Preparing on a Shoestring Part 3: Shelter

We have covered food and water so now it is time to turn our attention to shelter.

Our first and best shelter is our home in most circumstances.  However, there are certain emergencies that make our homes unviable as a shelter resource.  These include flood, fire, weather damage, and possible nuclear, biological, and chemical events whether they be intentionally man made or occurring by accident.  In those cases, we may have to bug out.  I will talk about this eventuality first and cover some of the things we can do to our homes at the end.

Being as we are working on a limited budget, we will start simple.  Pick up a good all purpose, 10’X10’ tarp, some ¼” or 3/8” rope or 550 cord (the old equipment paracord is best but almost impossible to find anymore), and a roll of duct tape.  The tarp is versatile.  It can be tied and staked in a manner to provide a simple, open air fly for shelter from sun and rain.  It can be laid across a rope tied between 2 trees or other fixed points and rolled under in a triangle to do the same as well as to provide a wind break and shelter from snow.  In this configuration, it can be made small enough to hold in a fair amount of warmth.  It can be wrapped around a tree or post and you have a teepee.

These items are good to have in any event even if you have better shelter, so the money spent on them will not be wasted.  You can upgrade your gear and still have a use for these items.  Barring even the resources to acquire all these items right away, check this link out: http://tpass.org/forums/index.php?topic=1018.0 .  It shows how to construct an expedient shelter against weather out of trash bags and duct tape.  A couple of sticks, tennis balls, and welding rods for stakes were also used.  The sticks can be found wherever there are trees and the balls and rods could be substituted with duct tape and more sticks..

OK, there are the real cheap expedients.  The next step up would be an actual tent.  You should never scrimp on shelter you might have to depend on for an extended period of time, but you don’t have to take a second mortgage out on your house to buy one either.  Wal-mart and similar stores, as well as the outdoor stores like Bass Pro and Cabela’s carry a good selection of tents at prices ranging from reasonable to ridiculously expensive.  Of course that is a subjective statement.  You get what you pay for.  Nevertheless, a relatively inexpensive tent can give years of good service with a reasonable amount of care.  There is also the army surplus route.  This is good, time and battle tested equipment that usually comes with an inordinately low price tag.  It will last, and with minimal care.

When shopping for tents, keep in mind that all weather is the way to go.  Summer tents with those screen panels sewn in the top and no way to close them are nice in 90 degree heat, but are the pits when the temps are anywhere near freezing.  Don’t buy one the size of a folding house either.  Their purpose is to keep you dry and out of the weather.  If you need that much room, buy a smaller tent and more than one of them.  The smaller ones are easier to heat and stand up to wind better.  Also, if you lose the use of one, you will be cramped but will still have shelter.

That keeps you under roof if you have to bug out.  Bear in mind that living in a tent for an extended period gets old fast.  I have called a 7’X9’ tent home for two straight months in the Boy Scouts, so trust me.  I know what I am talking about.  The best idea is to have a place to bug out to.  Hotels, motels, campgrounds, and rented housing are expensive.  They also might not be available in an emergency because everybody else has the same idea and might be commandeered by the Government for refugee operations.  A retreat is a long and expensive project if it isn’t your primary residence.  Most preppers have a fairly low opinion of Government refugee housing and refugee camps, and with good reason.  So what is the financially challenged prepper to do in the way of a bug out destination?  Call on the help of family or friend.  Here is a link to explain what I mean: http://tpass.org/forums/index.php?topic=1083.0 .

Having agreements with others to offer shelter to one another in time of need is not an expensive proposition.  The most you will be out if you ever need to take advantage of the agreement is the cost of getting there and the cost of replacing consumables that for whatever reason you need and don’t have.  On the other side of the coin, you would be out a small amount of cost for the extra utilities used by others in your home and whatever consumables you provide them until they can replace those consumables.  Either way, it is a good deal for both parties if for no other reason than the peace of mind and concrete plan it provides.  By the way, using one another’s homes as a home base for a vacation saves a lot of money on the vacation and provides a great dry run to see how things might actually work out in an emergency when it is done so that both groups are under one roof and then both under the other roof.

As mentioned earlier, a retreat is a long and expensive process to put together and meld into a viable bug out location.  It is still a fantastic idea.  A retreat is a near perfect, long term goal.  In my case, the retreat will become my primary residence when and if I ever manage to complete my plans.  If that becomes the case, the necessity of bugging out will be very unlikely.  Having said that, I estimate that it will be 15 years before I have any chance whatsoever of having a retreat that is even viable as a destination, much less a primary residence.

Last of all it is time to discuss home as shelter.  Most people will have their greatest investment and concentration of resources in their lives wound up in their home.  You already have it.  It is where you and yours are most comfortable.  It makes sense to develop it into the most secure and comfortable place to shelter.  Keep a toolbox with basic tools handy.  Stock a few tarps of various sizes, a box of roofing nails, some drywall screws of various lengths, a roll of heavy duty contractor’s plastic sheeting, a sheet or two of plywood, duct tape, and a dozen or so shingles to match your roof.  Next, add a piece of pipe for each size of water and waste line in your home, a few miscellaneous valves for replacements of those in your home, a handful of appropriately sized fittings, and a good do-it-yourself book of general home repairs.  Add insulation.  It goes a long way toward keeping both the inside temperature and outside temperature where they belong.

Don’t forget safety.  A few good, well placed fire extinguishers are a must.  Spend the money and get the steel cased ones that can be recharged.  If you can’t put out a fire, at least the thing can be used to break out a window for escape.  Smoke detectors are a find addition too, as is a good CO2 detector.  Together, these things might just save your life and your home.

If you rent, be cautious that you don’t cross your landlord.  Any upgrades to their property should be discussed and approved by them.  Also bear in mind that you are spending money to improve their property.  Unless you buy the place, those upgrades will always belong to them.  In an apartment, many of the above measures don’t apply.  In either case, your preparedness would probably be better served in the long term by saving up the money to buy a home as a first priority.  You can always sell and upgrade because what you pay today, you own tomorrow.  This might put a crimp on all the other things to do in a prep program, but you can still do them at a slower pace.  In my opinion, the increased risk in the beginning is more than offset by the security (in more ways than one) gained in the latter part of the program.

Think hard about the kinds of things that you might face.  Make a threat assessment that lists all the disasters and troubles you think are at all possible, no matter how unlikely or outlandish you may think them to be.  List them all in order according to how likely you think they are to come to pass.  From there, figure out what you will need to overcome those problems.  That should give you a good idea of what you will need to spend your money on and in what order.  From there, make your budget and stick with it.  A little at a time, you will build up what you need.  In the mean time, you will become better prepared, day by day.  Each step forward will make you better able to face whatever may come.  It will make you better able to bug in and more capable of successfully bugging out if you must.

Good luck and happy prepping!