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10 Things That Preppers Get Right

Avatar for Gaye Levy Gaye Levy  |  Updated: October 13, 2015
10 Things That Preppers Get Right

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Everyone likes to read about someone else’s mistakes so that they can learn from them.  When you think about it, that is a great way to avoid common pitfalls and to save yourself some of the grief and set-backs that are bound to occur along the road to preparedness.

As useful as that might be, I started giving some thought not to the mistakes that Preppers make but to the things that they get right.  And there are a lot of them.

The 10 Personality Traits of Successful Survivalists | Backdoor Survival

The 10 Personality Traits of Successful Survivalists and Preppers

In this newly updated article, learn my take on the ten things that Preppers get right!

Enjoy your next adventure through common sense and thoughtful preparation!
Gaye

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35 Responses to “10 Things That Preppers Get Right”

  1. Excellent article, Gaye. I’m going to bookmark it and, with your permission, link it to another forum I frequent [ TSP ]. The comments bother me, though. I wonder how much is on-line bluster, and how many folks could actually look into the eyes of a hungry child and say “NO”. I, for one, could not and I don’t think I’d care to associate with anyone who would.

    soupbone

    • if it were a child? yes i would give the child help and or food. but not the adult who refused to believe or listen. i would even take the child in but not the adult. so i guess maybe that would make me someone who would be not worthy or socializing with? at the time of that shtf? i don’t honestly think anyone is going to be doing much socializing.

      oh? why would the fact that it would make me an outcast? because i would be willing to help the child but not the ? adult ? caregiver who may or may not be the child’s mother or father. so possibly in the end making that child an orphan. it come back to the fact that my family and anyone with me simply have to come first. it doesn’t and can’t work both ways. you can’t help everyone who did not prepare at the cost of your own groups safety or lives. not unless you have unlimited supplies.

  2. i am all for compassion, giving aid, helping out, sharing and caring. but……..

    when it comes down to shtf and any of those that i have tried to talk to that have brushed it all off. those who have buried their heads in the sand. those who are willfully blind, deny the possibility, ignore or laugh, make jokes or ridicule because ” i have prepared “? NO, they will find none of the above items at my door. they will be told sorry but i can’t spare that now. i prepared for me and mine. i didn’t prepare for you and your family.

    those who do think ahead, who plan and prepare if only because they worry about “natural disasters”? those are the ones that i will help, befriend and possibly join with.

  3. Compassion- I will try to help those that I can without jeopardizing my family. I will treat the injured and give aid if I can. I will protect my family from those who mean them harm, with deadly force if I have to. But I will do everything I can to be compassionate.

    If good people don’t help each other, what are we trying to live for? I am not talking about the lazy, thieving, bullying idiots that want to take my stuff and harm my family. I’m talking about the people that truly are decent, hard working, good people that just weren’t ready or don’t know what to do.

    I have stores set aside for my family. Food, medical supplies, weapons and some bartering items. We are proficient with our weapons and I can handle most of the medical/trauma needs. We can survive for a few months on what we have and I can hunt or forage after that. But to what end?

    To live as only an animal, without hope of a better life for my children, is not a life worthy of living.

    Without compassion for others, the future seems bleak.

    Guarded compassion, cautious compassion, skeptical compassion. But compassion.

  4. I would one thing preppers do is have the courage to look at this, face it, and make a plan. I taught a class for caregivers in emergency preparedness. (It is their continuing ed, so they had to come.) I can’t tell you how many said to me, “I don’t want to talk about this or even think about this.” Really?! I was very surprised how many didn’t want to even talk about it.
    I keep an extra large bag of rice to give to those who may not be prepared. I would help people, and yet, I do have to look out for our large family that includes three little ones. The babies here have to come first. I recently traded some long term-food storage supplies that I had bought with a friend (who has limited income but has wanted to have some storage) for an extra generator she had inherited. It was a win/win for both of us. I care about her, and it was disturbing to me that she had nothing. I will replace what I gave her with supplies for myself. Her husband doesn’t see the need, so now she has it and traded something for it.

    • Gayle – What you have described is the compassion that I feel and I know, from my emails, that others do too. We must use our heads and our brains when doling out assistance. Any trade, even one that is not balanced, is a good trade. Goods for services works well, too.

      The situation that gets to me is the spouse or partner who has no tolerance for prepping yet loads up on every other type of insurance imaginable. Or who spends thousands at the mall or vacations or on dinners out but complains they can not afford the most basic of preps. No compassion there from me.

