CC Photo by_allison_john
I occasionally get requests for interviews from the media, but have only agreed to less than a handful of phone interviews. One recent interviewer told me she and her editor had been watching Doomsday Preppers and other shows about building bunkers and they got the impression that you must have a lot of money to be able to prepare. She said after seeing all the weapons, gear, precious metals and land that was being acquired, it was hard not to come to that conclusion.
The reporter asked me how I, an apartment dweller, can prepare for a disaster with lack of space and a limited budget. The rest of the conversation was devoted to discussing low cost ways to prepare, and hopefully debunk the myth that you need a lot of money to prepare.
People get ideas and form all sorts of conclusions about things they see or hear in the media. The impression that “preppers are rich” sounds preposterous but some may be coming away with this image. After reading Why are Preppers Hated So Much, I really hope “because they must be rich” (untrue as it is) is not added to the list.
Money saving tips for beginning preppers
Visit SafeCastle for your preparedness supplies:
Please visit Solo Stove today and tell them Apartment Prepper sent you.
Good ideas for building a food storage plan can be found here:
Great point and very true! Thank you for the link to the kindle book!
Doomsday preppers has been featuring people lately that ARE rich.
Last night a guy bought a $500,000 helicopter and more.
Last week they showed an inventor in his huge techie home.
The week before they showed a guy in texas with a huge bugout compound called the “alamo” that he doesn’t even live in.
I agree most preppers ain’t rich but I can easily see where the impression might come from.
I have been amazed by the amount of money spent by the people on Doomsday Preppers, but for some of them they have admitted that they are doing it instead of having a retirement plan.
Like you, I am living in small space and I have a small budget – just a few dollars a week – to prepare. Resources like yours are giving me great guidance in spending that money wisely.
Good work in helping to set a few people straight and making us look like “normal” people. The media loves the fat nut job with lots of guns and body armor that does not fit. I’m normal! I just don’t want to end up like the people in the Super Dome.
Seems that doomsday preppers represents a small extreme group of preppers. I think the majority are everyday people who work really hard for what they have. If people get all there information about preppers from doomsday preppers, it will be a skewed view.
I agree wholeheartedly… preppers have always been considered outsiders, or at the very least a sub-culture. But in recent years prepping has become a way of life for more and more families. Then Doomsday Preppers comes along, picks out some of the biggest wackos they can find, and presto, everything thinks that if you’re a prepper you’re like them! It’s frustrating.
The truth is, as you know, that most of us are normal people… executives, professionals, government employees, teachers, etc… all just trying to be smart and prepare for their family’s survival. Go to any disaster site… Sandy, Katrina, tornado ally… see anyone laughing at those families that were prepared and weathered the situation with relative ease? Nope. Basic preparedness is just common sense.
There still an uptick in the trend for prepping though. Do a quick search and you’ll find that sales for paracord bracelets are sky high, as are the number of people looking to learn how to make them. Companies that sell survival, camping and outdoor gear, as well as long term food storage supplies, have skyrocketed. So while we may still be out of mainstream… the tide is turning.
Of course television has to make shows not only exciting but also appeal to Joe Six Pack. They don’t do anything to actually encourage prepping but to reel in viewers and advertising dollars so they have to be somewhat outrageous. More than likely a show featuring a normal-acting person offering practical prepping tips would be so boring that most people wouldn’t want to watch it aside from the prepping enthusiast.
My advice for those interested in prepping is to forget television, a twentieth century medium which probably will not be around during Doomsday anyhow. I would think radio would serve a better purpose for preppers since the subjects would have to be described more in detail as there is nothing to see, so no “excitement factor”.