National Preparedness Month Day 29--Prepper Precautions

Now that you have a good base for your prepping efforts, here are some precautionary things to consider:

• Don't spend all of your time prepping.  You have a life to live, your family has family stuff to do, so prepping shouldn't take over your life.  A few minutes a day with the occasional full day class or weekend backpacking trips should take care of your prepping needs.  When you are shopping, grab a few more items for your food stockpile.  When you are shopping online and see a great deal on prepper gear, snag it.  When you are having dinner, play "what would you do" in various emergency situations with the family.  This will spur discussion, take care of some preparedness training, and be accomplished without taking time out of your day.
• Don't spend all of your money on prepping.  Again, you have a life to live and little Jimmy shouldn't have to skip sports because you would rather buy a new gun for your prepper stocks.  Your money should be budgeted for all facets of your life--current needs, food stockpile, emergency fund, etc--and not just thrown at everything prepping.
• Keep your prepping on the down low.  There is no reason for everyone at work to know you have a massive armory in your basement or for your kid's schoolmates to know you have piles of gold in a safe at home.  The more people who know you have a massive stockpile of food/money/gear/guns/etc, the bigger target for theft, robbery, or worse you and your family will become.
• Don't be a prepping evangelist.  Preppers get kind of a bad rap because the only ones you really hear about in the news are the unhinged sort who may be a bit crazy to start with.  Add a couple of crazy or violent acts and all the sudden ALL preppers look like a threat to the "normal" community.  Of course if you are at a family dinner you can mention to your elderly aunt that a major snow storm is on its way and offer to split and stack some firewood for her.  You can blend into the "normal" community by having interesting hobbies (hunting, HAM radio) and by being useful (as a volunteer EMT).  However stark raving preppers tend to scare people.
• Stay within the law.  Know the laws as far as firearms (personal protection, concealed carry, where you can carry, etc), preventing trespassers on your property (even though you know how to rig some pretty cool booby traps, you can't really set traps that would maim or kill people as the legal system frowns on this), HAM radio (you can't broadcast without a license), making defensive IEDs (thoroughly illegal), etc.
• Rotate and review your stocks regularly.  If a disaster strikes 20 years from now, you don't want to be forced to eat food you stockpiled today.  You don't want to NEED a flashlight and find that the batteries had long ago corroded and ruined the entire device.  You don't want to grab your BOB and end up with only a size 42 pants to wear on your now physically fit 32 inch body.  Regularly checking and rotating your stocks and gear prevents these issues.