You do not want to buy items from the dollar store that require a higher quality – such as tools – but for everyday items, dollar store discounts are hard to beat!

Here is a partial list of items most dollar stores carry in stock pretty much year round.

Dollar Tree Preps Items List

• Carabiners – 2ct- do not use for climbing. Great for clipping items on your bag or pants
• Hand sanitizer 3ct – Perfect travel size 1 oz bottles
• Combs
• Hair ties – For myself I have these in my bag, but not in the boys. I will be happy to have them to tie back my hair if need be!
• Travel brush w/mirror – could use mirror for primping or for signaling.
• Manicure set – not a necessity because you will have a knife, but better to clip a nail than bite them. Also, tweezers may come in handy, and a nail file/emery board has many prepping uses!
• Kleenex travel – to use as toilet paper!
• Toothbrushes
• Dental floss
• Bandages
• Gauze
• Dressing bandage
• Paper tape
• Elastic bandage – for sprained ankles or achy joints
• Triple antibiotic ointment
• Hydrocortisone cream
• Face masks
• Rain ponchos
• Tampons
• Pads
• Deck of cards
• Travel games for kids – They have some really small lightweight games that would be great for a kid’s bag!
• Safety pins
• Rubber bands
• Small notebook
• Pencils
• Pencil sharpeners – multiple survival uses
• Twine
• Tin foil – It is not great quality but if you feel you need it in your bag then do it! I don’t carry tin foil in my bags.
• Travel size lotion, soap, shampoo
• Travel sewing kit

Save money by using stuff around the house

• Dryer Lint – I put a Zip lock bag next to the dryer, and put all of the lint in there and save it. – It is great to use to start a fire!
• Thread & needle
• Wire for snare traps
• Rubber bands
• Safety pins
• Bobby pins
• Paper clips
• pens
• pencils
• paper

You cannot always go the cheap route…

Some items you just cannot go cheap on. You need good quality tools like knives, machete/ax, multi-tool etc… Also you want to have good materials to work with for starting a fire. I choose to have multiple Bic lighters in my bags, and also a magnesium fire starter. Just to be safe!

These items are so very important to get you to where you are going. Whether you have a destination planned to bug out to, or if you are fleeing the area because of some disaster like a tornado, your bag could possibly help you to survive until you find shelter.

For items where quality is not imperative your local Dollar Store (or equivalent) is hard to beat when it comes to everyday survival items.

If you stop in once every couple of weeks, you can also usually find seasonal items they are running that would come in handy in a survival situation!

To learn more about using discount stores to build your survival cache and save money, check out Homestead Wishing.