🔋 Can You Make It Through a Week Off-Grid? 🌿

[SS Project Manager]

Imagine this: the power cuts out — and it’s not coming back for a while. No fridge, no lights, no quick trips to the store. Could you stay calm, fed, warm, and resourceful for a full seven days without modern conveniences?

This quiz will test your off-grid readiness and help you spot the gaps in your self-sufficiency game. Tally up your answers (A, B, C, or D) and check your result at the end. Be honest — it’s not about perfection, it’s about preparation!

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1. The power just went out. What’s your first move?
A) Light some candles and continue your evening like nothing happened.
B) Check the breaker, then text a neighbor to see if it's just you.
C) Panic and open the fridge to make sure the food is okay.
D) Fire up your backup solar or generator system.

2. It’s day two, and you’re out of bread. What do you do?
A) Bake some with your stored flour and starter.
B) Toast something from the freezer before it thaws.
C) Look for crackers or snacks in the cupboard.
D) Grind grains and bake over an outdoor stove.

3. The sun is setting. How do you light up your space?
A) Use oil lamps or rechargeable solar lights.
B) Light a bunch of candles.
C) Use your phone’s flashlight.
D) You built a lighting system powered by off-grid energy.

4. Your water supply is limited. What’s your plan?
A) Switch to stored rainwater or use filtered well water.
B) Boil water before drinking.
C) Keep using tap water and hope it keeps flowing.
D) Set up your rain catchment and filtration system.

5. You’re craving something warm to eat. How do you cook?
A) On your wood stove, gas stove, or solar oven.
B) You’ve got a camp stove tucked away somewhere…
C) Cold cereal will do for now.
D) You’ve got an entire outdoor cooking setup ready.

6. Your phone battery is dying. What’s your backup plan?
A) Plug into your solar power bank.
B) Try to conserve the last bit of battery and turn off apps.
C) Drive to the next town to charge it.
D) You’ve got hand-crank chargers and off-grid comms ready.

7. It’s freezing cold. How do you stay warm without electric heat?
A) Use your wood stove or indoor-safe propane heater.
B) Pile on the blankets and wear layers.
C) Boil water and hug a hot water bottle.
D) Your home is designed for passive heat retention and backup warmth.

8. You’re low on food. What do you eat?
A) Meals from your canned goods and root cellar.
B) Soup made from pantry basics.
C) Whatever’s still in the fridge.
D) Forage or harvest something fresh from your garden.

9. You need to wash dishes and laundry. How do you handle it?
A) Use basin washing and biodegradable soap with minimal water.
B) Wait until the water comes back.
C) Use paper plates and put off laundry.
D) Hand-wash with greywater and sun-dry everything.

10. The kids (or guests) are getting restless. How do you keep them occupied?
A) Bust out board games and crafts by lantern light.
B) Let them play outside or help with chores.
C) Hope their devices still have some charge left.
D) You have a whole off-grid entertainment kit ready to go.

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RESULTS: Can YOU Survive a Week Off-Grid?


Mostly A’s – The Weekend Warrior
You’re more prepared than most! You’ve got a solid setup and a calm approach to unexpected outages. With a few more long-term tweaks, you could thrive completely off-grid.

Mostly B’s – The Almost-Ready Adapter
You’ve got the mindset and some resources, but you’d be stretched if things went beyond a few days. A little planning and practice will go a long way!

Mostly C’s – The Urban Survivor
You're used to on-demand living and might struggle without power, but you’re resourceful and curious. Start learning some core homestead skills and build a basic preparedness kit.

Mostly D’s – The Off-Grid Legend
You were made for this life. Whether it’s day 7 or day 70, you’ve built systems that keep you running smoothly no matter what. Others look to you for guidance — and rightly so.

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Share your result below!
Were you surprised? Inspired? Terrified? Let’s talk preparedness! If you found some weak spots, what’s your next step toward improving your self-sufficiency? Share your goals, setups, and tips — we’re all learning together!

 

[Medicine Woman]

backup

1. B. It might not be a big deal . If it is just me, I should probably know about it.
2. A. Every pantry should be stocked
3. A. Solar lights. I don’t want to create heat.
4. A. Rainwater on the side of the house for emergencies.
5. A. Unless I’m forced to cook on the hibachi…. Might be worth it to not heat up the house anyway.
6. A. Before a storm I like to make sure everything is powered up…. Cell phones, power packs, CPAP battery for DH, but I can always plug it in the truck.
7. A. I guess use propane cuz the house I had a wood stove in is in a million pieces. But if it continues I can get my old stove and install it.
8. C. If the power is still out it’s best to use the fridge first before everything goes bad. The canned stuff can wait.

