might not contain state of the art equipment but the contents are both serviceable and low cost. They typically satisfy all the basic survival kit needs: food, water, shelter, fire, first aid, and hygiene. The focus is on items that will do double or triple duty, keeping the overall cost down. For example, hand sanitizer will obviously clean hands but it also has a high enough alcohol content to be an aid for starting a campfire.
The whole idea behind budget survival kits is to provide you with the bare necessities for survival in one low-cost package. Many people look at these kits as a temporary solution. By that, I mean they will purchase a couple budget survival kits now, just in case something happens, while at the same time working towards being able to purchase more complete and higher quality supplies. Whether this is your ultimate goal or not, these budget supplies are infinitely better than having nothing at all.
As I mentioned, the contents might not always be the best on the market.
You aren't going to find a high-end Gerber knife or Leatherman multi-tool in a budget survival kit. But, a couple razor blades are cheap and will handle most cutting chores fairly well. Plus, these kits are of course fully customizable. Instead of just relying on a few lifeboat matches in the kit, you can toss in a cheap butane lighter and a magnesium striker for backup sources of fire lighting equipment. Odds are pretty good you already have items you can toss into the assembled survival kit and you won't have to go out and incur much of any further expense in doing your customization.
