Even though the idea of prepping “on a budget” or “in urban or suburban areas” may be common themes, it seems (to me, at least) that more often than not, the lovely people that contribute their knowledge, advice, and expertise to the topic of prepping seem to, somehow, have more capability than most when it comes to logistically and financially supporting these ventures. They may have lived on a farm for most of their life, they possibly inherited land from a relative, they may be able to work from home and have time to spare, they may be older and in retirement, or they may simply have been doing it for years and already have their stock in place and their plans set in stone. While I am undoubtedly grateful for their input and knowledge that they give to novices (like myself – no rich relatives leaving land behind and I have never lived on a farm), I have had trouble finding attainable short term goals inside of the wonderful long-term goals they are normally discussing.
I am 29 years old and, with my wife and two daughters, 8 and 3, live in a suburb of a mid-sized city. I don’t consider myself a person who would be completely lost in a survival situation. I have always been somewhat of a minimalist, finding ‘pleasure’ in getting by with less. I am handy and I enjoy camping and the outdoors. I am always up for a challenge and I seem to work well under stress. I understand basic security and tactical ways of thinking.
But those characteristics are about as far as my qualifications go on giving preparation advice. Unless you count living with my three ladies every day, I haven’t really tested my survival capabilities. I haven’t lived in the desert without shoes and I have never lived with an African tribe of any kind.
My family and I are regular people who live modestly but comfortably- basically paycheck to paycheck- trying to build our future out of the little that we have to work with. For the past few years, we have focused on our finances by reducing our debt and trying to make the best choices with our money. Unfortunately, despite our hopes and dreams (and my gut feelings), our budget for prepping seems to remain stagnant on the list of immediate necessity.
My wife is what I would call “cautiously supportive” of my TEOTWAWKI preparations. She playfully suggests, at times that we’re cleaning out the garage, that we keep certain items “for the apocalypse” and she helps me save all of our nickels… but she doesn’t necessarily share my views on the urgency of the potentially serious situations we could soon face. We have similar goals and we have good plans but realistically there is no way we could presently afford to make any heavy investment for what is essentially a second household of supplies and goods. On top of that, we wouldn’t have anywhere to put it! Additionally, with our busy schedules we rarely have time to spend a quiet evening together, let alone tend to livestock or build our heirloom vegetable garden- though all of which we aspire to do sometime in the near future!
So I asked myself: How can I prepare as much as possible on a daily basis no matter how much my financial and logistical situations limit me?
The more knowledge you gain on a subject, the more you realize that there is much more that you didn’t know – another point to the old adage that “ignorance was bliss.”
Ignorance may indeed be bliss for some, but personally, I don’t care to see that same “bliss” knocking on my door when the SHTF. Just the same, I don’t want to be that person knocking on someone else’s door because I waited too long to make the right moves. I have a family that I have to take care of and it’s hard enough with the level of crazy in this world as is… if we aren’t prepared for something worse then there is no point.
In order to avoid this, over the last year and a half I have jumped in head first, soaking up as much knowledge as possible- knowing I will never learn everything but hoping that I will have the time to learn enough. I make material purchases when I can; some MREs, storage containers, ammunition, first aid kits, batteries, and other odds and ends that I can potentially use in an uncomfortable future but I know that these things are just a drop in the bucket compared to things I really need but can’t yet acquire. I know that one is none and two is one, but when one creates problems immediately, it puts a serious speed bump in my plans. While my internal clock wouldn’t mind a second mortgage in order to invest in a fully stocked underground shelter, my life (or my wife) simply won’t let it happen right now. So I push for knowledge as much as possible, researching at work on my lunch break and reading prepper material and blog sites such as this fine example you’re visiting right now.
I feel that if anything is going to be well executed, it has to have adequate planning and practice before it works efficiently, so I am constantly filtering through the plans and getting good ideas in order to be ready for action the moment I am able to do more. Although it is likely that every other contributor to these topics has more experience than I do, I still feel compelled to share the few things I have learned while doing my research, in case there is another poor soul trapped in suburbia looking for a place to put his only case of MREs.
TRAINING
Many people, including Mr. James Wesley, Rawles, have preached that knowledge of anything is only half as important as actual hands on experience. Muscle memory is key to survival in any situation… because in stressful circumstances there is no time to make sure you’re doing it right… only time to do it right. Therefore, I try to visit the local gun range as much as possible in order to try to build my weapons experience with my slowly growing collection of firearms. Although I love my piles of gun magazines and gun books, I know that actual training is the only thing that will matter when it comes to using any knowledge I may acquire. My wife has even joined me at the range on a few occasions and she just recently signed up with me so we could take our first official firearms training class together (which can also be a fun date night.) Dry firing, drawing from a holster, and reloading techniques are done in practice in my living room (safety first, of course.)
