14 Things I Wish I Had Known as Newbie Prepper

When I first started prepping, the community looked a lot different than it does today. There were fewer women, there was less overall information and it was male-dominated in a sense that made me uncomfortable to share my own prepping journey.

These days, the community is still male-dominated, but it’s not as intimidating as it once was. There’s a lot more information out there, some good and some bad, but we can formulate our own ideas and preparedness journeys to fit our needs.

Over the last decade, I’ve learned a lot and continue to learn a lot to this day.

Here are 14 things I wish I had known when I was a newbie prepper:

It’s not all about rice and beans. I fell under the spell of rice and beans mania. But quickly realized, that wasn’t the only thing we could or should prep. Sure, we eat rice and beans, and yes, they last a long time and if you eat them, store them. But we should be storing things that we eat.

Physical preparedness. I really didn’t take my physical preparedness seriously for a while. I was always kinda fit, but not that fit. Once I started going on walks and hikes with my bug out bag, I started realizing how important it was to be fit overall. Not just exercise, but to eat better, as well. As a mother, being physically fit is even more important to me because if I have to carry my kids anywhere to safety, am I strong enough? Working my way there!

Don’t overlook mental preparedness. My mental preparedness has never been as good as it is now. It’s wildly overlooked in the preparedness industry and not really a super exciting topic. Not as exciting as how to store rice and beans anyway. So, it’s not really held as a priority for preppers. No matter what, our mental preparedness needs to be prioritized. If we can’t take care of ourselves, then we certainly can’t react properly in an emergency or take care of others.

Financial preparedness. I didn’t grow up being financially smart. Nobody really taught me about finances or budgeting or anything like that. I learned that way later in life. So many things can happen in our lives that would require us to be financially preparedness like a medical emergency (happened to us just recently when our daughter was sick and I needed a tooth replacement), or needing to replace something on your car (we needed to replace our AC, luckily we could DIY it with a friends help, but still cost a good penny). By getting out of debt, saving money and budgeting, we can be financially prepared.

Keep it practical. Many people don’t want to prep for the end of the world, they just want to prep for the natural disasters that are most likely in their area. That’s ok! Keep it practical to YOU and YOUR needs.

Know your area. While there are personal emergencies that we can be prepared for, there are also natural disasters that could happen in our area that we can be prepared for. Hurricanes? Tornados? Wildfires? Extreme heat? Extreme cold? What are most likely in your area so you can be prepared for them?

Start small. Every single newbie prepper thinks they have to get prepared RIGHT NOW otherwise they’ll NEVER get prepared. I realize it can be super exciting in the beginning and you want to get prepared as quickly as possible. But as I have said many times before, it’s not a race, it’s a journey. Preparedness is a lifestyle. So start small and take it step by step, little by little.

Involve the family. I’m the sole prepper of the household, mainly because my husband doesn’t want to do it. He appreciates it and supports it, but it’s just not his ‘jam’. He has many ways that he helps, though, as do my kids. When I first started, where really weren’t a lot of preppers talking about how to involve the family with preparedness. So I just intuitively did it. Do I have a bug out bag? Then they do, too. Do I need food and water? Then they do, too. And so on. We get the whole family involved in everything when it comes to preparedness. We work to everyone’s strengths.

It doesn’t have to be tactical. I actually really like tactical gear, but that doesn’t mean that every piece of tactical gear is right for me, or you. I used to really like the idea of a tactical belt or tactical vest, but I’m not sure how practical they are for my overall plans.

There are a lot of gimmicks. I have fallen for every gimmick in the book. I once bought a multitool hair clip. It was a fun idea, a multitool for women, but for me, fell short in every way imaginable. It bent, it kinda hurt to put in and wear and just wasn’t really practical for any purposes besides tightening screws (and it even failed at doing that). We can get excited about new ideas and new gear, but keep in mind how it is going to work best for YOU!

Prep for your needs. When I first started prepping, people laughed and mocked women who wanted to carry makeup in their bug out bags. Then I came along and said, “well why can’t I have makeup?” You can prep whatever you want! If you find makeup valuable to you, then prep it. Who cares what everyone else says. You may saying, “but you just said above ‘keep it practical’, how is makeup practical? It may not be practical to YOU, but that’s ok.

Don’t forget hygiene. People gave me so much grief for carrying some soap, like hygiene wasn’t important. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Your hygiene can go downhill.

Grey man is overrated. Yeah, that’s right, I said it. You’ll hear time and time again how grey man is the most important thing for any prepper. And while it’s true that we don’t need to be advertising to everyone that we’re a prepper, grey man is subjective. Carrying a military-style backpack doesn’t immediately tell me you’re a prepper. I see homeless carrying these types of backpacks. I see people rucking with them, I see the current and former military carrying them. Honestly, we live in such a rich society that you would be hard-pressed to look at someone and immediately quantify who they are or what they believe in.

It IS about comfort! So, while I am all about ’embracing the suck’ and ‘adapting and overcoming’, I’ve also come to learn that there is nothing wrong with comfort. We are preppers after all, so why not prep for comfort? Why are we prepping to be miserable? I’m not going to make my family sleep under a tarp, I’ll carry a legit tent and comfortable sleeping pads and sleeping bags to ensure our comfort.