One more general piece of advice -- for the basics, get what you can on your budget sooner rather than witing to buy up the deluxe gear. The $10 knife with you is much better than the $300 sebenza still sitting on the store shelf. If you are careful, you should be able to cover the basics for $100 or so, even if some of the gear is a compromise. Then, you can upgrade certain items later, as funds allow.

When I first started preparing, I found the price tag of some of the gear intimidating, which caused me to put off getting everything together. My BOB now has a $0.99 knife. Not great, but better than nothing (but I always have my Leatherman Wave with me, so no biggie).

Of course, feel free to ignore this advice if you last name is "Trump" or "Gates."