I have quit smoking cigarettes. I am in the process of getting myself in better shape. Knowing that energy and strength could become a scarce commodity in a bleak future helped me kick start the drive to end a 15 year habit like nothing else had done in the past. (On a side note: If you do smoke, I heavily suggest that you do whatever it takes to stop. I used the pill and it worked for me. It’s worth it.)
I look forward to finding some firewood to split myself this winter instead of simply buying it pre-cut. I have done it in the past and nothing seems to work more muscles out of hibernation than chopping wood and it is always fun to have a Rocky 4 montage playing in your head while you do it. Taking walks around the neighborhood with the family is also more quality time together that always yields better results than sitting in front of the television.
OPPORTUNITY
I have a neighbor a few blocks away that has managed to keep about two acres of prime subdivision real estate away from developers over the years and has built a wonderful mini-farm, probably the only one like it within a 10 mile radius of our neighborhood. I didn’t know him at all but one day I decided to knock on his door and simply tell him that I am interested in learning some tricks to gardening and if he would be willing to show me a few things, I would be willing to do some labor for him if he needed it. It has only been two occasions that he has taken this complete stranger up on a random offer, but I have already gained knowledge that will surely help me in the future and would have been impossible to acquire by simply reading books.
My aunt is also an avid gardener. With every visit I am inquisitive about her techniques and she is always happy to share her secrets, as well as her latest harvest. Other family members and friends have various skills in many areas; one cousin is a fellow prepper and another is a Krav Maga instructor with whom I plan on attending some classes in the near future. I have friends in the military that share training techniques and philosophies and I have my father, a jack of all trades, continuously feeding me knowledge like he always has, although in the last few years I have been more inclined to listen.
RESOURCES
My book collection is growing exponentially as well: Boston’s Gun Bible (Boston T. Party), SAS Survival Handbook (John “Lofty” Wiseman), Patriots (James Wesley, Rawles, Strategic Relocation–North American Guide to Safe Places (Joel and Andrew Skousen), The Encyclopedia of Country Living (Carla Emery), and many others are all on my book shelf. It seems one book leads to five more… making it impossible to have enough books on various useful subjects.
Of course, we all know that the internet is the most abundant source of knowledge- though, as with anything on the web; there is a small learning curve to be able to sift the good products and services from the junk. By the way, I have just started my three-ring binder collection of articles as was recently suggested by another survivalblog reader… a simple but great idea.
While television, for the most part, is something I don’t normally rely on, I will admit that there are a few programs which have taught me quite a bit. Without going into detail of the actual shows, a few which have actually made my life better by the knowledge they have given me are:
The Colony– a show that aired on the Discovery Channel for two seasons and is currently available on Netflix. I highly recommend this just to see how things are built and used in an apocalyptic scenario… water filters, solar panels, windmills, am radio transmitters, and manual washing machines. You can also see some other variables that can come up that have a notable effect on conditions and morale, such as intruders and thieves, people going missing, and personality conflicts. Very cool stuff.
Dual Survival – No-nonsense guys (Dave Canterbury and Cody Lundin) who really do know what they are talking about. While some of it understandably may still be staged for the camera, I can stand these guys much more than some of the other so called “survival” shows. Discovery Channel and Netflix.
Personal Defense– George Wheby takes you on specific scenarios with firearms training and offers great advice from Thunder Ranch trainers and others. Regular guest notables are Clint Smith and Massad Ayoob. Sportsman Channel.
So while all of this so far, in my humble opinion, is decent advice from a self-admitted newbie, it is certainly not all inclusive and it is definitely nothing new. I’m sure that you could find it all relatively easy on a few web searches for preparing.
So the last thing I will share with you is what I personally believe ties all of it together.
PHILOSOPHY
I have thought of it as a way to train your brain for the possible effects of a TEOTWAWKI scenario. After all, the mind is something that needs training just as much as your core or your trigger finger… maybe even more. Many people focus on range time, securing their home, collecting materials, or other physical additions but rarely focus on the mindset and mental stability that will be needed to see all of these things through. If they are the primary person in their family that is making these preparations, as it is in my case, it is even more important to try to train your mind and lead by example on some lifestyle changes that may simple come from thinking differently. Some of it may be a bit corny sounding and some of it is common sense, but nothing has changed my family’s daily habits more than this way of thinking.
