Some things that may be important.

For last few days some things have come to my mind as cheap and unnecessary now and very useful and precious after SHTF.  Please consider them and maybe suggest some more in that matter. I was not looking very carefully but I did not find a word about them in the topics I read.

1. Atlases. Atlas of herbs. You can not memorize everything. Now you can easily acquire a most accurate one with recipes, even collect seeds. Of course every practical knowledge will be helpful after SHTF but you never know what can be useful so some academia knowledge as atlas of trees or minerals are worth to be matured

2. Scale. Small electronic scale. Cost of the unit with 50g capacity and 0,01 g. precision - $25. After SHTF - priceless in terms of payments and exchanging goods using silver or gold slabs.

3. Distillation set. Affordable thing that can be used in many ways. As I chemist I can suggest to have one complete apparatus - maybe as simple as possible, maybe a bit more complicated.  I can say more about its part if necessary - just write abut it. What it can be used for ?

- distillation of water - just to use it, drink

- distillation of water - to receive distilled water to add to the cells of the batteries 

- distillation of alcohols - to receive more concentrated ethanol (priceless ! :) )

- separations & purification of mixtures of volatile substances through distillation

- extraction under condenser (reflux) to get vital things from ig. herbs

- concentration through evaporation to receive concentrated substances or mixtures (ig. evaporation of water or alcohol to receive syrups)

...and many many more that at that moment do not come to my mind. The simplest one set you can gather having just $100 in your pocket. I think its worth its price many times in case of SHTF.