10 Common Myths About Prepping

Preparedness has been demonized among so many people. We’re hoarders, we’re selfish, we’re crazy; the list goes on. Honestly, I believed some of these myths when I first started. They’re perpetuated by those who don’t prepare. However, sometimes it feels like these myths are even perpetuated by those within our own community.

While prepping is very diverse, there are some things that are simply not true.

I’m here to bust some common myths about preparedness!

#1: Preppers need a lot of money

This is a big one. When I first got started on YouTube I had a lot of people begging me to talk more about budget preparedness. It wasn’t strange that they were asking this because when you looked around, it seemed like the only way to be prepared is to have a lot of money.

That’s simply not the case. You can get prepared on as little as $5 a week, or less! Learning knowledge and practicing skills takes little to no money. While there are certainly some items we want to invest in, you certainly don’t need a lot of money.

#2: Preppers need to have a military background

A lot of preparedness ideas and even phrases come from the military. Tactical gear, for instance, huge in the prepping community. So it makes sense that people would think you’d need to have a military background in order to be a ‘real’ prepper.

This simply isn’t true, though. You can come from any background. You don’t have to have any military or law enforcement experience. You can have absolutely zero experience with anything and with a little hard work and dedication, you can become proficient.

#3: Preppers need to live in a bunker

Look, I think bunkers are awesome. I have ideas for our own underground bunker. However, we wouldn’t live in it unless we absolutely had to. Many people build bunkers as fallout shelters. Like a tornado shelter. So while it’s stocked for long term, it’s not something we want to live in full time.

A bunker is not required by any means to be a prepper. Though they are pretty dang cool.

#4: Preppers will die if they don’t prep a certain way

I’m sure you’ve seen the YouTube or blog post titles that say ‘you’ll die if you don’t buy this gear’ or ‘you’ll die if you stay in the city’ or ‘you’ll die if you don’t do this particular prepping skill’. This is fear mongering at its best. It’s to get eye balls to their content. You won’t die if you don’t prep THEIR way.

The fact is, we all prep differently. Prepping is about YOUR journey. Don’t believe the hype and fear mongering; prep the way you see fit.

#5: Preppers have to be religious to be a prepper

Being religious is certainly prevalent in the preparedness community. However, you don’t have to be religious in order to be prepared. Like #2, you can come from any background.

To add onto this, you don’t need to have any particular political affiliation either. The majority of preppers have no strong affiliation one way or another because we know all sides are at fault in one way or another and want less government.

#6: Preppers have to hoard everything

Being prepared is different than hoarding. We make sure we have plenty of food, water and other supplies on hand, but we don’t hoard. We get a little at a time during peace time, we don’t panic buy and we rotate regularly. It’s just a way of life.

#7: Preppers want something bad to happen

This is so far from the truth. I like my comfortable, convenient life just as much as anyone else. Just because we prepare for the worst, doesn’t mean we want the worst to happen. However, we have seen the past and read the news everyday and see that bad things do happen. We don’t want to be caught off guard, we don’t want to ever be without, so we prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

#8: Preppers are selfish

I heard this one a lot throughout 2020. When shelves were bare, people would say that preppers were selfish because we had enough and didn’t need to buy anything, as we were already prepared. They said we needed to hand over our supplies.

Wouldn’t you think it’s more selfish to demand someone else hand over their supplies that they spent time, money and forethought on? Preppers actually donate quite a bit of their food, water and even time to the community every year. We are far from selfish.

#9: Preppers are crazy

Even with COVID-19, people still call us crazy. You’d think everyone would finally understand why we prep, but to this day people still think we’re crazy. People live in normalcy bias and live day-to-day without much thought for the future, as the system will provide.

It took less than 100 years for people lose their self-sufficiency.

Preppers aren’t crazy, we’re just realists.

#10: Preppers are ready to go live alone in the woods

I love camping and I love the woods, but my mission is not to go live alone in the woods. I have a family that I need to make sure is comfortable and well taken care of. While we can be comfortable while camping for a time, it would get very difficult, very quickly.

Have you seen the show ‘Alone’? It’s incredibly difficult to do it on your own and for an extended period of time. Doing it with a family would be even more difficult.

My mission is to stay home for as long as I’m able to. If I *have* to bug out/evacuate, it’s generally not into the woods. Maybe as a pit-stop or something, but not super long-term.

Can it be done? Sure. Nothing is impossible. But if that is your desire, please plan accordingly.

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Anyone and everyone can be a prepper. There’s no negative connotation to the word because it simply means to be prepared for whatever. That includes everyday life, job loss, natural disasters, everyday weather and so on.