You know, we're all missing a very important aspect of how we prep. Every one of us should be prepping along the guidelines of a plan. Mine's mostly in my head, but my wife knows how we intend to respond to each situation.

Until you know what you are preparing for, and how you intend to deal with such a situation, it's a bit futile to spend money on __________. Food, water and means of defense are critical to any plan, but you need to tailor these and other items to your personal situation. My plan involves 2 years food supply, plus non-hybrid plants I can start next year's plants from...Eventually solar power and grid-free living, if the sh!t stays beneath the fan long enough. Only time will tell if I'll be set as I wish to when things go south...so ATM I'm working on building gardening skills(read: learning the hard way), and storing other foods, while working on my gun/ammo stores and learning about gathering wild goodies.

My self-defense plan involves a home security system(If I ever get to build my home/BIL), a MBR for the wife and I(high-cap magazine fed semi-auto), a couple scatterguns and pistols...plus a few dedicated long-range rifles and equipment for booby-traps(the ladies will have to overlook me, but I've always been quite fond of boobys :P). In case of a bugout situation, I have things in place to make transporting my food stores much more convenient in my truck...and BOBs for the family if the truck's not an option. I have nearby hideouts located, inspected and semi-situated, and will be making caches for these locations as my means allow.

Most of this is beyond the initial planning stage, but I thought it would be helpful to divulge a bit on a specific plan. If your plan is to stay, it's much simpler. If your plan is to bug out, then your preps will have to be in your BOL. They have to be rotated either way, so you must have a plan in place to maintain your preps. A spreadsheet and proper rotation will take care of most of the prep maintenance, but you need to prep what you use, and use what you prep to prevent waste.

There are many variables that will dictate your plan, such as work, location of residence in regards to potential dangers, the particular scenarios you're prepping for, and especially the scenario you're not expecting. Once you know what you're prepping for, and how you intend to deal with it, then you can assemble a plan. Until you figure that out, you're just treading water.

hope this helps!

The way I first began prepping was deciding upon what emergencies I wanted to be prepared for. Then I started making my lists. Many of the things that I prep for have supplies that apply to many different scenario's. Once I have my list (which is always growing ) I prioritize the items on it. They are all listed and then I determine if I will need them for a 3 day, 30 day, 90 day, or 1 year type emergency/disaster. Once I have that done I then give it a priority code of 1, 2, or 3. 1 is for the items that I need to get ASAP.
That is just how I have prepped and so far it has worked for me.

I use the law of threes i.e. a person can survive 3 minutes without air so my first was a gas mask and a surpluss NBC suit... 3 days without water so there are 2 50gal placlic barrels $20 ea. full of water on my deck. 3 weeks with out food. When I got my first months supply of food bought it went in the trunk of my car. Next time I built up months supply I built a pantry. Then I started building up quality camping equipment including a 2 mo. Supply if freeze dried food and 2 good sets of clothing in layers. A person NEEDS Air to breathe, water to drink, food or a means to procure it, clothes for warmth and to avoid arrest, and shelter from the elements. Once you have that EVERYthing else is a WANT.

Well I've always been outdoors person and have been reloading my own ammo for a while so that was last on my list when I first started prepping. My first purchase was a B.O.B set up 3 one I keep in my bag. I also purchased the gas mask and plenty of extra 40mm cans with it. A combined first aid kit I built by buying piece by piece of items not an all at once pack. Then I started working on food storage canned food mainly at first so I could learn the rotation system I could use and what worked best for me. Next was sanatation needs for the house and myself. Then onto the dried goods with the buckets and freeze-dried goods. Now I keep a list on the fridge and write down what ever I eat and the gf does the same then every week restock what we ate and buy a little extra each time. I failed to mention my water storage nestle bottling company brings my water 5 gallon bottles and save all my v8 bottles 64oz each.

TX

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