Bug out Bucket

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I had the idea a while back and looked around and was able to make my idea come to fruition one day, and now that I’ve had some time to fiddle with it, it has proven sound. Here’s the basics of the idea:

I wanted something to cover the basics. And by basics I’m talking about the basic needs of survival as defined by Dave Canterbury, from the early days of Dual Survival. General consensus has his wisdom as not being garbage, and the 5 C’s of survival are not a bad guideline to start from. These are 5 things that are highly useful in any survival situation and use large amounts of energy to replicate if you don’t have them.

Cutting – you want to be able to cut things. No qualifiers like battoning wood or field surgery, just you want something to cut with.
Cordage – you want to be able to bind things together. Again, not required to rappel with while ice fishing simultaneously, just make two things into one thing.
Combustion – Fire … Good! (SNL paraphrase) Reliable fire you have experience with. Having a flint and steel means nothing if you don’t know how, or when, to use it.
Cover – Get an edge over the elements. Doesn’t have to be a 8 man bivouac with an inflatable xbone, just better than nothing. (more on better than nothing later)
Container – Something to carry WATER in. Carrying things is easy, if you can’t carry water, your options are limited, sometimes lethally.

Now, these basics are covered in a wide variety of means and kits for different purposes and environments, and they all serve their purpose. Now comes the second part of my challenge: I’m poor, and I can only spare a Jackson. How can I come up some kind of kit for all five C’s for less than $20?

Enter the Bucket.

The central foundation of this kit is an unused Gallon paint can. Has to be unused, can’t recycle here if it’s ever had anything not food safe inside it, unlined if you can find it, lined requires some preparation, but nothing insurmountable. A gallon paint can gives you a container for your water and options to make it potable. If it’s unlined or you’ve cooked the lining off beforehand, you can just boil you water in the can. If you can’t or shouldn’t make a fire, water purification tabs treat a quart of water at a time typically, so 4 doses will treat your whole bucket. When you’re not using it to carry water, you can carry everything else for the other 4 C’s inside the bucket, which is light weight, has a convenient handle, is rather inconspicuous, and is resistant to incidental damage. A unused Gallon paint can will set you back $4-$5 typically, not including any shipping if you order it online (shipping is your problem)

Inside the bucket, we’ll start with sisal twine. Again, cheep, I picked up a length a the dollar store, for a dollar … obviously. Sisal twine is good for tying things together easily enough and doubles as fire starter. Readily available and commonplace, it doesn’t give off any prepper vibes, keeping ne’er do wells out of your business while letting you go about yours.

For combustion, we’ll be looking at the classic box of strike anywhere matches. You can find those at the dollar store too. Want them to resist water? I bet the dollar store sells ziplock baggies, put the box of matches inside one ziplock inside another ziplock. While it’s not water “proof” it’s better than nothing. Including the ziplocks, you’re looking at $2

For cover, we’ll splurge and go get an emergency mylar cover. Walmart has them for around $6-$7 and they have a variety of uses, not limited to Signalling, tent roof, poncho, heat reflector, rain cover, etc. This may end up being the most expensive thing in the kit if you’re doing it right.

For cutting, we’re not going fancy here. If you have a spare knife you can keep safely inside the bucket, do it. I’ve found awful SAK knockoffs at the hardware store, even found something resembling a multi-tool at the dollar store for $3, although I expect and will be using it like each tool will shear off the rest as soon as they are put to use, but it’s better than nothing.

And we’re back to the main lesson of this exercise. “It’s better than nothing.” Spending less than $20 in total, retail, I have something that’s easy to have in case something happens that would make life outside of a home potentially more survivable. By no means am I “prepared” for ANYTHING, but I’m ready for something, and more importantly, I’m thinking about what might be coming, what I want to be ready for, what I need to have, what I need to learn, I’m thinking about being prepared for something, instead of reacting to anything. It’s the start of being proactive, and that’s a valuable lesson for anyone to have.

There’s one other thing inside the bucket that makes it valuable.

Space. Maybe your kid needs an inhaler. Maybe you want to have some bullion cubes for “food”. Maybe spare mags, barter goods, a map, family photos, etc. That space is there for you to make the bucket YOUR bucket, for your needs, for you to use the lesson you learned to think about what you want to prepare for and how you are going to prepare for it. That space is yours, and while it is nothing, it’s better than nothing…

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