Do you consider yourself to be someone who is into preparedness? Are you striving to live a more self-sufficient lifestyle? Are you dabbling or are you all in? No matter which one you find yourself fitting into better, there are six downfalls that I notice are common among most people who desire to be more prepared.
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Downfall #6 – Not Buying Quality Items
When I go to the grocery store, I am looking for deals and bargains. Yes, I want to make sure I’m putting good stuff into my family’s bodies. That is important, but there are times when mustard is JUST mustard. And there are times when one frozen pizza is similar enough to other frozen pizzas (on the whole). I tend to buy the cheapest per unit on most groceries.
When I go out looking for tools or preparedness items though, I’m not looking for the cheapest thing. As a matter of fact, oftentimes I end up getting one of the more expensive options. Why? I need to know that the items that I am purchasing are going to keep me from getting hurt. The items that I purchase need to last a long time. If I don’t have money to buy quality items in the first place, how am I going to afford to replace those items if they break or don’t work? I’ve heard it said, “Buy the best you can afford.”
I talk about this in a whole article of its own here if you want to dig further in.
Downfall #5 – Being too dependent on technology
Wow. This is a big one. Don’t get me wrong, I APPRECIATE my gadgets and gizmos that make life easy! I even have a homemade Faraday cage to keep some electronic preps in. But I can’t depend on those preps. I know nothing about how to repair a portable DVD player. I don’t know how a solar power battery charger works.
As long as these things work, they will be amazing to have around in the case of an emergency like a power outage due to storms! Eventually, we want to get a few solar panels, an inverter, and other necessary items. The problem is that I can’t create a plan where my life depends on solar panels because I don’t know how to fix solar panels or inverters. Even if I do know how to fix something, I have to make sure that I have parts stocked.
What’s the best way to handle things? Have tech options that make life easier, but only depend on low tech options and have backups. The upside is that low tech objects generally cost less.
Downfall #4 – Not Being Financially Prepared
Even as a mom, when I think of preparedness, on rare occasions my mind immediately goes to scenarios like One Second After. But in reality, the things that are more likely to happen are short-term power outages, frozen pipes, broken dryers, or job loss. Yes, you can prepare for a job loss by having some physical items, but in all reality, the best way to prepare for a job loss is to be financially prepared. Are you spending more than you make? Is there too much ‘month’ left at the end of the ‘money’? Make changes now. Crown Financial and Dave Ramsey both have programs to help you not just get out of debt, but to manage your money wisely.
After you’ve cut expenses and you’re safely living under your means and saving money monthly, then look at augmenting your income. It could be delivering pizzas one night a week or writing a book or selling something through direct sales. No matter what it is, get at least one additional stream of income going now because it’s going to take you some time to get it to where it’s making a positive dent in your financial situation.
Downfall #3 – Not Living a Lifestyle of Learning
When was the last time you read a book? I’m not talking about only reading preparedness books. Maybe you’re like my friend Raquel who has already read more than 120 books this year. If that’s you, I salute you! I’ve only plowed through about six so far this year, but I read. My current book is Breathe – and can I just tell you, it’s rocking my world! I never realized something as simple as learning to breathe correctly can affect so many things in a positive way such as lowering blood pressure, relieving anxiety, helping with tummy troubles and more!
But the next book on my list is The Humanure Handbook. I want to learn the ins and outs of composting and this puts a unique twist on it. I’m very excited to dig in.
Downfall #2 – Not Creating a Plan
My mom loves to people watch. I do something similar. I stalk in the shadows and just watch on Facebook. Occasionally, I post. More often than I post on my own page, I’ll comment on other people’s posts. So as an observer of nature, I’ve observed something…….People work on the parts of preparedness they like to work on. Yep. If someone enjoys working with fiber, they say that they are working on their preparedness – and they are. Someone else gardens and says that they are working on preparedness. Yep, they are too! Another person pressure cans food that they purchase from farmer’s markets. And yet another person enjoys spending time at the shooting range. They all say that they are working on preparedness. And they are ALL CORRECT. They are, but maybe they are only working on one aspect of preparedness.
That’s where creating a plan comes into view. Take preparedness and break it down into its component parts, then find a way to work on and prepare for each part. I’m doing this for my TEOTWAWKI posts. I’m taking one issue and breaking it down into its component parts, so we can practice ALL aspects of it
And the Prepper’s Biggest Downfall…………
Downfall #1 – Not Practicing
This is by far the #1 downfall of preparedness! Do you have a solar oven? How often do you use it? Do you have a gun? When was the last time you went to the shooting range to practice shooting? Do you own a fermenting crock? How many times have you used it? When was the last time you planted something, and it didn’t die? If something horrendous were to happen, is your plan just to head out to the woods and live there? Have you done it? Even just for a week?
