Countdown to Preparedness

This week, I want you to concentrate your efforts on getting your family to “buy in” to disaster readiness. This is an often-cited problem preppers face—a spouse or other family member who just doesn’t “get it.”

Prepping is hard work, and it’s even harder when you’re fighting against someone who doesn’t think it’s necessary. Harder yet when family members openly ridicule you or otherwise negatively express their opinions on the subject.

So, how can you convince a spouse to get on board? Many people often liken prepping to buying insurance. Let’s face it, insurance policies are one of the only things we ever buy in life and hope we never need to use, right? In fact, we’ll sometimes go to great lengths to not to have to file a claim. Ever been in a fender bender? If the damage is slight, you’d likely gladly pay for the damage out of your own pocket so your insurance company doesn’t raise your rates.

Prepping is sort of like insurance. We set aside food and supplies against what might happen, but hope and pray we never really need to use that stuff in an emergency. The difference between prepping and insurance, though, is we can still use our preps as we feel necessary, without incurring the wrath of an insurance agent. In fact, it’s encouraged that you regularly use and rotate your supplies to keep them fresh.

Another argument you can make, particularly about food storage, is about the ability to eat tomorrow at today’s prices. Have you been to the grocery store lately? Prices sure aren’t coming down on anything, are they? It doesn’t seem all that long ago that I could buy ground beef for about a dollar a pound on sale. Now, I’m lucky if I can find it for three times that price. If I buy a jar of peanut butter for a couple of bucks today and it sits on my shelf until I go to make peanut butter cookies for Christmas and I find out that same jar now costs three dollars at the store, I just saved myself a buck, right?

If the reason behind your spouse’s reticence is less about the possible expense and more about thinking nothing will ever happen that might require the need for preps, you could talk about all the things that have happened recently to folks who thought that same thing. How many people living in Bosnia in the mid-1990s thought their government would collapse? How many folks living in New Orleans worried a major hurricane would hit their area? Who in Japan would have ever even considered the devastation of the tsunami? Or, talk about smaller-scale emergencies like multiple-day power outages in the winter or ice storms that strand you for days at home. Or what about a flu virus brought home by the kids that rampages through the house, keeping everyone home for a week. That last one hit my family once, and let me tell you, it was a whole lot of no fun for all involved.

Remember, too, that all it would take is one emergency close to home and many of those who pooh-poohed prepping will change their tune. When that happens, please be gentle with the “I told you so.”

WEEK 6 ASSIGNMENTS

TASKS

Have a heart-to-heart talk with your spouse, significant other, and any other family member who is opposed to prepping. Use some of the suggestions above to get them to understand your point of view.

SAVINGS

Add $20 to your Prepper Savings Account.

TOTAL PREPPER SAVINGS ACCOUNT:

WATER STORAGE

One gallon (or two 2-liter bottles) of water per person or one case of bottled water for the household.

TOTAL WATER STORAGE:

GROCERY LIST

3 cans vegetables, your choice

2 cans fruit, your choice, but stick with those packed in water or juice, rather than syrup

1 can chili or stew, your choice

1 package or jar of gravy, your choice

1 box of tea bags, your choice (even if you don’t drink tea, these are great barter items)

1 box granola bars, protein bars, or equivalent

1 lb dry beans, your choice