Should I do any kind of prepper stuff? Single mom

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need a plan for how your family would reunite if something happened while you were at work. Who are safe adults, how would everybody get in touch, and where would you meet if home was not an option? Assume cell service is down.

You should have important documents in one place with some cash, and recent photos of each of you in case you need to show police. Keep gas in the car, refill prescriptions early so you're not in a tight spot.

In the winter, bring coats and shoes in the car when you go somewhere, in case you get stuck (even if the kids aren't wearing them). If you normally drive in flip-flops or heels, keep sneakers and socks in the car in case you need to walk.

This is key for me when traveling. I once was in a bus that broke down and had to walk a long distance in dressy shoes and arrived with bloodied feet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have the following as an emergency kit.

Case of water
Flashlights and batteries.
Case of granola bars
Cash
first aid kit

I always see cash listed. Is that because you didn't list toilet paper? If there's no power, the stores will not open. If society collapses, cash can be used to start fires.

Oh please. There are plenty of plausible scenarios where people - whether your neighbors or the employees of a store - would take cash for groceries. Including power outages at the store, as they often have enough power to stay minimally open and will need to move perishables.

Everybody online wants to plan for social collapse, but can't seem to imagine a major weather event with severe short-term effects.

We had a three day power outage a few years ago. Safeway turned away people because only the freezers were on the backup generators. The tellers can't make change without a machine.

In a more recent outage, my local Giant powered the registers but cut lights to the store and asked you to check out right away with what you had. And of course a small or locally owned store or restaurant will take cash. It's obviously going to depend, but you can bet that stores are thinking about this and have a plan thst loses then the least money.

[Anonymous]

It’s very similar to what you do for a large snowstorm when you think you might be snowed in and the power would go out. Water, food that you can eat without heating, refrigerating or needing an electric can opener (I’ve always had a manual one). Always keep your car at at least a half tank of gas (I won’t have my only car be fully electric in part for this reason). Yes, some cash if the internet/electric is down and credit card transactions can’t take place. I’ve been in more rural parts where the satellite link was down and couldn’t process my credit card so I had to pay cash for gas. Keep all your important documents in one place (possibly inside a ziplock bag to protect from water) so if you have to move quickly from your house (fire/flood/etc) you know what to grab on your way out. In my car I have a charged tire inflator, some water, one of those break window glass tools, and some blankets.

[Anonymous]

Two things:
1--prep for a power outage--batteries, camping burner for cooking, blankets, and
2--longterm--Prep for you personally being incapacitated. Who will take your kids? Do they know where your documents are?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:During a conversation the other night, I found out that basically all my friends (with husbands) have firearms, a safety plan, some kind of food and cash stores and go bags. Is this what everyone is really doing? I was shocked as these are not what I would have thought of as “gun” people.

I have an alarm system, go to the atm like once a year, have the typical kid Costco lunch snacks in the pantry and usually some basic groceries. I don’t really cook. Definitely do not have any firearms!

Can someone tell me what I should realistically put together? If you have “go bags” how frequently do you refresh them? (Just thinking kids sizes etc). What else should I be doing in case this Iran thing blows up, no pun intended.

Also, I live in the close in VA suburbs if that matters.

I think there is a decent case for having a gun as part of your prep plan, but it’s relatively low down the list and, as PP upthread noted, if you aren’t going to train and practice with it and don’t think you have it in you to pull the trigger if you needed to, it becomes a liability and should be avoided. I think stockpiling enough food and water to shelter in place for a few weeks is prudent, but in this part of the world there isn’t any point in much more, material disruption of logistical systems for more than a couple of weeks will turn large cities into very chaotic places. The most important aspect of “prepper stuff” though, and one that isn’t emphasized enough, is building relationships with at least some of your local neighbors that will allow you to work together effectively if there is any kind of bad scenario. I’m not saying roll up on them with “hey will you join my apocalypse team,” but to have enough of a pre-existing local local community that people can start to organize around if needed. This is not an area where anyone is going to have a self-sustaining compound, people will need to work together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have the following as an emergency kit.

