SHTF: What’s the One Item YOU Can’t Do Without?

Everyone has their ‘must haves’ whether it be their morning Starbucks, a particular soft drink or that cold bottle of beer after work, we all have something we ‘just can’t do without.’ That being said, as we plan for an uncertain future, shouldn’t we be looking to store that particular item or find something similar that can replace it during an unforeseen event? For us at Prepper365, prepping isn’t just about surviving an event, but eliminating as much resulting discomfort as possible.

So just as an example, the first thing I do when I get up in the morning is pour a glass of my favorite juice while I put on coffee. I go through about 2 bottles of juice a week, so a 3 week supply would obviously be 6 bottles. This particular one has a ‘best by date’ of about 18 months so no issue there, but how many bottles of juice can I realistically store? A 3 month supply would be about 30 bottles and take up a great deal of precious storage space, so what might I store as a replacement? Though not a perfect solution, Tang or other powdered drinks mixed with water could be used as a reasonable substitute. The Tang doesn’t take up much space and you need to be storing water anyway. See: You Don’t Have Enough Water So for me, I’ll store about 10 bottles of juice and several different powdered substitutes.

Coffee. Yes, wonderful coffee. This is a must have for a lot of people, but in a SHTF scenario it’s highly unlikely that the Starbucks drive-thru will be open. Now, to be clear I NEVER go to Starbucks as I’m neither fond of their politics nor of paying $6 for a cup of coffee. Coffee stores easy and has a good shelf life, if you need to add some flavor you can use flavored creamers; liquid has better flavor, but powdered lasts longer. One more thing to consider when it comes to coffee: you need to have a way to make it when there’s no electricity to run the Keurig. You will need a camping stove and an old fashioned peculator or similar to complete the job.