Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Note: This article is part of the National Preparedness Month Challenge. Be sure to check out the links at the bottom for more great articles on how to prep. #30DaysOfPrep
When people first start prepping, they usually make a few mistakes. I know I did. Sometimes it’s because they get caught up in the idea of prepping and rush into it without taking time to plan and really consider what they’re preparing for. Other times it is simply because they don’t have enough information. If only I had known then what I know now.
As Alfred Sheinwold said, “Learn all you can from the mistakes of others. You won’t have time to make them all yourself.”
Don’t waste your time, money and energy by repeating the same mistakes that I and so many others have already made. Instead, read this list of prepper tips I wish I’d heard before I started prepping.
Want to save this post for later? Click Here to Pin It on Pinterest!
1. Start Living Below Your Means Right Now
You don’t want to just buy all your food and supplies with a credit card. Instead, look for ways to lower your bills until you have some money left over for preps.
2. Don’t Blow All Your Money In The First Month
Prepping is something that should be done slowly and steadily. Oftentimes there are survival items you think you need, then later you find out there’s a better deal somewhere or that you already own a suitable substitute. So try to be patient.
3. Store Plenty Of Water
Water is technically more important than food, and you’re going to go through it faster than you think. You don’t have to just buy bottled water. You can collect your own water and store it in collapsible containers or barrels for long periods of time in your garage or basement.
4. Don’t Store Water In Old Milk Jugs
It is so tempting and it seems like a good idea at the time, but it will end in disaster. It’s hard to wash out all the milk residue which means you could end up with harmful bacteria growing in you water. Also, the plastic is not hardy and will eventually break down, creating a big mess.
5. Don’t Buy Food Your Family Doesn’t Eat
Finding a great deal on a case of canned spinach may seem like a great way to fill the shelves in your pantry, but if your family refuses to eat it, you will have wasted time, money, and space. It’s nice to find a great deal, but if it doesn’t fit your family, pass on it and wait for the next one.
6. Store More Than Just Canned Food
There is this idea that a food pantry must be loaded with canned foods and nothing else. You need to have a variety of canned, dry, and freeze-dried foods in order to diversify your diet. Otherwise you will get bored with canned food, and all that extra sodium will be bad for your health.
7. Use Sturdy Shelves For Your Storage
Those flimsy, particleboard shelves may be inexpensive, but they will not hold up long when you start piling bags of beans and cases of canned goods on them. Your best option would be wire shelving. It is sturdy and can tolerate more weight.
8. Don’t Put All Your Preps In One Place
You never know when disaster will strike. Your entire food storage could be wiped out in the blink of an eye. Place some caches around the area where you live, keep a bug out bag in every vehicle, and if possible, keep some supplies at your bug out location.
9. There’s More To Prepping Than How Much You Store
It takes knowledge and skill as well. Here are 20 skills you might need. For each of these, you need to get training and hands-on experience. Have a nice library of reference materials stashed away as well.
Want to prep but not sure where to begin?
Click Here to Get Your FREE One Year Urban Survival Plan!
10. Don’t Forget About Hygiene and Sanitation
Stocking up on toilet paper and soap is just as important as stocking up on food and water. You have to stay clean in order to avoid becoming sick. Getting sick during a survival situation–when hospitals are either closed or overrun–could end up killing you.
11. Don’t Forget About Those With Special Needs
Some people might need insulin, glasses, medication, oxygen, wheelchairs, etc. Make the necessary preparations for them as well.
12. Don’t Forget About Your Pets
If you have pets, you have two choices: plan on feeding and caring for them, or abandon them. If you care about your pets, be sure to store pet food, water, and other supplies for them. Make the decision about what you will do with your pets today and don’t wait until the heat of the moment when your emotions are already running high.
13. Don’t Be The Only Prepper In Your Household
Your entire family needs to be on board. They don’t have to be as excited as you, but they do need to have the knowledge and know-how. Make sure you incorporate them into your prepping as much as possible.
