I’ve said it time and time again – prepping isn’t easy. Working toward a goal that will never actually be complete (since prepping is a lifestyle choice and not a one-time accomplishment) can be a frustrating task to set yourself.
That being said, you can have success as a prepper, even if the work never ends and you continue to set more and more goals long after you’ve reached your initial ones. But once you get started – even by taking small steps – every little bit will move you toward the ultimate goal of being more prepared. Those tiny steps can carry you a lot farther than you’d expect – all the way toward being actually prepared for most emergency situations.
There’s no need to make excuses when prepping can be done cheaply, quickly, and without much effort, but for those who aren’t aware of just how much easier your life can be as a prepper by simply surrounding yourself with the right resources and having the proper outlet where you can ask any and all questions you might want to, finally making that first step in taking prepping seriously can feel like an insurmountable task.
There’s no short of excuses one can come up with for pushing preparedness aside and putting preps on the back burner, and it’s damn easy to to slide from using one excuse to beginning to use another. My only hope is that by seeing all these excuses laid out there, you’ll realize that that’s all they are – excuses. Excuses that can be put down – no matter how big or small they are – to help you reach your ultimate goal as a prepper to be more prepared.
Prepping Excuses to do with: Research
- I have no idea how to start prepping. I’ll push things off until I have time to figure out what my first step is.
- While I want to get a good stockpile of survival gear going, I’m not sure what kinds of items to throw into the wishlist. I think I’ll hold off until I do some research; although I’m not sure where to start…
- I want to invest my money in some really good gear, but I don’t have enough money to splurge and test items, and I don’t want to end up spending on any products I don’t like. I don’t have time to do the research and look up reviews right now, but I’ll get around to working on it eventually.
- I don’t know the first thing about gardening, and having a prepper garden is number one on my list of plans. I’ll wait until I can get someone to teach me how to get that started and then I’ll begin prepping.
- Really wish I had a place I could ask others, who are more experienced with regards to prepping, all my survival & preparedness related questions. If I had a place like that to go to, I’m sure I would’ve started prepping by now.
- I’m not sure what kinds of foods are best to stockpile, but I also don’t have time to do any research right now. I’ll start all my prepping projects later, when I can set aside some time to sort out research and a plan.
- Researching is hard work and I have no idea where to look for good survival resources. Until I figure that out, I’m not going to start preparing. It just doesn’t seem like I can.
- I feel it’s important to learn from the experts and so I want to read a bunch of survival books before I get started with prepping. That being said, I have no idea which survival books would be best to read, nor do I have time to check right now (let alone read all those books!). I’ll wait until there’s a better time for me to start this process.
- Though I feel that reading survival books is the best place to start digging for information, survival books are expensive. I wish I could find some free ones to start off with.
Prepping Excuses to do with: Planning
- Before I get into prepping I’ll want to have a complete plan outlined. I don’t have time to get that worked out right now, so I’ll just wait until I do.
- Prepping is something I want to take seriously. I don’t want to start working on a plan and then have to stop. So I’m not going to start prepping yet – until I’m in the type of situation where I know I won’t have to stop.
- I need to figure out whether I’ll be bugging in or bugging out before I get to planning the rest of my preps – otherwise what’s the point of starting?
- I hate starting projects before I have at least a general plan of what I want to accomplish. I don’t have a plan yet, and it’ll take me a lot of time to complete one to be exactly how I like it, but I’ll start prepping once I work things out.
- I have a great plan – one where I’ll tackle prepping for the most likely emergency situation first – but I don’t have the funds or the time to prep for that emergency situation the way I want to yet. I’ll wait until I have the money and free time to do tackle that first then continue on with my plan.
Prepping Excuses to do with: Money
- I can’t afford to prep right now.
- Prepping is way too expensive. I can’t understand how anyone can afford to prep – they must have a lot of money.
- I’m on a really tight budget right now, I can’t possibly afford to prep at the moment.
- I’ll have more money later. I’ll prep when I get a raise/promotion.
- Shouldn’t I have a massive amount of money stashed away before I start any sort of prepping? I’ll start trying to save up for that and worry about any other preps later.
- How can anyone afford all that expensive survival gear? From what I’ve seen there don’t seem to be any budget options for people like me. I’ll pass until I have more money.
- Food is expensive enough as it is. I can’t possibly break my budget spending on buying even more food in order to have a stockpile. I’ll start a food stockpile when I have a higher income.
- How can any family possibly afford to prep on a single income? My spouse is looking for a job now. We’ll start prepping once he/she has found a full-time position.
- Everything about prepping is expensive, and I don’t have a steady job right now. I don’t want to start spending money on prepping when my income might disappear tomorrow.
