Quick question for the group: what's your biggest prep-related regret?
Posted by NotIfButWhenReady@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 81 comments
Asking for a friend who's just getting serious about preparedness.
Mine is waiting too long to upgrade my shelter's resilience. Spent years focused on supplies and equipment while living in a house that couldn't handle a serious storm.
Finally started addressing structural vulnerabilities, but wish I'd prioritized it sooner. Everything else depends on having a secure base of operations.
Second biggest regret: not involving my neighbors more. Community connections matter as much as individual preparations.
What would you do differently if you started from scratch?
incruente@reddit
I think a lot of people start "prepping" in response to some big scare; the power went out, a blizzard, the talking head on the TV convinced them ISIS is going to blow up the nation, etc. And then they go out and panic buy; eggs! milk! toilet paper!
That's not quite what happened to me, but I didn't begin in a deliberate way. I think a lot of preppers, even ones who have been doing it for years, haven't actually sat down and thought about it. What, specifically, are you preparing FOR? Getting ready for a long blizzard in the northeast looks very different from getting ready for an avian flu pandemic.
Are you preparing for ALL of the problem, or some of it? It's super to have food and toilet paper and water stored up. But soooo many people have cans of wheat, and no way to grind it. Or they have a way to grind it, but no spare parts for the mill. Or they have the mill and spare parts, but they have never used it. Or they have all the means to mill flour and mix dough...but their oven relies on grid power or natural gas from the city.
Now, don't get me wrong; it's far better to have SOME preparations than NONE. No one should use the impossibility of perfection as an excuse to avoid action. But I think a lot of people would save a lot of time and money and have better outcomes if they sat down, hopefully with a pencil and a piece of paper, and had a serious thinking session before they go out and start buying.
Affectionate-Mode767@reddit
Most people aren't actually ready to eat hard tack and poop in a coffee can.
There's a lot of people who prep as a hobby because they have disposable income and enjoy buying disaster preparedness gadgets and items.
The people who have the skills to survive a real shtf situation won't need a mill to grind flour because they'll be eating squirrel and mushrooms in the woods.
So, as you pointed out, knowledge is the most important tool for prepping. Read books and practice skills.
New_in_ND@reddit
Your post is kinda funny to me because the last time we had an issue with the water (the town had a broken water main, took them a couple days to fix it), I pulled out the emergency toilet & my husband said "I am not going to poop in a bucket." He wanted to use the toilet and force flush it with a bucket of water that we needed to use to wash hands and stuff. We are now divorced, and I know he has no desire to be prepared for even small emergencies.
asc2793@reddit
Thanks for this. I don’t mean to Jack the thread but do you suggest some. Books/websights/specific people I should check out to learn credible information from?
incruente@reddit
If there is a major event, there are going to be all of MAYBE a few hundred people living off the land. It's not merely a question of knowledge and skill, but of carrying capacity. If someone is going to survive for any real length of time as a hunter/gatherer, they need a HUGE amount of land to support themselves as compared with someone engaged in agriculture. Mushrooms foraging is fine, but it won't fill your belly.
I also don't see the point in trying to figure out if knowledge is or is not "the" most important tool for prepping. I might as well figure out which tool is "the" most important for woodworking. Sure, the saw is important; but so is the hammer, the try square, the chisel, the plane. There's no point spending time trying to figure out which one is more important than the others. Knowledge is important, sure, but so are many other things.
Achnback@reddit
Add to your statement, how many other Rambo's will be doing the same thing and may very well have no issue in protecting "what's their"? No thank you! We will bug in and wait. I'm too old and frankly not that motivated even as a young man to go out in the woods and live like we did 200 years ago.
JaydedXoX@reddit
Plus squirrels are going to be gone really quickly if a few families are using them. You’ll be eating bugs.
Affectionate-Mode767@reddit
Let's be real, if things are bad enough to warrant you leaving your home then it's enough to warrant theft (I know that's a touchy subject, but in extreme scenarios it's something you'd have to consider.)
As for living off the land, you don't necessarily have to be on your own property. There's public land, unowned land, property that's simply too large to monitor. If you're knowledge of local geography is good enough, you can have an idea of where you can and cannot go, scouting these places beforehand will help.
