Prepping For Beginners - What Advice Would You Give To Someone N

[Ken K7KBJ]

Last nights session of the Northern Nevada Preppers Group Net has been posted.
We began our series on Prepping For Beginners and asked the question,
What Advice Would You Give To Someone New To Prepping?

Here's your link:   http://www.nnpg.net/040418_radio.shtml

Here's the chat room transcript:

KG7MZO - Glenda joined the channel
Ken K7KBJ joined the channel
7:54:07 PM
Ken K7KBJ
Dang it, my laptop battery just started crying to me.
7:54:31 PM
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Ken K7KBJ Mobile joined the channel
7:56:47 PM
Ken K7KBJ Mobile
We'll see how this works on my cell.
7:57:53 PM
Josh K7ZIM joined the channel
7:58:18 PM
Josh K7ZIM
Evening glenda and ken
7:58:42 PM
Ken K7KBJ Mobile
Hi Josh
7:59:06 PM
KG7MZO - Glenda
Good evening gentlemen
8:01:50 PM
AC1BN joined the channel
8:02:15 PM
AC1BN
Hi all!
8:02:41 PM
Josh K7ZIM
Hi ac
8:06:19 PM
Ken K7KBJ Mobile
Hi Fred
8:07:15 PM
Josh K7ZIM
My advice for someone starting out would be to just start. Even a little bit at a time is better then nothing.
8:12:36 PM
twp joined the channel
8:12:43 PM
twp
Hi all
8:12:47 PM
Ken K7KBJ Mobile
Hi twp
8:12:55 PM
twp
Sarry, late...
8:12:57 PM
Josh K7ZIM
Hi twp
8:13:02 PM
twp
Sorry...
8:15:32 PM
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8:15:35 PM
Josh K7ZIM
Oops
8:15:53 PM
Ken K7KBJ Mobile
.
8:17:21 PM
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8:17:27 PM
twp
I don't have much experience with talking to "new" people about prepping.  All my close friends are at least quasi-prepper already
8:18:09 PM
AC1BN joined the channel
8:18:44 PM
AC1BN
Did anybody else just get kicked off by a network problem?
8:18:50 PM
twp
I note that I'm not being timed out, perhaps because I add at least one comment
Test this, please
8:19:21 PM
Ken K7KBJ Mobile
Got it
I hit a period occasionally
.
8:22:01 PM
twp
Jerry makes a good point:  We already have stuff to assemble a basis kit.
 It's a matter of rethinking the allocation
8:23:36 PM
Ken K7KBJ Mobile
Yep
8:25:10 PM
twp
I think I'm really short of that "couple million dollars" <g>
8:25:26 PM
Josh K7ZIM joined the channel
8:26:00 PM
Josh K7ZIM
Sorry was driving. But listening
8:26:21 PM
twp
Drive safe...
8:26:26 PM
Ken K7KBJ Mobile
.
8:26:53 PM
Josh K7ZIM
I was. Im home now. Lol
8:29:21 PM
twp
Cyclic prepping.  Know it well...
Re advice to newbies:  Think about OpSec from day one.  It is too easy to blather about what you're doing...
8:31:55 PM
Ken K7KBJ Mobile
I know, right?
8:35:10 PM
twp
Also, advise to beware of the online "prepper-porn" sites which make appeals to fear and anxiety.  It's a business model which needs careful reading.
8:36:04 PM
Ken K7KBJ Mobile
Good advice, TWP
8:38:18 PM
twp
Re Fred's question:  Use the basic guidelines, plan a 3day / 14 day /30 day stock: 1 gallon of water per person per day,   minimum 2000 calories per person per day (More is better).  Start with the short (3 day) stock,  Expand to longer periods as able.
Each person needs a basic set of clothes (summer and winter), sleeping gear, shelter (small tent).
8:40:24 PM
Ken K7KBJ Mobile
.
8:41:12 PM
twp
Start with a set of tools, flashlight, knife, cooking pot, spoon, fork, firestarter.
WATER FILTER!
8:45:00 PM
Ken K7KBJ Mobile
Fred, did we answer your questions?
8:45:05 PM
twp
Somebody please tell Jerry that we greatly respect his opinion!
8:46:56 PM
Josh K7ZIM
Hope for the best but plan for the worst.
90 to 120 days is a solid start fred
8:49:33 PM
twp
Fred:  It depends on the event.   More is better, but having set goals (3 day / 14 day, 30 day or more) makes it more manageable...
8:56:10 PM
KG7MZO - Glenda
Good net tonight gentlemen
8:56:14 PM
Josh K7ZIM
Good net everyone! Have a great week!
8:56:19 PM
Ken K7KBJ Mobile
Good night!
8:56:32 PM
twp
Agreed, Thanks all
8:56:33 PM
KG7MZO - Glenda
Good evening all

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[TWP]

Thanks Ken.  Looking forward to the rest of this series.

