Why Prepare?

Why prepare? That’s the most asked question I get. Well, why do we take out insurance policies? Or why do we put money in a savings account? For security. Prepping is much the same. Because prepping isn’t just stuff. Prepping is a mindset, a plan, and skills. It is so much more than stuff. Stuff without a plan and mindset is simply hoarding. I’m not a hoarder. Are you? Didn’t think so.

Remember when our grandparents would grow their own vegetables and preserve them at home? That is what I think of when I think of a prepper, because that is exactly what they were, but they didn’t have the fancy word for it.

These days everybody thinks of the Doomsday Preppers we see on TV who have underground bunkers and stocks of ammo and food. It isn’t all about that, honestly. Yes, there are plenty of people who prepare for global disasters, but many often forget that there are plenty of small but unexpected emergencies that can happen to just a household or an individual person.

I personally prep for the security of my family. Family is the most important thing in the world to me. So I do everything in my power to protect my family and make sure we can handle an emergency. Emergencies can be absolutely anything we weren’t expecting. This can be things like a water supply being tainted, a natural disaster, house fire, car wreck, unexpected medical issues, car repairs, pet bills, job loss, anything. Literally anything. It doesn’t have to be a giant global disaster to be an emergency for you or me. Sometimes it can seriously be as simple as a job loss.

We’ll use job loss as an example. Let’s say you’ve saved up a decent amount of money in your savings account, but you don’t have a well stocked pantry and go to the grocery store daily. You can live for a couple of months without a job, but that daily grocery bill and fuel for the car becomes a huge drain. With a well stocked pantry, the daily grocery store trips could be cut down to weekly, or even monthly. That’s money that now is being put toward your mortgage instead, and fuel consumption toward going out and applying for jobs, going to interviews, or whatever else to help you get back on your feet.

With having to go to the grocery store daily, what happens when there is a massive snow storm and the roads are icy for a week straight, or roads are closed? Are you going to want to run to the store every day after work to find empty shelves and only buy part of what you need?

Because everybody else has cleaned the shelves and the delivery trucks are delayed because of the weather. If you’re dependent on the grocery store, you’re going to be in a world of hurt. In only a matter of a couple of hours, everyone will have cleaned out the store. I don’t want to see that happen to anyone. I would love to see more people being prepared for the unexpected.

Another thing to think about is the supply line between the farmers and the grocery store. It is a pretty delicate balancing act, at best. Things like E. Coli outbreaks can happen, trucks get in wrecks, distribution center has a fire, store closes, weather produces less crops. I mean, it is very, very easy to disrupt the supply line. Personally I would like to think I’ve got enough supplies that if something happened, I would be ok not going to the grocery store for a minimum of a month. I will actually be testing this theory out to see how well I’m doing and adjust as needed.

Now we can’t stock for life, because things expire and can become dangerous for consumption. Plus, I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the space for that amount of stuff. Space is always an enemy. But, we can stock enough to where you can live for a week, two weeks, even a month or longer without it being the end of the world, or feeling like it is. Where do you start? Click here and I’ll tell you!

Many people also focus on learning new skills, like food preservation, self defense, making or forging weapons, learning to bow hunt, and many other things. I will go into some of these at a later time, because I am always on a mission to learn new skills and connect with others who I can learn from.

There are some who want to prep, but it is easy to become overwhelmed by the idea. Especially when we are looking at others who have been doing it for years and have skills, knowledge, and stockpiles of everything they deem necessary. It is easy to feel like as a beginner, I will never reach the level of others. But, it isn’t a race. Actually, it is pretty easy and inexpensive to start, and I will be discussing that in another post, so stay tuned! I love helping the beginning prepper, because that was my question when I began my journey as a prepper. Where do I start?

Join me on this adventure and I will tell you about the exciting things that I have been doing over the last year in my prepping journey, things I’ve learned, and mistakes that I’ve made.