Hands up who thinks there a little more into prepping than is perhaps healthy for themselves? I'm asking because I like to do things well and to the best of my ability but I get frustrated with what a slow process getting prepared is with limited funds....I could forego a lot off the thing's I enjoy to speed up and improve the procedure but that would be dull...I like holidays/new cars/meals out/weekends away/motorbikes and the occasional new cd......just wondering how everyone else balances stuff and get there jollies? I certainly wouldn't welcome a life without any of those things so I could be ready for the reckoning!
we all prep at different speeds. err....whats a holiday? haven't had one of those since the 70s!!!
Know what you mean pal, sold my RT 1100 , no more holls abroad, but I reckon this is a small price to pay for the security of my family...........What a fine chap I am....truly wonderful ......and devastatingly good looking to, I could go on and on but I spect I would piss you all off!
What i'm driving at is has anybody stopped living in favour off prepping....cos i couldn't .... my holidays,leisure time and treats are what keeps me plugging away at my job...i'm hoping to get a holiday home in Spain when i retire and a Morgan car , i'm prepping cos i want to be ready should something happen but its not stopping me living now or hoping for a happy fruitfull retirement.
Depends how you define prepping. I don't think prepping and living have to be mutually exclusive.
We downshifted and relocated. Cut our expenses dramatically and enjoy a comfortable life free of the worry of debt and the hassle of "running on the treadmill".
I try to make my preps dual-purpose, so they make us more resilient in the event of a crisis, but are also cost-neutral or cost-beneficial. Example was switching away from oil-based central heating to a wood-burning system. It cost a few £k to do this. We had the money sitting in the bank from our downshifting. I worked out that spending the money was actually a good investment in terms of fuel saving (better than in the bank) PLUS I'm now energy-independent when it comes to heating, cooking and hot water.
Just doing the same with a small grid-tied solar PV installation. It should give me around a 10% return on the investment of £700, but the real benefit is that I can reconfigure the panels to off-grid should I need to.
We had an old stagnant pond in the garden when we bought the house. Don't think anyone's done anything with it for years. We spent a hard weekend completely dredging it and clearing it out. Re-filled it and re-stocked it with plants. It's now a pleasant wildlife pond that attracts birdlife, frogs and all sorts, but it's also our emergency water store (2000 litres). Cost £30 for the new plants, plus a lot of graft!
Finally, we enjoy camping and I like to backpack. The equipment we have for this makes for great emergency gear (sleeping bags, rucksacs, camping stoves and fuel, water filter, torches, etc), so we don't have to invest separately in those. At the end of the day, I guess there are some leisure activities that sit naturally with prepping, and others that sit more awkwardly. All about choices I s'pose.
Just a note of caution; you say you're hoping for a happy, fruitful retirement (me too!). I'm working on the basis that my state pension will top up the other sources of income I have, but I'm not relying on it. One needs to consider; what if a major stock market crash wipes the value off my pension fund (it could happen Monday)? What if our sovereign debt becomes so unsustainable that things we take for granted, such as the state pension, are no longer affordable? A severe financial collapse is the single most "clear and present" danger we face.
Damn right MNM. No point prepping today and not living tomorrow. Personally, I am happy with prepping AND living. For example, today I did some stuff in the garden, walked the dogs with the wife and our neighbour (neighbour is also a prepper), checked out air pistols because I cleaned out the animals, and the wife was going to reward me. Turns out the shop was closed, so we got in the car and went out to Exeter. The pistol I wanted was out of stock in Exeter, so we went for a meal at Coal instead. Walked around, had a wonderful time.
We don't splash out all the time on loads of different things, but we shop smartly, spend a few pounds extra on preps when at the shops, then every month or 2 get a little extra equipment, e.g. gas cans, pellets, air rifle, camping gear, 100 rolls of toilet paper, etc. Prepping is a way to extend your life.