[Jerry D Young]

Thank you, Ken.

Good topic and good responses tonight.

I will put up the first part of my newbie prepper article in a separate post in this thread.

[Jerry D Young]

Make A Plan/Prepping 101 by Jerry D Young

So you have realized that becoming prepared for whatever might occur in the future is something you want to do. But how to go about it? It can be an overwhelming subject. So, it is almost imperative that you make a plan on how to proceed. You are more likely to save money and get what you need as quickly as possible if you sit down, think things out, and come up with a flexible plan suited to your particular circumstances. Plans will be different for every individual or family.

How do you make a plan? One step at a time. Reading this is your first step. The next ones will guide you through the process of putting down on paper, or in the computer, those things you will need to do to get to the state of preparedness you want.

Some assumptions that I think are reasonable that should be taken into consideration when you make your plans:

•   The overwhelming majority of preps will be needed for situations that occur at home.

•   Most disasters will not be Doomsday, The Apocalypse, TEOTWAWKI or WROL situations.

•   Most disasters will still have police and National Guard units enforcing law & order.

•   People will still be responsible for their actions legally and morally.

•   There will looters and violence in some major disasters, but the proportion of life & death incidents will be much smaller than the number of incidents simply requiring basic human needs.

•   Most households will have some basic items at home that can be used during a disaster. Not everything has to be purchased for use only during a disaster situation. You can often incorporate into the preps items you already have. (Basic First Aid kits including some OTC & any needed prescription meds. A flashlight or two & some candles. A knife. Bedding)

The actual plan:

1)   Threat Analysis:
Sit down with your loved ones and have a discussion about the current situation and what fears and concerns everyone has. No one can prepare for everything, especially in the beginning. Make note of what things are brought up in the conversation. You do not need to scare anyone, and it could be difficult to get them to admit to any fears, especially the younger ones. But it is important to include them, because not everything you will want to prepare for is life and death.

Forget about Doomsday Preps, Armageddon, or TEOTWAWKI for now. Keep it real. Do the best you can to decide what reasons you would bug-out as opposed to bugging-in. Bugging-in is the much preferred action, but there are very good reasons to bug-out. Consider what would drive you from your home, based on your location and situation.

2)   Prioritize:
Once you know the things you want to prepare for, put them in a general groups of what you want to start with, what can wait a while, and what should be put on the back burner for the moment. Trying to do everything at once is likely to overwhelm and discourage everyone. You do not want that. A steady progress to each goal you set will get the job done. And I will suggest a couple of goals right off the bat. One is learning and getting all the training you can. Classroom, internet, and book as well as hands on. The other is part of the first. Begin acquiring a good library of prepping books and magazines to read and learn from as part of your educational program, as well as storing them for future use.

3)   Goals:
And keep things goal oriented. Set the goals, realistic ones. Goals that can be achieved. Leave the pie in the sky super deluxe bunkers and Mad Max vehicles to the fiction writers. You want something that you can achieve, on a timely basis. Set the level of preparedness you want for the first group of priorities. Once you know where you are going, you can start getting ready to get there. Set some general achievement goals on a timeline to get started. And remember that goals should be realistic to start with, but can be adjusted as things change, you learn more, or things happen that call for a change in the plan.

4)   Budget:
This is an extremely important part of the process. A budget is a good idea for all financial matters, but is even more so when trying to get ready for things that might just happen before you are ready for them. You will need to spend some money. But you cannot let other things go, either. Still have to pay the mortgage or rent, the auto loan, and on and on. Get them in the budget. Everything you must pay on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis.

Do not forget taxes, and the unexpected. And do not give up everything you like to do. You still need to live a life, especially with a family. Once you have a household budget, you can determine how much you can spend on preps for given timelines. Then you start doing a separate budget, using those numbers, to get the things done you need to do.

Before you put many numbers in, you are going to have to decide on the items you want first, but get the budget set up, and keep it flexible. It will change over time. Once you have a reasonable budget lined out, add the timeframe and amount for the long lead items that you plan to purchase and start saving a budgeted amount per month for that item/those items.

5)   Start Prepping
Once the basic plan is in place and the budgets set up, start prepping.

To be continued...

Just my opinion.