Why Prep?

I just don't understand why one would spend hundreds to thousands of dollars to prepare for a situation that may never occur. Instead, why not invest in learning skills?

If you lose your fire making implements, can you still make a fire without them? If not, then was it really worth buying those things?

If all your food runs out, are you still able to provide for yourself and family?

If your water supply runs dry, do you even know how to find drinkable water, purify it, distill it, filter it?

Sure, it seems like a great safety net to stock on supplies, but let's face it... Nature has by far the biggest stockpile of every single supply you could ever need to survive, you just need the skills and knowledge to use it.

reply to post by sirnex


Honestly, the only scenario I can think of that would require that much investing is global nuclear fallout. Not really a situation I would want to survive anyway.

Otherwise, $10k would be more than enough for me.

And yes, knowing how to make fire is priority #1.

reply to post by sirnex


I don't know about spending hundreds to thousands of dollars but what if you want to not just survive but be comfortable and warm and safe...like you have toilet paper while they use leafs, I can see the thinking personaly.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars? No, i would not spend that. 1-2 thousand? Sure, it is reasonably priced insurance. I agree with you when it comes to skills. But you can learn to make a fire for free, why pay? You can learn to make snares free, why pay? Shooting lessons and martial arts lessons can be worth the money, but I learned to shoot for free anyway.

Just pointing out that the OP said hundreds to thousands, not hundreds of thousands. The former would be enough to justify a nice, practical hobby; the latter, on the other hand, would be pure paranoia, IMO.

i dont see a problem with spending money to ensure survival

the fact is if your supplies are in a safe and secure location that takes the uncertainity out of the equation.

if your plan is just to learn a bunch of stuff and start to depend on the natural world to save you

the fact of the matter is alot of people will be doing the same and that is if there are places and materials that will allow you to use those skill.

prep and stockpiles are not fool proof the best surival stragety is not to be dependent upon anything

nor take anything for granted.

skills and stockpile will give you a better chance than just doing one and not the other.

I think the bigger question is: Why not prep?

What happens if a tornado or some other natural disaster destroys your home and city? For those in the US there's FEMA but I wouldn't count on them showing up in time to save your life. I would much rather provide for myself knowing I have what I need to survive.

Granted, there's a multitude of survival scenarios, lost in the woods, killer zombies, nuclear attack, super volcanoes, etc. but every scenario has the same basic premise. Provide water, food and shelter to survive another day.

You don't have to spend hundreds to thousands of dollars if you are smart. I buy foods in bulk, on sale and on closeout. I grow my own vegetables and fruits and I also dehydrate them.

I store water in 2 liter pop bottles that I get for from from my friends who drink the stuff. I roll my own cigarettes and make my own beer. I also make breads, sauerkraut and dried jerky.

Sure, I spent hundreds on guns and ammo but not everyone needs to. Most people can get by with a .22 and a couple of boxes of ammo for small game hunting or self defense if the need arises.

I see your point about having supplies and not knowing how to make do without them. I was always taught that knowledge is power and necessity is the mother of invention. If I were to lose all my supplies I know I could make do with what I know about survival techniques and skills.

Being prepared is more than having a swiss army knife and freeze dried foods. To really be prepared you need the knowledge on how to make a knife and store your own food. There are several good threads on ATS about survival manuals that should be recommended reading for anyone serious about prepping.

reply to post by sirnex


I say do both. Stockpile useful supplies and learn useful skills. Best not to put all your eggs in one basket, so to speak.

Originally posted by banandar123
Just pointing out that the OP said hundreds to thousands, not hundreds of thousands. The former would be enough to justify a nice, practical hobby; the latter, on the other hand, would be pure paranoia, IMO.

I totally mis-read that.

Well I can only answer your question for myself.I saw Desert Storm and I won't let that happen here.Outright oppression, the complete denigration of the human condition for an entire nation?
No.
A lot of people can't do jack,That"s ok you have me.I will try my best should the need occur.
I don't know color or religion, as you are is fine.Although I must insist you behave around me.
Oh I'm no nation builder just a good shot with an extremely unnaturally capable imagination.I checked fully with trained professionals and I have no dementia.
But I will always be on recon and there appears ,based on 30 years of careful cross research,that a small group of people want to destroy a good portion of us all.Well American values would attack that so now they're trying to hit us,with a sneaky kind of social engineering utilizing any and all ideas they have.But they are nearing their deadline and it isn't working despite all info to the contrary.