 

[Medicine Woman]

9. A. You gotta do what you gotta do
10. A. and B. Depends on the time.

 

[FarmerJamie]

Mostly 'A's, but 5 N/As. Having a generator ready to go addresses 5 of the 10.

For what to do, depends on the overall situation. Weather conditions, cause of the outage.

A big part of being self-sufficient is adapting on the fly. For instance, my approach to food use would depend on the expected outage duration.

I think of an old 'Night Court' episode where the court was snowed in and trapped everyone. One dude kept insisting they go, how shall I say, Donner Party. They weren't trapped for long, but at the end of the episode it was implied the dude was well fed. Lolol

 

[Mini Horses]

Oh, yeah....can & have gone over a week without modern conveniences. Not necessarily fun but real doable. No electric is the most troublesome, but annoying. Not for light, I have oil & solar lamps for that! Can cook outside. Have home canned foods, ample water always available from wells & storage. Generator for frig & freezer needs....you don't have to run them 24/7. Generator fuel can last if you limit use.

I'm good.

 

[Medicine Woman]

Well I can just power up the generator myself but how much stored gas do I have? In all honesty it’s going on by nightfall regardless and DH has a lot of vehicle batteries fully charged that can be hooked to an inverter to run the freezer and fridge when the generator is off. If I want to, I can live like normal but it sucks to get in a hot truck and park in a mile long line when you are low on fuel and wait 8 hours, hoping they don’t run out of gas before it’s your turn. I think it’s best to have a generator but also not rely too heavily on modern electric power for all your needs. It makes you vulnerable.

 

[Hinotori]

Been there, done that for a week. Hardly slowed us down. Difference is that was winter with snow I could melt for showers. Now I'd have to haul water to filter for that use and the toilet. We lose power several times a year. Because we are rural but close to bigger city, we're way down on getting power back. Tacoma and Puyallup are higher priority for crews.

1. We have battery camping lanterns that solar recharge. They get used first to assess situation. Then generator for fridge, freezer, hubbys Cpap. The Cpap now has a backup battery that will run it for 2 nights. Also has a solar recharge.

2. We dont eat a lot of bread. Just sandwiches for hubby's work lunch. Biscuits are easy to dutch oven. We have wood and firepit that I cook on regularly in hot temps to keep heat out of house.

3. Light is a couple candles or the camping lamps if the generator isn't running. Oil candles are cheap and I bought a bunch when Costco had them.

4. Haul and filter water. I'd boil as precaution. I have a couple rain catchment spots I use for chicken water. Also have potable water stored for emergencies anyway that gets refreshed regularly.

5. Wood stove for winter cooking. Hot right now so I've been mostly cooking outside with charcoal and fire anyway. If I want something specific and need an appliance, the airfryer plugs into generator as does the electric pressure cooker. For that matter I have a bread machine so sandwich bread is taken care of.

6. Recharge is easy here. Enough solar for use if not running generator. Generator is quicker. Always charge phones if in vehicle anyway.

7. Heat is wood stove and blankets. That's nothing out of the ordinary

8. If we're running out of food, it's been going on so long that we've already started extra hunting and fishing for the permanent future.

9. Filtered water for laundry. Wash basin for dishes that I use already. Bucket and the baffled laundry plunger or just hand wash. I have a laundry brush for spots anyway. Rinse and put on the outdoor drying racks I use anyway or the indoor ones in winter.

10. Games and books for entertainment. They should be helping out during daylight on needed things.

 

[CrealCritter]

You know we went through a lot of this when the ice storm hit. Not an entire week but 5 nights and 3 days. I can't speak highly enough about a properly sized generator and suffucent common fuel to run it for atleast 5 days. The evening we got power restored I had made a gasoline run to keep us going another 5 days.

And if push came to shove I could siphon gasoline out our vehicles and machines to keep us running another 10 to 15 days. We ran the generator during daylight hours and I shut it down and brought it inside before we went to bed, because we didnt want it sprouting legs in the middle of the night. It was not fun hooking it up every day at the crack of dawn but you do what must be done.

We have wood stove and good supply of fire wood, so heat was never a issue. Food and water was never a issue either because we have two weeks worth of drinking water stored but our water pressure never decreased, so we didn't need our stored water. Bread was not a issue either because we make it in batches and store in a freezer. But we could have continued to make fresh bread on generator power.

Get a properly sized generator. Hopefully it'll sit there most of time. Keep it properly maintained, put it on a use cycle once a month (today we run on generator power). When you need it for emergencies, it'll pay for it'self. Having a properly sized generator is a game changer!

Jesus is Lord and Christ