Also you'd be surprised how well you can survive off hunting/gathering depending on where you live. During Mushroom season you can very much fill yourself on mushrooms alone if you're in a good area for them. But there's also so much you can forage, as well as hunt if you're willing.
If you have a family, I understand hunting/gathering may not be as practical. Again, I'm more speaking about scenarios where you'd need to abandon civilization for a bit, not just hold up in your home without city services.
Referring to the original comment, being prepared for whichever emergency you think is most relevant is important. I feel like having a plan, falls under knowledge as well.
Unless you're an eccentric millionaire and can afford a personal bunker or something, then uhh.. congrats you win I guess.
incruente@reddit
No, it's not. My ethics are not altered by circumstance, and there is nothing I need that I do not have stockpiled or can otherwise acquire legitimately.
Yep; and all of a couple hundred people, tops, can manage that.
Some back of the envelope math suggests you'd need to eat something like 19-20 POUNDS of mushrooms to get 2,000 calories. Best of luck.
And I maintain that hunting/gathering is a fool's errand for all but a vanishingly small minority, and that even they would be better served making other preparations. Foraging is a thing best left as a pleasant past time or an emergency mechanism when lost in the wilderness.
I agree.
I've never been called eccentric, but I've definitely been called less flattering synonyms. And I'm not a millionaire.
Affectionate-Mode767@reddit
So your foraging logic bothers me.
First I wasn't suggesting eating nothing but mushrooms, there are A LOT of things that grow naturally you can eat other than mushrooms.
The mushroom > to calories math is off too. 1 lbs of raw white mushrooms have about 100 calories. Denser mushrooms will have more calories (Puffballs, etc) So it's about 20 lbs for 2000 calories. But mushrooms shouldn't be your only source of food. You would be hunting, fishing, and foraging other vegetation. Usually, your local library carries books that have local geographic specific information about what plants grow around there and what you can and cannot eat.
About theft. I'm not suggesting stealing from individuals or doing so in a minor situation that would blow over in months' time. I'm talking about full societal collapse where money is worthless. This is much more hypothetical.
You keep pointing out only a handful of people would be capable of foraging and living off the land. But that's MY point. Learning practical skills and being able to survive in a situation where you might not have access to your prep gear is important. What if you're not even home when things go bad?
I'm not saying this is the ONLY way, just something to consider for those who can't shelter in place.
incruente@reddit
And most of them are similarly calorically deficient. Look at Rob Greenfield; it took him years of training and it was still a largely full-time task for him to live year round eating nothing but what he could forage. And that was in a VERY favorable climate, with no real concerns about things like security.
Sooo...what's "off" about the math, then?
Yes, there are all sorts of resources. I challenge anyone to try living that way for, say, a month.
And my answer still does not change. If it's wrong to steal when the victim is not driven to desperation by circumstance, how much more wrong is it to steal from them when they are?
Part of my point is that it's not merely a question of skill. It's also a question of where you find yourself. If a lot of people give this a try, most will fail. If you have a limited amount of time and money to dedicate to preparing for emergencies, you should spend that time and money on the most effective methods. Planning to be a hunter/gatherer and spending your time learning all that is not an effective way. You would be far better off using other approaches.
Even for those who cannot shelter in place, they would be better off using other methods. I can move a month's worth of food in a bicycle trailer. I can move a year's worth in my truck and trailer, if I have to.
Saloncinx@reddit
I think you're spot on. I have enough supplies and food and water to ride out a year tops. In that year i'm hoping some amount of society comes back or else i'm super fucked. I'm more than happy trying to buy a year of time, but i'm not delusional to think i'd last any longer than that 'bugging out' and trying to live off the land or anything.
Brudegan@reddit
Imho some preppers are living the fantasy while at the same time being in denial of the reality that even with preps/skills they are just going to die. There is no living of the land before 50-90% of us are dead. Quite a few of us have some health issues that requires modern health care sooner or later. Or just are old or out of shape etc.
At least for me (living in a big city apartment) prepping for more than a month of full blackout is already more than even remotely realistic because of all the people around you not prepping at all.
Thats why i consider around a month full preps (including the means to prepare them) with additional food reserves for when power is still there and some form of indefinitely water treatment and power generation (fitting to your needs...not living like the power never went out) enough for most. Paired with some form of emergency bags and maybe a car kit you would have realistic solutions for most scenarios.
