For the noobies.

This post is for those who haven't started prepping yet. With all the crazy stuff going on in Washington, the Middle east, North Korea, etc. doesn't it seem like a good idea to have a head start? Never mind natural disasters like ice storms, blizzards, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc.

Ok so you finally have an uneasy lump in your stomach. Your worried for your families safety and food. Excellent! Now we begin.

1) RELAX! sit down have a nice cold glass of water.
2) Make a list. Walk through the house and note roughly how much food you have in the house. Don't be too exact, your looking for a rough number. Also check how many days worth of prescription meds you have.
3) Now talk to your family. You'd be surprised how all this doom and gloom from the real world news manages to percolate through the nation's consciousness. Try to work out a plan together.
4) I personally feel it's too late to head off for the hills if you don't currently own a retreat property. So that means riding it out in your home or a relatives in the country. That's one of the harder decisions, but as a family work it out.
5) Now pick a date and a goal. Plan on having enough food and water for 2 weeks for the whole family. Set a date to accomplish this goal. Be sure you have enough prescription meds for this two week period as well.
6) Reduce your debt. Don't build your supplies up by going into more debt. This is a terrible mistake. Just ask all the nitwits that maxed their credit cards just before Y2K. Do your best to reduce debt by selling junk you don't use or need.
7) Now you met your primary goal. You can live for two weeks without support. Now go and add the items that make life bearable. Band-aids, Asprin, toilet paper. Baby wipes are unbelievably handy to have. You can give yourself a bath with them. Also don't forget garbage bags and stuff to cook your meals with. Eventually you will need to address security, but for now worry about food and water first.

Now you are well on your way to saving your family from a FEMA camp. Notice I don't suggest buying 3 guns for each family member. You don't need 20,000 rounds of ammunition, hospital beds or bomb shelters. If you want to go that far down the preparedness path, by all means, but don't put the cart before the horse. Work on shorter goals before running willy-nilly to the higher level goals. In other words work your way up the ladder, rather than trying to ride an elevator.

This summer is going to be pretty interesting. We may see wide scale riots. We may see a economic collapse. We may see nothing out of the ordinary. But now is the time to start. Starting a small garden isn't that much in the way of money, or even time, but you'll learn something. that's another step on that ladder.

If you tackle this in a systematic approach, like two weeks, then three months, then six, then nine then a full year.Then you can fill out your preps with the other necessities on the way without killing yourself. Slow and steady wins the race.