I will tell you how I am, some of it might work for you, or it might not.
I very highly recommend putting your own kit together.
Even really well thought out kits might not match your needs or they might duplicate what you already have anyhow.

First, I think skills are a much bigger item than the stuff is.
A lot easier to carry too.

So first aid training before worrying about having a first aid kit.
(A well trained first aider can use almost anything around them if they don't have a kit, but an untrained first aider is still lost even if they have a full operating theater available.)

When I assemble kit I try to make as much of it stuff I regularly use as possible. Some spare blankets instead of a specialist sleeping bag for example.

I also try to make a lot of it into stuff worn regularly instead of carried, or is with stuff I don't leave the house without.
Key-ring junk is one thing, useful key-ring junk is better.

For example having whistles on the key-rings, and on the 5 year old's jacket as a zipper pull instead of in a forgettable package.
(A whistle is a great "Come here now!" signal and the new Fox whistles are both small and loud, it sure makes heads turn when you give a quick toot on one in a store, and have 7 nephews and nieces appear from between the aisles and muster up in front of you. )

I am a big fan of candle stubs, plastic pop bottles and stuff like that.
Yes a flash light is good and nice to have, but a candle stub can sit in a kitchen drawer for years and still light when you need it.
Pop bottles full of water are just as good as nalgene bottles full of water. (throw a few in the freezer and you have emergency ice packs for injuries or cooling a camping cooler too.)

I also tend to buy high quality when I do buy dedicated stuff, but I manage to stay away from the really pricey specialist or fashion stuff.
(I don't need a Titanium cooking pot to burn macaroni over a camp stove when a cheap thin aluminum one burns it just as well.)

Most of my techie survival stuff is well over ten years old. Most of it has been used regularly. Some for camping, some for doing repairs around the house and everything at least once by everybody to make sure we all know how to use it.

I could go on in detail about what and how. I actually started that way.
I won't do that.

There are enough sites dedicated to telling you what they think you should have, but a decent plan is first the emergency stuff like first aid for immediate life saving and then the stuff like a few days spare food and so on.

Just keep in mind that a lot of the kit can be stuff you would use anyhow or stuff you might be tempted to throw out.
Like an old blanket and an old winter coat can be the start of a winter emergency car kit. They might not be pretty but they might help keep a body warm if you get stuck somewhere.

There is the idea of secondary uses too.
I have one blanket on the rear seat, as well as a scratchy wool one in the trunk.
The back seat one is a "too small" fleece, and it has been a shawl, a pillow, a cover for a sleepy kid etc etc.
The one in the trunk comes in handy a lot when loading stuff we want to prevent breaking or scratching, and if needed it is still a wool blanket.

I also look at the other stuff I do buy a bit differently.
I pay a bit more attention to how it would work with no power or in another type of emergency.

I consider the antique oil lamps on the bookcase as emergency gear.
They were bought as decoration a long time ago, but they are fully functional and there are a couple of quarts of fuel for them in the garage just in case the power goes out. (they have been needed a few times)
Quite a few people admire the antiques collection without realizing they are looking at emergency gear being stored in the open and accessible.


These are just a few more random thoughts.

The basic idea for me is that being prepared isn't about hoarding large piles of gear and supplies.
Being prepared is about having the knowledge to use the supplies and gear you need to get through most emergencies.
The knowledge comes first.

Your kit has to match your expected needs. You can not plan for every possibility imaginable.
Trying to do that just drives you paranoid.

Being prepared does not need to be expensive.
My 10 dollar utility knives will cut just as much rope as 200 dollar ones will, but mine are cheap enough to have one always in the truck and one always in the car.
(The house has more than enough sharp knives in the kitchen)

My pocket knife varies a bit. I have a really small pen knife in my wallet. I also have a basic pocket knife as a constant carry.
My girl friend has a tiny Swiss Army knife with a nail file and scissors in it.
My ex wife used to carry a locking folder in her purse to slice apples for our son when he was small.
All of these are good enough steel.
They are all sharp and easy to sharpen.
None are dramatically expensive.


Make sure you have some spare fuses in the car and the wife knows what a bad fuse looks like, how they act, what doesn't work when they blow and how to change one.
(Even finding the fuse block on a lot of cars can be a pain in the butt.)
Get a fuse puller if you need it when you get the fuses too.

I'd start by making a list of likeliest threats (hurricane, earthquake, tornado, flood, terrorism). Then two lists of needs: one for sheltering-in and one for bugging out.

Then I'd inventory what you already have and plug it into those lists.

Preparedness is not just buying new stuff, it's also organizing what you have so you can quickly grab it in a crisis. Preparedness is acquired knowledge.

