How much you want to prepare is going to depend a lot on WHAT you are preparing for. Think first about problems that are likely in your region. For many of us, winter storms can take out electricity. Enough snow and ice could make it unsafe to leave the house. A hurricane could take out power, water, roads, and all kinds of infrastructure as we saw with Helene. Some people like to prepare for “SHTF” (sh*t hits the fan) which seems to be a general breakdown of society. But, luckily, that’s not the most likely thing to happen in our lives! Unfortunately, those big disasters may be used to scare people into spending money on items they will never use. This redditor explains why the most likely thing to happen boils down to we may become poor, short or long term.
Pick a most likely scenario based on your region and personal situation
One friend wants to prepare for losing a job, as their current job requires funding by the federal government. Living in the PNW, I prepare first for days-long power outages. This is what I want to be ready for most of all. Using the lens of “being poor” this is sort of like living as if poor for the length of the outage.
Pick a second mostly likely scenario based on your region
Second, I prepare for an earthquake of the Cascadia Subduction zone which would probably damage power, water, and roads for an uncertain amount of time, possibly up to a month based on what we’ve seen in other US disasters. Again, with the idea of “being poor,” this would be a month-long exercise in going without.
Think about what you will need to prepare food
You do NOT need to start this yet, we’ll cover it in another level. But be aware as you prepare foods how you might do it in your chosen scenarios. For me, both of mine include power outages, so non-electrical cooking methods are needed!