If you want to 'live prepping' then by all means. There is nothing stopping you doing that. I know BP likes it that way, and no doubt NR would be similar in mindset. But for me, I prefer to have my holiday every now and again.
I like to prep up a little at a time. If you put away £10 worth of gear a month, in a year you'd have £120 worth of gear. That's a pretty big amount of toilet paper and tins. If every other month you spent an additional £50, you'd add £600 to your total gear loading. In a year that's £720. If I gave you £720 to spend on preps, you'd get a load of basic gear, right? So it's that simple.
The thing is, we are working on building a company that will help support the preps we have, but also to take our prepping to a whole new level! When we hit that, it'll be awesome! Crazy prepping!!! But at the moment, we're at a point where we can just add more of what we have. There is a limit to what preps can be done within each person's budget. If you have X budget, then the gear and space you have is limited to what X allows. For example, if you have £1000 a year to prep, you're not going to be getting a bunker and 10 acres of land. But you could save for a small parcel of land, or a cheap vehicle, or a garden setup, or any number of things. If your budget is lower, then you can adjust your preps to that.
The thing is, if you're not willing to change your lifestyle in exchange for a higher level of intensity for prepping, that's cool. Nothing wrong with that. Tibbs had some time away, I know MCavity likes to get out to Dartmoor to get away from city life, like a mini-holiday, I know I like to get away back to the office haha. But I'm not willing to give up a life right now, for the possibility of a life later on.
WTSHTF, we won't get to enjoy eating out, holidays, room service, iPhones, weekends away, Disney World, Cook Islands, Monaco, the Alps, skiing or snowboarding trips, and the alike. So screw missing out on all that when it's available!!! WTSHTF, we won't be able to experience sooooo much awesome stuff!!!
If someone wants to miss out on those things, so be it. But I'm not one of those people.
Why miss out on what's not going to be there? At the moment, I want to go out with my wife, get some food cooked for us by a specialist chef, and enjoy a hassle free meal, without needing to clean up, and look at my beautiful wife, and enjoy our day together. We don't need to be out and about to enjoy ourselves. But it's nice to have those treats.
MNM, I'm with you 100% of the way mate.
I have been at this "activity" for a long time. Long enough for it to have changed names two or three times.
I do not engage in "Prepping" based on fulfilling the needs of some fantasy scenario. My prepping is centered around the natural disasters that I have survived, and will survive in the future.
As such, those "preps" are a part of my daily life, and are necessities of life as much as the roof over my head, the food in my fridge and the clothes in my closet. It has been that way since 1970 and will never stop as long as there are blizzards, tornadoes, hurricanes and wildfires.
My "homestead" is my home. It is organized and built to my specifications developed over years of life. The fact that is has redundant electrical systems, water systems, small livestock and a big veggie patch is just the result of my life experiences and food preferences. The large selection of redundant tools is simply part of living in the rural setting. I spent the afternoon today clearing away storm damage with the chainsaw. That's just life around here.
There are certain aspects of "prepping" and the gear it requires that I thoroughly enjoy and have made a part of my recreational life. I spend about 20% of each year camping. But I always have would even if the gear were not shared as emergency equipment.
Most of my non-camping Friday nights are spent at the trap range shooting and socializing in the club house, and many of my close friends are also shooting range buddies.
None of this keeps me from taking vacations, enjoying my camping trips, eating out, general socializing ad having a life.
See the joy in everything you do, "prepping" doesn't have to be a chore. Also, learning new skills keeps your mind active, that's important when you get to the wrong side of 50, and physical activity that gives you a tangible result is much more satisfying than going to a gym and pounding a running machine.
prepping isn't something I do 24/7/365 but it is always on my mind, we go to car boots regularly-that's our relaxation- but I'm always looking for stuff prepping related.
phew that's a relief to see some lifestyle balance out there,i to enjoy a lot of things that have dual use in prepping , and i am worried that my pension might dissapear in a puff of smoke ala maxwell but i don't want to let it get me to jaded , live for now plan for a lovely future but get ready too!