Good or bad I personally think National Geographic Channel’s Doomsday Preppers series is a learning tool for both novice and experienced preppers alike and further, as an eye-opener to what can happen for those not so well informed.

I was excited about season 3 of Doomsday Preppers for two reasons. First, the show was going to focus more on the “how to” aspect of preparedness or, as resident assessment maker, Scott Hunt referred to as “the builds”.  The show featured preppers showcasing a special concept, device or invention that could help preppers when preparing for an unknown future.  And the second reason?  Well, since not everyone can afford some of the expensive prepping projects shown on the show, NatGeo decided to try something new for the benefit of the audience this season.  They asked Rick Austin and little ol’ me to partnered with them and create companion “budget builds” to go along with each episode using as little as $50 for each build.

Quoting Rick Austin; author of Amazon bestseller, “Secret Garden of Survival-How to Grow a Camouflage Food Forest” from his interview with The Inquisitr:  “The new season [season 3] of Doomsday Preppers brings bigger builds, higher-tech survival gear and even more extreme bug-out plans. Survivor Jane and I break down the builds with simple, affordable, do-it-yourself tips so that anyone can prepare for impending disaster. [On 'The Flight Ahead' episode budget build] Transportation after ‘The End of the World As We Know It – TEOTWAWKI, there is no gas, no cars and limited means of long-distance and fast transportation. It’s also dangerous to be on the roads. Solution: Battle Bike — quiet, relatively fast, long-distance, sturdy multiterrain mountain bike, with rifle mount on the handlebars; oil spill canisters; and sharpened jacks [child's game] to keep pursuers at bay.”

Rick and I took one build from each episode; there were two featured preppers on each episode this season, and made a budget friendly version of their build – which was both a challenge and a success.  We hoped to demonstrate that prepping is not always about having a lot of money; especially with our current economy. People are searching for alternatives – and that includes preppers and their preps.  We showed that with a little ingenuity you can accomplish close to the same solution as the featured preppers on  the show.

Case in point, one of the preppers, Rodney; from Alaska, has spent well into $100,000 for his preps - a lot of money by anyone’s standards.  His concern is a mega Tsunami.  So, to protect his investments, he “buried” some of his preps in a cache 14 feet down under the water. And, to retrieve this emergency cache he created a homemade tankless scuba system. Cha-Ching!!!

Now keep in mind, our budget was only $50, unlike Rodney’s expendable income, but we were able to rival Rodney’s extravagant underwater cache system – and without the use of a boat or scuba gear. Our solution was to create an underwater cache using waterproof PVC plastic piping that could be hidden in plain sight  (under water in a pond, stream, water tank, etc.) where your cache could quickly be recovered when you need it most. See it here: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/articles/build-your-own-budget-prep-underwater-pipe-cache/

Here is a run down of the other budget builds we created:

A Bee Hive PerimeterDefense: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/interactives/budget-prep-bee-hive-defense/

A Faraday Cage: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/interactives/budget-prep-faraday-cage/

An Aquaponics System: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/interactives/budget-prep-aquaponics-system/

Evade and Escape Bike: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/interactives/budget-prep-evade-escape-bike/

Perimeter Booby Traps: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/interactives/diy-booby-traps/ 

Lookout Tower: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/interactives/budget-prep-lookout-tower/

Fox Hole Lookout: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/interactives/budget-prep-foxhole/ 

Fire Starting Alternative: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/doomsday-preppers/interactives/budget-prep-fresnel-lens/

See!  It's not always about money when it comes to preps!  Its about being creative and making it happen! 

Just sayin'

 - Survivor Jane

Thank you for sharing Survivor Jane with all of your friends!

If you liked this ... then you will love my book, "Emergency/Survival Hygiene: A Prepper "Cookbook" for Survival Personal Hygiene Products", "What Could Possibly Go Wrong??? How to Go From Completely Clueless to Totally Prepared" and my NEW Book "Puzzling Over Preparedness - Survivor Jane's Prepper Word Search Puzzles"