You know that's a good question.  

Unfortunately, I still spend most of my money living, which is survival.  By far, most of my net worth is in my IRA, still, though close to retirement, my assets are pretty darn close.  Its amazing how much stuff we acquire over a lifetime.  I tell young people when they see what I have, "You will too.  Its a part of getting older."  Attribute much of it really to my wife.  Put bluntly, single people just don't acquire as much stuff.  I attribute it to not they are some sort of different personality just simply they don't have that responsibility and obligation.  That, and of course, women keep us guys from doing stupid shit all our lives, well, not all of it, but a lot more than if we were single. I mention this because it directly influences what I currently spend on traditional  "preppar" topics.  

In the traditional topics, I currently spend more money on guns but then if I'm totally honest I passed the need this for survival point many years ago.  Guns are still one of my loves, hobbies, in life.  I enjoy them both collecting and shooting and they simply feed into the survival aspect.  If this was the Civil War when citizens armed troops, I'm not a colonel yet but well on my way.  

That being said, I already have the maximum I can store on food and other traditional supplies.  I learned quite a few lessons along the way, the hard way, of course.  Unless you are anal rotation, on food, avoid anything with a short to moderate expiration.  Even five years is no time when talking food storage.  Selective freezed dried foods are good option but avoid too much already prepared meals.  Though arguably better, after a few weeks of eating the same stuff day in and day out, its not much better than those who have a warehouse of rice and beans.  While time is on your side, stock food items to "make" a diverse diet similar to what you eat now.  I honestly don't see how anyone can avoid the throwing away or donating foods thing but being able to use it time to time makes it less.  I don't want to be one of those nuts that passes away with a basement full of spoiled foods that is only good for the dump.  Its as bad as the hoarders on TV that have to walk around piles of crap to go to the bathroom.  

That being said, my wife and I are pretty darn bad.  We're pack rats by nature I think.  That being said, the opposite is just as bad.  Some people live by a haven't seen it in X amount of time, toss it out.  Just this week, my sons fiancee that graduated nursing school this summer, got her first real job.  She's waiting in line at the Social Security office as I type this.  Her mom and dad are one of those toss it out types and they tossed out her birth certificate, social security card, and even her nursing license.  Its like they had a fire, but hey their house is not cluttered.  There's an in between.  Just know as a "survivalist"/"prepper", you are by nature going to be leaned way closer to hoarded than compulsive dumper.   I don't think we have a foot of wall space that doesn't have something in it, mostly furniture but something.  It happens in time.  Something I noticed too if you are a keep it because someone gave it to you type, people give you more.  Probably even at my age, half of the furniture I have was given to me.  My mom has been a lifelong antique collector.  Tell you how bad we are, with my brothers passing last month, we're trying to figure out what to do with the bedroom suite, literally, he and I were conceived in.  Its over six decades old now and was refinished by my father some three decades ago before he passed away.  I mention this because family is a big part of survival.  

I've avoided the too much land thing.  I simply haven't needed it.  Even at my age, I still have family close enough to me, if I need a rural bug out, I still have options.  My options range from simply houses to 400 acre plus farms some pretty sparse but some almost like a small city.  What I'm saying here is, my how people limit their options in survival if they don't value family and I will add friends too.  Before had government social programs, family was our social programs.  Now some of don't have much choice in that.  We don't get to pick our families and people come both good and bad.  We talk often about networking but I don't know if I'd be comfortable with anyone who neglects family in their survival planning.  That being said, of the guys I know and have adopted as friends here on the forum, none of them have that problem.  A couple, they didn't have a choice in the matter, God or behavior having given them no choice but most not so.  A "Me" attitude does not work in survival planning.  "Hermit" survival is simply flawed philosophy.  Its flawed in life let alone some EOTWAWKI crisis.  The only thing you can depend on "Me" types for is to put "Me" first.  I spend zero dollars on "Me"s.  

Now if I had to put a finger on the most rewarding survival prep financially, that's not tents, sleeping bags, packs, or any of that stuff.  Hands down, that's ammunition.  I'm still shooting top notch ammunition, I paid $150/1,000.  Yep, I'm prepared for a zombie invasion as well as the next guy but what I have really done is smooth out my shooting by anticipating interruptions in supply and cost increases.  What I did was quantify my shooting best I could, set a target cost, and continually buy on sale to achieve the goals.  When factory ammunition exceeded y cost goals, I put the same effort into reloading supplies.  Its easy to stock for a caliber you don't shoot a lot.  What I bought in reloading was based on projections.  For example, brass I can get as I shoot but bullets once shot are expended and precious metals are a finite resource.  Its not going to get cheaper in time but it will have spikes due to availability.  With an adequate buffer, you can then replenish what you shoot taking your time and advantage of sales.  It was food storage that got me into developing this stratagem for ammunition.

Now guns, like I posted I'm way over the "you need this" level.  It not really on my financial budget.  I save my change in a big jug and when its full, I buy myself a new gun.  What I do try to avoid in buying a new caliber every purchase.  This impacts the ammunition planning.  Some, like a rifle, worse than others.  A gun like a .380 mouse gun, you're not going to chew up a lot of ammunition at the range.  Even with this philosophy, you are still gong to end up with a lot of different calibers.  If one caber was the best for all tasks, that's the only caliber there would be on the market.  Guns and calibers are very task specific.  We have an old saying here on AR15.com, "We're not the Army so don't have to settle for what they give us."  

Now we can talk gear until the cows come in but all of it is impacted by our philosophies on life.  First you need to understand, nobody lives forever and we're all going to die.  Many people go through life never having to even think of what they would be willing to die for.  Many times, you won't even know till it comes up.  What we can address though is what we won't die for.  Top of my list on this topic is I won't die for material things.  I call that "Captain Smith" the captain that went down with the Titanic.  Much of his problem in our terminology is he had made a bugin decision and didn't have a bugout plan, not enough life boats.  A plan to bug in, do or die, with your gear is not a plan.  That's a decision on how you want to die.  Dying for a bucket of beans is not much to die for.  Every bug in plan should have a bugout plan or you are "Captain Smith" and your place the Titanic  Nothing is unsinkable especially when for most of us we don't need an iceberg just a match.  This influences what we buy and how often.  An extreme example is living in an apartment with only ones moth rent with 1 year of food is pretty darn stupid.  Having a way to load up and move that food, not the best option but not as stupid.  Just like guns and ammo, having more than you can carry is surplus, so does this philosophy extend to every piece of gear we have.  At my age, I'm staring my mortality right in my eyes.  The worse thing I can think of is to die unloved and alone.  That puts dying massaging a stack of rice and beans on my not list.  Even if all you do is segregate a portion of your supplies for a bugout.  Don't plan on going down with the "Titanic".  Invest your resources wisely with the long haul in mind.

Sorry for the books but sometimes I find simple questions a little more than simple and sharing with you guys allows me to refresh it all in my mind.  

Tj

Training and gym memberships.