I suppose doing both *might* be a good idea, to a point... Yet all I can picture is people who haven't prepared and haven't learned the necessary skills attacking you for your stockpiles. That and stockpiles are rather a pain to transport. If you had to move your resources out of a location, you'd have to make numerous trips increasing the risk of discovery and attack.

I don't know, personally I would just rather rely on knowledge and skills alone. What nature provides isn't going to disappear, no one's going to attack me if I have nothing worth being attacked for. Perhaps I could even barter for those luxury items like toilet paper by teaching the toilet paper hoarders how to find food, get a fire going and cook it for when their mountain house supplies run out.

What is wrong with spending hundreds to thousands on survival gear. If it bugs you so much think of it as a hobby. Sure the knowledge is important, but why should someone make it harder than it needs to be. Also, as others have mentioned, the gear can be used in more mundane situations, like a blizzard that causes winter powerloss and leaves you pretty much cut off for a couple of days. With the right equipment it isn't a huge problem. Without it you could be screwed.

Originally posted by JDBlack
What is wrong with spending hundreds to thousands on survival gear. If it bugs you so much think of it as a hobby. Sure the knowledge is important, but why should someone make it harder than it needs to be. Also, as others have mentioned, the gear can be used in more mundane situations, like a blizzard that causes winter powerloss and leaves you pretty much cut off for a couple of days. With the right equipment it isn't a huge problem. Without it you could be screwed.

I suppose that depends upon your definition of screwed. The very act of just being alive day to day is a survival struggle in itself. With all these modern conveniences, we've bred a lazy complacent un-knowledgeable society. I'm just starting on my journey to learn as many skills as I can now so that should society collapse, life won't really be that uncomfortable for me and my own. I won't have to ration the last few days of food and water or have to fight with others for they're stash of resources.

With the right knowledge, it isn't a huge problem. Equipment is limited, can be stolen, lost, or broken beyond repair.

I think this mindset of needing electricity is a problem. We don't need it, have never needed it. It's a fun luxurious toy that powers all our other luxurious toys. Why make survival much harder than it needs to be by having to constantly worry about who's out to steal your fuel or generator or other supplies? I think we need to focus on being a part of nature rather than being apart from it.

Most people that prep, like the outdoors and all that you can do in it...like camping boating fishing ect.
A lot of the things that you get for a SHTF are items that you would use for camping.

Then you have some of us that grew up in the country with small farms... gardens and parents that canned veggies and had a few animals for butchering...it is way cheaper than buying it at the store.

The way I see it...I've been at this most of my life and grew up with those kind of people around me.

If you have all these things stored up get some experiance in camping or minimal survival trips, where you learn ''how to'' and ''what to'' do for your basic personal needs in the outdoors.

The massive amount of food some has is good, but you need seeds to grow your own and you might also need to change your area...due to what ever happened to cause the SHTF....flood, nuke, or chem. attack, martial law???

No one knows what it will be...so you prep for the most likely and then go from there...
Your food and gear stored will buy you time for moving to a new area or learning some new skills that you will soon figure out if you have the desire and will to survive.

You have your house insured?
you have your car/truck insured?
You have life insurance?
Why wouldn't you prep then?
This is just my .02 cents.

Saltdog, it just tastes a lot better, too.

With the US economy in a handbasket to hell with the afterburners lit it makes sense to have some extra non-perishable food on hand for when you can't afford the grocery store. While I'm working I stock up for when I'm not. "Survivalism" or whatever you want to call it (with or without spending $$$) lends a peace of mind in uncertain times. And these are definitely uncertain times.

