Frustrated - Starting Over - Where to Start?

I am embarrassed to post this, so I hope y'all will cut me some slack.

We had a house with an excellent solar system. Due to a medical situation (I am a disabled veteran who got COVID-19 and developed long haul COVID) that led to financial crises, we no longer have the house or the excellent solar system. I am sitting in a rental house starting over from scratch.

With everything going on in the world and my medical needs for electricity, I am very uncomfortable with nothing to power us should the lights go out. The issue - if the lights went out for an extended period, we would drive 30 minutes away to stay with family in their house.

I have $800 in checking and $2,600 credit I can use (we have more credit, but saving that for emergencies) to put something together now. The question is -- what do I buy?

Do I purchase a name-brand solar generator with foldable solar panels? Do I buy an All-in-one, panels, wires, and batteries and just set them up in a configuration that can be torn down, packed up, and taken with us? I don't know what to do.

DisabledVet said:

With everything going on in the world and my medical needs for electricity, I am very uncomfortable with nothing to power us should the lights go out.

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Depending on your quantified needs, its likely a generator will be the most cost efficient. Propane has a nearly infinite shelf life. If your house has a propane tank, harnessing that is even better for a prolonged power outage.
Solar is rarely a cost effective solution, especially for occasional backup uses.

Agree with @MisterSandals. For example, for my trailer I bought a $600'ish 2500w Champion DualFuel - https://www.homedepot.com/p/Champio...oil-Start-Inverter-Generator-100899/315739133 It comes with propane hookup.

On gasoline - 1 tank (1 gallon) generated about 4kwh - e.g. 1000w for 4hrs or 500w for 8hrs per gallon and quiet as generators go. Maybe you have a balcony?.

It also does propane, which stores forever! You could get a 20lb (4 gallons) or 30lb (6+ gallons) propane tank for $100-150. You'll get a little less kwh than gasoline - maybe 3.8kwh/gallon instead of 4.0kwh/gallon but it's close and takes care of multi-year storage issues as far as fuel going bad.