Why Prep?

reply to post by sirnex


I can't tell you why people do what they do; I can only tell you why I do what I do.

I started out years ago, living in earthquake country, to prepare for that possibility. What I had seen before was that earthquakes struck without warning, and people suffered; much of that suffering -- the aftermath -- seemed to me to be centered around acquirable goods (water, food, first aid, medicine, etc.) that were in short supply after the fact. I thought it a good idea to stock up on some basic goods, and to dedicate a portion of my small apartment toward maintaining those goods.

Consider this: If you buy foods that you normally use in bulk and rotate those stocks, the WORST case is that you'll save money. Simple, right? A no-brainer.

Later on, in the same location, I became part of a search & rescue team and I learned to consolidate the supplies that I would need into a backpack. I've always had a higher-than-average water demand, so water was always a problem for me. Pretty soon, the trunk of my car became a mini-storage of goods, and after that, I had a 1/4" steel box bolted to the inside of the trunk for the tools that I considered mandatory for performing SAR work.

Still later, my Bride and I moved to the Caribbean, and we expanded upon our previous prep work by preparing for tropical cyclones. In our current situation, water is not a problem, but filtration might be. You know the most bulky think for us to stock up on? Toilet paper. Now, I can use anything, but my darlin' likes a particular brand, so there are always at least a case, individually sealed in ziplocks. Now, ziplocks serve a dual purpose in a SHTF situation, so that's okay. When our little island was devistated by a hurricane in 2008, we made it through the nearly four months of no power fairly easily, and yes, we shared a lot of stuff with others.

See, the thing for us is, we don't have to anticipate a gamma ray burst, or a asteroid impact or nuclear war -- those are all things we can't do anything about, and therefore unworthy (to us) of devoting energies toward. This is my truth: There is no place on the Earth that is without natural disaster of some sort. Here is another of my truths: You can't share it if you don't have it.

We want to live. So far this year alone, we've saved several hundred dollars by buying foods that we use in bulk and rotating those stocks. If TSHTF -- in whatever form -- we're always going to be better of having supplies to use, to barter with, to help others with. We have doctors and a hospital. What if a disaster removes their ability to operate? People get sick, people get injured. That brings me to my opinion of the most important 'goods' of all -- skills and training. I can suture a moderate wound, and I have the equipment to do so. I can make my own amalgam if I should loose a filling and can't get to a dentist right away.

Hundreds of thousands? Not even remotely close, at least for me. We dedicate a fair amount of time to systems that work for us, that produce food for us, and self-education that builds skills that could be a great benefit in hard times. We don't make a lot of money and we live very simply.

Other than perhaps tropical cyclones, most disasters strike with little warning. Do you want to have choices, or be forced to depend upon a governmental agency for your survival? For me, it comes down to taking responsibility for myself.

Its wise to have all the skills to start with nothing. Here lies the problem for the survivor man crowd. In the real world we have places where no human can ever live again. Where nothing should ever be eaten or collected.

In the event of the grid going down we are only weeks away from having every single nuke plant cook off like Fukushima. All of them when the diesel runs out. If the gensets will even start and run.

So know the primitive set have issued their own death warrants. They last as long as it takes to toxify and cancer out, or rad out.


Now the preppers know they have supplies. They wont be forced to eat off the land till the supplies run down and are smart enough to know they can dole out those supplies when they are forced to take some off the land to mitigate the intensity against their bodies.

The prepper also knows the only place they may be able to garden is in raised beds that are pre, prepared to the bottom, so they can actually deep till them to bring more nutrients to the surface. The wise prepper has poly tarp covers for their beds, with wind proof tie downs to keep them covered. They also have greenhouse frames and materials for air filtering during the growing season.

They will likely have survey meters so they can select the healthiest crops to can and store, and reject ones that are not.

They have planned. They have prepped. They are prepared to repel and extinguish threats from the survivor man group and the rest of the people who have not, and only need to wait for natural selection to take away that threat.

Even today hunting is banned in parts of Europe as the animals are to radioactive to eat from the Chernobyl disaster. Farms in the UK raise sheep they can never sell or remove from the property as they are radioactive. They cant even shear the wool and sell it.Wild boar in Germany that are illegal to hunt?

There is a lot more to it than being a flint knapping Les Stroud groupie, though those are key skills for the here and now and should always be encouraged. I like to see people learn from the clothes on their back and empty pockets, and go from there since the skills also teach a pattern of resource observation and gathering, as well as thinking "one ahead."

reply to post by argentus


I fully agree. The best that could happen is food prices triple in less than 10 years. The smart money is in long term storage foods, As well as discounted foods due to overproduction. Those discounted foods take up valuable warehouse space so the do sell them off cheap if they are not moving on the shelf in the store.

Just watching for those special sales saves so much its amazing. The savings over the long haul on long term food will blow people away.


I remember when a Hershey bar was 15 cents. Wonder bread was 10 loaves for $1, boxes of top end breakfast cereal were 79 cents to $1.25, and only those "depression era whack job people" canned flats of tomatos and fruit at $1-$3 a flat. The year? 1977.

It all depends on what your current finances and situation are now. If you make $25k or less, spending more than 10% of your income would be plain foolish. However, if you make $250K and live in an apartment or high rise in NYC, spending $25-40k on a plot of land with a cabin an hour or so away would likely be a good investment.

Also, not all dollars spent are of equal value. Spending $100 on books that provide information (shelter building, trapping, fire making, etc) would be far more valuable IMO than spending $100 on some small solar-powered charger. Likewise, spending $1000 on staples (storable grains, freeze dried goods, emergency first aide supplies, vitamins, etc) would be far more valuable than a generator.

