A little contest - the $50 survival kit

M

Muppet

Joined
Apr 2, 2004
Messages
91
Here's the idea for the contest: design a survival kit costing less that $50.

Your kit description should start with some idea of what kind of scenario it covers: I doubt anybody can design a do-it-all kit for that kind of money, so make some assumptions, and make them explicit! I'm doing this partly for fun, partly to refine some ideas, but mostly to learn!

Suggestions: URLs for items which can be purchased online, nearest-dollar or rougher accounting, and sub-dollar/commodity items can be assumed to come from home at no cost. Or do it your way :-)

Here's my first entry: Muppet's Lost-In-The-Woods Kit

A $50 buck basic survival kit for the "briefly lost in the woods" scenario. The sort of thing one might carry on a day hike which suddenly turns out to take a little longer than expected due to a sprained ankle, or a minimalist kit to outfit an inexperienced friend with.

----------------------- the easy stuff -----------------

- two person sized space blanket - actually a very cool item, I saw them today.
http://www.rei.com/online/store/Pro...&productId=9392380&parent_category_rn=4500522
$5

- whistle with compass. REI sells this at three different prices, branded by Coglins, Sunnuto and For Kids.
http://www.rei.com/online/store/Pro...roductId=12229077&parent_category_rn=11549413
- OR whistle with compass and waterproof match case
http://store.yahoo.com/wj-enterprises/5insurwhis.html
$5

- Iodine for water purification (either potable aqua or 2% tincture of iodine) plus vitamin C to kill the taste
OR
- Potassium permangenate crystals. These sound great, but I can't find any solid information on them online.
$5

- Lifeboat or equivalent matches, plus a bic lighter and a bit of a candle
$5

- Cheap LED flashlight (Dorcy AAA from Walmart or the Energizer LED headlamp for $12)
$10

------------ now some harder choices, $20 left --------------

- knock-off swiss army knife with wood saw (or a cheap or craft knife and a cheap folding saw, also around $10)
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=knife+saw+opener&btnG=Search+Froogle&scoring=p&sa=N&start=30
$10

- metal cup / mess kit pan to heat water.
$5

- small bottle of hand sanitizer, and some bug repellent/sun screen
$5

-------------- No money left, stuff from stores, assumed at marginal cost. ----------------

- Recycled soda bottle to carry water.
- String
- Sticking plasters
- Food
- Pen, paper
- Stout garbage bags
- Duct tape :-)
- Safety pins

---------------------------------------------------------------

Your turn :-)
 
That's an easy one...

- Brain : 0$
- Skills : 0$
- Experience : 0$
- Tramontima Machete : 7$
- Bic lighter : 69¢

Total 7,69$

That's a survival kit, not a light camping gear list ;)

Cheers :D

David
 
Ok I'll play.

2 large contractor grade trash bags $2 ?

Vic.sak Farmer w/saw $20-25

zip lock bag of strike anywhere matches $1

couple bucks worth of cord

bic lighter $1

Red Photon II $12

Six pack and a roast beef sub to bring it up to $50
 
If you are just asking about equipment then a $50.00 limit is very easy to
achive.
For decent store bought kits try these:
BCB $20.00 +/- depending on source.
Pennrith Survival $25.00 Same. A little better version than the BCB kit.
Both of these kits are a U.K. import but can be purchased here.
For a Made in the U.S.A. kit I'm waiting to see the kit from Adventure medical.
The target delievery date is this month, April. Cost is $26.00.
This is an update on the very popular Mini-Kit that most everyone here knows about! The kit was designed/endorsed by Doug Ritter, from his sponsered web site.
And the old stand-by the (?) Mountain search and rescue metal can kit.
$16.00 Has lots of good ideas in this kit, but some of the gear is not the highest quality.
To any of these kits you could add:
1-2 lg. contractor bags.
1 mylar blanket.
1-2 food bars.
All these additions should cost less than $10.00
This should be well under the $50.00 limit.
And MOST important!
Still money to add a book or 2, if you don't have the knowledge to go along with the gear!
<><
 
Actually, one of the reasons I'm posting this is that I'm trying to learn more about how people with experience plan around constraints. For instance, the "Hard Core Survivalists" plan with the constraint of "no resupply for years, significant risk of violence" and often worse, but they're willing to spend a lot and plan to move it in a truck in many cases. The classical BOB is constrained by weight and assumes a two-week or so window in many cases. Ultralight hikers are constrained by weight, but not by cost or extremely challenging circumstances, in most cases. It's all about assumptions and constraints: guesses about what's plentiful and what's limited.

I wanted to take a look at the issue from a less-commonly-used constraint set: pure cost. Here's $50, how do you surviving using it?

I learned survival from two places: backpacking, and freight train riding. I rode with people who haven't had a roof over their head for more than two nights since the Vietnam war, hung out at camp fires with at least two murderers, slept rough on the streets. I've was in a group that ran out of food, watched people get edgy, primal, mean. Never felt like "real survial situations" but, looking back on it, I think I learned more about the condition of Feral Human from those guys than from anything else I've seen or read.

The Hobo Constraint is cash-and-carry: you have to be able to afford it, scournge it or steal it, and you have to be able to carry it with you without it being too heavy, making you a target, or becoming a cop magnet.

Anyway, that's a little of where I was coming from: if cost is the constraint, how do people look at survival? If what you're short of is money, and you're still faced with making it in the world, what do you need?
 