14. Don’t Tell Everyone About Your Preps
You don’t want to advertise what you have. If and when disaster strikes, you will have a line of people at your door, and you won’t be able to help them all. So keep your plans within the family and a select group of trusted individuals.
15. Try To Stay In Shape
Many preppers are going to find themselves completely exhausted after just one day of disaster. Hiking from place to place, carrying supplies back and forth, repairing damaged roofs or windows, etc. All if it will wear you out fast if you’re not in shape. It’s easier to get in shape than you think. A half hour of power walking a day will make a huge difference.
16. Don’t Assume Your Stockpile Of Guns And Ammo Will Keep You Safe
I’m not saying you shouldn’t have guns for self-defense, but you want to do your best to avoid confrontation. Learn how to be stealthy and avoid drawing attention to yourself. Your guns cannot protect you from being shot by others who have guns.
17. Have A Plan For Getting Home
Many people forget that disasters don’t wait for you to get home. They can also happen when you’re at work, school, or elsewhere. Do you have a plan for getting home, or a place to meet with the rest of your family?
18. Don’t Make Assumptions About What Will Happen
Some people just assume they’ll have to bug out, while others assume they’ll be able to bug in. But you don’t know what’s going to happen. You have to have a plan A and a plan B. Every prepper needs a backup plan to their backup plan.
19. Test Everything Yourself
Don’t assume your tools will work properly when you need them to. You have to try them out. Also, don’t just store several of the same tool because if that tool ends up not working for you, you might need a different type of tool. As Graywolf Survival says, “Carry redundant capability, not redundant gear.”
20. Take Baby Steps
Some DIY projects are so big and complicated and require so much education beforehand that you really have to be patient. If you try to get it all done in just a few days, you’re going to get frustrated and burned out. Remember, lots of baby steps will quickly add up to a very long way.
21. The End Of The World Isn’t Tomorrow
Yes, technically it could be, but odds are it isn’t. And if you always think it is, then you’re liable to panic and make bad decisions. Be prepared, but enjoy all that life has to offer. Don’t become so focused on prepping for doomsday that you forget to enjoy what you have today. And keep in mind that doomsday might never happen.
Like this post? Don’t forget to Pin It on Pinterest!
You May Also Like:
September is National Preparedness Month and The Prepared Bloggers are at it again!
It’s safe to say that our ultimate goal is to help you have an emergency kit, a family plan, and the knowledge to garden, preserve your harvest and use useful herbs every day – without spending a ton of money to do it. Luckily that’s obtainable for every family and a journey we would love to help you with.
This year we have posts about food storage, 72-hour Kits & Bug Out Bags, and every aspect of preparedness, from water storage to cooking off grid. You’ll also find many ideas to help you be more self-reliant. Look for information on the big giveaway we’ve put together for later in the month.
Be sure to visit our sites and learn as much as you can about being prepared. We’ll be using the hashtag #30DaysOfPrep for these and many other ideas throughout the month of September, so join in the conversation and make 2015 the year you become prepared.
Food Storage
The Prepared Pantry: A 3 Month Food Supply | PreparednessMama
How to Wax Cheese for Long Term Storage | Perky Prepping Gramma
How to Dehydrate Milk for Long Term Storage | Perky Prepping Gramma
Want to prep but not sure where to begin?
Click Here to Get Your FREE One Year Urban Survival Plan!