Survival is not a one solution, one formula fits all type of thing.

Some variables to consider:

-- number of persons you are responsible for taking care of in this situation
-- assets vs. Debt vs expendable cash
-- current location
-- medical/dietary needs
-- current level of knowledge and know-how
-- amount of time you feel survival-mode will be necessary
-- current employment and longevity ( will you be unemployed in a couple of months?)
-- a true analysis of what you currently own that can be re-purposed/stripped for parts/used for multiple functions

There are surely plenty more one can add to this list.

Why does it have to be one or the other? Learnin skills should part of preparing, and so should buying things to stay stable until help arrives or you can sustain yourself.

If SHTF modern medicine is done for, atleast for the time being. If you havent stocked up medical supplies you have one more weakness to try and take care of empty handed.

Im all for learning skills, but if you dont have some form of prior preperation your odds of surviving the for few weeks of a major disaster go down alot.

reply to post by argentus


Excellent story, thank you for sharing your personal experience! I do agree that prepping for the short term natural disasters is a good idea though. My only issue lies with the preppers prepping for the long haul, like a year or more for when society collapses. Such extensive prepping just makes you a target for attack in my opinion. When faced with a true survival situation like that, I believe prepping with knowledge and skills to be far superior than relying on luxury items alone. Heck, even having both might not be such a great idea simply because of the increase in risk of making yourself a target. A luxury is a luxury, a necessity is a necessity. In a survival situation like a complete societal collapse, prepping with luxuries like mountain house and canned goods is an inconvenience. You can't move all those supplies and you may make unsafe decisions just to stay close to those supplies. I just see no reason to stockpile beyond a few months at most.

reply to post by Shadowalker

They have planned. They have prepped. They are prepared to repel and extinguish threats from the survivor man group and the rest of the people who have not, and only need to wait for natural selection to take away that threat.

I'm sure natural selection is not going to select the prepper who relies upon his stockpile.

If someone goes after my fresh kill, I'll let them have it. There's other animals out there and one can survive three weeks without food.

If someone goes after your years worth of stockpiles or your garden, you're going to fight tooth and nail to hang onto it increasing your chances of dying in conflict.

Natural selection certainly will select for those prepared properly.

reply to post by xxgehenna

If SHTF modern medicine is done for, atleast for the time being. If you havent stocked up medical supplies you have one more weakness to try and take care of empty handed.

I've actually given that some consideration as well. I've been reading up on how our modern diets is a major cause for many of our modern diseases and ailments. So much to the point that I'm now learning as much as I can about something called a paleo diet, but I'd probably do a modified version of what most website's I've read suggest doing. Not to mention that nearly every medicine we have today is derived from plants.

Yeah, I have over a years worth of food stored in canned goods and dried goods. I also have an abundance of seeds
stored to grow my own food when needed ( I have a large garden every year though) and will have some animals soon here.

I also have learned many needed skills and could survive without all the goodies but having them will make it so much easier.

I did not spend thousands, maybe hundreds over the years.

Why prep?

Why carry a spare tire in your vehicle? You probably will never need it.

Originally posted by sirnex
I'm sure natural selection is not going to select the prepper who relies upon his stockpile.

I'm sure your prejudice against "preppers" is clouding your reasoning; I don't know person who prepares for such scenarios who thinks a pile of objects can save them. Except for a few survivalists who think their guns make them bulletproof.

If someone goes after my fresh kill, I'll let them have it.

No one's going to go after your fresh kill. They'll wait until you approach it, and then assassinate you from a distance with their sniper scope; providing themselves with your meal, and eliminating competition for a scarce resource with the same shot. But only during the first month of SHTF. After that, the deer population will have plummeted so low that it's no longer a realistic food source. And then the new de-facto rulers will be saving the game for themselves.

There's other animals out there and one can survive three weeks without food.

Did you read that online? Most people are incapable of manual labor after five DAYS without food. And if you've ever hunted, you know you can easily spend 3000 calories in a day's hunt. Yes, you can live for three weeks without food, but only if you sit still and don't have to do anything else to stay alive. Even then, someone has to rescue you from the prison camp, and you never really recover, even years later.

If someone goes after your years worth of stockpiles or your garden, you're going to fight tooth and nail to hang onto it increasing your chances of dying in conflict.

How do you know how I'm going to respond? Most people cannot even recognize a garden unless it grows in rows; city people cannot spot fruit trees unless they see ripe fruit hanging down. If you don't plant your garden in rows, non-gardeners have no idea that a plant is even food. Likewise with my stockpiles and caches; fraud is more powerful than force.

Natural selection certainly will select for those prepared properly.

Originally posted by mwood
Yeah, I have over a years worth of food stored in canned goods and dried goods. I also have an abundance of seeds
stored to grow my own food when needed ( I have a large garden every year though) and will have some animals soon here.

I also have learned many needed skills and could survive without all the goodies but having them will make it so much easier.

I did not spend thousands, maybe hundreds over the years.

Why prep?

Why carry a spare tire in your vehicle? You probably will never need it.

Also why have home insurance, your house most likely will never burn down. Why have car insurance? Its all the same thing. your paying or getting ready for the unknown. Storing food should be thought of the same way as insurance. best case is you rotate and eat it anyways. big deal. I dont understand why people look down on use because we store food for unknowns

Originally posted by camaro68ss

I dont understand why people look down on us because we store food for unknowns

For the same reason that the grasshopper despises the ant; because they feel judged by someone else's action, for their own denial and refusal to act.