It's imagining what you would need in the next 30 seconds if a tanker truck full of some toxic chemical crashed in your neighborhood and your family had to leave NOW!!!!

Preparedness is never letting your gas tank drop below half full and topping it off when you can. It's keeping your cars in good mechanical condition and having air in your spare. It's having a cash stash. It's having jugs of water and rotating them (and being mindful that your hot water heater stores many gallons of water). It's having more groceries in your cupboard (and extra food for your pets). Essential medications. It's having batteries for the flashlight you already own.

One cost-effective means of getting more prepared is to get your family to enjoy camping vacations. Tent, sleeping bags, campstove, headlamps, lantern, cooler -- the essentials of tent camping -- can be absolutely priceless in a crisis.

That's how I backed into preparedness. I had recently begun acquiring camping gear (early 1990s), shortly before a week-long series of ice storms, extreme low temps and recurrent power outages ("rolling blackouts"). That week I wouldn't have sold my zero-degree sleeping bag and candle lantern for a thousand bucks.

Good luck!

+1 to above

1. buy used ( ebay, sales, goodwill)
2. don't obsess over $300 knives
3. Build your kits out of everyday items
4. Consider your overall situation when planning. ( Location, season, family, income, etc.)

TRO

I'll admit when I first heard of the concept of a BOPB I started from Doug Ritter's lists of necessary gear, which has almost nothing to do with brands. From those I was able to *assemble* ~75% kits from things I had on hand, and gradually supplement it with careful buys of things I knew I would need. Strangely enough I remember two of my first purchases were plastic and duct tape to shelter in place in our bathroom, cutting those to fit and be ready to hang. These days that's a remote possibility, but it was inexpensive and started me towards better preparedness.

But starting from Doug's lists you can have a checklist of things on hand and things you lack, and work from that. A monthly budget can help, and most places I've seen recommend focussing one month on food, the next on clothing, etc etc. Probably one of the best moves was getting my wife to think strategically about food, such that when she sees a staple on sale, she will buy more of it, and it will go into our pantry as emergency provisions. We eat what we prepare for, although there are a couple cases of MREs still just in case. Having a partner in crime has yielded a 1yr plus supply of toilet paper, soap and some other essentials - priorities...

I started preparing while on Active Duty. I started and still do get one or two extra somethings when we go to the store.

Grocery store runs usually result in food items but there are other things in the grocery store beside food, that is important to have on hand.

Sporting goods, ChinaMart, Target, etc usually results in some equipment.

My preps, so far have come in handy during two job changes.

I started by looking at he kit, not buying them, looking at things I had and how the things I had could to the things the stuff in the kits were intended to do, and then also learning about some substitutes.

For example, an off the shelf 72 hour kit will probably have a rain poncho made from PVC. However, a plastic garbage bag is in many cases more durable. You might be able to scrounge strong garbage bags for free. So, you can make a few of them part of your kit(s). In the end, you'd probably prefer a military spec poncho, with quilted liners, maybe setup to function as a sleeping bag, but add them as budget allows, and maybe you can find options that work better or are cheaper, and fill us in.

For food, try to adjust what you eat toward what can be stored and build things up as you can, rotatig stocks.

I added to my kit slowly over time. I did build it around Doug's PSP tho. It was just too good of a value to not use it as a base. Everything after that was stuff I researched and personal choices based on where I was going to be / doing...

It is often handy to allocate money monthly toward supplies and equipment. Even $5 or $10 a month adds up.

To get started, the many times I have started over, it was always handier to start with something to carry it all in. It is the container that makes it a kit.

Laugh if you want but way back when started this dance I literally started with pillow case in which I stuffed an old army poncho, small flashlight, two army canteens of water and a couple of cans of cheap beef stew in cans, and a SAK.

I had most of that on hand so the initial cost was little more than the time it took to stuff the gear into the pillowcase and the cost of replacing the stew in my pantry. Once I had my foot in the door I started putting money toward something better than a pillowcase.

Point being you start with whatever you have, whatever level your at, whatever you can afford, and slowly work up from there over time.

Heck, even if money can be hard to allocate, I've got three coffee cans, labeled "pack", "p22", and "lap top". Pocket change gets poured into one of them every day, and rotates. Have almost enough in the first two to get those items. :P

All,
Thanks for your wise input and the warm welcome. This community is great. I'm integrating your advice like a salad bar. Right now, I'm doing my inventories and hazard and gap analysis. Many have mentioned skills, and though I have some limited experience, I really need to assess those and practice them and I'm sure to get back on the net and ask again for advice.
However I do know how to drive, dodge, duck, dip, dive, and provide suppressing fire.