Case of water
Flashlights and batteries.
Case of granola bars
Cash
first aid kit

I always see cash listed. Is that because you didn't list toilet paper? If there's no power, the stores will not open. If society collapses, cash can be used to start fires.

Oh please. There are plenty of plausible scenarios where people - whether your neighbors or the employees of a store - would take cash for groceries. Including power outages at the store, as they often have enough power to stay minimally open and will need to move perishables.

Everybody online wants to plan for social collapse, but can't seem to imagine a major weather event with severe short-term effects.

We had a three day power outage a few years ago. Safeway turned away people because only the freezers were on the backup generators. The tellers can't make change without a machine.

In a more recent outage, my local Giant powered the registers but cut lights to the store and asked you to check out right away with what you had. And of course a small or locally owned store or restaurant will take cash. It's obviously going to depend, but you can bet that stores are thinking about this and have a plan thst loses then the least money.

I keep cash for this type of scenario or if a computer system is down or if the credit card processing software is down. It's separate from the type of preparation I have for a major water issue or electric grid issue. For that, I have gallons of water, emergency candles, matches, and water purifier things. I always have plenty of canned food and nonperishables so don't worry about that.

What people should definitely do is keep water bottles in their car, some snacks and blankets for situations where you're stuck on the interstate for hours, like when 95 shut down a few years ago because of a storm.

[Anonymous]

You have weird friends.
The only to go bag you need is to escape an abusive partner.
Signed,
Single mom of 3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The prepper stuff that we all need to do is not the nuclear war scenario or zombie apocalypse.

We all need to prep for job losses, electric grid loss, sewage back-ups, forest fires, contaminated water, supply chain shut downs, lack of essential medicines etc. And it cannot be a nervous panic reaction. You have to take very normal measured steps that you should have taken like every other person around the world for normal living. Ask these questions.

What happens if you lose your job? How on-track are your finances?
- Track your expenses. What are your real pared-down expenses to live on per month.
- Have an emergency fund. Save for 6 months of real expenses.
- Live a frugal life now. Sell off things in your home that you are hoarding.
- Have a budget and stick to it.
- Contribute to your retirement to get the full employer match.
- Save for your kids's college. Have your kids, parents, siblings etc...move in with you to save money.
- Can you start some side gigs (dog walking, doing laundry for other people, tutoring) to make more money?
- Keep a track of your credit reports. You are more likely to get scammed or your credit card compromised, or identity theft happen to you, than a war.
- Yes, keep some cash on hand, just incase you are unable to get to cash. Maybe $500.

What happens if you can't get to health services? In case of war, pandemic, natural disaster, unemployment or unaffordability?
- Keep healthy through your own efforts. Don't drink, smoke, vape, or do drugs. Exercise. Eat healthy organic foods. Eat a lot of greens. Exercise. Drink a lot of water. Mediate. Do yoga. Sleep well.
- Wear helmets when riding a cycle, scooter, or motorcycle. Wear seatbelts in cars. Check for lead in your paints and pipes.
- Be up-to date with all the booster shots and diagnostics that are covered by insurance. Same for your kids too.
- Do a health makeover through diet, exercise etc so that you are off prescription drugs for BP, Diabetes, Cholesterol. Cure yourself. End your dependency on drugs.
- Have natural remedies on hand - ginger tea, turmeric milk, manuka honey etc.
- Make sure that you wear masks when outside in public places
- Maintain dental hygiene and health, strengthen your muscles, improve your balance. Get your eyes checked.

What happens if schools closes or it is remote learning again?
- Be an involved parent. Be aware of the syllabus and where your kid stands. Buy second hand textbooks and start supplementing at home now. Make sure that your kids are preparing for an admission cycle that will be highly competitive. Get them in the habit of being good students.
- Get tutors if you can afford it so that your kid is not lagging behind.

What happens if sewage backs up in your home?
- I don't know. The sewage is still spilling in Potomac. This can happen and has been happening around DMV. Sorry if I gave you a new nightmare.

