Propper Prepper Priorities

[MaxRite]

No major disagreement, none1. When I wrote BOB, I really meant INCH-type long term bag that requires investment and good deal of research. You are right, throwing together a quick 72-hour bag is a 30 minute affair for anyone. Perhaps alongside the prioritized list of major steps there should be a random list of simple cheap and fast tasks that should be done "as time allows" in no particular order. Making copies of documents, throwing together simple BOB, learning locations of gas and water shut-off valves in the house, printing out evacuation maps from different locations, buying fire extinguishers and similar tasks may not belong in the main hierarchy of major life priorities - just something you have to do at some point.

#4 and #19 are from the same opera. But #19 depends on #4 and not the other way around. One shouldnt be concern with nest egg if they have no place to live or a band-aid to stick on a cut.

I think we are getting somewhere with this.

[WhoShotJR]

In thinking about how to incorporate some of the list above, it occurs to me that we're talking about two different things. The list I made was more about a rough order of how important things are in real life. Thus the priorities title. What I mean is that realistically, life insurance is more important than a BOB. There are too many people who think that being prepared means having $5000 worth of guns and ammo, while having no health insurance.

Other lists are more like a prep-by-number idea. I think they are different by complimentary. Yes, having cash on hand is more important than having an emergency bag, but most people could put the bag together today, whereas the money may take some time.

So, I think my original idea should stand on its own (with some improvements made), and then add a suggested game plan to it. Something like, in just a couple of hours you can put together a bag, 3 days food and water, take care of some document copies, and make a plan.

I'm still trying to work it out in my head.

BTW, thanks Murph, I had never actually noticed the hall of fame before.



ETA: In going back and reading the OP, it does look like I'm suggesting an order to go in. I'll try to clarify later. Thing is, I'm trying to keep the post short and easy to understand.

[Jeriah]

Awesome post. I went 9, 10, 8, 11, and now that I've done 1, I'm broke and can't do the rest! Wish I'd known you when I was 15.

[kcor_77]

As I sat here and read this post in all of it's glory I have come to a conclusion. MAN HAVE I SCREWED UP on the way I have been doing things. Thanks for making me feel really dumb. Anyway I walked away from this a lot smater. I am now going to put off my next rifle purchase and start doing things a little smarter. Like many other people I stared with number 9. Guns ammo check but lacking on other things. I know I need more food better water storage etc etc.

WhoShotJR Thanks for the great insight as I have never thought of it in this manner or style. It does make perfect sense. By the way it's not fair that you common sense on me. Anyway thanks.

[FanaticalModerate]

I would say before prioritizing you need to do a risk analysis.
Also I noticed at step 4 you have the basics covered but you have not mentioned water yet.
Water is king!

Here is another post with lots of good info.

Risk analysis, for sure. Anyone with a good link?

OP, YT's post (suggested above) does have a lot of good discussion - a very good link to have in this thread. For specifically looking at risk analysis, try these:
There's been a few threads on risk analysis. Here's a few recent ones, you can decide which suits your thread best.
I like this one: Assessing Threats
And others:
Thinking About Priorities
Planning for the Worst Case
Emergency Plan

[WhoShotJR]

This is a link put up by PistolPete on another thread with some good info.

http://zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=71254

[raptor]

Free bump. This is a good thread for new members to read.

[Vindictus]

OP, I am appoint!

I like the frank discussion of priorities in prepping- Let's not spend our house notes buying a metric ton of rice, eh? Or at least, not at first... ^_^

A quick question about food prep, though [This thread probably isn't the best place for it, but meh]... Why doesn't anyone ever mention buying live food for an emergency supply? If you have a couple chickens, then not only do you get a supply of fresh eggs, but if the shit ever really hits the fan you can kill them for food instead of the family pet.

[WhoShotJR]

Shameless bump because there are a lot of new people here who I hope can learn something from my many mistakes.

[Vindictus]

And I restate the livestock question. Is it so ridiculous to set up a coop in your back yard?

[mad scientist]

And I restate the livestock question. Is it so ridiculous to set up a coop in your back yard?

For many people, Yes, this would be ridiculous (or at least not practical). Imagine people living in a dorm, in an apartment, in a condo, in any neighborhood with a HOA, or just plain living in a city. Also, having roosters around is just plain annoying for most people (and their neighbors!).

There are other aspects to worry about as well (such as feeding, watering, protecting, sheltering, and generally the chore of owning live animals)

I had a chicken coop in the backyard growing up and I enjoyed it, and think its a really good idea for some people who are in a position to do it. For plenty of others, though, I can completely understand why they can't or won't do it.

[logrus]

I have maybe a couple of suggestions that might work for this thread.

First I think the different list approaches here can be reconciled using a simple table (if forum allows it)

[table]
[tr][td]Priotity [/td][td] 0-3 months [/td][td] 3 months - 1 year [/td][td] 1 year and on [/td][/tr]
[tr][td]1 [/td][td] Risk assesment [/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr]
[tr][td]2 [/td][td][/td][td][/td][/tr]
[/table]
(Urgh! No table support. Why?)
...and so on. This way you can incorporate changing priorities and different forcus as basics get sorted.

Another helpful thing is GTD. Getting Things Done is a methodology for achieving your goals and moving forward. Now personally I don't agree with all of it but a particularly useful practice is breaking things down into manageable chunks. Things you can do now that don't take more than 5 minutes (if it takes more it needs to be broken down more and should go in the next category). Things that you're going to do next (not broken down but clearly defined). And finally projects for the future (things you know you want to do but haven't planned out and aren't urgent).
(This is all paraphrased so you might want to go to the source for how to do it properly.)

