Screwing Up/Mistakes Made

[Go2ndAmend]

I liberated this idea from another thread. No one like to admit the mistakes they have made in their prepping, yet mistakes are a natural part of the learning process. Rather than make all the mistakes individually, I am wondering if people wouldn't mind posting their own mistakes in hopes we can all learn from them. So, what is your biggest mistake (or two or three) you made in prepping? As for me, my biggest mistake was starting prepping too late. I should have been more active years ago. I feel it will take at least 2 more years to be marginally ready for a complete long-term collapse. Do I have that much time? Do you?

[Deebo]

I admit one mistake, buying something becouse its marked down..If something is 50% off, I usually find a way to use it in my preps, but with one acre and a storage shed, I havent ran out of room yet. I dont buy food items on markdown just becouse of my hectic schedule, some days I cook, some days I eat out(dollar menu).

[MrsInor]

Sometimes buying without a lot of research, then have to re-buy.
Pre packaged potato mixes might be good but when they do reach their expiration date - they suck, now I can potatoes and make sauces.
Biggest mistake - not buying ammo when it was cheaper.

[Inor]

Hell, I have made so many mistakes. Which ones are you looking for? Are you only interested in the big ones like buying our BoL land in the summer of 2009 after the first down-leg of the housing bubble and having it drop a bunch more since, so it is still only worth about 1/2 of what we paid for it? Or are you interested in the little ones too like the time I got "the really good deal" on some no-name charcoal briquettes so I bought 100 pounds of them? (That was the only fireproof charcoal I have ever seen. I think major cities are now using it to make fire suits for their fire departments.) Or there was the time that Mrs Inor decided we needed a vacuum sealer for our food. So like most couples our age, we bought the FoodSaver brand vacuum sealer. (It was designed to seal up leftovers from supper, not 100 pounds of sausage at a time.) It worked great for about 2 years then died. So we had to replace it with a commercial sealer, which was double the cost but will likely outlast either of us.

I like the thread a lot. But I also think prepping is as much (or more) a state of mind and a collection of skills rather than a collection of stuff.

P.S. I just noticed that you are looking for the biggest 2-3 mistakes but I am going to leave my charcoal example in because it does illustrate what I think is an important rule: buy the best quality preps (and tools) you can afford.

[Lucky Jim]

First mistake I made was when I did a 200-mile bicycle ride when I was 17 and didn't bother to take a tent or sleeping bag and nearly froze to death, shivering all night long even though it was April and I was wearing thick pullover and padded anorak.
Lesson learnt.
Apollo 13 made the same goof later, shivering when the power failed because NASA hadn't provided them with a simple 10-cent survival blanket each.
And the Bravo Two Zero SAS patrol in the Iraq desert lost a man to hypothermia because they hadn't packed tents or sleeping bag.

We can also learn from other peoples mistakes, for example an Amazon explorer nearly starved because his rifle ammo was substandard (or the humid damp had got to it) and he couldn't shoot game because every round misfired. He also found he'd been conned by his food supplier when he opened a tin of dates and found a useless piece of slate inside.
And Scott of the Antarctics expedition found much of their cooking stove fuel had evaporated away because the cold had crumbled the sealant rings in the containers.
Also an Arctic expedition took concentrated lemon juice to ward off scurvy but it didn't work because the factory canning process had accidentally destroyed the vitamin C content.
Also in the Arctic, the Franklin Expedition went down with lead poisoning from the seams of their food cans.
And there have been a spate of deaths by carbon monoxide poisoning on camping trips in Britain because people brought their extinguished barbecues into their big family tents at night, not realising they still give off deadly fumes after they've been put out.

[Moonshinedave]

I don't guess this is a major screw up, but two days ago, I bought (3) 5 pound bags of American grown rice for $3.00 each, yesterday, I seen at Sams, I could have bought the same rice 25 pounds for $9.99.

[shotlady]

buying a super big framed back pack... not knowing they are specific to body size can reduce rubbing, redistribute the weight with the right frame size. i also bought other back packs with out the cross chest strap that also helps hold it on comfortably and help with weight distribution. big assed packs also make it hard to just toss in the car for a weekend trip- keeping in mind during short/weekend trips, theres not enough time to make friends to mooch.lol

i need to manage my bob

[roy]

I can see where pack would be a problem area 'specially for women. Most of the packs I have seen folks using for BOBs are pitiful. To get an idea of what works take a look at what folks use to hike the Appalachian Trail. These folks walk 2,000 miles usually carrrying 3 -5 days of food, shelter and clothing for climate from Georgia to Maine. Kinda sounds like bugging out.

[Verteidiger]

I think the biggest mistake I made was to not take prepping too seriously in the beginning. By that I mean I did not approach it as my life may depend on it. I had some basic gear, but nothing really of decent quality.

I changed my approach to getting the best equipment I could afford and to having gear I know will hold up in a crisis. It is quite an investment to make this approach work, but your life may truly hang in the balance, so it is worth it.

So, my mistake was not approaching prepping professionally. Now I save my pennies up until I can get high quality gear.

Because my life and the lives of my loved ones may actually be on the line....

[paraquack]

I'll go along with not starting to prep soon enough. I can't believe how long I sat in my easy chair watching TV, fat dumb and happy, knowing my country would be there if I needed them. Then Katrina hit new orleans and i saw the hand writing on the wall.