How to shop like a doomsday prepper: Survivalists share the secrets to saving money and getting back to nature - as a growing number of Aussies flee big cities due to rising cost of living

• Buying in bulk like a doomsday prepper could save you money during inflation
• Survivalist Trevor Andrei gives advice about how to shop to save money
• TV host and stunt woman Ky Furneaux urges Aussies to get back to nature

As Australia braces for another Covid wave and continues to battle a cost of living crisis survivalists have shared their tips for shopping frugally and getting in touch with nature.

Doomsday prepper Trevor Andrei told Daily Mail Australia he's been inundated with calls asking for advice about how to save money.

He's spent most of his life preparing for 'all case scenarios' - fearing everything from nuclear war, cyber attacks, and natural disasters, to new pandemic and even alien invasions.

Mr Andrei, in his 40s, runs The Survival Shop and lives on a property in rural Victoria where he practices foraging and stores years' worth of canned food and other non-perishable items.

'I teach people to prepare for all case scenarios - but I'm not here to be captain crazy. It's just about self sufficiency,' Mr Andrei, who last year featured in the ABC documentary series Prepping Australia, said.

'Does it actually take a pandemic to work out that when things are on special and in plentiful supply at half price that you should stock up?'

He claims to have warned about the risk of pandemics long before Covid hit Australia in March, 2020, and argues his strange lifestyle is 'nothing new'.

'Prepping has been around for thousands of years. So putting grain in silos, making aqueducts, salting fish, preserving food - this is nothing new,' Mr Andrei said.

'Most people don't even have a week's worth of food in their house and these are professionals who make good money.'

The cost of food in Australian has skyrocketed in 2022 with inflation now sitting at 5.1 per cent and expected to soar even higher.

Massive government subsidy programs during the pandemic have sparked the increase, with the issue exacerbated by surging oil prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.

Fuel prices are now over $2 a litre on average nationwide. 

Record floods on the east coast of Australia have also compounded the cost of living crisis, choking the supply of many fresh vegetables including iceberg lettuce which is now selling for $11 a head in some parts.

Mr Andrei says those worried about rising prices should live 'like our grandparents used to'.

'Go to farmer markets or supermarkets five minutes before they close and buy boxes full of vegetables at slashed prices and then go home and preserve them in jars,' Mr Andrei said.

'I go to Coles like everyone else. But do you know when I go to Coles? When all the specials are on.'

While the life of a prepper might be a step too far for some, wilderness survival expert Ky Furneaux told Daily Mail Australia that Covid 'cemented this idea that the world is unpredictable' and now people are looking to shake things up by getting back to nature. 

The Australian TV host and award-winning stunt woman who has doubled for Hollywood stars Sharon Stone, Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Garner and Camilla Belle, is not a doomsday prepper, but said becoming more self sufficient is something everybody should get excited about.

'People are now more aware they could be thrown into a really unpredictable situation at some point in the future,' she said.

'And of course during that time so many of us were just indoors so people are just looking for a way to shake things up and have an adventure.

'The pandemic made people reassess what's actually important and I think fitness, family and just getting outside were top of most people's list.'

The 48-year-old once survived 21 days in the US Bayou with nothing but a machete, as part of the Discovery Channel series Naked and Afraid and has also trekked 160km across the blistering hot Sierra Nevada mountains carrying only a pocket knife.

Furneaux said a horrific car crash when she was 19 inspired her to push herself to new limits after doctors told her she would never be physically able after breaking a bone in her back.

'Anyone can do this,' she said. 'But my advice would be to take it slow.'

'You don't just want to head out into the bush with nothing for two weeks because you'll have a miserable experience.

'But if you go outdoors well prepared can be a life changing experience.'

She said a two-hour hike for someone living in a major city is a good place to start.

'The oxygen, the trees and the views can give you energy and improve your mood and mindset'

'But bring a snack, a basic first aid kit and a couple of litres of water.'

The pandemic caused an exodus of more than 70,000 people moving out of major cities for more affordable regional areas - but some are choosing to live off the grid altogether.  

It comes as Australian scientists report the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants will dominate in coming weeks and will be the cause of rising infections.

Recently the BA.2 sub-variant of the Omicron strain has dominated genomic testing but BA.4 and BA.5 appear to be taking over.  

Survivalist expert Dr Bradley Garrett, from the University College Dublin, said Covid in Australia kick-started a 'doom boom' and a massive interest in living an off-grid bunker.

'The bunker mentality is about resiliency,' Dr Garrett told news.com.au in 2020.

'So anyone who's spending a lot of time thinking about going off-grid, digging their own well, going onto septic and disconnecting from infrastructure so that they can become more self-sufficient – that is completely a bunker mentality.

'Social scientists actually have a term for this, it's called Covid flight.'