[basm]

A lot of good info in this thread. Often I think even preppers lose sight of the priorities, and how to "prioritize the priorities". Or as I say at work, "Just because it's urgent doesn't mean it's important". And knowing the difference of those two words is the key to managing your plans and your needs.

One of the Incident Command courses I had to take for work had a very useful graphic that I saved for my own needs. It helps remind me there is a "process" to all of this, and it is just not "plan and prepare, repeat as needed". There is a problem solving element involved every step of the way, and every cycle you learn something new and do some kind of "corrective action", ie an action you undertake to correct a problem that arose in the course of execution. Not on this graphic is also what's called a "preventive action", which is a corrective action you take before the problem happens.



The Incident Command training is free for anyone to take, btw, on their site (http://training.fema.gov/is/crslist.asp) and even if you're not applying it to work like I am, it's still got a lot of good organizational policy that you could take something away from for organizing your own personal emergency response protocol and resource management.

[44Dave]

Debt management could actually be higher in priority. High debt can knock your feet out from under you in a flash and undo everything else you have worked for.

[merlinfire]

WRT water storage, a lot of people forget they have 50+ gallons of fresh water in their hot water heaters. Power goes off, and in a couple of days or less the water is room temperature. Don't forget it.

[jehicks87]

Tagged. I will add to this later today. Excellent thread, btw!

[ineffableone]

And I restate the livestock question. Is it so ridiculous to set up a coop in your back yard?

For many people, Yes, this would be ridiculous (or at least not practical). Imagine people living in a dorm, in an apartment, in a condo, in any neighborhood with a HOA, or just plain living in a city. Also, having roosters around is just plain annoying for most people (and their neighbors!).

There are other aspects to worry about as well (such as feeding, watering, protecting, sheltering, and generally the chore of owning live animals)

I had a chicken coop in the backyard growing up and I enjoyed it, and think its a really good idea for some people who are in a position to do it. For plenty of others, though, I can completely understand why they can't or won't do it.

the livestock coop need not necessarily be chickens, rabbit coops are quite a bit quieter, and would provide a lot of meat especially with the rate of rabbit breeding.

Vindictus, you can even set up a rabbit coop in a garage if your not parking your car in it.

Getting livestock, doing gardening, setting up a greenhouse, and anything you can do to make yourself more self sufficient now, is a very smart prepper plan. Of course how much you can do depends upon where you live, the land available to you etc. @ mad scientist if your in an apartment you can grow food in window planters, and you could conceivably raise a few rabbits for meat inside your apartment so you need not be limited if you don't have a large back yard necessarily as long as your allowed pets. Independence of food source also means your saving money on food bills, and more money to spend on buying other preps.

[ineffableone]

I will point out though in general livestock, seed stock, etc. is more long term survival, in general this is stuff to work on after you have covered the basics that this thread is about.

I do however think consideration of long term food and self sufficiency is wise for preppers.

[Murph]

The Incident Command training is free for anyone to take, btw, on their site (http://training.fema.gov/is/crslist.asp) and even if you're not applying it to work like I am, it's still got a lot of good organizational policy that you could take something away from for organizing your own personal emergency response protocol and resource management.

Could you go into explaining this a little more? I would have thought you'd have to equip before you could train.

[Tater Raider]

It's taken me a couple years to figure out what everyone has said and how it works best for me. I'd add that once you have picked out the scenario you are prepping for to follow the rule of 3's on the order to prep for that scenario. This includes accounting for the duration of the crisis as well as the initial crisis itself.

You can survive:

• 3 seconds without thinking - make a plan, a back-up, a back-up to that back-up, plan for a bit of oddity (how to assess a new situation), and drill now and then just to ensure you know what's what
• 3 hours without protection from the elements - what clothing do you need and how to incorperate it into daily wear, a shelter of some sort, plan B on a shelter, and how to build a shelter from what is laying around in your AO
• 3 days without water - how much water do you need to get you through things and can you purify your own
• 3 weeks without food - ready-to-eat or nearly so when on the go and a food stockpile for when you aren't should take into account your daily diet so you do't end up with gastro-intestinal issues - the trots will dehydrate you (see above)
• 3 months without hope - have a long-term goal to get you through the long-term issues and cut yourself some slack now and then - prep for a bit of rest and relaxation

Also keep in mind that you not only want to get through a crisis but need to recover from whatever disaster has befallen you. Insurance goes a long way towards addressing this one.

And keep perspective! I'm prepping for The Inevitible Zombie Apocalypse™ but honestly that's not very likely to happen so that's where it fits into my priorities. Then again my Jeep does a lot more for me than function as a BOV so that makes it more important (explaining my constant updates on my BOV build). A food stockpile? Yeah, I'll pick up some bonus stuff when it's on sale and be happy with that for now just so long as I keep making progress on my preps. I'm almost covered for a flood event like my AO had in '08 and a hosue fire or tornado is already covered so soon I'll move onto something a bit more devestating and a bit less likely to happen so I keep making progress on my zombie preps.

That's how it works for me.

[CapnKlay]

i got this from David Morris's article "Gold, Silver, or Food…Which To Buy First?"
http://www.secretsofurbansurvival.com/6 ... val-needs/
it's called the Hierarchy of Survival Needs - in other words What To Buy First:

[JustInCase]

I may have missed it, but I would put training / skill sets somewhere on that list.

[Bomberman1942]

Here is a link that provides a 52 week plan for prepping. Each week has its own focus. It starts on the ground floor of short term preps and makes it to long term prep and defense. http://readynutrition.com/resources/52-weeks-to-preparedness-an-introduction_19072011/ It covers a lot of bases and gets you thinking about somethings that you might not readily think of.