Self-Reliance
Survival Tips from the Great Depression | Self Sufficient Man
The 5 best crops for Self Sufficient Gardeners | Our Stoney Acres
Butchering a chicken | The Homesteading Hippy
3 Small Livestock Preparedness Tips | Timber Creek Farm
Essential Oils for Preparedness | Mama Kautz
Farm First Aid Preparedness | Timber Creek Farm
72-Hour Kits or Bug Out Bags
How to Make a 72 Hour Emergency Kit | Mom with a PREP
Preparedness
5 Things New Moms Can Do to Prepare for Disasters | PreparednessMama
Emergency Preparation for Those Who Are Disabled or Elderly | A Matter of Preparedness
10 Most Important Items a Female Prepper Should Have | Living Life in Rural Iowa
Why Natural Health, Exercise and Whole Foods Play a Role in Survival | Trayer Wilderness
Getting Started With Water Storage | The Backyard Pioneer
10 Totally Free Prepping Things to Do | Living Life in Rural Iowa
Is Homesteading Like Prepping? | The Homesteading Hippy
What You Should Consider When Fire Is A Threat | Trayer Wilderness
As recently as last week, I saw people talking about how they use milk jugs to store water and dry goods. Pretty sad. Bad news travels fast, they say. Bad information persists like tar on a wool sweater.
Remember…… They who beat their swords in to ploughshares and their spears in to pruning hooks will serve those who do not……
prepare for all scenarios: be it earthquakes, tornados, volcanoes, snow, drought etc etc. even nuclear plants meltdown, radiation fallout and nuclear war. don’t store too much stuff because there may not be a home to go back to and don’t buy anything bulky ( can you imagine hurling a 100 gallon water container up the mountain? lol)
2 liter soda bottles can be recycled. You can store rice and pasta in them. Put an oxygen absorber in the bottle. then cap it.
The best prepper item I bought so far has been a food dehydrator. Not too expensive and drying all those canned veggies saves a ton of space. Also I never new how convenient it is to cook with dried foods. I always have fruit to put in my oatmeal now. If you have more garden vegetables than you can use now just dehydrate them all instead of giving away. Spiral sliced them and they make easy spaghetti.
Funny how prepping has not really changed. Makes sense to put things back. Here we are in 2022 and the world is a different place now. Bet everyone is a prepper, if they aren’t they would be the ones to stay away from. Always something to prep for. Sure was glad my husband and I started prepping long ago. We have come out of this crazy world of pandemics and natural disasters faring our own.
You need to not believe that “ALL _____ AND _____ PEOPLE ARE ROBBERS OR RAPISTS”.
Be careful about the trash you set out for municipal pick up. If you set out boxes that list stuff that that are ” prepper” items. It will tell people that you’re a prepper. Also do not set out boxes that had expensive stuff in it( computers and TV sets).
You can use washed out 2 liter soda bottles to store stuff like rice and other dry stuff Just make sure you put an oxygen absorber in it before you cap it.
Have you met anyone who’s preparing for Martial to be declared by trump because he LOST the election? If you have; Avoid them at all costs.
This turned out to be excellent advice.
Your best option would be wire shelving.
WHAT is wire shelving?
Also, recommending a PLAN C, D, . . . war game EVERYTHING to exhaustion.
Wire shelving is just that. Sold at Home Depot, Lowes, restaurant supply stores, ULine, etc. If you’ve been in a restaurant kitchen, you’ve seen it, usually in chrome.
Living below your means is very smart.The mortgage mess that happened few years ago could of been prevented. But not enough people were very smart . Too Many Americans lived way beyond their means.
Many wanted to appear to be very wealthy. They bought an $800,000 house when they should of bought a $100,000 one. The same goes for cars and clothes.
You should talk to someone who survived the Great Depression. Many of the ideas they used to survive can be still done today. I am not a true prepper. I mainly research prepping. One of the things i research is great depression recipes.
I am glad to see that you are a logical prepper. Doomsday preppers have given given the rest of us a bad name.I lived in Houston,Tx. For most of my life. I’ve never been severely hit by a hurricane. but I understood that you needed to ready for one.I now live in Rhode Island. So I now prepare for Severe snowdrifts.
I’m now retired. So I’m Living with one of my sisters. The house she now owns is a good one. It came with a Generac Emergency generator. It’s powered by a large Propane tank. We have not started using it yet; but we own a Pressure Canner.