It started with the thought of the stereotypical life of a dedicated farmer. He gets up very early, seven days a week and works continuously until the day’s work is done. That is his farm and hopefully he will reap the benefits of his hard work by an abundant harvest.
I thought of my little suburban life with my daily routines. My wife and I had our conflicting schedules, the house was never clean, home maintenance was falling behind, everyone was always worn out and tired even though it felt like nothing ever got accomplished. How would we ever survive a catastrophic change to our lives if we can’t even get it together normally?
I applied the farmer’s way of thinking to my daily life. This is my farm. These chores, my job, the daily grind… these are my crops. I work hard for an end result, a paycheck, a clean and orderly house, and a repaired fence, whatever it may be. I will do simple things like doing some of the dishes by hand instead of throwing them in the dishwasher. We have washed some of our clothes by hand, just to know the details from actually doing it. Now I wake up every day no later than 6:30 a.m. regardless if I have to go to work or not. It’s amazing what only an extra hour or two will do for your day. Suddenly I have time to do extra things that I never had time to do before. Time is not as rushed anymore, so I am less stressed.
My family has also taken hold of these practices (as much as their respective ages allow them to) and we enjoy each other’s company much more in a clean house and without mundane tasks haunting us in the back of our minds. My three year old girl can actually appreciate the feeling of a clean bed room after cleaning it all by herself (which may not sound like much if you have never attempted to make a three year old clean.)
Kids are still kids and nobody expects perfection, but these days hard work is now rewarded instead of punishment being handed out for work that was not completed, which leads to a more productive way of life. Daily chores are shared and responsibility has a way of making everyone appreciate the more important things in life, which is more than a father can hope for.
What does this self-help mumbo jumbo have to do with preparing for a bleak future? Everything!
Imagining a time when everyone is tired, hungry, thirsty, and constantly on the lookout is a scary thing regardless of who you are with. It would be a complete nightmare if it were with four people who can’t get along or keep the dishes clean on a normal day. A disciplined family goes a long way with planning for emergencies. My eight year old knows exactly what to do in the case of an earthquake, fire, severe weather, or a break in/burglary while we are at home. She knows exactly where our guns are located, how serious they are, and she knows that if she ever has a question about them she can talk to me at any time.
Children especially need extra preparations for their thought processes. I feel that this is an overlooked part of many discussions. While kids may be resilient and adaptable to change… it is still not fair to them or to their parents to simply hope that they will make the right choices and not shy away from having to work for something when they have never learned the importance of it. If bad things keep happening and kids start to lose their patience, it is important for them to be grounded enough to know what really matters instead of them pitching fits because the Disney Channel is no longer available. In order to protect them, you will have to trust that they will understand the importance of listening when they need to and following directions when they have to. It could possibly mean the difference between life and death. Just consider it another form of training and helping them develop their muscle memory, whether they realize it or not.
My wife and I can look forward to our future with our new daily habits because whether this apocalyptic scenario actually happens or not, we plan on using our “farmer’s mentality” with our new home we are working towards, complete with our garden, livestock, and all of the added chores that come along with them. We are still busy every day but we seem to feel better on a daily basis which makes the time we do have to spend together more important.
Nowadays, small power outages are not the dreaded inconveniences that they used to be, they are now chances that we all take advantage of in order to test our supplies and our mentality… even if it is something as simple as passing the time for thirty minutes without a whimper that the power is off.
These common sense things that normal people do every day may be ridiculous points to even have to mention to some reading this, but this is also meant for the people who are trying to figure out how they can swing their family in their direction without being labeled as the dreaded “paranoid” or “conspiracy nut.” By simply adapting a more responsible work ethic in life, you can not only become more productive and achieve your goals faster; you can do it without anyone around you giving it a second thought.
Do I want a secure, energy efficient house that is off of the grid located within the beautiful areas of the American Redoubt, with self-sufficient gardens and orchards, and with the closest neighbor at lease a mile away?
Do I want a roomy underground shelter that accommodates twenty of my closest friends and family, complete with enough food, water, and supplies to outlast an ice age?
Do I want a weapons cache that would’ve made Charlton Heston jealous?
Yes, those things are all of my ultimate goals. But for now, I will keep learning, training, and adapting with my single case of MRE’s shoved in our small pantry, hoping that I still have time to grow before the Schumer comes full force. Good luck and may God bless you all.