Weird-Grocery6931@reddit
Debt. Unsecured Debt is my biggest regret. Right now it is stopping me from accomplishing my larger goals.
SonsOfValhallaGaming@reddit
I regret that I was a ''super soldier badass survivor'' in my youth and didn't take advantage of community more.
Now I'm a ''supersoldier with a bad kneeand back and can't run far, but am a fantastic shot'' guy, so I'm a valuable member of a larger group, but not good on my own anymore. Age and experience humbles us all
JRHLowdown3@reddit
We always need others. The ultimate question is whether WE pick them or whether we live with a fantasy that after the fact we will somehow survive with neighbors we don't really know that aren't prepared just be they are close by. The latter being a fantasy. The former being too much work for most new "preppers" who are scared to meet other people.
But yes ultimately you want to be around like minded friends who have prepared ahead of time (key) that you have known for years (key) that you have been training and preparing with ahead of time (key). That's a survival group.
TheNewAmericanGospel@reddit
I would have prioritized all my money towards buying land in the best survivable area i could afford.
And, here's how I would have done it:
Find a rural plot of land, roughly 40 acres or more. (Where i used to live in rural Wisconsin and before 2020, that would have costed less than $75,000)
Call a logging company to clear land for the best homesite, shooting lanes for hunting and driveway. Why work for days felling trees and bucking them into firewood when I could have a company come in that buys trees? I would use that money to install all the utilities needed.
Divide the land into two or more large plots with electricity, water, and internet access, and rent them out as hunting leases with RV spaces.
Secure a loan to build a fenced area, of about 1 square acre for RV and self storage for passive income free of people fir the most part, and build a tiny home on the property to serve as the rental office, living space.
Build and sell/rent tinyhomes and trailers after the hunter's leasing agreement is expired.
Use those funds to fully develop the property into a homestead, with its own small passive income business on site.
ChiyuMain@reddit
A horrible experience was not being able to stockpile before a CAT 5 hit my city. No cash on hand, not a lot of supplies and water wasn't prepared and no power solutions. Lost power and water for a month but glad that malls and other areas around my city were offering charging stations. This time I'm trynna prepare and have go bag ready in case of crazy stuff.
J701PR4@reddit
I went through something similar after Andrew.
ChiyuMain@reddit
Glad to see you're here and safe. No lie I think Andrew an Katrina have to be the worst hurricanes to ever hit the US
J701PR4@reddit
I had been out of the Army for about a week. My wife & I had just moved into a beachfront condo. We had so little money we couldn’t even afford a pot to piss in, and we’d never been within hundreds of miles of a hurricane. We just thought it would be like an ordinary storm but a little stronger, lol. I’ve been an avid prepper since then. Never again!
ChiyuMain@reddit
It's always that calm before the storm, it doesn't look crazy enough confidence that gets us lol. It's always that one experience that teaches us.
J701PR4@reddit
Yep. Sometimes a bitch-slap across the face from reality is a crucial learning experience.
ChiyuMain@reddit
totally agree. We live and we learn
churnopol@reddit
Augason Farms
IndianOcn@reddit
For me I totally agree the second point you mentioned, community connections are very important especially when disaster come.
felixheaven@reddit
Mine was overlooking water storage. I had tools, backup power, food... but nowhere near enough water. It's crazy how fast it runs out once you actually need it.
Enigma_xplorer@reddit
Starting out with a more coherent carefully considered holistic plan even if those plans started out very modestly. For example stockpiling food is important but you need to carefully consider what foods and in what quantities to cover what period of time. You need to stop and think what your day to day diet plan will be. I amassed a nice stock pile of foods but realized that it's probably too much and I don't use enough of this stuff on a routine basis to rotate it effectively. Even stuff like peanut butter and canned tuna is great but without bread or a means to make bread what are you going to do with it? Rice is great but how will you cook it? These are the kinds of things you really need to think about before diving in. It's better to start with a plan, start small, and work on getting the fundamentals right then building onto that than diving in haphazardly.
Open-Attention-8286@reddit
Not familiarizing myself with zoning ordinances before buying property.
I had banked on being able to build a tiny house and then expand. Turns out some places have minimum sizes for residences. The minimum for the area my land is in is big enough I can't build it all at once. And they require a bunch of other stuff like a driveway in place before I can even apply for the permit.