One of the things you should do is start saving money now.Set aside some cash each week.People who survived the depression did it. It helped them in case their bank failed. It helped them survive the depression.
Thank you for mentioning #16. I can understand preparing for a weather problem like a hurricane or a blizzard. The same goes for earthquakes. But worrying about a military invasion or an EMP attack? I find those to be highly unlikely.
Living below your means is always a good idea. Why? Because you never know when its going to hit the fan that’s why. Having something in your back pocket and tapping it is good security in itself. The JOB stands for Just Over Broke or Journey Of Bondage. When your tethered its like a big neon sign that says bend over and up it comes, aka UAW. We like to think of ourselves as all secure. Guess what, not. With every kind of tax on us under the sun if you don’t watch out your gone the same as a fart in the wind and not even missed.
The Bug Out vs. Bug In is something I wish I would have read about earlier in my prepping. I made the assumption getting out was the only option. The reality is though, I’m nearly 60 and disabled from Degenerative Joint Disease, therefore, Bugging Out is the last option I should choose. The list of potential factors to help you determine BO vs. BI are many and the list seems to grow daily. What size community is the line in the sand in determining it’s best to leave? What is the SHTF event(s)? And 100’s of other questions and potential scenarios that could play out.
For me, a walk out would be a huge barrier to overcome, and the potential for catastrophy is in all likelihood a given outcome. Vehicular Bug Out is the only option in that case, and it may not be the option we’re presented with. Bugging In, if possible, is the best option then, even if a power outage is a permanent feature. The pros still outweigh the cons.
A total societal collapse is a possibility, although I don’t really see that happening immediately. More likely, it’ll be a cumulative collapse as resources become exhausted, and can’t be replaced. Larger population centers will see that problem more than smaller and rural communities.
Another issue with Bugging Out in the Rocky Mountain States is water. The actual number of rivers and streams originating in the Rockies is smaller than most people realize in relation to other areas of the country. Many streams and creeks are seasonal drainage and not year round. Although the options for alternate water sources are all viable, most consist of a daily collection of H2O that require time and effort that will affect the other daily survival requirements.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned since starting this Prepping lifestyle is being completely honest with myself and my abilities and limitations, and that needs to influence my prepping.
Being honest with yourself is key. Too many people think they’ll become Rambo after the SHTF, but you have to be realistic about your abilities and prepare accordingly.
Nice article with very good tips! Thanks! It’s refreshing to hear well thought-out conversations on prepping.
Pace yourself but prepare and plan according to your situation. Very good advise.
Nice article, if you want to store anything with flour in it, freeze it for 72 hours. This will kill the little bugs you find in old flour and will last for about 5 years.
To what ever happens, Myself and My Wife will stay put. We are to old to go off to the woods. We live in a rural area, with lot of land around and very few people. I`m staying put and fight for our lives if we have to. so with GODS Blessing we will be OK.
William, me and my husband are in our late 50’s, and we live in a rural area too, with lots of trees, with few people around. I, myself have read many survival books, (audio too), and websites, and have signed up for so many survival website newsletters, it’s ridiculous! Anyway, I’ve learned very much from them, over the many years, and if I haven’t learned anything, I’ve at least learned that you need other people, a small community to survive. I would love to talk more to you and your wife about your plans, and other things pertaining to survival, and about our religion. Would you mind chatting with me, about them? I’m joanofark06 (zero six) on a website (short registration), called wireclub dot com. Just put my name in the search for people. I’d love to hear more about your views on this subject.
One thing that wasn’t mentioned in this article, is bows and arrows. When you need to be quiet, this would be a great tool. Otherwise, your gun will bring everybody to you, because of the noise!
