What makes a prepper different?

[indyjohn]

You know how to find the OG & me.

Distance is the great setback here. From me to you and over to TT and back down to KJ is a serious haul.

It would take a bit of salesmanship, but I think (pray) it could be done.

 

[Car Ramrod]

I don't like running out of s***. It's that easy. I know the things I use a lot of so I buy a lot of them. If I get lower than "a lot", I buy more. Easy as that.

Exactly how I feel. No set number, just a comfort level.

Most might be comfortable with what I consider not enough, but my "not enough" is able to get us through a lot. Everyone at work likes to joke about my mentality and how I like to "prep". They were giving me guff right before all of this went down and wanted to know how much toilet paper I bought. I didn't buy any. Why? I already had enough and didn't need feel like I needed more of it. One of the girls at work said she would never give her husband any more trouble with buying guns and ammo and whatever else he wanted; it all made sense to her now.

 

[actaeon277]

I was raised by parents who were alive during WWII. Their childhoods weren't always easy. They remembered. They passed pn lessons and knowledge to me. Their parents, my grandparents lived through the great depression and it was not easy. They passed on lessons to my parents and they learned and passed them onto me.

I learned things growing up from older people who had seen crap and been through crap. Those lessons stuck with me.
I was taught powerful lessons in the military and those stuck with me and shaped me. Nothing replaces first hand experience. Most people have no clue what its like to actually starve. I do. And I know what my body can take. Its actually a comforting feeling because missing a days worth of meals isn't starving. We learn and we prepare so as not to repeat our worst experiences.
Always build in backups. Always plan for changes and for preps to fail or go bad. Like was said above, 1 is none and 2 is 1.
Never put all your eggs in one basket.
If your house was on fire right this second or let's say in the middle of the night and you could only make it out with the clothes on your back. Everything inside is a total loss. How fast could you AND your family be clothed, shelter, fed, have medical care and backup meds, armed, have your identities (birth certs, ss cards, DL copies), voice/radio and internet/cell communications, travel? Without any intervention from someone else outside of your home coming to save you?
If the answer is that you couldn't, you had better start doing a better job now. Because when **** really hits the fan even bigger than. This now, no one is coming to save you. No one is coming to put out your house fire. And possibly bad people will see the fire or smoke and come to rob you or take other things from you!
People laughed at me when I told them the grocery stores would be bare within 4 to 7 days. People think because this is America "it cant happen here". Well you'd be sadly mistaken. If you think Americans are any different when the bodies start stacking in the streets that ANY other nation in the world, you are wrong and your better get your head on straight to survive the future.
I've seen it firsthand in other countries. The best and the worst of what humans can do to each other. I've seen just about everything you could imagine and it could all happen right here next week. Yep, That fast.
Be prepared. You alone are the one who will save you! Cover your own ass. Don't take that the wrong way. I am not saying don't help others. I am saying do not rely on others to help you.

I do not rely on others for my safety, security or general well being. I plan ahead. That doesn't mean that I don't utilize government services if they are functioning. But If they dont function, I have a backup plan or I can think on the move and have one fast with a backup.
This is what separates a prepper from the rest.
Anyone can hoard stuff. But Not everyone has the right mindset, the right skills, the right discipline, hoards the Right stuff, and builds the plans needed to survive when disaster strikes.
Also being a prepper is also about having a financial plan and independence. If you lost work for a month or longer could you still meet your financial obligations? And do you have plans in place moving forward to adapt your life to continue on in a reduced or no income role for a while? Have you budgeted and saved? And can you adapt those things to meet changing needs?
Right now a lot of people are struggling financially because they maxed themselves out thinking that cash income was always going to be coming in and those debts were always going to be paid. They had no cushion. Others had cushion and maybe it's coming to an end shortly and they wish now maybe they would have built in more instead of buying some luxuries instead.
Others prepared and are still living life as if nothing had changed or very little has changed.
I don't judge anyone as a person. But it's like going to church. Sometimes that Sunday sermon hits alittle closer to home if you know what I mean. Maybe this pandemic is what you needed to have your eyes opened so that when the next bigger event hits, you'll be ready.

One thing I am lacking is a firm network of like minded individuals and a firm plan with them. That is bad.
You will not survive on your own. A group of like minded and prepared individuals with broad knowledge in different fields is an advantage above all others. But trust ... there is something that is earned over time. Opsec, so very important. Plus, like I said, like minded. Not everyone is willing to get in on the prepping party.

Well TT, the military does kinda boil things down to the extremes.
So you find out bad things happen when you run out.

 

[smokingman]

History. For me it really is that simple.

Find me any period in history where governments,disease,currency,and the food systems where stable. Where nothing went wrong.

It does not exist in human history,but there are countless lessons to prepare for the worst.

So I do.

 

[jsx1043]

I equate it to the Matrix. You can live all happy and unconcerned in the matrix, but once you take the red pill and you know what’s possible, it’s never the same after that.

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

My wife’s never given me a hard time, but I’m also not a bunker-level prepper. I’ve always made sure to have some extra cans on the shelf and we’re Costco members anyway so TP has been bulk for the last good number of years. But when she saw me dig out the go bags and give them a once-over (not my regular twice-a-year check) and throw a full face respirator and a bump helmet on top of each one, she new that my radar is actively pinging.

 

[Sheltie]

I can only speak for myself, but in my experience it is the depravity of people. Once you've seen it, it changes you, one way or another.

 

[churchmouse]

I equate it to the Matrix. You can live all happy and unconcerned in the matrix, but once you take the red pill and you know what’s possible, it’s never the same after that.

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

My wife’s never given me a hard time, but I’m also not a bunker-level prepper. I’ve always made sure to have some extra cans on the shelf and we’re Costco members anyway so TP has been bulk for the last good number of years. But when she saw me dig out the go bags and give them a once-over (not my regular twice-a-year check) and throw a full face respirator and a bump helmet on top of each one, she new that my radar is actively pinging.

The spouse is full on board. She helped me go through the "We have to leave NOW" totes and Reminded me yesterday to grab the BUG out/GH bag when we left.