Years later I'm still trying to save up, while living somewhere other than my own land.
VA3FOJ@reddit
Not reading instructions before making up a go bag that stayed in my truck full time. The go bag had a reverse osmosis water filter system in it who's filter cannot be frozen, and i live in canada where the winters frequently go to -20c or lower. The filter spent the winter in my truck and in the spring i ended up having to replace the filter. They're not cheap
Im lucky though, realy. In the spring of that year i had a week long solo wilderness camping trip planned. A month previous to going on the trip i found out freezing these filters destroys them by watching a lostlakes youtube video. I was able to replace the filter before my trip. Would have been very shitty to find out the filter was trashed by drinking bad water and getting sick in the middle of nowhere with a 20km canoe trip needed to get to help
paratethys@reddit
typically RO filters can freeze as often as you want before their first use. The mechanism by which freezing damages them is that ice crystals puncture the osmotic membrane, and ice crystal formation requires the presence of water. It's only after that first use that they can no longer be frozen.
You may already know this but other readers, with unused sawyer minis or lifestraws in their car kits, might not.
paratethys@reddit
For me, personally... I waited way too long to get a shipping container. I had the space and the cash for it for years before finally pulling the trigger, not realizing what a huge quality of life improvement it'd be to have a dedicated storage space for infrequently accessed items.
Now, to put this into perspective, the list of things I'm glad I did early involves clearcutting defensible space against wildfire around my home, getting edible perennials established in the newly sunny areas, volunteering in local emergency response, plumbing over 10,000 gallons of rain catchment, 10 person-years of calories in 30-year food formats, etc.
Achnback@reddit
My biggest regret? Don't really have any to date. I was raised extremely poor, so putting back was a thing way before there was "prepping." We are frugal shoppers, buy on sale and stack it deep. When I say deep, enough that we will consume said items over the next year. We aren't the type to purchase 150 cans of sweet corn because it was cheap. That would quite literally last us 15 years. We purchase enough and leave some for other folks to take advantage of the good deal.
RustyShackelford3141@reddit
Spending a ton of money on food preps and having nearly all of it contaminated or eaten by mice and bugs.
Acceptable_Net_9545@reddit
Physical strength and endurance prep....
WrongdoerHot9282@reddit
My first go round at bug out bags for everyone. I packed 3 days worth of food for everyone and then didn’t rotate them. Since then, I got realistic about what our actual most likely emergencies will be and prepped from there.
Cute-Consequence-184@reddit
I didn't start canning younger
Friendly_Swan8614@reddit
I grew up in a mostly self-sufficient household, so I don't really have any regrets. I know how it's done. But I can tell ya the regrets I've seen are:
not stocking what you eat. You don't need freeze-dried buckets of random expensive shit. They're gross. Your children aren't gonna eat them, and you might, but you won't wanna. Just buy a couple extra cans of whatever you usually buy whenever it's on sale, and you're good.
You can't eat guns.
Pretty similar to 2, really, but community is key.
Prep for Tuesday, my dudes. See ya next week.
Leopold_Porkstacker@reddit
Biggest regret is over analyzing everything, so many what ifs and howzabouts.
Second regret is buying too much crap, I don’t really need a separate bug out bag, get home bag, inch bag, medical bag, edc bag, vedc bag, flight bag, ER bag, Hospital bag, etc…
All that stuff just makes my money bag smaller, and it’s real easy to get caught up in the moment and start prepping another bag for some “good” reasons when 98% of the time I know I’m going somewhere and why.
I don’t need 23 different knives and multi tools, I don’t need 5 different calibers of weapons and ammo, I don’t need 55 cans of Lima beans, I hate those things.
I regret way too much doomscrolling lately in reference to preps and prepping, the world is always going to shit in some way and always has been, my grandparents lived through the Great War and the depression, I can make through whatever is coming next.
suckinonmytitties@reddit
How much money do you estimate you’ve spent on preps?
Leopold_Porkstacker@reddit
Took a while to figure, but ballpark would be 10 thousand this year alone.
NolaNelly@reddit
Probably buying stuff in a panic instead of taking the time to do research
KCaScTiVaCri@reddit
Buying a house in suburbs in a cul-de-sac instead of rural area
JRHLowdown3@reddit
Location is about 90% of survival.