How to save your house from catching fire? Or water leaks? Or flooding. Or CO poisoning.
- Change batteries in all smoke alarms. Have working Carbon Monoxide alarms with fresh batteries. Keep the drains flowing to your sump pump clean. Winterize your pipes. Have fire extinguishers that are easy to use. Clean your dryer vents periodically. Clean your exhaust hood filter. Have water leakage alarms. Get regular maintenance of your home, yard and vehicles done.

How to protect your home from burglary
- Don't have valuables. Don't be flashy.
- Have good lights around your house.
- A good alarm system. Make sure that your doors and windows are secure.
- CCTV or ring monitoring. In and outside your home.
- Be aware of your surroundings.

Where to get your news
- Reuters and AP.

What happens if there is a chance of no electricity, no food, no water and no toilet paper.
- Have a manual can-opener, manual clock, match boxes, normal stand-alone battery operated transistor, flashlights, candles, first aid kit, masks.
- Get a hand held shower attached to the toilet to mitigate the risk of no toilet paper.
- Always fill a tub with water if an extreme weather event is predicted that can disrupt water supply. Keep some drinking water at home.
- Cans of food that you can eat and survive. No more than 2 weeks worth of food.

Unless you have a fortified bunker filled with food and that can withstand a nuclear blast, or a spacecraft that takes you to Mars, there is nothing more you can do.

Mitigate normal situations that you are most likely to encounter in daily life that can do you more harm. Don't worry about nuclear war. The more functional you are in peacetime, the more likely you will survive in war.

AI slop ^^^

Not AI slop, but I am flattered. I will be able to use AI in my life and work effectively because I can quickly think through things.

You? AI will eat your job

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have the following as an emergency kit.

Case of water
Flashlights and batteries.
Case of granola bars
Cash
first aid kit

I always see cash listed. Is that because you didn't list toilet paper? If there's no power, the stores will not open. If society collapses, cash can be used to start fires.

Oh please. There are plenty of plausible scenarios where people - whether your neighbors or the employees of a store - would take cash for groceries. Including power outages at the store, as they often have enough power to stay minimally open and will need to move perishables.

Everybody online wants to plan for social collapse, but can't seem to imagine a major weather event with severe short-term effects.

We had a three day power outage a few years ago. Safeway turned away people because only the freezers were on the backup generators. The tellers can't make change without a machine.

In a more recent outage, my local Giant powered the registers but cut lights to the store and asked you to check out right away with what you had. And of course a small or locally owned store or restaurant will take cash. It's obviously going to depend, but you can bet that stores are thinking about this and have a plan thst loses then the least money.

I keep cash for this type of scenario or if a computer system is down or if the credit card processing software is down. It's separate from the type of preparation I have for a major water issue or electric grid issue. For that, I have gallons of water, emergency candles, matches, and water purifier things. I always have plenty of canned food and nonperishables so don't worry about that.

What people should definitely do is keep water bottles in their car, some snacks and blankets for situations where you're stuck on the interstate for hours, like when 95 shut down a few years ago because of a storm.

When I was living in Michigan 40 years ago, everyone had snacks, blankets, matches, candles, torch, water, extra tire, shovel, salt, rope, jackets etc in the car precisely for winter conditions. And everyone filled their gas tank! And life went on normally. People have just become stupider.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:During a conversation the other night, I found out that basically all my friends (with husbands) have firearms, a safety plan, some kind of food and cash stores and go bags. Is this what everyone is really doing? I was shocked as these are not what I would have thought of as “gun” people.

I have an alarm system, go to the atm like once a year, have the typical kid Costco lunch snacks in the pantry and usually some basic groceries. I don’t really cook. Definitely do not have any firearms!

Can someone tell me what I should realistically put together? If you have “go bags” how frequently do you refresh them? (Just thinking kids sizes etc). What else should I be doing in case this Iran thing blows up, no pun intended.

Also, I live in the close in VA suburbs if that matters.

