Blighted

[MaryN]

So tell me, do you think that your enjoyment of life has been somewhat blighted by your prepping activities? I ask because some of the Forum members so seem a bit, shall we say, intense. I wondered if being in a constant state of expecting the worst has affected the enjoyment of simple things. Does the Christmas season seem the same when you are packing away tins "just in case", or has it added to your enjoyment and satisfaction?

[NorthernRaider]

On the contrary, We including my wife, son and near family have a full filled interesting quality of life, learning new skills from raio operation, home cooking, gardening, shooting, archery, off road driving, first aid, DIY Mtce, travel, camping, fishing, canoeing (badly) sailing ( even worse), quading, learning stuff etc fulfills our lives. Reading both fictional material and reference material has rekindled our love of a good book. We are far less stressed than we wrver were because we are more prepared and more self reliant than we were when we started prepping.
I've stopped smoking for over 14 years now, stop drinking over 25 years ago and am much healthier and better off in my pocket.

I would say were are less wound up or ever worried, stressed etc because we have our preps under development. Prepping is a very pleasant way of life being able to take back ever more control over our lives and the things that affect them.
we are doing far more now and enjoying it than we did 20 years ago living the the rest of the conformist sheeple.
Vive La Preppers.

[Midnitemo]

i'm a little more worried about the state of things now than i was five years ago but , my prepping activities aren't a huge part of my life, still managed to get away four times this year and bought a new car so .. my garden is mostly rosy .. truth be told i'm a bit of a fatalist but stacking the odds a little in your favour can't hurt.

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i prep like its a hobby not a lifestyle and lots of the gear i buy will get used not just put into storage.

[NorthernRaider]

I think people can be very happy with whatever level of prepping or commitment suits them, vive la difference, each to their own etc. The only time it will have any notable meaning is when the S does hit the F. So long as the person is content with their preps BEFORE the event then they have no grounds for complaint AFTER the event.

The only time different levels of involvement or commitment or planning or whatever will matter is if you are part of a group of preppers or hope to team up with other preppers after TSHTF, if you have taken the " prepper lite" route and your neighbours are the full fat version you will probably find out your persona non grata and they wont want Mr 20% trying to benefit from Mr 90%s preps. But as most of us work only within our families I cannot envisage it being much of a problem.

I spend my liesure money on stuff that is both fun and usually enhances my preps.

[Midnitemo]

not planning to be in a group as i think i'm going to have enough bodies of our own. if i see signs of impending doom then i'll step up the prepping but failing that i'm just going to chug on steadily at minimum impact to my enjoyment of life now.

[Scythe13]

This is a question I've put forward a few times in the past. It's an important question to keep in the back of your mind at all times.

For the wife and me, prepping is something we do, we live, but we keep in check. It needs to be kept in place, and although it is the foundation of our situation if TSHTF. It's not the foundation of our lives right now.

We live a very fulfilling lifestyle that if I could change things, I don't think I would.

Learning about the world we live in, growing our own food, go camping, shooting air rifles, sorting out shotguns, riding bikes, climbing, running, weights, MMA, even a little archery here and there, are things we do for fun and that are relevant to prepping. On the side, we learn languages, are building a business, read books, see the world (not easy to do now that we have dogs though), enjoy meals out, hang out with friends at the rugby, walk the dogs, and generally having fun.

The fun thing is, whether I was into prepping or not, we'd probably be doing about 90% of the stuff we do anyway. The book shelves might look a little different, maybe a few less tins stored, but the majority would still be the same. Prepping seems to have justified our pastimes as potentially being a life skill and not just a fun activity to get into.

Having said that, I do obsess over things that I get into, and devour volumes of books to learn all that I can. So although I am a very intense person, I am like that in everything I do, not just prepping.

[Steve]

Has my enjoyment of life been blighted by prepping ? Of course it has, if everything was fine and rosy I could have carried on partying, but everything isn't OK so I have to change my life to ensure my future wellbeing.

I wish it wasn't so, I liked partying.

[Midnitemo]

Had a bit of a scare over the Syria situation a little while back and was tempted to spend quite heavily on the plastic to get in what i thought was immediately nescessary...but the danger passed and i've settled into spending £100 ish a month on preps and kit...going to build it slowly and hopefully with less costly mistakes along the way and more frugality.

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it may never happen in my lifetime ... but you only get one life so live it now while you have your health.

[River Song]

It took over for a time but OH started getting a little antsy about the amount of stuff arriving.

So i slipped into my little black number and ........ .......".

[Highlander]

I think that to spend every moment in a preppers mode is not going to help matters much, I think that you have to have a certain level of `normal living` too

I think that my preps help in making life easier, there is a certain level of security and peace of mind, so we can enjoy life just that little bit better while feeling just a bit safer

I do think that some people could be in danger of being overwhelmed with what they do,.. but we all do things differently and at differing speeds