- I just got a new job – I want to enjoy my money. I’ll start prepping when I feel I’ve rewarded myself enough for my accomplishment.
Prepping Excuses to do with: Space
- I live in an apartment – I don’t have the room to prep.
- My house is too small. Once I up-size, I’ll begin prepping.
- I don’t have the space right now! I need to make room in the house for any preps before I can finally begin.
- All the rooms in this house are being used, so I don’t have any space for starting a prepper stockpile. I’ll start prepping once one of the kids has moved out and I can use their old room as a stockpile room.
- I have a small garden. I need more space outside or there’s no point in prepping.
Prepping Excuses to do with: Stress
- I don’t know where to start when it comes to prepping. It’s way too overwhelming. I can’t deal with the stress right now.
- I have too much to do at the moment – I can’t possibly think about prepping right now.
- Took the time to prep seriously for a while, but now I’m completely burned out. I’ll take a break from prepping – as long as I need it to be – and pick back up once I feel less exhausted by the thought of it.
- I’m too strung out from work issues. I won’t be able to concentrate on any preps right now.
- The kids are taking way too much of a toll on me. There’s no way I can begin prepping until I’m at the point where I’m not so stressed.
Prepping Excuses to do with: Energy
- I’m way too exhausted from work. I don’t have the energy to prep right now.
- Too much of my energy is spent on the kids right now – between taking them to school, extracurricular activities, and driving them around in the summer. I’ll wait until things settle down to begin prepping.
- I have way too many projects going on right now – I can’t possibly start prepping when I’m so exhausted.
Prepping Excuses to do with: Time
- Where am I going to find the time to prep right now? I’ll just do it later.
- I still have time before the next [insert emergency situation here]. I’ll start prepping seriously in a few [days/months/years].
- It’s way too early to start prepping for a winter disaster. I’ll wait until the weather starts to get colder and then I’ll begin.
- I’m moving right now, and there’s really no way to stay prepared while I move. I’ll get back to prepping once I’m done with the move.
- The kids take up way too much of my time right now. Only a few years until they’re out of the house. I’ll start prepping then.
Miscellaneous Prepping Excuses
- I can’t seem to get my family on the same page as I am with regards to prepping – I’ll wait until I do get them on the same page as me to begin.
- I do see the point in prepping, but being seen as a crazy prepper by my peers is holding me back from really getting started. It bothers me how much of a stigma is attached to being a prepper.
- Prepping is hard work, and I don’t see a point to being prepared if the shit doesn’t hit the fan. Things look like they’re fine right If it looks like another recession is going to hit or something like that, I’ll start prepping then.
- If I have no idea when the shit will hit the fan, what’s the point of prepping right now? It will take a long time to be really prepared, and if the SHTF tomorrow, I won’t be ready anyway.
- I can’t prep to survive everything, so what’s the point of prepping, really? Shouldn’t I be spending time on things I enjoy more?
Well there they all are – 47 excuses one can make to avoid prepping. Some of these I’ve actually seen used; others, I can definitely picture someone using to describe their prepper procrastination.
Hopefully, by seeing all these laid out there, if you’re the one making the excuses, you’ll begin to realize just how easy it is to get caught up in a frame of mind that will stop you from actively trying to look out for your future. And if you know someone making these kinds of excuses – pass this article on to them, so that they’ll hopefully get the picture. It’s easy to fall into the pattern of making up reason after reason with regards to why you haven’t been working on having a more prepared lifestyle, but unless you break out of that pattern, you’re likely to continue on the slippery slope of prepper procrastination for a good, long time. Hell, you may never get prepared if you don’t try to take prepping more seriously.
Remember – there’s no reset button on life, and if one day an emergency situation does come up, there’s a good chance you’ll look back at moments like these and realize that the excuses you made really all boiled down to nothing.
So stop procrastinating – throw all these excuses out the window and get to working on your preps!
Can You Think of Any More Prepping Excuses?
Have you heard someone use any of these excuses? Can you think of any more?
Have you yourself used excuses to push off prepping?
Let me know in the comments down below.
ACK!! The “I’m coming to your house” folks. My kids said that (adults). I wrote out a list, laminated it, and told them IF they have to come to my house when the SHTF they are to BRING THE THINGS on the LIST. (And I stressed that I meant it….bring your own or don’t come) On that list was simple things I knew they owned (warm and cool clothing, sturdy shoes, boots, bedding, pillows, ALL food they had in the house, dogs and their food, (no cats, let them loose, they hate their cats anyway), personal care and hygiene items (yes, I have some but I don’t want to break them out in the first 12 hours), ALL cash they have in the house and anything they just can’t live without. ) Simple list. Grab and go. One child put it in the back of the pantry where he can find it IF something happens, the other? Who knows, but he has been told. Everyone else is on their own, including my neighbors. My family is the only ones I have prepped for, so my family is the only ones getting inside my house.