You can get the basic knowledge from the library for free, or get a cheap flint and steel, knife, and go spend the night in the woods. In my left pocket I keep my basic survival kit, a SAK, windmill glow in the dark lighter, and photon III. All told about 50.00 bucks. I think any other kit needs to be completely rounded out by location and skill level, but for survival, the ability to cut things, see in the dark, and light a fire should do the trick for a few days at least. Beyond that you're gathering food and living in the bush.

I think a lot of kits are confused between living and eating, or being found. Two different things I think.
 
CS Bushman- $18
Tube tent- $5
Space blanket- $2
Doan firestarter- $5
Surplus canteen cup- $5
550 Cord- $2
duct tape- $3
$5 left over for about 25 Ramen packages!

I think I could be quite comfortable for several days with the above and some half way decent clothes on my back.
 
HB Forge Squaw hawk - $30

Space blanket - $2

Duct tape - $2.50

Lighter - $1

Few food bars - $5

Total - $40.50, enough for a burger and coke later
 
Muppet,

"If what you're short of is money, and you're still faced with making it in the world, what do you need?"

The answer is simple: Time.

With time, you can MAKE things from scratch (provided you know how).

Just an example, I've made a sling from 3mm nylon cord two days ago. It took me a while to figure out how, but I ended up with a usable sling, without using leather (which I didn't have at hand). Since I had found that cord, it didn't cost me anything but time.

The problem with most "urgent" survival situations is that you often have to act within very tight time frames. Lighting a fire after you've taken a dip in icy water, finding shelter on a freezing evening after dusk because you've been trying to find the way out for too long... Stuff like that. Thus, even us "primitivists" have to carry some minimal gear, otherwise we are taking risks.

I think the idea behind your thread is a very good one. However, it could have been much more interesting to ask how one can get/make survival equipment on a budget : making backpacks using braided nylon cord, insulating clothes or sleeping bags using cattail down, tyvek bivvy gear, tire sandals... you name it.

Your imagination and skills, in that kind of stuff, really is the limit. And honestly, some of the stuff I make on my own like that works better and is tougher than production gear...

Cheers :D

David
 
Because I think an enormous amount of really interesting stuff would get discussed. You should start it!

On that note, there are two tools which I think are really under-rated.

1> Tin snips make doing any kind of fabrication from tin cans much, much easier. The Hobo Stove from the large coffee can is an amazing, unrivaled piece of equipment which is ubiquitous on the road.... and rarely talked about elsewhere ;-) Try making one without tin snips, though... man does that stuff mess up your knife!

2> Voltmeter. Seriously. You can pick up a very respectable, lightweight model at http://cyberguys.com/ for $5. While it's not at all low-tech, it's very handy for getting the most of of batteries, knowing when rechargables have died, etc. Of course, it's a lot more useful with the 10W panel, the charger and the rechargable batteries which go with it ;-)

That's really car camping stuff, the solar rig, but it certainly makes life better.
 
I'll bite.

"Nic's Pre-prepared Accidentally Stepped Off the Trail Kit To Give to a Friend to Learn Basic Survival Skills Comfortably With, Under $50."


Tabasco Pepper Sauce $3.
Mora $7.
SAK Tinker (Thrift Store) $4.
2 Bic Lighters $2.
Small Pot (Thrift Store) $1.
Ugly Wool Jacket (Thrift Store) $3.
Equally Ugly Wool Hat (Thrift Store) $1.
Daypack (Thrift Store) $4.
Large Ball of Twine (Dollar Store) $1.
Petroleum Jelly and Cotton Balls (Dollar Store) $2.
Film Caps (Free from camera store) $0.
Heavy Duty Garbage Bags (Dollar Store) $1.
Peanut Butter & Jelly (Dollar Store) $2.
Bread (Dollar Store) $1.
2 Generic Energy Bars $2.
10 Top Ramens $1.
Pack of Bait Hooks (Dollar Store) $1.
Spool of fishing Line (Dollar Store) $1.
2 Large Sport Bottles of Water $3.
Cheap Compass $5.
Detailed and explicit directions on what to do printed neatly on a page. $.03

Total Cost: $45.03

Total Profit After Friend Reimburses $50. = $4.97
 
Nice links!

For me...

Depending on the time limits... say 2-4 days

MRE's or ramen noodles (less then 10 bucks)
Trail mix (less then 5 bucks)
SAK (less the 10 bucks
Bic or 3 (less then 3 bucks)
Sleeping bag (less then 20 bucks... cheap one)
5liters of water per person (container cost...)
2-4 days I wouldnt worry about water quality to much...

That would do it in most situations that I might get caught in the woods...

:D
 
By "survival", I assume that you mean, "continue to exist".

To that end:

Small Otterbox-$11.00
Boy Scout flnt/steel-$4.50
PrincetonTec LED light-$6.50
SAK w/very basic tools-$15.00
Portable Aqua Water Purifier-$5.00
Mini Bic lighter-$0.50
1 Quart Ziplock freezer bag-(almost) free
2/ea cotton balls for tinder-free
25' of braided nylon cord, (retrieved from the garage)-free
3/ea 3" strips of electrical tape on inside of lid-free

For $43.50 I carry in my briecase, every day, a small box that could provide safe water, fire, light, and the basics of shelter. I should be good to go for survival (but miserable, nonetheless) for 30 days.

If I haven't made it home by then, I'm screwed.
 
Robert H said:
In my left pocket I keep my basic survival kit, a SAK, windmill glow in the dark lighter, and photon III.
Click to expand...

Do the SAK, Windmill, and Photon III comprise your kit or do they supplement it?

I confess to being a SAK nut. May I ask which version/model you have?

What light color is your Photon III?

Did you choose glow in the dark casually or deliberately?

What do you keep in your left pocket?

Apologies for all the questions. Just can't help myself.
 
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