Welcome to prepping, it can be a fun hobby, or save your bacon. Or both. This post is an introduction to the thought process needed to get from surviving anything from splinters in your finger to a many year problem of complete societal breakdown. Just remember, if you are not as wealthy as a Soros or Kennedy, you can’t do it all at once, it’ll take time to become completely self sufficient. Pretty much this takes planning, organizing and judicious expenditure of time and money. Decisions, decisions, what to prepare for – Let’s face it. TSHTF is undefined, and is a personal interpretation. You have to decide what your demons are. The End Of The World As We Know It is also low probability, and although within imagination it is not really defined. Your challenge is to weigh the odds you face, apply your own definitions, and make your own preparations accordingly. First thoughts: What is the most likely short term happening that could make a mess of your life, right where you are right now? House next door on fire? YOUR house on fire? Power outage? Back yard creek flooding? Rail car full of toxic chemicals burst half a mile away? Do you live in a flood plain? How fast can you expect it to take for an ambulance to respond to your call? Hurricanes and big time snow storms? Thinking here is short term, say less than a week or ten days. Seems to me that you must cover those bases first, and you have to evaluate the risks in your own AO. Those that need immediate action (fire, chemical, and medical emergencies) are your first thinking. Also short term, but require immediate actions completely different from a burning dwelling. Gang warfare in the front yard? Riots a block away? Second are situations where you will have some notice. Floods and weather come to mind. Can you make it thru by weathering in place, or do you need to head for higher ground? Is your vehicle in good repair and fueled up, ready to get out of the low lands with survival gear on board or ready to load out? Can you ride out a snow storm of Biblical proportions? Think here of the no name storm in New England some years ago where nothing moved for 3 days, and very little for days afterward or like Katrina where some people aren’t yet home. Lose your job and income? All these will give you time to act, and none to waste. Then come more serious and longer term problems. I include terrorism here, simply because the results of an attack could be longer lasting. How long can you hold out if the power is interrupted for several weeks? Does it get cold where you live? Fuel shortages due to war overseas that either takes the fuel for fighting or something else that makes oil products too dear or impossible to buy? In each of these cases, you’ll have time to act (or not) but your preparations need to be in place before it happens. (Unless, of course, the attack is in your area, then you go back to the immediate actions for the immediate effects.) And last, there are the very long term items. Complete breakdown of civil authority? General lawlessness? Total failure of the banking system? Stalling out of commerce such that delivery of (you name it) isn’t possible? Invasion of foreign forces that result in defeat of our military? (Don’t laugh, if the rest of the world unites and invades, they will be hard to repel. LOTS of them, and they will control shipping if they get the jump. They will pay for every foot of ground, and then they have to hold it. Such a thing will not be over in a short time.) Take your time to think all this out. Planning is critical to your success in meeting the challenges, regardless of gravity. Make lists of what you have on hand, how long your supplies will last, and bump your inventory to accommodate the short term needs, then go for the mid range, and finally go for the big one that sets you up for complete independence. This will NOT happen overnight, so don’t go into panic mode if you aren’t where you need to be. Following this are posts by experienced preppers with good starting guidance. The rest of the forum and its parent website has gobs of details, way more than is possible to assimilate in short order. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed, take it bit by bit, using these starting points and expanding until you are satisfied with your situation. Done right, you will always find something else to take you a day, a week, a year longer than those that don’t plan for the likely, probable, possible and SHTF.
Too many words. It all makes sense, but I wouldn't read it because it's too jumbled. I wouldn't be able to digest it all. Could you simplify it and colorize it and bold it? I'm not trying to be a nit-picker.
Probably can do a bit of that, but not yet. A bit more input first, then refine for publication? (Idea collection mode.) This one is sorta intended as an intro, not definitive advice to the newb.
Third Generation evolving prepper here. Learning more every day. Rich? No! Frugal, Yes! Ready for anything? No, but comfortably prepared for most situations.... I will never be done. You just prioritize and do the best you can. . I have a little advice for anyone willing to accept it. (please note, I am not at this time a member of the LDS church. I respect them, and endorse their religions belief in being prepared). . I have ordered from their online store twice with excellent prompt results. I have not yet purchased from one of their worldwide many local canneries, or food distribution warehouses. I would suggest that all preppers look into whether or not one of these facilities is within reasonable driving distance from you. Their prices are very low cost! . more on the online store. www.store.LDS.org the main page is geared to their religion, and will stop many of you right there. That would be a mistake, and your loss. Under the heading "Home and Family" is a sub-heading "self reliance". Click on that. It will open up a page with many items that will interest most of you. Click on any item there will get you the price. That price in most cases is all you will pay. No shipping fees, no sales tax. Supposedly there are some exceptions to that, but I haven't encountered one yet. . There is an inexpensive 29 page magazine/booklet for $1.50 I would recommend all new preppers obtain. It covers many of the basics. "Essentials of Home Production and Storage". For me the related Publications list on pages 16 - 18 alone is worth my dollar and a half. Most of which are USDA, and college sourced booklets at a cost of less than $1 each. Topics covered are; Beekeeping, Canning, Drying, Freezing,Home Gardening, Insect Control, Pruning, Food Safety, Home Storage, and Water. . Having a reference library is very important to me. It gives me comfort, and encourages me to try new things and learn more. . Some where in Survival Monkeys archives, there is a huge 222 page LDS preparedness guide I would also recommend you find and read.
Ghrit, I actually meant the above post for new comers and novice preppers. What do you think? Shall I repost it elsewhere for them?
