At What Point Are You: Irresponsibly Unprepared, Just Prepared Enough, A Prepper, or You’ve Gone T

If you have read any of my posts you will see that my family is everything to me. I deeply believe in my responsibility to care for them in every way and that includes being prepared for the possibility of some type of world chaos in the future. If I learned anything from the Prepper shows on TV recently, it is that it truly is possible to overdo it and likely to a point of lunacy. Even then, I respect an individual’s right to do what they believe is best for their own families. Second, it looks like it may be impossible to prepare for all the various possible scenarios. Would the end or beginning of the end be financial? A rogue comet? World War? CME? Something else?

To be prepared for it all, I guess I have to build an underground house, stock it with lots and lots of rations, sell everything a Can and convert it to gold, etc, etc. That’s if I try to meet all the details, which by the way, I don’t actually will happen. Don’t forget to include the madness where the government says it has the authority and even the responsibility to take from some and give to others.

I can guess what most of us have to say about that.

What does it hurt to be prepared just in case, but what exactly do I prepare my family for and how do I prioritize the possible scenarios? If I had the financial resources, time, and knowledge I might actually be one of those who does it all. Can you help me whither the question down to wherever common sense lies for those of us with common means and common vs. uncommon finances?

I can toss out my own outlook and how it's evolved over time. When I first began prep'ing a few years ago and well before I left trucking, money wasn't an issue at this level of spending. At one point I had 35 rifles and 8 handguns..on about 15,000 rounds total for Ammo. That was just firearms... Food for over 12 months..eating comfy and downright well for primitive conditions expected with electricity. Yeah... I went all out and whole hog...

That was many sales ago and most of that paranoid stuff has been sold since. Umm... The weapons and ammo alone, I had to admit one day, were just flat stupid. I can personally shoot..HOW many guns at once? I need a 'gun for every imaginable occasion' for...what reason? I realized....that approach was going to do one thing in all likelihood.

That thinking and turtle approach was going to do an outstanding job of tying my family and I to THIS location so totally and irreversibly, we'd be worse off than most if, for ANY reason, this area of the nation or even just region of my state becomes unworkable to stay in for any reason. After having that side of things hit me like a freight train one night......I wonder how many others have considered that?

Now? It's shifted into having everything that can be had in a portable arrangement without a vehicle. Basically...what it WILL be if, again, we can't stay here for contamination, environmental or other reasons no one can even imagine in these quiet and peaceful times. Things like Water FILTERS...not water bottles..and the materials to hunt with anything from snares to blowguns (it's a pipe...any pipe of the right diameter will do...although smokers need not bother trying. lol)

I still have my shelves of food and water w/ medicines and more to last a SOLID few months.. and 6 if we rough it hard for sheltering in place. Everything else? We have the tools to GET what we need now, indefinitely. Not just watch the shelves run lower and lower each day...knowing the end comes eventually.

I am definitely "Irresponsibly Unprepared" living in an earthquake hot zone and the ring of fire. This has encouraged the start of research into a B.O.B specific to the region I live in. My ideal form of transportation in a crisis situation is by bike so it would be a good idea to learn how to take apart and put back together, perform maintenance and repairs, and to make sure its suitable for long-distances and unstable terrain.

reply to post by samstone11


Q: At What Point Are You: Irresponsibly Unprepared, Just Prepared Enough..




my own biased judgement would put myself at the 'Just Enough' Level

see... i don't live my projected future on such black-swann events as a comet/asteroid hit
(although they might happen)

i think in the lines of a monetary collapse of the USD as very likely, but the future 'window' of the dollar destabilization is hazy ... but is very likely in no more than 2 calander years and the likely collapse/inflation/hyperinflation increases exponentially each following year


war reperussions are built in to my model... but cosmic or solar ELE's are not in my equasion
as famine or plagues or mauraders will likely be the near-to-immediate result of an asteroid strike
so there's no sweating those factors IMHO





here's some food-for-thought...
i sure ain't gonna brag about the cache' of stuff i-may -or-may-not-have


the poster 2 slots above this one...( Wrabbit2000 Seeker / Guide ), smartly downplayed his family's resources

Mine is just enough level too, i live in countryside and rural part of my country. Nearby there is farms and cattle. Forests and lakes are surround us. Not even close to earthquakes, our bedrock is one of the oldest in world and very stabil. So unless there is a asteroid or Electromagnetic Pulse we are safe here. We have garden of our own and fireplace and lots of logs.

reply to post by MonkeyFishFrog

This is brilliant advice. You are doing your research and beginning with REGIONAL, which seems to make tons of sense to me. I suppose in prioritizing, this is an excellent place to start, but I bet there are other opinions as well.

reply to post by samstone11


It would be good to consider options/opinions outside my region in case of not being able to stay in the local area. Living in an apartment building with poor insulation means that I will probably have to leave and find alternate shelter/permanent residence. Luckily, I live in the middle between two army surplus stores that also specialize in survival gear so I'm going to start talking to some of the employees there to see what they suggest as well.

One of the biggest concerns I have right now regardless of any situation is that I have no sustainable water supply if suddenly there was none in the taps (or taps are contaminated) beyond a filtered water jug in my refrigerator.