So how do you practice? You can’t just put “Practice Preparedness” down on a date on the calendar. Well, you could, but it wouldn’t do you any good. Take those six preparedness systems I mentioned in the vehicle post and practice one of the systems either each week or each month. Learn about how to do them. Practice using them in different scenarios. How can you practice sanitation? Well, maybe you practice making toothpaste from scratch. Maybe you go without a shower for three days and figure out ways that you can keep yourself clean and keep people from knowing that you haven’t showered. Maybe you learn how to clean your hair without shampoo. Maybe you set up a portable toilet and practice using that.
No matter what the preparedness system is, take time and practice each one. You’ll be so glad that you did at some time in the future even if not now.
What About You?
Do you think that preppers have any other glaring downfalls? Which ones of these do you find yourself falling into? What steps are you going to take to rectify the situation? Please share with us in the comments so that we can all be better prepared!
Together let’s Love, Learn, Practice, and Overcome
This post is an updated republication of a post first published on June 27, 2018.
I think another big downfall is focusing too much on only one kind of prep. I myself am super great at stocking food and supplies and rotating them. I”m a pro at fostering a love of learning and a spirit of self-sufficiency in my small children. I’m fabulous with money management. But I completely ignore weponry and self-defence. I stink at drills/practicing. The idea of learning how to use a hamm radio or morse code bores me. I know there are so many categories of prepping…but I tend to gravitate to the ones that I know well and come easier to me. I think many of us do, but that lack of balance could be a detriment in an emergency.
Jill,
I absolutely agree! It’s so easy to focus on what we enjoy. It’s been a LONG time since I’ve been to the firing range. I do enjoy shooting, but everything else always seems to take priority. It’s been awhile since I pulled my pressure canner out. I need to do that again. I still don’t feel like I’ve mastered my solar oven. I have a black thumb when it comes to gardening, but I LOVE to plan and purchase. I’m good at those. 🙂
I disagree with number 6, you “CAN” save money and still eat pretty good. every now and again I’ll splurge on pizzeria pizza but mostly during football season. how do I save money ? , Walmart pizza and freshetta pizza, both are pretty damn good frozen pizza and they save me money. Walmart has a “we made too much rack” of day old baked goods but you can freeze them if you triple plastic wrap them, giant eagle has the same thing and usually a good assortment of canned goods going out of season or brands they will not be restocking. when late December rolls around I take 3 plastic store bags and freeze an extra loaf of bread, hamburger buns, and chiabatta rolls, if I get snowed in I’m good to go for 2-3 weeks with no problem. you can do the same thing with doughnuts and fritters too, simply thaw the baked goods on the counter for several hours or with doughnuts/fritters you can microwave them.
This post was directed at ME! Not practicing is my biggest downfall. I told myself that this weekend I was going to practice making bread from scratch & baking it in my Coleman oven on my Coleman camping stove for the first time. I plan to bake bread at least once a week so I need to practice NOW! I will pat myself on the back for setting up our flushing camping toilet & educating myself on how to flush our regular toilet using a bucket of water as well as how to make a “dry toilet” if sewage systems are not working for some reason. At least I have practiced that (lol). As always, thanks for all this incredible information you have shared with all of us Karen!
I know what you mean, Maureen. It’s easy to sit back sometimes and to trust in what we already do or know instead of pushing ourselves to do or learn something new. I’m excited to hear what your plans are! Awesome job!
For those that don’t know…baby wipes are a great thing to stock up on when you cannot shower due to a power outage . Use powder as a dry shampoo. All dry shampoo in a aerosol can is nothing more than powder with a little water. Buy scented powder (like lavender) to make your hair smell extra nice. You just shake a little over your head work it in with your fingers & brush your hair. I also have a solar shower bag that holds 5 gallons of water so we can shower & wash our hair once a week. Between showers & shampoos…baby wipes & powder. Have stocked up on other toiletries like deodarant, toothpaste, etc. from Sam’s Club. Hope this information might be of help to others.
I always wonder if a solar generator is worth it? Because even though it is in a faraday cage, like the main things I would want it for is the fridge/freezer and since those are plugged in then if for instance, an EMP event occurs, the fridge/freezers would be rendered useless! So how would you salvage the appliance or food supply? Unless you have extra stock of these appliances
( and how would you get a faraday cage big enough to hold these then?), so what should we do about that situation?! I am trying to figure it out!
Ellen,
When I think of a solar generator, I have two thoughts that come to mind. First off, is I want to be able to use it to live now to save money, which means lessening my load on electronics now. After an EMP, however, I do have items that I keep in a faraday cage that I would like to be able to plug in after an EMP occurs, but I do have smaller solar panels to charge those if I need them. So the biggest reason to invest in solar to use pre-EMP is just to save the monthly electric bill now.