Being away from masses of system dependent people is going to be important.
KCaScTiVaCri@reddit
Correct but too late now, I have good established relationships with 8 out of the other 9 residents. One is an asshole, there must be one of those, right?
8 of them are dependable and have useful skills, think nurse, outdoorsman, mechanics, former army / now electrical engineer. We'll see what happens when shtf comes around...
Provia100F@reddit
Don't prep food you won't eat.
Test those emergency food kits to see if you actually can eat it.
CTSwampyankee@reddit
Having too many items. ex. knives, random walkies, surplus.
You don't need 20 knives with no pupose. Sell off, upgrade to a few higher quality versions. Same across the board, don't collect junk or stack 10-20 deep. You don't need 6 machetes, give 4 away to friends.
Make a plan when you have to much sttuff or your stufff will own you (storage issues, too much money tied up, etc)
Gullible-Cow9166@reddit
Not buying a woodland before they were popular
Delgra@reddit
Plastic aquatainer type jugs for water storage. Just buy used stainless steel corny kegs and sanitize them with pbw. Literally best long term water storage and you can store more water in the same foot print of space.
Academic_1989@reddit
I sold a house I owned that was a small rental complex just before Covid. It was a kind of traumatic experience overall - I am not meant to be a landlord and I walked away with a loss. What I regret is that we left behind a wood stove, a hand crank for a well, multiple random tools and supplies. As soon as we say the news reports out of China on early Covid, first me and then my husband started seriously prepping. I so regret that we left behind what we thought at the time was a bunch of old crap that would be so useful in our plan of creating a retirement homestead. Live and learn...
kkinnison@reddit
no regrets yet. Except maybe when I had a new circuit breaking box upgraded and my house rewired at my home recently there is no switch installed to take me off the grid and use a generator. My wife was involved with all the discussions and i never got a chance to put in my $0.02
ponycorn_pet@reddit
My biggest regret: Not getting the fuck out of Texas in the tail end of the pandemic when I would have gotten a decent chunk of change for my house. It's not my FAULT I didn't, my ex made it so I was not allowed to move counties, let alone states, and it took five years to successfully get a modification. Now my house isn't worth anything more than the land it's on
Casiarius@reddit
Well, if 2025 me could time travel, I would go back in time to when I bought the house and tell past me "Plant the fruit trees this year! Don't procrastinate."
PrincessMurderMitten@reddit
And asparagus, lol!!!
J701PR4@reddit
Mine is blowing way too much money on stupid shit when I was in my twenties and didn’t expect the world last much longer (I was a Cold War kid). If I’d invested that money instead of spending it on cars, motorcycles, drugs, alcohol, and vacations, I’d be a wealthy man now.
Reasonable_Action29@reddit
But without the fun memories
J701PR4@reddit
The memories and stories are great. Fortunately “chicks dig scars.” I do get to use myself as the bad example while raising my kids, though, so that’s convenient.
RelevantFix4640@reddit
He could have cut some expenses and still have fun memories.
wpbth@reddit
I was not able to access my bug out location during Covid. So guessing during a real worst case senerio I won’t be able to get there.
xcrunner432003@reddit
why not?
wpbth@reddit
Government naval blockade.
everyviIIianislemons@reddit
not putting more focus on financial preps
PreppersParadigm@reddit
I made a video about this a while back. It got me thinking about what I'd have done differently. One thing for me was it took me a while to realize that prepping isn’t just about stuff; it’s about systems, redundancy, and the people you can count on when things get tough.
Also, buying too much kit without really having a plan for how to use it.
throwawayt44c@reddit
Not discovering Tocino flavored Spam sooner. I bought a bunch of the regular and low sodium spam, then a few months ago I discovered the tocino spam and now I have to eat my regular spam before getting into the good stuff.
SuperSynapse@reddit
I can tell you from the hurricane flooding in North Carolina.
Plenty of food, plenty of water, plenty of gas.
No cell/communication network. No one knows who is ok or who needs help.
Plenty of chainsaws for downed trees, most dull with no extra chains or sharpeners, many with clogged and varnished carburetors; this includes the people driving up from out of state to help!
