Regarding the piece by I.S. on a female’s point of view, she is right on with how to introduce a non-prepper to this world. I have done the same but with my husband, I am the gardener, shooter, and all around prepper. Though we do not have a lot of funds, you can nickel and dime it towards your survival goals and I have done this with proof to him such as becoming debt free, minus the mortgage, getting branches and salvage wood for free for the wood stove to save on heat, stocking up on food and now growing seedlings for sale. You have to work with what your spouse can relate to. Mine relates to the profit of an action, he can now rest assured that if he loses one of his jobs, (he is a great worker), we will not do without. He calls my storage area my “little store.”
I now have him helping me make decisions about items to keep and get rid of and he will now use terms like “that would be good for barter.” (I almost fainted the first time I heard him say that.) He was even okay with my closing a small retirement account to convert it to silver and a little gold, he is also good with the saving nickels concept. I told him that if absolutely nothing happened and all was well, the little coin I am saving, will not loose value. He is still in baby step mode. I will now be storing larger quantities of beans and grain, I explained to him that a bean has many uses, you of course can eat it, grow it and use it for sprouting should greens be unavailable.
I also do a great deal of shopping at yard and estate sales and have shown him the savings and resale values of the items I get, he sees the profit I make with reselling. It is also best to explain the value of a changing life style for the simple health benefits rather than just gloom and doom. It makes the pill a lot easier to swallow, so preppers, just keep at it with your significant other, some or any preparation is better than none, work with their dreams and desires to get to the prepping world even if you have to use that fictitious 2×4 upside his head. 😉 – C.N.