#21 is perhaps the most important and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone include it before. I know people who subsist entirely on dehydrated and canned food so they’ll be ‘used to eating that way’. This makes no sense to me. Enjoy fresh, healthy food while it’s available. This will keep you in better health and more prepared to handle something unexpected. Also, plan for what to do after the storage runs out. Keep a garden now, consider keeping backyard chickens, etc.. work towards learning to make your own cheese, jerky and bread.
im new to this prepping but the one thing i do that most have said not to do is i store water with a few drops of bleach in old milk jugs not for drinking but for bathing or flushing the toilet heating up to bath an i store it downstairs away from fresh water or food another prep i found was collecting old wine bottles from neighbors or family washing them and drying them well then storing my rice and beans in them with oxygen packets the bottles are free and usually dark so that helps to keep out the sun light hope these ideas help some thanks for you great post
Ever heard of periods at the end of a sentence??
Gee, I can’t even read your post.
Really JJ?? We don’t need critics.
#16 “Your guns cannot protect you from being shot by others who have guns”
Are you insane? That’s EXACTLY what guns do. Shoot the guy with a gun before he shoots you…you just protected yourself with a gun.
Great post,,, I especially like the tip about not storing food you don’t eat, who wants to be in a survival situation and have to eat food they hate… Things will be bad enough… And what about MRE’s or Dehydrated Foods that we have not tried, I got several dehydrated meals that when I tried them one of the meals was so spicy I would die trying to eat it… Taste before you invest in a stockpile of foods.
That’s a great idea..I bought a large bucket of food and tried tasting it just to find out I got sick for 3 days off of it.?????
I use to keep about a six month supply of food, and other supplies. It came in handy when friends lost their job, and came knocking. It was nice to be able to bless them, with my supplies. Hoping that some day I will be in a financial position, to be able to have food stores and medical supplies. At least enough to feed my family, for a few months. Good to have goals, better to have supplies, and funds to purchase them.
Several years ago, I started canning my own meat….beef, chicken, pork. Lots of different flavors! Also, canning my own soups. From those meats, I have collected sides to go with them from different recipes. There will be no eating boredom in my house!!
just remember to rotate your canned meats. They don’t last as long as fruits and veggies. For all you canners out there, you can can beans as well. Because beans take a 12 hour soak before you can start cooking, they are not a quick solution to a meal. If you can them (it takes a pressure cooker) they are cooked and ready to heat and eat. There are excellent books on Amazon about this. There is a whole series of I can can books, like meat, beans, dairy etc.
jaebea, do you have any videos online, showing how to do that? I would love to learn how to do that! I don’t have the money to buy sophisticated equipment, so I need a simple way to do it.
What a great idea I didn’t know it’s not advisable to store water in a milk jug, i used to do that before but now I know. Thanks.
I used to use milk jugs too, before I found out how easy they deteriorate in time. Now I use my daughter’s big juice bottles, and those two liter soda bottles…their tough, and last a long time. I don’t like knowing that the pcb’s, and whatever chemicals the plastic has, is seeping into my water, but….at least I’ll have water, if if ever goes!
I’ve been using orange juice and 1 gallon white vinegar bottles for quite some time now. But I don’t store drinking water in them. I store water for bathing or flushing toilets. I have 55 gallon water barrels, 7 gallon water containers and bottled water for consumption.
I bought water in gallon jugs, the $.79 Walmart ones. ALL of them leaked after a few months and damaged the area I stored them. Another tip, some foods go bad faster than you think and you may not even know it. Example; We eat lots of taco shells, so I bought several boxes. By the time we got to the the last ones, they looked completely normal but tasted GROOOSSS!! Now I Know to only keep a few boxes at a time. Excellent article!
Plastic is a tricky thing. Clear hard plastic jugs like from companies like…Crystal Geyser, Alhambra etc. Are better for storing water in as far as plastic goes. The foggy white “milk Jug” style will break down fast and sadly leak in your cupboards. IF that is all you can get, I suggest storing in the garage or a place with good flooring and maybe even put into garbage bag in case.