Prepping stocking stuffers

Liz Klein - December 11, 2020

AdviceGear

I’m wanting to share the gift of being prepared this Christmas and am having trouble thinking up some $20ish small gifts/stocking stuffers to give to family and friends. What would you recommend?

My social circle is a mix of preppers and non-preppers, so I want something that just about everyone could use.

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The HyroBlu Versa is a water filter that looks and works similar to the very popular Sawyer mini, but comes with some extra things like 2 bags instead of one.

If you go to their clearance page on their website, you can buy the $25 model for $15 because it has a damaged box.

Water is one of the most important, yet not so fun side of prepping. People would rather go buy a new gun and a mountain of ammo than think about water storage. But get this for your friends and family, because it you are going to need good clean water when you are fighting the zombies in the end.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, I just bought three!

 

100ft of paracord is one of my favorite cheaper prepping items that I ask for every other Christmas.

The Prepared has a good article about paracord that totally changed the kind I get now. I didn’t know there was so many bootleg paracords out there!

 

I was into a paracord bracelet making phase for a while a few years ago, I just bought the cheapest stuff I could find on eBay. I’ll have to read that article and see if I was buying a knock-off brand.

 

Here is a link to that Best Paracord article. Hope you enjoy it!

 

Mini flashlights make great stocking stuffers, and would even be appreciated by your non-prepper friends.

 

Thats a good idea. Do you have a particular model that you recommend? The mini flashlights that I have seen run off of a AAA battery and barely put out enough light to read a book up close.

 

A plastic tub of 48 AA batteries cost ~ $20 at the big box stores.

They’re used by both preppers and non-preppers.

 

Everyone could use more batteries! I agree. I’m asking my sister to give me some rechargeable batteries for Christmas.

 

A few of my favorites:

• Basic work/garden gloves with stretch and lined palms— they provide so much more manual dexterity than the even-cheaper kind that I’ve accumulated from years of earthquake kits, and they have so many uses (under the bed bag, BOB, car kit/car repairs, gardening…).
• Wool socks! Good for BOBs and hiking and staying warm on cold winter days.
• Street map of the city/area in which they live (for getting home without cell- or car-based nav).

Also love the other suggestions— paracord and batteries particularly!

 

Thank you for the wonderful ideas pdxsarah! I’ll have to see if I can find a map of the cities where my family live. I haven’t seen a map in the wild for years.

I’ve never owned a pair of wool socks before, but my wool jacket is really itchy. Are the wool socks itchy too?

 

After reading The Prepared’s article about emergency lifeboat rations, i’ve been sold that those can be a cheap prep that I can give to anyone in my life. People just put it in the back of their car and feel a bit better about being prepared.

 

Have you tried eating any of the lifeboat rations? I can’t imagine them tasting good.

 

I brick of the SOS brand coconut flavored bars had expired so I thought I would give them a try. I brought them to work with me and had them as a snack between my meals. 

They were hard to eat. Super crumbly, tasted so oily, and I couldn’t eat more than half of one of the bars in one sitting. They are filling, but I think I would have to be really hungry and starving to be able to enjoy them.

As a survival food, I think they are great. As a snack, no!

 

This is the one I’m talking about: https://www.amazon.com/SOS-Food-Labs-Inc-185000825/dp/B075TXP1P5/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=sos+emergency+rations&qid=1607892930&sr=8-6

 

Esssie, Jay; I use a different  aspect of philosophy.  My survival food must also be “anti-stress”.  This automatically eliminates C-Rats, MREs and the above described life raft foods.

I retired from the overseas oil industry.  A is a function of B.  This means that if I spent the $ as business manager,  premier life raft provisions were available.  Many business managers used a contrary view.  For the private citizen prepper, the premier provisions are prohibitive.

Appreciated mention of the TP life raft link.  Had missed it so soon will read it.    

 

You’re welcome about the link Bob, I learned a lot from it. 

Even though you aren’t a fan of MREs, that is a survival food that I am wanting to try. But after reading The Prepared article about MREs, I don’t want a military ration because I don’t know where it’s been, and the civilian ones are in huge cases that are expensive. 

At about $20 a meal, I don’t know if I would rather go out to a nice restaurant or have a MRE.

It’s on my bucketlist to try one someday though!