Skills are great! Supplies are great! Having one without the other stinks!

reply to post by HappyHermit


I think having a 72 hour kit is fine for power outages, floods, blizzards, etc... Only for those situations where the "disaster" is going to be relatively short lived and life returns to normal though. I see some people discussing stockpiling a years worth of food and other supplies. If society collapses, there isn't a chance in hell your moving a years worth of resources if the situation requires it. Not without being noticed and attacked by looters. I wouldn't want a bug out location to store all that stuff either. Who knows when such a situation will arise where a stockpile like that is necessary. The longer it sits there waiting for such an event, the greater and greater chance of discovery.

Nature isn't going to go anywhere anytime soon, so having the skills to utilize that resource should the need arise is a much better option in my opinion. Resources will be where ever I will be. Unless there's a nuclear attack on this country, those resources should be relatively safe to handle. Having nothing but knowledge to carry around means lighter travel from location to location. Having nothing but knowledge to carry around makes you less of a target. You can even barter that knowledge for luxury items with those who ran out to the grocery store to stock up on mountain house and canned goods.

All equipment is prone to failure, if society collapses and you have no access to new equipment, your essentially screwed if you don't know how to make do without that equipment. I'm learning everything I can right now and teaching all my children and my wife how to make do with only what nature has provided our species for thousands of years already. Survival never meant stockpiling a years worth of luxury crap before, so why should it nowadays?

Having two day's or more worth of water and some freeze dried food is just a good thing to have. You never know what is going to happen, where I live we have extremely bad storms, hurricanes, and wildfires in the summer sometimes. To me it is just a given to have some things in supply, including a medical kit, if not for me for others. It is more about not wanting to get caught with your pants down in a bad situation and that to me is not crazy, but prudent.

Originally posted by HappyHermit
Saltdog, it just tastes a lot better, too.

With the US economy in a handbasket to hell with the afterburners lit it makes sense to have some extra non-perishable food on hand for when you can't afford the grocery store. While I'm working I stock up for when I'm not. "Survivalism" or whatever you want to call it (with or without spending $$$) lends a peace of mind in uncertain times. And these are definitely uncertain times.

Skills are great! Supplies are great! Having one without the other stinks!

I agree with you happy hermit...
it is a way of life for many people.
Its not like in some of the movies with the crazy nut job, backwoods hillbillies but a way of being self reliant, self sustaining and it does give you a piece of mind...knowing that if something bad were to happen you could still get by for X amount of time without needing to go to the store for anything.

I believe we call it life...it is what you make of it...I do think its getting ready to get a lot harder for many more people soon.

reply to post by saltdog


Relying upon consumerist products is hardly self-reliant and self-sustaining. Lose your can opener and don't know how to open cans without one, you now have a stockpile of useless food. Lighter runs out of fluid and you don't know how to make a fire without it, you now have no way to boil water for your mountain house food.

Being able to hunt, forage and build the necessary tools as needed at the moment when society collapses... That's self sufficiency. Only thing required is pure knowledge and skill set.

But like I said before, for minor inconveniences, like storms, power outages and the like, stocking up is fine. But that's not a true survival situation... that's more of a boohoo I can't play on the internet anymore situation.

reply to post by sirnex


Well we are both on here so you must not have gotten all your "extras" gone yet.
I have no problem with useing canned goods, mountain house, mre, home grown and canned , shot while hunting foods...they are all foods. I cannot carry all my food on my back but all my food isn't in 1 spot. I have the ability to grow my own and am, do you?
I shoot 90-95% of the meat I eat...do you?
Its living life and surviving...who cares if "you think" its not because i have canned goods...oh well your not me and I am not you... so you go and eat worms while i am eating steak and shrimp......
You don't have a back up? you live off the land now? what do you do if your crops dry up or flood out?
oh you got nothing for winter...now what? you starve...me because i am stocked with food that wasn't straight from mother nature survive...do what you want But I thought that survival was surviving...and if hard times hit, your preps help make the suffering so that its not as bad as it could of been.

By the way I do have the skill set for being in the woods and have started many a fire with mother natures supplies...oh and set traps and dead falls and even caught fish with no string or line...using many limbs and trapping them in my own homemade fish aquarium made by me in the creek with using only my hands...shall I continue to teach you through this forum?