As preppers, we’re all used to buying a few things most people don’t bother with. Water purification systems, for example. Radio equipment. Hand-powered tools. Then of course there’s the little things we do every time we go to the grocery store, like buying a couple of cans more than we need for that week and adding them to our stockpile.
Prepping is all about self-reliance and being able to live without relying on stores, the utility grid, and all the other things modern society provides. But while we have access to those stores there are plenty of things we can buy that will improve our chances of survival when the time comes.
I’ve certainly been buying prepping supplies all year, but 2024 is on the downhill slope now so I’m already thinking forward about what my priorities should be in 2025. More of the same? Maybe.
I think it’s worth putting some thought into it, though. After all, the situation is changing and the world is more unstable than it’s been any time since the Cold War. Is that going to affect what preppers should be buying? Here are the items I think should be our priority purchases for next year.
Guns and Ammo
There’s a strong chance 3-letter agencies might target gun owners due to their political affiliation, and if that happens the Second Amendment will come under even more pressure.
That means one of the first things you should consider buying in 2025 if you don’t have one already, is a semi-automatic rifle.
Right now these are still legal in most states, but that could change if our next president manages to force through another federal “assault weapon” ban.
Many preppers already have a rifle like this; if you don’t, get one. They’re excellent for hunting small to medium game as well as for self-defense. Get one that’s chambered for 5.56mm NATO and feeds from standard AR15 magazines; it will be much easier to keep it supplied with weapons and ammunition.
So-called “high capacity” magazines are another thing to buy. Gun banners hate them and twelve states already have laws restricting magazine capacity. Magazines can get lost, and they’ll eventually wear out – and, without them, a modern firearm becomes a clumsy single-shot weapon. Buy as many good quality magazines as you can.
Related: Read This Before Buying a Gun
Don’t forget ammunition, either. It’s unlikely the government will manage to ban this, but the US has been suffering from intermittent ammunition shortages for years. These shortages tend to get worse when people are worried – so if a crisis is developing it’s likely the ammo shelves in gun stores will quickly empty.
If you want to be prepared stock up on ammo before everyone else decides they need to. And if you want to make sure you’re fully prepared you might want to take advantage of specialized training. The Special Forces Home Defense Academy offers comprehensive courses that can teach you how to protect your home and family effectively.
Power Generation
Our ancestors in the 19th century lived their entire lives without electricity. Many preppers have relearned the old skills needed to do that, and that’s a great idea – but if you don’t have to live without electricity, why would you want to?
Being able to generate power lets you use refrigeration, which can preserve medications as well as food. It lets you have proper lighting; candles and oil lamps look great, but try doing any kind of intricate work with their light and you’ll soon be wishing you could flick a switch and get some proper electric illumination.
The traditional prepper way to make electricity is with a gas or diesel generator. These are effective and affordable, but they need fuel. In a long-term crisis, the fuel will eventually run out.
Luckily, technology is advancing, and in the last couple of years, solar power has become a viable option for preppers who want to generate at least some electricity. This device can generate endless power and you can build it your own at just a fraction of price you would pay for something similar but not as efficient.
One of the big drawbacks of solar panels is that they only generate electricity when the sun is shining, and most of us find it more useful to switch the lights on when it’s dark. Modern rechargeable batteries have finally reached the point where you can generate and store useful amounts of electricity during the day, then use it at night. Look at solar panels and battery storage solutions as a fuel-free way of keeping the lights on after the SHTF.
Food and Seeds
Personally, over the last few years I’ve been more worried about a short-term crisis – political unrest, another pandemic scare leading to lockdowns, that sort of thing.
Now, with the sharp rise in international tensions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s threatening moves towards Taiwan, I think the risk of something more permanent happening has also risen – something society isn’t going to recover from anytime soon, like a nuclear war.
With that in mind, I think it’s a good time for preppers to focus on long-term food supplies.
It’s still important to stockpile the usual staples – flour, beans, rice and canned goods. In the worst-case scenario of a nuclear attack you’ll need food supplies to last you while you shelter from fallout, but that isn’t going to be enough. When the radiation level falls, stores aren’t just going to open again and start selling food.
The whole food production and distribution system will have collapsed, and it won’t come back for years – maybe ever. If you want to survive you need to be able to grow your own food. That means having enough food stockpiled to last you until your first crops are ready, and it also means having heirloom seeds to grow those crops from.
Don’t count on anything you already have planted surviving; it could be killed by fallout, or stolen by desperate (and probably doomed) refugees while you’re sheltering. Buy the seeds you’ll need to start over.
Medications
The US has the largest pharmaceutical industry in the world – but a lot of American-made drugs rely on chemicals imported from China.
With international tensions they way they are, the supply lines our drug factories rely on aren’t as stable as they once were.
In a major crisis China is one of our likely enemies, and it’s safe to assume they’ll stop selling us ingredients for medications.
That means we need to stockpile essential medications now, while they’re still available. Look at buying painkillers and other over the counter medications. Buy antibiotics from aquarium suppliers.
