Camping & Survival

Whether you’re taking a trip off the grid or preparing for an emergency, you’ll find the camping and survival articles you need to stay ready here. From topics like choosing the right prepper weapons to tips for dealing with severe weather, prepare for any potential disaster with advice shared by our experts.

Most Recent Posts

Picture shows a broken down car with the hood up and a man on his cell phone beside it.

Camping & Survival

27 Emergency Vehicle Kit Essentials

If you live in a hurricane- or tornado-prone area, you are no stranger to power outages, floods and going days without, possibly weeks without city utilities. You are prepared by keeping food, water, flashlights and extra batteries in the pantry, garage or basement, but do you have an emergency vehicle kit? An emergency vehicle kit is a bug-out bag that stays in your car, filled with all the essentials to see you through until help arrives. Like your disaster kit at home, your emergency vehicle kit includes food, water, a way to stay warm, but also tools like a shovel and other important things to help get your car back on the road if you are stranded. In this article, you will find 28 essentials to keep in your car.

Image shows a woman dressed in a wedding dress with blood splatter on it, holding and swinging a bloody baseball bat

Camping & Survival

Five Alternative Weapons for Survival

Sometimes during a survival situation, a firearm isn’t your best choice. The loud report will give away your location and you might run out of ammo. During a zombie apocalypse or any other major disaster or end of the world situation, having a stockpile of alternative weapons is a good idea. Machetes, an axe, air guns, slingshots, and spears make excellent hunting and self-defense weapons. Check out the five best alternative weapons for survival in this blog post.

Picture shows a drawing of a fishing trotline.

Camping & Survival

Fishing for Survival

Hunting and trapping without a firearm is difficult, if not impossible if you are not a seasoned and practiced expert. If you find yourself in a survival situation—lost in the woods, bugging out, or hiking then fishing is your best bet and way to secure food. With a few items like line and a hook packed in a small container, you can fish in body of water or you can find items to help make a primitive fishing pole. In Fishing for Survival, Cheaper Than Dirt offers suggestions and tips on how to fish for survival.

Picture shows a little girl walking in front of a destroyed school bus.

Camping & Survival

Throwback Thursday—Preparedness: Anticipation and Planning

When you hear the term prepper or survivalist, do you image someone who has spent his or her life savings building a million dollar underground bunker, while wearing a tin foil hat? Preparedness and survival isn’t just for the paranoid. It is for everyday people. From tornados, to flooding and hurricanes to the accidental house fire, all American should prepare for disaster. In this beginner’s guide, Cheaper Than Dirt helps you learn what to prepare for, how to build a bug out bag and what kinds of things you need to store in case of emergency.

Picture shows a concrete room in the Ukraine after the Chernobyl disaster.

Camping & Survival

The Essential Preppers Guide to Long Term Survival

Prepping is more than just stockpiling food, water, candles and lighters for a week, but about learning how to become self-sufficient in case the worst happens. This means that long-term storage solutions, self-defense, training and learning new skills is very important for the prepper and the survivalist. Preparing to live off the grid for long-term means you need a way to grow food, like-minded individuals to form a prepper community and skills to barter and trade for goods and services. In this article, Cheaper Than Dirt lists the ten most important articles on prepping and surviving long term.

Green clay container with the words Survival Skills on the outside

Camping & Survival

A 3-Day Survival Plan

Whether an emergency is man made or natural, you need to have a plan. These few words are not a complete plan, and are geared toward leading you in the right direction.

Black Dog Jumping into Water

Camping & Survival

How to Survive the Dog Days of Summer—Survival Tips for Your Canine

Despite the fact the months of August and September typically mark the end of summer and beginning of fall, you should not be fooled into thinking Mother Nature will cooperate with cooler days, as that rarely happens. The fact is, the air temperatures and heat indexes during this time of the year can reach dangerous highs and is often referred to as the “dog days” of summer making being outdoor dangerous for man and his four legged friends.

Disaster scenarios

Camping & Survival

The Essential Preppers Guide to The First 24

The first 24 hours of an emergency may be the most critical. If you are stuck without shelter or warmth, you can die of exposure. The first 24 are all about survival. Whether you are lost in the woods, evacuating due to hurricane, floods or a tornado, stuck in severe winter weather or just without power for 24 hours do you have the survival kit to see you and your family through? For the first 24 hours after a disaster, you will need a way to start a fire, find water and construct a shelter. For the ultimate guide in surviving the first 24 hours, check out the Essential Preppers Guide to the First 24.