As some of you may know, this year I will be Blogging in a different way. Still weekly but with some Guest Bloggers thrown in from time to time. This is really exciting to have some other points of view other then just mine. If you would like to share your expertise with my readers, then shoot me a email (amp3@reagan.com) and let me know what your interests are. You would welcome you with open arms...
My first Guest Blogger is Jerry D. Young! Jerry is a very prolific writer with over 150 books and two more on the way. We have known Jerry for about 6 years and I was excited to hear that he would be interested in being a Guest Blogger. Make sure to check out his website by clicking on his picture.
I write fiction, but in most instances, I write about people that have to deal with manmade and/or natural disasters. Unlike so many other writers, you will find that the way the characters in my books, use sound, smart and effective techniques, methods, materials and systems. That means, you get to read an entertaining novel and at the same time learn some great Prepping techniques.
Jerry has sent me several articles to share with you so I will start at the beginning. This will be the first half and the second half will be next week. Please let us know your thoughts. Leave a comment and share with your family and friends. Now, Jerry D. Young....
My Thoughts On:
Make A Plan/Prepping 101
By Jerry D Young
So you have realized that becoming prepared for whatever might occur in the future is something you want to do. But how to go about it? It can be an overwhelming subject. So it is almost imperative that you make a plan on how to proceed. You are more likely to save money and get what you need as quickly as possible if you sit down, think things out, and come up with a flexible plan suited to your particular circumstances. Plans will be different for every individual or family.
How do you make a plan? One step at a time. Reading this is your first step. The next ones will guide you through the process of putting down on paper, or in the computer, those things you will need to do to get to the state of preparedness you want.
Some assumptions that I think are reasonable that should be taken into consideration when you make your plans:
- The overwhelming majority of preps will be needed for situations that occur at home.
- Most disasters will not be Doomsday, The Apocalypse, TEOTWAWKI or WROL situations
- Most disasters will still have police and National Guard units enforcing law & order
- People will still be responsible for their actions legally and morally
- There will looters and violence in some major disasters, but the proportion of life & death incidents will be much smaller than the number of incidents requiring basic human needs.
- Most households will have some basic items at home that can be used during a disaster. Not everything has to be purchased for use only during one. You can often incorporate into the preps items you already have. (Basic First Aid kits including some OTC & any needed prescription meds. A flashlight or two & some candles. A knife. Bedding)
The actual plan:
1. Threat Analysis:
Sit down with your loved ones and have a discussion about the current situation and what fears and concerns everyone has. No one can prepare for everything, especially in the beginning. Make note of what the things brought up in the conversation. Don’t need to scare anyone, and it could be difficult to get them to admit to any fears, especially the younger ones. But it is important to include them, because not everything you will want to prepare for is life and death
Forget about Doomsday Preps, Armageddon, or TEOTWAWKI for now. Keep it real. Do the best you can to decide what reasons you would bug-out as opposed to bugging-in. Bugging-in is the much preferred action, but there are very good reasons to bug-out. Consider what would drive you from your home, based on your location and situation
2. Prioritize:
Once you know the things you want to prepare for, put them in a general groups of what you want to start with, what can wait a while, and what should be put on the back burner for the moment. Trying to do everything at once is likely to overwhelm and discourage everyone. You don’t want that. A steady progress to each goal you set will get the job done. And I will suggest a couple of goals right off the bat. One is learning and getting all the training you can. Classroom, internet, and book as well as hands on. The other is part of the first. Begin acquiring a good library of prepping books and magazines to read and learn from as part of your educational program, as well as storing them for future use.
3. Goals:
And keep things goal oriented. Set the goals, realistic ones. Goals that can be achieved. Leave the pie in the sky super deluxe bunkers and Mad Max vehicles to the fiction writers. You want something that you can achieve, on a timely basis. Set the level of preparedness you want for the first group of priorities. Once you know where you are going, you can start getting ready to get there. Set some general achievement goals on a timeline to get started. And remember that goals should be realistic to start with, but can be adjusted as things change, you learn more, or things happen that call for a change in the plan.
4. Budget:
This is an extremely important part of the process. A budget is a good idea for all financial matters, but is even more so when trying to get ready for things that might just happen before you are ready for them. You will need to spend some money. But you can’t let other things go, either. Still have to pay the mortgage or rent, the auto loan, and on and on. Get them in the budget. Everything you must pay on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis.
Don’t forget taxes, and the unexpected. And don’t give up everything you like to do. You still need to live a life, especially with a family. Once you have a household budget, you can determine how much you can spend on preps for given timelines. Then you start doing a separate budget, using those numbers, to get the things done you need to do.
Before you put many numbers in, you are going to have to decide on the items you want first, but get the budget set up, and keep it flexible. It will change over time. Once you have a reasonable budget lined out, add the timeframe and amount for the long lead items that you plan to purchase and start saving a budgeted amount per month for that item/those items.
5. Start Prepping
Once the basic plan is in place and the budgets set up, start prepping.
Jerry's first book on Preparedness:
