Priorities: Wants Vs. Needs

Ferfal,

Thankyou for dedicating your time to educating others on survival. 
I have heard you on some podcasts and have followed your blog.  I
am a American with a large family.  I have 6 young kids and live in
a city of about 20 thousand population.  I make a modest income
with only a few hundred a month to spend on preparations.  Given
the current state of the U.S. Economy can you help me prioritize
with some?  I already have guns not enough ammo yet. 
This is what I am planning:
Buy 3 steel doors with door jamb kick proof plates
Buy a bullet proof vest
Buy 6 months to a year of food
Buy more filters for my water filter
Buy a generator propane
Plant 10 fruit trees
Buy 2×4 studs and plywood sheets for windows
Buy extra propane tanks
Buy cheap gold wedding bands
Put a chain link fence around house
Buy German shepard dog
Buy rabbit hutch and breed rabbits for meat

If I can get all that done before the dollar crashes I will be very
surprised.  That said what would you do priority wise.
Or what else would you do if you think I am missing things?
Thank you for your time.

Patriot19
Hi Patriot19. It’s a bit complicated to provide this kind of advice without knowing more details regarding your particular situation, where you’re located and such. More in depth information is needed so as to provide proper consulting, so this will only be a broad approximation which may not be as accurate.
In general terms there are certain priorities that change little and there I dare make some recommendations. Food for example would be one of them. Without knowing more and based on your letter I can still say that you want to focus on food first and work towards that six month supply. You mention apple trees too, and those are a good idea as well. What I like about it is that it’s the kind of preparation that doesn’t require that much time, and will literally provide fruits for the rest of your life without consuming your time and money. Lemmon tress, oranges, apples, whatever trees or bush you can plant and with a minimum care enjoy its fruits that’s just fantastic.

A side note on money and preparing. Your letter in more focused on how to use your financial resources, but keep in mind there’s certain things you can do for free. A dog for example, you can look on line for someone giving away a dog that may fit what you’re looking for. Checking the local animal shelter is a good idea but today looking on line you can cover many more places where you may find one. I know there’s a Dogo Argentino shelter, and they locate rescued or abandoned Dogos with new owners. I’d jump on that opportunity if you had prior experience and know how to handle big, strong willed hunting dogs. Saving orange seeds to plant costs you nothing and it can be done with other fruits and vegetables too. If not you can buy seeds rather easily for very little money. Since you seem to have the land that’s definitely something you want to get going as soon as possible.
Putting a chain link fence around the house will cost you but that’s what I’d make my number two priority right after having the food in storage. The chain link fence combined with a couple large or medium sized dogs (its always better to have more than one) will improve your odds greatly against criminals. With the chain link fence and a couple dogs that consider it their domains to guard, you’re improving your security situation a lot.

The body armor vest is important and I always recommend owning it but since you’re funds are limited you may first want to make other considerations. If you don’t own a good defensive handgun then maybe sell some of the guns you own and buy one. If you haven’t received formal firearms defensive training then make that number three by all means. You may shoot very well, but defensive shooting isn’t about marksmanship, its about fighting, so get a CCW license and take at least one class. That will put you light years ahead in terms of defense than just piling guns in a safe. Once you have that covered, then yes, get body armor. There’s a sweet deal right now on used Point Blank Interceptor BA . There’s three, one for $100 and the other for $150, the like new one costs 400 bucks but I’d be ok with the cheaper ones. Its a quality chest with MOLLE so you can adapt it to what you need.

Point Blank Interceptor OTV (Outer Tactical Vest) Ballistic Body Armor, Woodland Camo, X-Large — Genuine U.S. Military Issue
There’s also newlev body armor for $350.

Lightweight Bulletproof Bullet Proof Vest Concealable Body Armor IIIA 3A Light S-XL

You mention adding more water filters. How many have you got? Do you need these as of right now or is it just a precaution measure? At this point Id’ alter between hardening your home, saving some money (maybe an ounce of silver a month, once you covered the top three mentioned before) and working on your food production.  It would be great if you could find a way to make this food production of yours profitable. If you can tell me that you have some people to which you already know you can sell some rabbits, maybe talked to some neighbors of yours or local butcher, then you’re talking about starting your own small scale home business and that’s something I’d really encourage you to do.
I don’t know if you need the generator bad or not. Would you depend on it to pump water if power goes down? Do you need it for some other essential need? If its just to run the fridge and some lamps then I’d wait until I took care of more urgent needs.
I hope this gave you some ideas on how to continue with your preps and prioritize.
Take care and good luck!
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FerFAL

Improvised weapons for self Defense

Hello Fernando
I just wanted to drop you a line to say thanks for your excellent book and advice.  I ordered it a couple of years ago, and just re-read it.  I recently had cause to be grateful. 
Here in the UK as the world crisis beds in, we are seeing more and more desperate people, who have no entitlement to benefits, and no jobs, and no money.  I was coming home from the train station one evening and felt someone far too close to me on an uncrowded pavement.  I stopped and let the guy go past.  He then stopped and let me go past.  I turned off into the park which is on my way.  He did too, closing fast.  I stopped, turned to face him, looked straight at him keeping my face neutral, shifted my shoulders and adjusted my grip on my bag.  He stopped, turned and walked away.
In the UK we are constrained about what we can carry or use in self-defence – basically, if you carry anything as a weapon, you’ll be arrested.  You can hit somebody with something you have about you, but you can’t carry anything whose primary function is a weapon.  So a long-haired woman could use a hairbrush as a kubotan/yawara stick in fighting off an assailant, but a bald guy using a hairbrush would be arrested.  Crazy, but true.
The above means that situational awareness is all the more important in keeping yourself safe on the streets.  A bit of attitude helps too, as well as a certain amount of self-defence training.
It’s getting bad here Fernando, in a very low-key way.  Two of our neighbours have been burgled by locals, our pal has had her scooter stolen in broad daylight, and the kid who works down the garage and babysits my boy sometimes was nearly car-jacked two weeks ago.  None of this is reported or discussed and everyone wants to maintain the fiction that things are alright and there’s no crisis, but for those of us with our ears to the ground, the signs are all there.
Keep up the good work and many thanks
Oscar in UK

Hi Oscar, thanks for your email. Unfortunately that’s the situation in many countries. USA is pretty unique regard truly having citizens that enjoy the right to defend their lives, the most precious right any living creature has. It’s shameful that no other country has a Second Amendment, or down right prohibits the right to self-defense.
It’s not all hopeless though and there’s several strategies you can approach to improve your chances of survival during a life threatening attack. The first is asking your attacker to wait until you call the police so he can be arrested. Now this may or may not work since scientist from Cambridge University have found out that 99.999% of criminals will not wait calmly for an officer to show up and arrest them. In that case you may have to fend for yourself, and since in many parts of the world its illegal to carry any sort of weapon, you’ll have to improvise.

The Pen

An element many of us carry daily for writing and signing documents is the humble pen. The classic Cross that I use most often could be easily carried clipped to the pocket on your vest or pants. A relatively pointy metal object, if I had to improvise I could use it. Remember that a weapon is anything that increases your potentiality for defense or attack. A weapon can be a handgun, but also a knife, a fork, a pen or even a key jammed into an attacker’s eye.  While there are specific tactical pens out there, a solid pen, preferably made of metal, can do as well.

Smith & Wesson SWPENBK Tactical Pen, Black



The Flashlight

A local police officer told me once of how he used a flashlight once to control suspect, hitting him over the head with the crown bezel, it ripped off a strip of scalp. The head tends to bleed a lot, and blood pouring into your attacker’s eye can be very dissuasive. A perfectly legal and practical tool to have with you at all times, the right flashlight can be used both to startle with the strobe or as an improvised impact weapon.

SureFire E2D LED Defender Dual-Output LED (200 Lumens)



Pocket knife

Each country has its own restrictions but there’s still something you can legally carry if you look into it. Any knife is better than no knife. I simply couldn’t go through life without a cutting tool and anyone that carries a knife knows what I mean. One of the first mankind’s tools, a blade is a tool used for life in general, and on occasions yes, it can be used for defense as well if you don’t have something better at your disposal. Make sure that what you practice and train applies to the tools you carry as well.

Spyderco UK Penknife Gray FRN Leaf Blade PlainEdge Knife




OC Spray

It’s a very good option where firearms are illegal, but in some of the most draconian countries even these are illegal. If you happen to have with you a small can of deodorant spray, or some other spray, especially if oily or irritates in some way, you could use it as an improvised defensive spray. Do not expect much from it, bt it just may surprise and temporarily startle your attacker buying you a few seconds.

Sabre Pepper Spray Home & Away Protection Kit

WD-40 11010 Multi-Purpose Spray, 3 Oz.



Box Cutter/Snap blade

Lots of us use these for a number of tasks. It could be carried for repairs, opening packages, making models, a variety of office work, if you happen to have a box cutter or carpet cutter with you the razor sharp blade can be used for cutting. Given the fragile nature of the snap blades, I’d avoid thrusting with them and go more for slashing.

Tajima LC-301 Stainless Steel Auto Lock with 3/8 in. 13-pt. Endura snap-blade

Sheffield Tools 12256 Self Locking Snap Off Knife



Umbrellas, canes and walking sticks

Any of these can be used as an improvised impact weapon. Remember that we’re talking of not carrying any of this with intent, but it may just be what you have at hand when the attack takes place. A solid cane or walking stick would do very well. There’s an umbrella called, unbreakable umbrella with is extremely resistant. Work looking into it.

GustBuster Classic 48-Inch Automatic Golf Umbrella (Black)

Cold Steel City Stick with Aluminum Head



The Most Important part

During my most recent trip to US I had the mentioned metal Cross pen and a MTE flashlight. I didn’t feel well armed by any means but I knew I wasn’t completely defenseless either and my chances in a fight were much better thanks to those items I had with me. Never forget that the first and most important tool for defense and survival is our brain, the weapon we may carry or improvise but how smart we are, how well we react and the tactic we apply will always be more important. Laws may restrict this or that, but knowledge can never be restricted. If you train with stick fighting you might one day use a broom or umbrella for defense, if you know how to use a kubotan you may one day improvise with a short stick of marker.
Be smart, train and learn as much as you can,
Take care,
Join the forum discussion on this post!

FerFAL

The Survival Podcast Interview

I met Jack at the Self Reliance expo. He’s a very nice guy and we quickly got along well.
You can hear the interview here:
http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/episode-781-fernando-ferfal-aguirre-on-surviving-an-economic-collapse
Let me know what you think and drop a comment here or at the Survival Podcast. I just saw that people are already leaving comments and asking for another interview.
Take care,

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FerFAL

What’s of value right when the economy goes to hell?

As Greece and Italy go to hell in a hand basket, down here in the Banana Republic of Argentina we’re seeing a déjà vu of the 2001 collapse. The government imposed a “green” corralito by which through one excuse or another the American currency is being unofficially but effectively banned. The US Dollar was the way in which Argentines protected their savings from the even more volatile funny money that is the Argentine peso. With the new restrictions, before buying dollars you have to be authorized by the AFIP, the Argentine version of the IRS. Through a complex system that not even themselves understand, they check how much money you earn, what are your expenses, how much you may have saved based on that, and only then do they somewhat estimate what you should be allowed to buy. There’s people that own big companies that aren’t even allowed 50 USD.

