Do You Factor Your Age into Your Preps

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Morgan101

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This could be chapter 2 to the thread How Old are You. From that poll I would fit in the 29% category. While I don't dwell on it in some ways I factor my age into my preps. I know there are items I have now that will last far longer than I will. Some things have been acquired by intent. Others have just been an accumulation over many years. How often do you wear out a coat? How often do you wear out a pair of boots? I have a closet full of both that will outlast me. Some clothing items. Certainly some gear and equipment. Guns.

When you start to plan things out how for into the future do you go?
 
Ecclesiastes 9:12 . Since I don't know when, if it's time to replace something, I do. Some things don't expire, Guns, properly stored ammo, some of my trade items. Those I don't replace until I need more. Expirables, when it's time, we buy fresh.
 
Not yet, but some day. Right now I intend to live forever, or at least long enough to watch my children grow up and have their own children and hopefully watch those children grow up too. I see my prepping taking a very different turn when I am an empty nester. Then hopefully my job will be to support the Mrs. while also helping the closest (geographically) kid with their efforts.
 
We certainly do consider our age, but I'm not sure it's the same way you're thinking. As far as clothes and such things, we try to have extra of what wears out - socks, hubby's work shirts etc. But the other thing we consider is that at some point we will probably want a wood splitter, when we build our retirement home- single level with wide doorways, a nifty idea I have for getting firewood into the house, and things like that. I have 2 grown children who rarely talk to me so we don't count on them. Otherwise we don't have a large family to take care of us. Most of our age related prep is in managing on our own for the long haul. (Hope that's not entirely off topic.)
 
We certainly do consider our age, but I'm not sure it's the same way you're thinking. As far as clothes and such things, we try to have extra of what wears out - socks, hubby's work shirts etc. But the other thing we consider is that at some point we will probably want a wood splitter, when we build our retirement home- single level with wide doorways, a nifty idea I have for getting firewood into the house, and things like that. I have 2 grown children who rarely talk to me so we don't count on them. Otherwise we don't have a large family to take care of us. Most of our age related prep is in managing on our own for the long haul. (Hope that's not entirely off topic.)

Not in the least. When we moved into our house 25+ years ago we added many things ostensibly for my wife's parents. Now we use every one of them ourselves. We don't have much help either, so have to fend for ourselves, and it has become more difficult with age, especially for my wife.

Buying those things that will make life easier makes eminent sense. I know I can't split and carry as much wood as I used to.
 
...When you start to plan things out how for into the future do you go?

Depends on the subject.

In the mid 1970's I discussed a household budget with the wife with the long term goal of our retirement when we were in our sixties. I followed a budget and was able to retire as planned and debt free. Wife didn't budget and is financially unable to retire.

My wife's dream house took two years of planning.

Took a year of looking, checking, reading reviews to replace her 2006 Pontiac with a 2018 Honda (our last car).

Ten years of looking for property in the southwest to retire too. I waited too long and property prices have climbed back up plus wife isn't agreeable.

A year looking at used recreational vehicles. Got the size and floorplan chosen, choking on the price.

TEOTWAWKI. Planning was started about 15 years ago. As we age the bugging out with backpacks are no longer practical nor is bugging out. Preps are now refocus on bugging in and being a resupply point for the Youngers.
 
Not really at this point. I try to stock things that are non-expirable or have a very long shelf life. The shorter term stuff, I try and rotate through, and use. We hopefully still have many years left on this planet, so I still capitalize on bargains and tuck stuff away. My kids know where I stock this stuff and why. If I die, at least they can use it or have the feeling of security of knowing it's there. Of coarse, they'll likely have to move here and I'm quite certain one kid would. We have a nice piece of property with lots of equipment and storage space. It's difficult to find a place with room to breathe and expand around our area anymore, so we feel very fortunate. We've put lots of blood and sweat into our homestead to make it what it is today. I hope they will be able to enjoy some of our hard work someday. But, right now we are enjoying it just fine, even though we always have more projects to work on to make it even better.:)

This thread made me think that perhaps I should write down a list of the exact reasons I stock each item. My kids might wonder why mom had so much 100% proof vodka tucked away. LOL! Perhaps a document left with my will would be a good idea. It may prevent them from tossing or selling stuff b/c they didn't understand the ultimate purpose of those items.
 
Angie_nrs: Do you have a list of lists? I am not techie, so I have written everything down, and have it all in a binder. Maybe an inventory, and a brief explanation of why you have things would be something to share with the kids. We too have enough hard liquor to stock a small tavern. I probably have enough fire starting material; lighters; lighter fluid; five different kinds of matches; ferro rods; magnesium fire starters; tinder etc. to burn down a large city, and we don't smoke. That will have the kids scratching their heads. I would bet we all have larder that will make no sense to our kids.
 
Angie_nrs: Do you have a list of lists? I am not techie, so I have written everything down, and have it all in a binder. Maybe an inventory, and a brief explanation of why you have things would be something to share with the kids. We too have enough hard liquor to stock a small tavern. I probably have enough fire starting material; lighters; lighter fluid; five different kinds of matches; ferro rods; magnesium fire starters; tinder etc. to burn down a large city, and we don't smoke. That will have the kids scratching their heads. I would bet we all have larder that will make no sense to our kids.