    • before shtf its diffrent theres room for compassion and even more room for teaching.pretty much anything can be replaced now but in griddown when the stores are empty?. I currently feed stray cats it seems with each passing day more cats show up,so does the food bill.Imagine if it was people

    • and not to mention that it would enforce the mindset that says, “see i knew someone would help, so why should i have any need to prepare”. and in the end that person would be just a hanger on. a mooch without purpose.

      people whose only thoughts are to drift along only thinking about today or until this weekend are part of the problem we find in today’s civilization world wide. why in heavens name would “they” have to bother with all that “stuff” if it’s only handed to them in the end anyway?

  5. Compassion ends when shtf. I’ve talked, taught, given free canned food, and prayed. Still my friends refuse to listen. I lost a few when they stated that if the shtf they were coming to my house. I told them they’d just get shot. I prepare for me and my family. I have no money for you, but they had plenty of money. One was a nurse practitioner and her husband a doctor. Their idea of prepping was make me their slave. Not gonna happen.

    • i can well understand what you are talking about! i’ve spoken to a few about being prepared and they have thought and given voice that i’m buying into all the hype and fear. even asking them about tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and fires, just natural everyday things that can happen? they still think i’m out in left field.
      but like you? if shtf and they decide, ” hey lets go to echo’s house, she can help us.” ummmm, NO. echo is not going to help. if they push it and try to force the issue they will be met with armed resistance.
      i would have been more than glad to help in the beginning when first talking to them, but not after it happens.
      i pretty much don’t discuss any of it any more. or if i do? it’s still in generalities as in “natural disasters”.

  6. speaking of a thirst for knowledge .Did you know that you can take college courses for free online?.MIT has allowed the use of all course materials on the web heres the link explaining it more ://ocw.mit.edu/about/

  7. I have spoken to my wife about the compassion issue also. Richard is mostly correct, although I wish he wasn’t. We have family & close friends that does nothing for prepparedness. I don’t discuss it anymore, nor what we have done. I can’t prep for everyone, although I know I will need to help my family & others that are very close. However, we will all need to make decisions about people we do not know. You can’t take in and care for everyone, but we can’t live alone either. You may need to just give a jug of water and send them on their way that you might meet later in life. Or, the very worst may happen and you will need to kill to keep your loved ones alive. I have gone over this in my head so often. Societies have collapsed in the past and we are not immune to it in the USA.

    I think that Preppers have the ability to asses and think of different possibilities & know how to act when the time comes. Most will make good choices, because we have gone over different scenarios before.

    • decisions will have to be made about family and friends too. if they have not listened? if they ignore what you might have warned them about? if they are willfully ignorant and deliberately blind? then those are also the ones that would be turned away from my door.

      i have all i can do to prepare, stock up, save or hoard for myself and my family. i simply can not do that for 3 or 4 families. especially for those who would not listen or those who brushed me off.

      also if you help out someone or another family?? there is that onerous thing of word of mouth. family #1 feels really bad for family #2 and tells them that you will help. yeah, ok you help them out with food and/or supplies. hey, look here comes family #3 who also heard about your generosity and they need help. where do you draw the line? and what happens when you draw that line? what are those people going to do??? are they simply going to say, “oh ok, no problem we will just simply go away”. nope, they are going to get angry, maybe angry enough to come after you, yours and what you have!!! they are not going to care one bit that they are putting your family in jeopardy.

  8. “Have compassion for others” BS, others will kill you for your shoes and when it comes to water and food, they will do worst. People will be on their own and it is dog against dog. I will kill to stay alive.

    • i agree with you.I’ve heard that people used small children as a ruse to get people to open their doors after katrina.they were then attacked.Soldiers in viet nam were often blow up by children with grenades If it ever ges to a SHTF situation and im in full on defense mode child or adult will be warned”get off the property or be shot”.That said an orphaned child might get some compassion in the form of granola bars and bottled water.I will decide on a case by case basis

    • Three wet noodles for me? Maybe, maybe not. I need to ponder your remarks a bit – thanks for the reminder that if the SHTF, all will not be rosy and compassion may have to go by the wayside in a dog eat dog world.

    • no i think it comes down to personal beliefs and abilities.I’m on a very limited budget so I’m barely able to store preps for me and my wife .If you have the ability to spare more for others thats great.I think it comes down to a case by case basis

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