To close the corralito even further the banks themselves came up with their own set of rules for the purchase of dollars, simply making it impossible to buy the American currency. The only way to buy dollars then is the black market where the dollar reaches 5.50 or 6 pesos per dollar, against the official rate of 4.26 pesos per dollar. In the black market caves and “arbolitos” (arbolito=tree, named based on them selling/buying the green USD) there’s been several reports of SIDE agents (our CIA) closing them down, and arresting both customers and owners of the joints. Why the arrests aren’t done by the police, I have no idea. This would be the time to stay put and wait until things settle before trying to buy USD.
So yes, these are interesting times to say the least. Lots of rumors, lots of desperate people out there.  People that were just about to travel and needed dollars but cant buy them, people about to close business deals in dollars but cant get the money either. USD accounts being closed, Pesos accounts being closed as well out of fear and the too vivid ghost of 2001. Interest rates have doubled in banks in the last few days and everyone is just waiting, and I guess that the key word in today’s article. Waiting, staying put to see what happens. What happens when the economy is about to collapse, or just collapsed? Everyone waits. I saw the exact same thing 10 years ago. No one buys anything or sells anything unless they really have to.

What’s on high demand during times like these?? Nothing.  Nothing at all. All the survival BS about this and that “being worth its weight in gold!!” its proven yet again to be false. At least during the peak, the initial days, everyone stays put.
The food you buy at the supermarket, you go to work and school, pay your bills, but other than that you don’t spend a buck unless you have to. The only thing I do notice is that regarding imports, if someone needs something that was imported in USD and they can buy it in pesos, they do so quickly speculating the USD will keep going up in price. Keep that in mind and close deals quickly if you think a devaluation would work against you. A tell tale of what happened was seen a few months ago when imports stopped rolling in.
Other than that what people really want is dollars, the only way in which you can escape the peso. Gold and silver being marketed in USD are also being restricted. I posted about this being a good way to save what you had in an Argentine forum, I hope at least some people took advantage of that loophole during the couple days that it lasted.

The lesson here is simple: For Argentina its USD, that’s what we’ve always gone to during complicated times and that’s what the government always restricted right before everything goes to hell. For US its going to be gold and silver, that your version of what the dollar means for us. When the government starts looking for ways to directly or most likely, indirectly restrict the purchase and sale of precious metals, that’s when you know the S is just about to hit the fan.
The Argentine government just created a new department, specifically to hunt down “financial criminals”, you know, old ladies that try to buy a Benjamin or two.
Little lessons from Argentina boys and girls, please don’t EVER allow this sort of thing to happen in your country.
FerFAL

“That’s not a knife, THIS is a knife!”

Hi Ferfal,
I’m down here in Buenos Aires at the moment and the other evening a
rough looking kid, probably from a villa, approached me and threatened
to stab me if I didn’t give him money. At that point I pulled out my
vaquero grande and he nearly pissed his pants and took off.
No one was hurt. The encounter couldn’t have gone better. I just
wanted to thank you for the excellent knife recommendation.
Saludos,
Ian

Hi Ian, glad it helped. The Vaquero is not only effective, its also pretty intimidating. While I wouldn’t count on intimidation alone, it is a factor that helps, and when it does it may prevent the fight entirely which is great. I had a somewhat similar experience with two guys in a train, just pulled the knife out and they took off. They didn’t have a gun visible and in the South American summer they only had worn off t shirts and shorts, and no visible gun print. (if a bad guy doesn’t pull a gun right away, most likely he’s got nothing)
There was this robbery attempt caught on a security camera some time ago, of a guy with a knife trying to mug another person with a bag. The one with the bag pulled this huge facon knife from his bag, about 10” long. The bad guy had this little pocket knife. The “victim” slapped him around with the flat of the blade. The video clip had no sound but you could guess he was either insulting him or telling him to take off. The bad guy tried to man up but given the Crocodile Dunde moment he took off.
I like the new Vaquero. I don’t own one yet but I can tell the grip has been much improved. The plain edge version is more practical too. The curved edge will take a bit more skill to sharpen but I just love that “s” shaped blade and Nogales clip point.


Cold Steel Large Voyager Vaquero Folder with Plain Blade
The new Espada looks good too. The original one was too expensive for me but the new one is more affordable and practical.

Cold Steel G-10 Espada Knife (Medium)



FerFAL
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