Stigma is the worst, the word stigma is being kind to the scenario,..crippling for such an obvious thing. One pre empts challanges and stuff, usually doing other stuff.
You people are all pretty funny. If they don’t want to prep that’s their business and I try for a little bit then I go on with my life. They only hurt themselves. I will take care of my family and friends that are all helping too. If people can’t bother to prep it’s their own fault and their emergency doesn’t become my emergency I have enough to take care of.
I especially think all the people that don’t want to forget their booze in an emergency situation are perfectly right because God knows in an Emergency situation we all need more drunks with guns!!
I think it’s easier for some people to shrug off friends’ and family members’ frustrating behaviours than others.
Unfortunately, I’m definitely the type that says, “I give up! Don’t care anymore!” and still do deep down care and get irked. Especially when it’s people I care about. I know – live and let live, but this principle – for me – is WAY easier said than done. To not get frustrated when people make bad decisions: really hard for me to do.
One excuse is, “Hell, if things get that bad, I’d rather be dead”.
Riiight… Lets see how you really feel if/when things really do get to that point.
Oh many I’ve heard this said a couple times and I really don’t take it seriously. It’s, in my opinion, a way to just shrug off the probability that things can get really bad without getting so bad that they’re unlivable.
Great points here. There’s a lot of options for prepping even if you don’t have the space or money – there’s a lot out there to be done!
Definitely is a lot out there to be done! So much to learn and do that only requires a bit of dedication :)
How could you forget the #1 excuse?! Also, this is the one that makes me maddest.
“If something happens I am coming to your house!”
I have two friends, they are married, who say that to me that I have no problem with. As long as they bring their own booze! The rest can mostly go kick rocks in flip flops.
“Kick rocks in flip flops”- I love that! I am adding that to my list of phrases :)
Good point. Irks me a little. Kinda like saying, “Yeah in my opinion – it’s not ever happening, but if it does – it’s okay you’re my social welfare.”
OMG, Yes! And even in spite of that smart-assed attitude, I will find it very hard to send my friends away, possibly to their death, depending on the severity of the situation.
Of course! They’re your friends after all. Makes me want to shake ’em a bit and be all, “At least do SOMETHING.. prep a LITTLE bit!!!”
The last few days it just feels like the world is to big. My wife and I are on the same page when prepping, but I just can’t shake the feeling that with all that is going on I can’t prepare for them all. I know this will shake off in a few days and I will be back at it as soon as this overwhelming feel of doom where’s off, because even though I’m feeling down for the moment I can never quit, it’s not in my nature.
I actually wrote an article about that: http://morethanjustsurviving.com/prep-to-survive-everything/
Just do your best. You will get to a point one day where you’re surprised at how far you’ve come. Little steps go a long way.
The people with the grocery list of excuses on why they don’t prep are the same ones you see in pictures on the news, or the internet, waiting in lines 150 people deep for whatever- gas, food, water, during (insert natural or man made disaster here). The people who get me are the ones who actually experience an “event” and still don’t have any sense of self preservation. Wait.. what?-You live in tornado alley and you don’t even own a flashlight??? I’m not sure how you ever convince someone to set themselves up to survive hard times, because in their mind the hard times are never coming and if they do come, FEMA, the national guard, hell Obama himself will take care of it. The store shelves will always have food, you’ll always have a job to pay for that food, the local chemical plant will never have breach to taint your water supply, red algae never blooms, tornadoes always hit the next town over, hurricanes only blow the fuzz off of dandelions…. I am lucky that my family has been through enough to be on board with being self sufficient long term, but if I could just get one friend to put up even a can of beans, I think I’d crap my knickers… Good luck trying to get people to take responsibility for their own safety and welfare… if you have any tricks to accomplish that, let me know.. my top hat is all out of rabbits ….
Exactly!
No tricks to accomplish that yet, unfortunately. Unless they’re people who instantly see a point to prepping, people who come ’round seem to do so on their own and after a great deal of time – if they ever do =/.
The fallacy of no time/space/money is the one that gets under my skin the most and it comes from a misconception over what prepping is. Prepping is not (or at least is not entirely) about having stuff. Skills preps are the most useful within and without prepping. Basic cooking is a prep and can be expanded upon by learning to cook/bake on a BBQ or propane camping grill. Camping is a prep as long as there is some roughing it involved, although getting out of traffic jams on a holiday weekend could be considered a bug out driving prep in some locations. Many people have some prep skills and just do not realize it.
Exactly! I know skills take a long time to master, but you can do things in little steps. There’s no need to do anything all at once, and so there’s no need to be complaining you don’t have any time. Everyone has time for things they value and feel are important. You make time.