Dear Gerbil on a Treadmill: I gonna make this real easy. You are screwed like a gerbil in a room of homos. Every habitrail tube leads you to a pile of ****. Since we are all starting from the same basic place, I offer you a few simple thoughts: Why do gerbils stuff their mouths with extra food? So they can store up food for bad times. Start with 3 days worth of food/water/necessities (diapers, depends, medication, etc) Next step = 3 weeks of the above. If your budget can afford, buy an extra week of food for each person in your family in the canned variety of foods. Don't get lost in all preparedness stuff, Just buy the food and put it in the pantry. You are now 3 weeks ahead of most people on the earth. The next big goal is 3 months. Come back to this thread when you have accomplished the 3 week food goal and we will send you a detailed plan of the 3+ week next steps. We look forward to hearing from you after you have gerbiled away this food supply.....next step 3 months!
tac - Still collecting ideas. Things will gel and eventually we'll be able to fill in the outline (can't find it just now, but it's on the site) melbo started in some semblance of order. You could add the pubs and links to the reading room any time if they aren't already there. I like Clyde's step by step ----
My thought behind this (it take me a while) is that we have 4 threads that people will be able to subscribe to, after they have completed the previous thread. So, there is a 3 day plan. We make a three day list that is complete. Add to it a little. Then once that is completed, they have to post "completed" then we will open them up to the 3 week plan. Same, they post completed, then we open them up to a 3 month "Priorotized plan" with the additional items. Toss in a shot gun on the 3 week plan for security an maybe a handgun. KISS. Once they complete this, we will have a 4th post of 3 months and beyond and that will just be lists and thoughts. Once they are 3 months into this, the prepping mind will kick in. Clyde
I think the goal is to create a single .pdf download for new preppers, as the SM main page says...(correct me if I am wrong), and perhaps have a single thread with the info posted.
B, the original idea was as you say, but Clyde's idea is worth a think; wasn't thought of before now.
I like Clyde's plan of 3's and feel sorry for that poor gerbil. 3 day plan with food, water, basic first aid kit and necessities sounds good. No need to bring in a firearm yet. 3 week plan should include a pump action shotgun with buckshot (0 to 40 yards) and slug (0 to 100 yards) ammo for security and some birdshot for hunting only. Remember Cheney couldn't even kill a lawyer with birdshot. For figuring out the food supply, every time I buy supplies I log them into a supply list on my computer with the total calories for each item and a grand total at the bottom. They then take 2K calories per day per person and divide their grand total by that number for their total days of food. Alternate cooking methods like a propane stove and at least a 5 gallon tank needs to be brought in along with water purification methods. Advanced first aid kit should be purchased at this time and necessities should be common sense, look at what you bought for 3 days and get enough for 3 months. 3 month plan priority should be building up more of the same items in the 3 day plan and secondary should be adding a handgun and rifle. Handgun should be a 38 revolver or bigger and rifle should be a bolt action 223 or bigger. Disclaimer: all firearms suggested are for a firearm novice and with a handgun purchase, they need training.
I don't like Clyde's idea. No hard feelings, but it is illogical and overworked. Therefore, it is unacceptable. Go for one month. Go up one month at a time. Done. K.I.S.S. -Why? Well, it's simple, really. A person can live for weeks without food. What sense does it make to prepare to save up 3 days of supplies when we already have this in our cupboards? Listen, it's not brain surgery. Use common sense here. If we are to offer sound advice to people who have little to no idea about prepping, we had better get it right the first time. Opinions be damned. Use the KISS standard and common sense.
I think that Clyde's idea is just a primer to get people into the idea of prepping. True, most people have 3 days worth of food in the house and the 3 days of supplies would be extra items over what they already have, so in reality they would have about a weeks worth of food. If the water goes out, I'll bet most people don't have enough for their family for more than a day. 3 days may not be the right number, maybe a week, but I think 1 month would be overwhelming to someone just starting out in both the amount of items to buy and financially.
That's why I stated in my 4 basics the importance of working up to that first month by preparing a 2 week supply. Anything less than a month is entirely up to the individual to prepare. We can't expect to hold everybody's hands, gentlemen. Sooner or later, people have to learn to walk on their own.
Agree with this 100%, but don't know how you came up with this from the posts on this thread. Remember the idea is to give a noob a starting point. People will either sink or swim with the idea of prepping and that is totally under their own control. They were told and if they didn't listen, oh well!
The average browser on this site is looking for something specific, like canning recipes, information on dehydrating food, heck even gardening, and soap making. If they stumble out of the forum topic they are in looking for other juicy tidbits, they most likely are interested in self-sufficiency of some kind. I know I was, it is how I found this place. Some will be preppers prior to joining, like myself. Many will be like Candy Fisher, who strikes me as a single mom in a panic to protect and preserve her children and herself. The operative word there is panic. My point is this: there was a thread about what it means to be a Survival Monkey, and these beginner posts are part of that community effort IMO. This is the ounce of prevention, rather than the pound of cure. Brokor has it 100% right, we cannot hold their hands forever. We can, however offer them a solid handhold to get up and moving in the right direction, at the right speed, with the right mind-set. K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Simians. Remember we are all just monkeys, and the world boils down to three things -food/water, shelter/warmth, and self-protection so we can survive to breed a new generation.
Increasing Preparedness Planning Through the Rules of Three by SAA Joe - SurvivalBlog.com I think the above post is one of the smartest things I have read to get people into the prepper mindset (and how Melbo introduced me to it). Anyway, my work here is done. Sheer brilliance in the above link information.
That's great, but what about your own mind? Can you contribute anything yourself? If we are to plagiarize the web to accomplish this task, any moron can copy and paste links. Your work never began, Clyde. I am not trying to be rude, but why post a link to SB and claim anything like what you have? Why don't you post your own take on the information from that link, correct any mistakes (and yes, there are a few), and improve upon it? Brilliance? I think not.