Anyone else with little to no support from spouse?

[coastiemike]

Added several items to the stores today including dehydrated broccoli, corn, butter powder, tomato powder, etc….  Wife just teased me the entire time.  She thinks all the effort I put in prepping is silly  and unnecessary.  Anyone else have similar experiences?  If so, were you ever able to help them make sense of prepping for worst case scenarios and being able to make it through those times with less worry than not prepping?  Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Surveyor1]

Many preppers are in the same boat sir.  Just be patient with her and casually point out “situations” as they appear.  If you have small children it’s easier to get through to a mom.  “If your son or daughter was crying because they were hungry and you could see them losing weight, how dangerous do you become?”….  Other than that you simply cannot “force” them to understand.  Just quietly keep doing what you are doing and “hopefully” she will start actually seeing the same things with society that you are obviously seeing.

Sorry I’m no more help than that but prepping is something that an individual has to decide for themselves.  Hopefully in the meantime she will “tolerate” what you are doing and at some point she will probably come around???

[BennyMG1]

I’m sorry you are dealing with that. I was in the same boat for many years. I’m lucky in that the beautiful, wonderful woman I’m married to is all in with prepping. Surveyor1 is right. Give it time and don’t push it. I look at prepping like insurance. You diligently pay your car insurance every month. Do you hope you get in a wreck? No, you hope you never have to use it. Same with preps.
 ( By the way, according to my kids, my ex now preps on a very small scale)

[Surveyor1]

Hey Coastiemike, another useful tool that you can use since you are new to Georgia is to take her to the supermarket the evening once they predict snow to fall!  To many of the “not prepared for anything group” a snowstorm is simply Armageddon 🤦‍♂️…. “If people do this for a little prediction of snow can you imagine what would happen if it was an actual emergency?” 

The Mrs and I also notice all of the empty shelves every single time we go to our local Walmart.  Some areas that we notice that are always lean is:  sugar, bread, sodas, juices, cold juices and many times crackers.  Just point out the lean areas.  The supermarkets operate on a “just in time delivery” and if there is even the slightest delay the shelves empty really fast and if the delay is more than 3 days people will start to panic at the lack of food available. 

People in this country thinks that “it could not happen here” but these types of things happen here all the time because of very short term disruptions.  Just like toilet paper at the start of the scamdemic, when people start “panic hoarding” it is already too late to stock up.  If they have the product available they will limit the quantities that you can buy even if they have in stock.  Panic feeds panic and even if the sheep do not know something is going on, they will buy toilet paper simply because they saw someone else with 4 mega packs in their cart🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️.

Good Luck sir and maintain your patience 😎!

[Abigayle]

Many peppers are in the same boat.  I am lucky not to be, in that position, and my husband was the first to get us started way back when he was introduced to a guy named Gary North, who was all in with the idea that our grid would crash when we hit the year 2000.  I couldn't get too into it, until I talked with a woman that had an non-hybrid seed business.  She shipped garden seed that was appropriate for an individual  in whatever area they lived in.  Well, she clued me into the fact the many "higher ups" in Washington D.C., were shipping big packets for their extended families. Well, that about scared the pants off of me and I started prepping like crazy.  We did it all....pretty much, and learned so much!  Since then, we just have always been prepared, just to different degrees.  See if your wife will read One Second After.  Ask her to Google  Current threats to our Grid. Maybe if you prep with canned tuna and store shelf things.  Watch dates on cans and watch for sales.  I found Oscar Myer bacon for a little over five dollars a pound at Ingalls today.  All the others were over eight dollars a pound.  This was a sale price. If you find empty slots, ask if they have any more in back.  I got this off a new truck load.  The store manager told me shipments have been spotty on lots of things, so they are filling the shelves with what they can get.  He said many producers have people out with the new Nova Covid.  He is stocking up....  Good luck, and hope you find the one thing that will get her started.  Maybe just comparing prices from a month ago, if you keep old receipts.  Inflation is as good a reason as any, and may seem more realistic to her..

[aces]

My husband is somewhat tolerant after not having to suffer thru shortages last year and ice storms in the past (notably a weeklong power outage from an ice storm 3 weeks after Y2K rang in.)  But he does not want a year's supply of everything (because we have a smaller home) or a 72 hour kit.  I packed a backpack for him anyway and hid it in a closet with mine. 

I have shown him that FEMA and the Red Cross have the same advice on basic preps.  He still thinks he will have time to round up what he would need.  I do not argue with him as it is futile.  I just let him go with his position while I carry on the best I can around that.  He is for hoarding ammo though which is a relief.  But pricing and availability have cut into that.  I may have to take up reloading like my old Dad once did.

[Abigayle]

One simple argument, that won't leave us breathless is simply put.....You insure your home, your health, your life, your car.....but not your food supply???  Then just let it hang there....

[Fixit]

Just make sure she knows that you do this as a way to insure a future that can be iffy at times . that it is t about the end of the world . its about job loss , major injuries from a car wreck,  the possibly of major illness or so many other things that are day to day things for other people  . then tell her that you do it because you love her and that it is just another way that you try to express that love .
Most women will at less hear you out and think about what you say when put that way.

[Abigayle]

Aces, oh how I wish we would have had an ice storm after Y-2K.  All that work would have meant something and our kids would not have started looking at us funny.  One did throw the power switch when we were not looking so the solar came on, giving us a flicker of hope, that we indeed were their heroes.  Now, when we mention current events that could change our world, they softly remind us of Y-2K.
Fix-it, Your reply was a good one that we don't often think about.  I know of a woman preppier whose husband died and she had to live off her preps until she could get her life under control....again...insurance.

[upacreek]

Coastiemike - would she be open to listening how prepping has helped others for our own small scale SHTF’s?  Waiting for an economic, political, nuclear, grid collapse might be too tin foil hat for her.  Losing a job or a loved one or getting a disease or even a localized power outage is much more relatable.

Prepping is just insurance and self-reliance.

[Surveyor1]

Aces, oh how I wish we would have had an ice storm after Y-2K.  All that work would have meant something and our kids would not have started looking at us funny.  One did throw the power switch when we were not looks, so the solar came on, giving us a flicker of hope, that we indeed were their heroes.  Now, when we mention current events that could change our world, they softly remind us of Y-2K.
Fix-it, Your reply was a good one that we don't often think about.  I know of a woman preppier whose husband died and she had to live off her preps until she could get her life under control....again...insurance.

The part about one of your kids throwing the power switch cracked me up!  Reminded me of a story of a youth pastor at a church that fell asleep during a meeting.  Everyone quietly got up, left some cloths or jackets on their chairs and snuck out of the room.  Once outside safely one of them blew a trumpet really loud to wake up the youth pastor!😳😂😎😂🙏❤️

[Abigayle]

Coastiemike, for a "newbie", you sure stared a great thread.  Thanks for trusting us. Survivor one.....great story.  He must have felt very "left behind"....

[BennyMG1]

“Coastiemike - would she be open to listening how prepping has helped others for our own small scale SHTF’s?  Waiting for an economic, political, nuclear, grid collapse might be too tin foil hat for her.  Losing a job or a loved one or getting a disease or even a localized power outage is much more relatable. “

Yes! I could actually tell you a true life story that happened to me. It wasn’t a disaster or apocalypse,  but something that happens a lot.