Skip the nuke toys.

$400 isn't that much. I'd pick up trade goods (booze and smokes) after making sure my vehicle was in good shape (including tires), had plenty of stove fuel stocked up, and had new boots.

"...$400 isn't that much..."

Boy do I wish I could say that...

I think I agree with those of you who say that a Nuke Alert wouldn't be high on the priority list. I'd put the $400 toward adding more food to my supplies, and maybe use some to help supply family members (like my 93 year old grandfather) with items they'd need in an emergency. Shiny baubles are nice, but first things first.

Me too! Nowadays I'm always looking at a large amount of money in terms of how many student loan/mortgage/whatever payments I could make with it, how many Wendy's cups of chili it would buy, etc.

$400 sure is a lot of chili...

I wish I could say it with a straight face. But realistically, it doesn't buy all that much today. You can't get a new rifle for that amount, not a good one. You can't buy much of a computer with it. It isn't a month's rent. And I don't think you can buy a car without an engine for $400.

It's to big to be "chump change", it's too small to be "real money".

Oh, and for what it is worth, it's about as much as I pay every month to not have the repo men come for my diploma and skull.

If you shelter in place, some kind of radiation detector could help you decide when to leave.

Obviously if you are too close to ground zero you won't survive at all, but there is also likely to be fallout that affects a much wider area than the initial explosion. The really nasty stuff fortunately has relatively short half-lifes so it should be viable to wait it out. Also, it takes time to fall so you could have an opportunity to get to your shelter before the outdoor environment becomes too hostile. I gather we're talking about remaining indoors for a couple of weeks, preferably within some kind of improvised radiation-shelter that you can discover how to build on the internet, within your house (which you also should seal against dust).

"Running away" would also be a viable plan, but I'd rather shelter in place if I can. With fallout you are at the mercy of the winds and anywhere that you might run to could be affected if the winds shift. I'd rather be indoors with my gear. Being self-sufficient for a couple of weeks is also a good goal for a number of other disaster scenarios.

You could rely on news reports to tell you when the fallout has decayed to safe levels, but there could be local variations so having your own measuring device could enable you to leave earlier than otherwise if the news reports are conservative, or it could warn you if the news reports are optimistic. And of course it's nice to be self-sufficient.

Go with the Hoods Woods videos if you don't already have them. I just got some of them myself,and I'll say they are the best survival videos I've ever seen. A wide range of topics are covered and they are covered in much more depth than any videos or books I've viewed. If you can't understand the techniques after watching Ron's videos I doubt you ever will.