Most pre-made survival kits are poorly conceived and assembled from poorly made components but at least they are overpriced… oh, wait. 20$Bandit put together a quality, pre-made Urban Survival Kit that is ready to be dropped in your trunk and carried the moment you receive it.
You can read more about the contents and how they cover most basic needs on the 20$Bandit website. Some highlights include a high-visibility HonorPoint backpack that was made right here in the USA, multiple fire starting options, ways to generate and retain heat, water treatment, food, and more. While this is billed as an “urban” kit, it would also be a great start for a vehicle based cold weather kit for those in rural area.
There are only a few of these kits left but sometimes it pays to wait. If you enter the code MERRY XMAS 2014 at checkout, it will save you a tidy 20%.
For $127 plus $15 shipping I think anyone could put together something like this, correct?
Nope.. can’t be done… of course people can build their own. People have been building their own kits forever. Some people are willing to pay for the convenience of not having to order in quantity from several different vendors in order to build a starter kit.
I sat down and priced out a kit from Amazon.com, using as close to what was included as possible. The cheapest I was able to come out using Amazon Prime free shipping was about $140.00.
Now, if I were to use dollar store items in place of a few of the items listed, I can probably get away with building the above kit for around $40.00, and that’s even with the MRE, the bag, plus additional items not listed above. So yes, you can put together a kit for less than above, actually, you can probably put a kit together for around $25.00 at the dollar store alone. But, do you have time? Maybe, will you remember everything? Again, maybe. Can you trust everything from a dollar store, once again, maybe. It’s all in what you can afford, what you’re willing to do and how much convenience do you want. I personally have purchased and put together several kits (home, office, car, the wife’s car, son’s school bag, etc) and have spent many times over the price of the kit above, but in the long run it amounts to about the same price overall. I would purchase in bulk the items that needed to be (bandages, water, MRE’s, etc) and looked for deals on other items.
I’d say overall, this is a pretty good price if you want a quick, one stop purchase. Not to mention the Christmas special that’s running right now.
Might not want to order one if you’re in a rush, though. I pre-ordered one of their micro kits, expecting them to be released on Dec 5. They just updated their website to say that now they’re expecting to release them on Jan 1. So much for a Christmas gift. Their stuff is cool, but the unexpected wait time is irritating.