Another thing to buy is books on traditional remedies; in a long-term emergency, being able to find and harvest medicinal plants could be vital to survival. One that I have myself and totally recommend is a book called The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies II that’s basically showing you step-by-step how to make your own remedies.
Considering the current situation, these are the things I’ll be buying in 2025. Do you think I have any of them wrong? Is there anything I missed? Let us know in the comments.
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An easy and commonly overlooked prep is spices. Bland food can negatively affect your mental state. Familiar and changing food flavors will help.
Mike, your dead on with the spice thingy… While breaking out my C-Rats while in the field in Nam, we found salt and pepper in the rats… I asked my parents to send me some Tabasco sauce… lucky for me and those on my team, they sent a case of those little rascals… Needless to say, after distribution amongst us, there were still afew extra’s left… My parents ended up sending two more cases later on… Spices do assist in enhancing the flavors of the C-Rats… Everyone on the team sent thank you letters to my parents… I already reside in my BOL, so what I need to do now is up amount of spices I have in my cabinets, I do thank you for the reminder…
I like your line of thought. A person needs water, food, shelter, and a way to defend themselves. I feel I have the basics covered so now its down to making improvements and having more options incase of situations I hadn’t thought of or planned for. I don’t have any registered guns and haven’t taken hunter safety classes so I wont be putting my name on their lists by rushing in to buy guns. I will keep adding to my ways to collect and purify water, add to my collection of (non powered) hand tools, and I am interested in growing sprouts to provide some fresh content to my diet. I am far enough along in my journey in this old world that my theme is now don’t be a burden on others and try to be able to help out by fixing and repairing things as needed. Well, my closing though, don’t think I cant or wont defend myself, I just don’t want my name on their lists.
The best thing you could do if you want a gun is to do a FTF (face to face) purchase through a friend who is willing. I’m not talking about a straw man purchase which is someone buying a gun for someone else using their own information (technically illegal). I’m talking about a gun that someone’s had for years and wants to sell.
Countless municipalities have tried to pass legislation to make such a FTF purchase illegal, so be aware of that.
A reasonable and impartial examination of many firearms laws will reveal that they are repugnant to the Constitution – if so, any such law is null and void out of the gate, and I am not bound to obey it. This doesn’t make it not exist though.
SCOTUS has already ruled that a prerequisite can not be required to exercise any right, but both the federal government and state governments do.Face it, our government at every level abides by no law they just expect the rest of us to even if it is unconstitutional and criminal as even trying to deprive a person of their rights is a crime under federal law.
If any group or individual has any immunity / indemnity granted by government is in violation of the equal protection of the law clause, a constitutional right, but government does it anyway, but the kicker is you need to pay a lawyer if possible to challenge it, and you will lose unless you have an honest judge & lawyer something almost unheard of.
Good, sweet and to the point… as far as Guns and Ammo, Alot of the states here in the South have gun show’s, where one could shop and purchase just about anything dealing with firearms, as well as knives… I should just say weaponry, cause I’ve seen all kinds from blow guns, sling shots, spears and tomahawks … The majority of the firearms are being sold by license dealers, but you’ll find hundreds of individuals walking around buying and selling, sometimes you can wait outside and make a purchase or sales then… Anyway, just saying there are markets that don’t require paperwork… Personally I do not own any firearms, nothing that goes pew pew is anywhere on my property… just saying.. Right… As for the rest of this article, its pretty much common sense if your in the prepping mode so all this article is a good reminder that prepping never ends…Live long and prosper…
Try a flea market in a 2A friendly state like Missouri, Florida, Kentucky, Georgia etc. as personal sales are not prohibited and while most will be used you can find new ones along with discount ammo.
Another great article, though I frankly think (While having a variety of firearms, and the more the merrier) is of course a great idea … as #47 takes the reins, I frankly don’t think we have to be too concerned with so called ‘weapons of war’ AR’s being made illegal and or confiscated. Remember #45 owned at least one handgun in the past … and though now a convicted felon (wrongly accused / wrongly convicted) and is not supposed to own a handgun … he is of course aware not only of our constitution, and second amendment, but he understands the need for self protection … so I wouldn’t be too worried about gun laws … for the next two years anyhow. If the dems win back the house or senate in 2026?
chickens, homofornia has already declared a state of emergency because of one case, so before the government orders the death of entire flocks, get some chickens. they are easy to raise and practically take care of themselves. with the cost of eggs alone they are worth it, plus they can provide meat if needed. they are also good to barter with should the need arise.
Go to an Amish or Mennonite market, and you can get organic ones, no hormones, jabs etc. Best thing to do in my view.
Howdy Claude
I have asked this of you (or anyone with a background in Nuclear science) before.
1. Can radioactive water be decontaminated?
2. What would (or can) be used as a filtering medium and what becomes of the filtering process? ie. filtering through a dirt or charcoal filter until the water coming out is bad; and then renew the filtering process???