I think there is a decent case for having a gun as part of your prep plan, but it’s relatively low down the list and, as PP upthread noted, if you aren’t going to train and practice with it and don’t think you have it in you to pull the trigger if you needed to, it becomes a liability and should be avoided. I think stockpiling enough food and water to shelter in place for a few weeks is prudent, but in this part of the world there isn’t any point in much more, material disruption of logistical systems for more than a couple of weeks will turn large cities into very chaotic places. The most important aspect of “prepper stuff” though, and one that isn’t emphasized enough, is building relationships with at least some of your local neighbors that will allow you to work together effectively if there is any kind of bad scenario. I’m not saying roll up on them with “hey will you join my apocalypse team,” but to have enough of a pre-existing local local community that people can start to organize around if needed. This is not an area where anyone is going to have a self-sustaining compound, people will need to work together.

+1
I run my neighborhood listserv. We are already organized for community potlucks etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:During a conversation the other night, I found out that basically all my friends (with husbands) have firearms, a safety plan, some kind of food and cash stores and go bags. Is this what everyone is really doing? I was shocked as these are not what I would have thought of as “gun” people.

I have an alarm system, go to the atm like once a year, have the typical kid Costco lunch snacks in the pantry and usually some basic groceries. I don’t really cook. Definitely do not have any firearms!

Can someone tell me what I should realistically put together? If you have “go bags” how frequently do you refresh them? (Just thinking kids sizes etc). What else should I be doing in case this Iran thing blows up, no pun intended.

Also, I live in the close in VA suburbs if that matters.

What? No. This can't be. Who are you hanging out with?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:During a conversation the other night, I found out that basically all my friends (with husbands) have firearms, a safety plan, some kind of food and cash stores and go bags. Is this what everyone is really doing? I was shocked as these are not what I would have thought of as “gun” people.

I have an alarm system, go to the atm like once a year, have the typical kid Costco lunch snacks in the pantry and usually some basic groceries. I don’t really cook. Definitely do not have any firearms!

Can someone tell me what I should realistically put together? If you have “go bags” how frequently do you refresh them? (Just thinking kids sizes etc). What else should I be doing in case this Iran thing blows up, no pun intended.

Also, I live in the close in VA suburbs if that matters.

What? No. This can't be. Who are you hanging out with?

NP. Over my years in corporate market research, I learned that at least three of the apparently mild-mannered male managers had handguns and were more than conversant with their use. People who grow up in blue-collar families, rural areas, etc. have more exposure.

Two of these 3 guys are conservative but don't talk Trump. All 3 married with kids.

I used to say that the market research team would be well-defended in the zombie apocalypse.

I have known these men for more than 20 years and they continue to act normal and pleasant. I've lived in two states where guns are pretty normal and still have relatively high amounts of hunting and military reservists.

My dad and uncle grew up with handguns and target practice but my dad had daughters so he left that hobby with his family of origin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having a gun and not knowing how to use it (which requires more than a couple classes/time at the range) you should absolutely not have a gun.

It's always a good idea to have some extra gas, food, and water. You never know when a basic natural disaster can hit. But PP has a good list. It's more about setting yourself and family up for success in a normal future. Let's be real, if what happens that they are planning for actually happens, it's not going to matter much. Where do they plan to go with their "to go bag". Unless you have a place not in a major city and are somehow able to get out before it gets bad, you're screwed.

I'm from CA, where earthquakes and fires are regular enough no-notice events that we all keep go kits and emergency supplies ready. Here? If there's political unrest in DC and I have the ability to drive away from it, I'm leaving. If the power's out for an extended amount of time, I'm going to a hotel. If there's fire or flooding, and I can get out, I'd rather not stick around. I'm not planning to bug out to the wilderness or anything. I just don't want to have to pack and prep while possibly panicking.

If you may need to seek shelter elsewhere, having a pre-packed change of clothes, snack, set of meds, etc. ready, along with copies of important documents and a bit of cash, saves you time and trouble.

[Anonymous]

I mean, it's kinda late to get on the prepper train. Being ready for power outages is one thing. But going off the grid is not going to be feasible for you.

[Anonymous]

OP, normal life will get you. Not a doomsday situation.