How to get started prepping

First off, I’ll announce the winner for the Safeguard GHOST vest giveaway! There were 83 comments, and I had my 13-year old son choose a number between 1 and 83. The number that he came up with corresponded with the post by Priest! So, Priest, if you’re reading this, get in touch with me via email at [email protected] and we’ll get the ball rolling for you! Congrats!

Onto the post!

In last Wednesday’s post,  I asked people to post up some constructive criticism about our site, some suggestions to help us help you with topics you’d like to read about. One topic that seemed to come up frequently was the desire for more beginner’s posts, so we here at SHTFblog.com are endeavoring to do just that: start at the beginning. How do you start getting yourself ready for an emergency when you’re starting from absolute scratch?

First off, I’m going to make a confession to all of you fine people: I’m kinda new to prepping myself. When I was out on my own as a young buck fresh out of the house, I didn’t really think about disasters or keeping myself warm when the power went out, or social breakdowns. I had guns and a pretty innate knowledge of them, and I could shoot. I had ammo. I lived in a farmhouse in the mountains of Maine, with cold, fresh running streams in the backyard, and game abundant in the woods. I was set for most anything, I supposed…and to tell you the truth, I was in good shape for someone who hadn’t put any conscious thought or effort into being prepared.

Fast forward fifteen years. I now find myself a grown man, with a wife, two sons, (one a newborn born this past Saturday, one 13), a house and subsequent mortgage, a big stupid dog, and a hell of a lot more on my plate in general. I started being aware of possible problems going on in the world around me: rapidly rising gas prices, increasing societal unrest in general, hurricanes, superstorms, tsunamis, earthquakes. Looting. Murders. Riots. Droughts. The decline of the farmer, the rise of the all-powerful corporations that have the power and money to buy an entire government. Y2K panics. Terrorist bombings. Mayan calendars. Gangnam style. All sorts of markers out there to show the observant eye that looks in the right way that the world is teetering on the edge of complete pandemonium…and I wanted my family and I to be ready for it, or as ready as we could be.

So here are a few thoughts I’ve put together on the subject as I go; hopefully they’ll help you along in your processes as you start to wade into the deep end of the pool.

First things first

The very first thing I realized is that I had to be realistic: I simply couldn’t be prepared for everything an unknown future might throw at me. When you come to that conclusion yourself (hopefully sooner rather than later) things get a touch easier and less like you have to start breathing deeply into a paper bag. That one little realization should help you focus on the important things first instead of going straight to frantically digging a lead-lined fallout shelter in a panic.

So, here we go: what basic things do we as people need to survive? Food, Shelter, Water. These are the first things you should cast a critical eye upon when getting started. Look around your area and figure out what you might need to bolster up on first if things went awry. For example, do you live in the outskirts of Las Vegas, where huge casinos and urban sprawl dominate the water supply in a desert, or in a relatively arid area? Consider the fact that humans need a minimum of a gallon of water per person a day to stay hydrated and somewhat hygenic (two per person per day is much better) and you’ll realize that if a pandemonium sets in, water will go fast when the A/C conks out, and it will be at a severe premium, so water storage and production might be what you want to square away first.

Likewise, if you have a ready water supply and good filtration, food storage and a way to attain it might be a good place to start. Or if you have a house with a lot of windows or glass, a way to shore things up to, say, prevent hurricane/tornado winds from breaking them, or looters getting into your domicile in a local riot or emergency would be a good thing. Blankets, light sources, or a generator and fuel storage would be another great place to start.

The point is, don’t try for everything at once. Pick one basic necessity item at a time that you know for sure will be a problem in a SHTF scenario, and start there. Set goals. For instance, a goal I had for myself when I started was to have enough water in storage to keep my family supplied for a week. I didn’t rush right out and buy huge water barrels, but I went to the local supermarket and bought 5-gallon jugs of water that store nicely on shelves. Cheap, easy, and organized. Then, I started procuring long-term food that will keep us going for the same amount of time. I kept to a budget and went as I could, and in not much time at all, I had a week’s worth of food and water for a family of four ready to go. I was encouraged and my mind could take a breather and branch into other things, like researching and setting up water filtration or food dehydration that would accentuate the stores I had.

How can I afford the apocalypse?

I just mentioned I kept to a budget. In my family, my wife is definitely of the “it won’t happen to us” camp. So if I’d told her every week I’d be blowing grocery money on preps, I’d have been sans wife pretty quickly. Yes, we need to prepare for emergencies in the future, but bills that roll in NOW take precedence…gotta keep the lights on so you know when the power grid goes out, right? So, I take $20 a week, and buy things I know we’ll need and stow them away. If I need something bigger, like a family-sized water filtration system, I save up. It takes awhile, but it doesn’t take food out of our mouths, and I still build up the preps as time goes on. Works pretty well.

How much you personally set aside depends on you and your circumstances. You may have enough in savings to buy a 10,000 watt generator and house hookups. Or you may be living paycheck to paycheck and just scraping by; you’ll have to make that decision. Just remember that starting small is FAR better than no start at all.

Ignore the naysayers

I mentioned this in the article I posted a few weeks ago on the effects of media on prepping: the general worldview on people who want to be ready for an emergency is that we’re all gun hoarding, MRE-quaffing meathead lunatics, just ready to re-affirm our alliance to Hitler and baby Jesus and the M-16. As a consequence, if you share your goals with some people, they may look at you in the exact same light. Don’t be dismayed…you’re doing the right thing. Last I checked, having water and food on racks in the basement ready to go is the same thing as money in a savings account: a good idea, just in case. So don’t get discouraged when you watch “Doomsday Preppers” and roll your eyes at the way they are portrayed; rather, be comforted by the fact that you’re doing something to help your situation out should the need arise. That’s what it is…it’s not lunacy or fearmongering. And remember, you don’t have to stock up on camouflage fatigues, cut the sleeves off them and wear them as you take apart your handguns blindfolded in your bunker stocked full of Spam and canned lima beans. You take this as far as YOU want to or need to. That’s it. Preparedness is just a good idea.

Welcome to the club; we’re here for you.

Questions? Comments? Further suggestions for readers on how to get started, and dealing with the mindset? Let’s hear ‘em!  What’s worked well for you?

Stay Safe!

-TRW