I am a big advocate of gathering information and learning as much as you can about survival. I have books and notebooks on all kinds of survival skills. I encourage people who don't have much in the way of money to at least learn skills all the time.
Knowledge is something that nobody can take from you. You don't have to pack it up and take it with you when you're going somewhere. It makes you invaluable in a survival situation if you're the only one who knows how to do certain things.
The problem with knowledge and learning is that some people spend so much time researching that they never actually DO anything. At some time we all have to practice what we are researching if we want to really know how to do it. It takes hands on practice and experience to really know how to do something.
I don't mean that research isn't important because it IS. Not researching can get you hurt. On top of that, there is no reason in most cases to reinvent the wheel. It's all been done before and in most cases even the pioneers knew how to survive with the same skills we are going to need. So once the information is gathered and studied it is time to get up and put it into practice.
It doesn't have to be expensive to learn many vital skills. How about making char cloth? It's just takes some fabric scraps an empty can and fire. What about actually dehydrating some food? If you have an extra few vegetables here and there don't toss them. Cut them up and dehydrate them. It adds to your hands on knowledge and your food stash too.
There are so many skills that we can learn that cost next to nothing. Make a lamp with olive oil. Practice building a fire and the ways to light it. Can a few jars of food. Even if its a dozen jars of pickles or tomatoes they can be done in just a pot of boiling water and you actually learn how the canning process works. If you have a dusty pressure canner that you haven't put into use because you are scared then you aren't doing yourself any favors. It is easy to can. Do it now because its gonna be that much harder and scarier on a campfire then it will be in your kitchen.
Money is not an excuse. You can walk outside and learn to identify wild edibles for free. If you're scared take them to your local extension office or somebody who knows the names of plants and get help. Take a picture and ask someone online to help identify it. Only after you hold a weed in your hand and become familiar with it can you say you KNOW how to forage for that particular plant. Compare them with pictures in books and online and when you positively know what it is then learn what parts are edible or medicinal. Learn to prepare them. Some wild edibles will leave you with a belly ache or worse if you don't know how to prepare it and which part to eat.
Knowing that a certain herb can be used for medicine is fine but not if you can't actually put it into practice. Even if you don't use them its good to know how to make a salve, tincture, tea or infusion. You have to actually make a few of them to know what you're doing. So pick a free weed or herbs from the kitchen and work with it. Get hands on knowledge now so you will be prepared for when you need it.
Let's be honest. Anybody can do a web search to find out the answer to a question. Too often its painfully obvious when someone passes on information that they are just repeating from another source without really knowing what they are talking about. It shows that they never tried it and succeeded or failed. Both failing and success are ways of learning by the way. One teaches how to do something and one teaches how NOT to do something. Believe me when I admit I have had my mistakes and failures. I have learned to do many things with an open book at my elbow as reference. The important thing is to keep trying until it comes out right.
What are you waiting for? Just DO it! Put what you're learning into practice even if its something simple. You will be glad you did. When someone asks you if you're an armchair prepper just doing research and hiding behind your computer then you can honestly say you are doing something every day or week to prep.
Southern wood Elf