Yeah.....list of lists. That's me! I'm no techie either so I still like the good ole' pencil and paper. I try to keep copies in 2 places but don't do that too well since I'm constantly adding and subtracting. That's hard enough to keep just one list updated.

It would be a project in itself just to write down that list for the kids! But, I should at least try and start it since it might be a good reference for myself too. Sometimes I purchased things and later wonder what the hell I got it for. LOL! Yup, I have a binder too. It has various articles and tid bits of information in it, along with where my stuff is located. A lot of it is in totes that I have numbered and some totes are in different buildings. Each number has it's own sheet of paper in the binder so that I know what's in each tote without having to look inside. The biggest problem with that is making sure you subtract from the list when you are in a hurry and want to just grab something out of the tote and go! It's usually my medical stash that I raid and just want to take it and run. I cycle through my vitamins, supplements, and meds (using oldest first).....so I'm in there quite frequently. Then, when I restock I usually wait until I have a bag full b/c I want to update the lists. It's much easier to take and run and just restock.....but then you'd have no idea what you have on hand. It would be nice if I had a scan/sku machine like the stores do to keep track of inventory in and out and just print a hard copy list once per quarter.
 
Yeah.....list of lists. That's me! I'm no techie either so I still like the good ole' pencil and paper. I try to keep copies in 2 places but don't do that too well since I'm constantly adding and subtracting. That's hard enough to keep just one list updated.

It would be a project in itself just to write down that list for the kids! But, I should at least try and start it since it might be a good reference for myself too. Sometimes I purchased things and later wonder what the hell I got it for. LOL! Yup, I have a binder too. It has various articles and tid bits of information in it, along with where my stuff is located. A lot of it is in totes that I have numbered and some totes are in different buildings. Each number has it's own sheet of paper in the binder so that I know what's in each tote without having to look inside. The biggest problem with that is making sure you subtract from the list when you are in a hurry and want to just grab something out of the tote and go! It's usually my medical stash that I raid and just want to take it and run. I cycle through my vitamins, supplements, and meds (using oldest first).....so I'm in there quite frequently. Then, when I restock I usually wait until I have a bag full b/c I want to update the lists. It's much easier to take and run and just restock.....but then you'd have no idea what you have on hand. It would be nice if I had a scan/sku machine like the stores do to keep track of inventory in and out and just print a hard copy list once per quarter.

Oh Lordy, does that sound familiar!! :I agree:. Every time I clean something up, garage, basement, whatever I find things I forgot I had. Recently had a shelf collapse in the bedroom. What a mess. I can't begin to tell you how many " Oh that's where that is " moments I had cleaning up. I figure it is St Anthony rewarding me for cleaning up. Sounds like you have a great system.
 
We have prepped many old people things lately. Holding on to extra walkers, crutches, grabbers, extra non stick bandages for thin skin bleeds. Am planning a large handicap bathroom at the farm when we move there. Food preps are always going to be going on. Figure I need to feed the young help if things go bad.
 
As I get older, I find that I am no longer interested in prepping for a long term disaster. If I could look into my crystal ball and see that the future would not be improving after a year, I doubt that I would want to live in that future. So I don't prep for it. I'm at the "prep for a couple of months on your own" stage now. Longer than that? I'd just call it a good time for me to retire from this planet. I don't see a need for me to buy a bigger gun (that I don't have room to store), so I can go hunt a buffalo (which I wouldn't find), drag it home (which I couldn't do), to feed my family (who have moved away). Being realistic, instead of buying that big gun I'll just buy a can opener instead, then wait for a sale at the grocery to stock up on canned beans. I don't have an 80 liter go-bag backpack either, because if I tried to lift it, it would crush me.
 
Oh Lordy, does that sound familiar!! :I agree:. Every time I clean something up, garage, basement, whatever I find things I forgot I had. Recently had a shelf collapse in the bedroom. What a mess. I can't begin to tell you how many " Oh that's where that is " moments I had cleaning up. I figure it is St Anthony rewarding me for cleaning up. Sounds like you have a great system.

It's a work in progress. IF I had started this system when I started accumulating things, it would be pretty good, but that didn't happen. I still get the "surprises" when I clean out cupboards, closets, drawers, outbuildings, etc. It seems I have an endless supply of nooks and crannies in the house and property.:confused: If I die before I get a chance to go thru everything, the kids will have a chore ahead of them.:D Oh well, I don't store junk, so they'll find treasures everywhere. It's funny you mention the collape in the bedroom closet. I keep thinking my clothing rod in there is going to give any day. I need to get in there and thin out my clothes before it happens. Probably 75% of the clothes in there just need to go to the church or donated to the Salvation Army. I have lots of polo's and short sleeved sweaters. I just don't wear that stuff anymore and just need to get rid of it! If it's cool enough to wear short sleeves, why wear a sweater? I have no idea why I used to wear that kind of stuff.:rolleyes:
 
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Yep.

I've started stocking reading glasses in different magnifications.
These readers are cheap but they work so I get a few of each strength.

I have had to change out reading glasses in my BOB's over the years. The ones I started with don't work anymore. Now I will use the higher power, and plan for the future.
 
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