All the tools in the world are no good if you don't have the ability to request aid or know where to give aid. Especially if you don't have those tools prepared to use with extra consumable parts and consumable maintenance materials.
Short-University1645@reddit
I don’t have any, but I did just rotate my dried goods and I normally donate to the food bank, but I was a few months off and no one would take them. But they got donated to an Amish farm to feed animals.
gadget767@reddit
Making up things in my mind without checking them out myself. That for me was the case with generators. I had heard of automatic standby generators that just started up when the power went out, and ran your whole house, but I just decided (in my own mind, with no basis) that those must be incredibly expensive. In point of fact, they are amazingly reasonable, at least if the details of your own personal situation with respect to the locations of your natural gas and electric utilities are compatible with the installation of such a device. By that I mean that your natural gas line is in reasonable proximity to your electric meter. If it is, then the installation is pretty simple and inexpensive.
DeFiClark@reddit
Buying long store foods before I had a good log of my family consumption patterns, and ending up with surplus that couldn’t be fully consumed before expiration under ordinary conditions.
Brown rice, corn meal, whole milk powder and whole wheat flour being the most obvious.
Nopodysbecial@reddit
Being born poor. Jk, kind of. Being dirt poor and hungry most of my childhood has helped me prep I think. It made it so a deep pantry is part of regular life, not just for weathering storms. But, I did develop poor financial habits and stayed poor and in debt for a few years after leaving home. I'd say my biggest regret was not prepping my finances seriously until my mid 20's.
Difficult_Wind6425@reddit
same, didn't take my finances seriously out of highschool and worked a dead end job, but back in grad school now in my mid thirties to turn a new leaf! The only one we can blame is ourselves and can only dig ourselves out with effort.
Hoping to finish all of my prepper goals within the next 5 years since most things should fall into place with access to more $$$
SpacedBasedLaser@reddit
I also had a rough start and had little knowledge or understanding of finances. I regret prepping other things before my finances
Autobotnate@reddit
Buying a house without a basement.
_ssuomynona_@reddit
Finances. I need to start a retirement account now so it has time to grow.
TalpaMoleman@reddit
I regret not having learnt more from my grandparents, for whom self-sustainment was not a hobby, but a necessity.
SunLillyFairy@reddit
I don't really have any regrets... but to new folks I'd say focus on your biggest risks and household safety. We are all much more likely to experience a home black out, fire or break in, or need to evacuate, than an experience where we need a go live in the woods or retreat to a fall out shelter.
I'd also say stay organized. If you just start storing things in random places you'll lose track of what you have, where it is and how much.
smsff2@reddit
I was looking for land to build a fortified bug-out location above ground and a nuclear fallout bunker below ground. My wife and I finally found a place we both liked, and I turned down another offer. There was another lot, identical in size, that was wooded and backed onto an environmentally protected forest. Instead, we chose a place with a nice driveway and a fence. My wife was fascinated by the driveway and the fence, but now I can’t build anything without nosy people watching.
fenuxjde@reddit
Learning from experience.
cuminmyshitsock@reddit
you regret learning from experience?
fenuxjde@reddit
Yes. I would have much rather learned from the lessons of others. Experience is a cruel teacher, for she gives you the test before she's taught you the lesson.
CadetThrowAwaway@reddit
The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the 2nd best time is today.
I'd say comprehensive research and risk assessments for your area is the best foundation for prepping and disaster planning. There are some really great search tools out there that are similar to google that will scour a wide range of sources and come up with some threats you may not have considered. This is how I discovered I live in the evacuation zone for the "Bomb train" which I had previously never heard of, and thankfully have since been banned by the courts. Having an on demand wikipedia level article that I can use as a starting point for research is a good tool to have in the belt when it comes to planning. (The mods will delete my comment and slap my PP if I name any of those tools other than "Google" but look at the real, not hallucinated sources linked above from real web sites it gave me, oh wise moderators.)
I can't do everything at once, and I can't exactly say I regret not doing it earlier, but I think it is a valuable process I am glad I started, and documenting plans and findings in an offline repository like Obsidian.
SheistyPenguin@reddit
Mainly panic-buying, or else succumbing to prepper FOMO. But you tend to learn that lesson quickly enough.
COVID was a good example of a situation where the cloud of uncertainty could be paralyzing, and you could burn a lot of money playing "what if".