Prepped Living Blog

The Prepped Living Gift Guide is finally here! Each year we focus on long-lasting, useful gifts for those you love. These are gifts that give year after year, contributing to your preparedness plan, your good health, or both. Gifts for Everyone Pendleton Wool Blanket for the Bed Wool is unique in its ability to provide warmth even when wet. For this reason, we recommend that each person in your family have a wool blanket in their emergency supplies. We keep our wool blanket on our bed year-round because wool is also known for its temperature regulation capabilities. It keeps us just the right temperature whether it is summer or winter. Pendleton blankets are an investment, but they have a quality you can depend on for durability and longevity. We bought our camp blanket fifteen years ago, and it still looks as fresh as the day we bought it. It has definitely been a worthwhile investment. Personal Wool Throw This throw blanket is the perfect size for camping, outdoor fires, and emergenc...

With the holidays approaching, now is a good time to give some thought to gift giving. In the past few weeks we have posted our 2024 Gift Guide and our Homemade Gift Ideas - Crafts article. This week we are posting ideas for homemade gifts revolving around food and drink. Drink Mixes Over the last couple of months, we have posted four recipes for powdered drink mixes that you can use to make gifts. Pour one of these mixes into a jar with an airtight lid, add some decoration to the jar to make it special, and write or print a nice card with instructions for use. You could add a mug and a nice spoon if you want to make a gift basket of it, or you can make a sampler basket by making several recipes and putting a jar of each into the basket. Here are the recipes we have posted for reference: Hot Cocoa Mix Chai Spice Mix Winter Coffee Mix Russian Tea Mix Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix Soup in a Jar Mixes These mixes have been popular for decades and you can find several resources online. Here are a...

Homemade gifts blend your time, talent, and treasure to create a unique gift made with love. Whether you are on a budget and need to use what you have or if you simply want to create something unique, making your own Christmas gifts can be a great option. Here are a few homemade gift ideas our family has enjoyed: CRAFTS Christmas Tree Ornaments The girls and I made angel ornaments by upcycling old pant pockets. We found a photo on the web for inspiration. We used the legs of the pants to make quilts some time ago and cut out the pockets thinking we would eventually find a use for them, and we did! Angel ornaments made from pant pockets There are many other great ideas for DIY Christmas ornaments out there. Here are some other ideas you can check into: Ribbon Ornaments We made something similar to this several years ago. They turn out beautifully and are so easy! Clothespin Ornaments  Here is a site that lists 5 ways to make ornaments from clothespins. More Ornament Ideas The Pion...

November is here and so is our Christmas gift guide! We spent some time getting input from our family and compiling it into a usable list. It is a combination of health and preparedness items we have and use and items we would like to have. We hope you enjoy perusing the list as much as we enjoyed putting it together for you. We have a photo compilation of this list over on the website for fast and easy shopping. Large Item Wish List Camp Stove - This is a must-have for emergency preparedness. Having more than one way to cook is important for any situation resulting in a power outage. Boxed snacks are fine for a time, but never underestimate the power of a hot meal or a warm drink in an emergency situation. Big Berkey Water Filter - While we originally purchased our Berkey water filter as a camping and emergency filter, we use ours every day to filter our tap water for drinking and cooking. The Berkey filters a wide range of contaminants from almost any water source. Click here ...

With Father's Day coming soon, we are taking a break from our budget stretching series to focus on gifts for Dad this week. Here are a few options we love. We hope you will love them too!  Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchasing through these links helps support our website and blog at no cost to you. Thank you for your support. OUTDOOR/PREPPER ITEMS FOR DAD Grill/Smoker There are so many options here that it is probably best to consult your guy to get the exact brand and model he wants. Perhaps the most utilitarian is a grill and smoker combination. This keeps you from having to purchase two separate pieces, thus potentially saving both money and storage space. From a preparedness standpoint, it makes sense to get one that does not rely on electricity or propane. Since this really isn’t my area of expertise, I will only share a bit about the two brands I have heard mentioned the most. Traeger Grill/Smoker – A number of guys we know love their Traeger grills. Tra...

With Mother’s Day around the corner, we are choosing to focus on gifts for Mom this week. Here are a few options we love. We hope you will love them too! We have grouped them into two categories – beauty-minded and prepper-minded. Cover your bases and pick something from both categories! Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchasing through these links helps support our website and blog at no cost to you. Thank you for your support. FOR THE BEAUTY-MINDED MOM   Lilla Rose Products Lilla Rose has something for every lady on your list! Most of you know how much I love the flexi clips for a quick and easy hairstyle that affords a bit of flair – whether with a classy or fun look. You may not know that Lilla Rose offers other quality products as well. Here are a few fabulous options for Mother’s Day: Organic Geranium Hydrosol #4362 – Can be used as a facial toner and moisture boost. Spray on your hair to keep it shiny, refresh your curls, or use as a no-heat setting spray for y...