3. Are we dependent on the water that was contaminated by the Japanese reactors to finally reaching a half life that is in proportion to everything else? Or would evaporation into a condensate make it no longer radioactive; but it is diluted enough that it is insignificant.!?
I know the Navy has piping on the exterior of their ships that allows pumps to pump water in a mist form around them, to reduce the radioactive fallout from settling on the ships. And it is said that the first 6″ of dirt will become useless, after the fallout has settled. So essentially: there will be no good topsoil.
But; would a water still be able to decontaminate water until it becomes radioactive and thereby become a source of contamination itself? The problem being avoided by the ships being flushed with a mist, to reduce the metal hull from being a source of danger to those inside.
Or; is this a matter of waiting out the half life with delution as the solution to the pollution?
Aquifers (well water, regardless of depth) are fed by surface water. (which will be contaminated in time by surface sources, some more direct than others) Essentially the delay of being contaminated will be according to where the radioactive source is and how direct it is getting into the stream that takes it underground. In other words just delaying the inevitable.
There are multiple videos on youtube that tell you how to filter out nuclear contamination from water.
.3 microns filtration might not be enough. Alpha particles are like fine talcum powder and many are a lot finer than that.
They are attracted to anything that has hydrogen atoms in it like iron filings to a magnet. Water is one. NYLON is a big one, so are plastics. Diesel fuel, gasoline, similar all attract alpha particles. Stored water will also attract alpha particles.
Beta particles are a bit heavy. Alpha will be your big concern.
The Navy piping you mentioned is part of the water washdown system. It works like fire sprinklers in buildings. Not so much a fine mist but more like a thin solid wall of water.
It’s intent was to be a barrier to contamination in order to prevent it from contacting the ship and supply venting. Particles hit the moving water and are washed away into the ocean. Any particles landing on the ship (due to gaps, wind, etc) would also be washed down into the ocean.
Oh and a domestic system like that on your roof can help reduce air conditioning costs.
You just need the system, free water source, and a solar powered pump.
About top 6″ –
More or less depending on the soil, amount of contamination, and rain.
Even rain will force contamination deeper into the soil.
You could store some soil in an air tight building. You would need a LOT of soil though. And unless you can test for contamination, you might not be able to use it for years to eons of time.
IMHO, you will have bigger problems that contaminated water if we are hit by nukes.
Mo, I am not an expert on radioactivity, just general information here along with my background in water treatment.
Radiation on the skin is a problem so protective clothing and washing the dust from the skin is a step in the right direction. Radiation inside the body by breathing it in, or on food you eat, or in the water you drink is more of a problem. This puts it closer to the human organs and it naturally stays there longer. One of the first places it shows up is the thyroid gland taking up radioactive iodine, which is why potassium iodine pills are recommended for fall out situations.
The alpha, beta, and gamma rays originate from particles. If you remove the particles the water will no longer be a radiological threat. I would think this could be done with conventional treatment of coagulation, settling, coarse filtering, fine filtering, followed by reverse osmosis. I believe RO will stop the last of the particles. All of these filter materials will be contaminated and have to be replaced quite often. Drinking water will be an immediate problem to address but I think it can be handled. Soil contamination and how to grow the next round of crops, I don’t know, may have to move to the southern hemisphere!
I am just giving you my ideas on how I will try to deal with it if it gets that bad. Like crazysquirrel suggests, get out there and do your research there are better sources than me or this site for such technical information.
I SERIOUSLY doubt Donald Trump is going to attempt to bring any pressure on those who wish to abolish or restrict the 2nd Amendment. Moreover, I don’t think we are going to see any sort of reduction in the availability of food or supplies for our personal health. Is this an old post that is being recycled in error??
I say buy what you know you’ll use, and be sure to use it.
If you’re in Rx meds, see if you can find something else you can use that’s easily obtainable, or see if your Rx is simply addressing the symptom rather than addressing the root cause (MANY pharma drugs are the latter). The root cause may mean you have to modify something yourself, but it’d be good to have a practice run while the Rc is still available.
I’m looking at how to do more with what’s around me. My plan B’s so to speak, so I can cover any holes in my necessities.
Mike mentioned spices. I agree, they add something to foods to eat and often are medicinal as well. In the last couple years, I’ve been trying out growing some to see how well I do. Having a pot of rosemary, Basil, and oregano on the window sill adds interest to foods. Growing chives, both regular and garlic are tasty and can be perennial.
My growing zone is too cold to grow ginger outdoors year round, but having a pot inside with ginger and turmeric is great.
Thank you crazysquirrel and domeliving.
Those are the insights I can build off of.
That helps when you have a solid and basic understanding; to avoid, what should be the obvious and simple mistakes.
When God says in Rev 8:10-11 that 1/3 of the rivers and fountains of water become bitter because of a star blazing from the sky and man will die because of it. You can debate whether it is a nuke or a meteor, but know it’s going to happen and only a fool would ignore what the sovereign GOD has determined of what will happen (earthquakes, volcanoes, etc) judgement.
We know the scripture verse that says “The horse is prepared for the day of battle but victory comes from the LORD.”