My folks were dirt poor, but what is now considered "prepping" was their basic way of life.
To the, a trip to the grocery store was like a safari, many miles away.
You buy your canned goods in the fall, right after harvest when they are the cheapest for the year.
You grow a garden and can all you are able to.
Carrots, beets and other root crops go in sand in the cellar.
Brussels sprouts can be picked all winter from the stalk.
Shoot a deer and can or corn the meat.
By my parents standards, YOU are rich.
You obviously have electricity, a computer, and maybe even running water, probably even a phone.
All of these are needless, expensive luxuries.
If you're in a cold climate, better have plenty of blankets.
It got down to 42 below zero inside the former logging company camp where we lived.
As long as your brain, mouth, an ear and hopefully an eye work, you can make more bucks if need be.
My hope is, that should I get down to only those parts functioning, I can still make extra cash.
Of course, the preference is to have more of the body functional!
A good book to read is, "We Took To The Woods", by Louise Rich.
They weren't "prepping", but every winter they holed up in their house on the Rapid River in Maine.
My family were Preppers before Prepping was cool too. The climate was moderate...four distinct seasons but not so cold. Growing, canning, and everything you said....my mother believed in having at least a three year supply of food on hand.
My parents could probably have “out-poored” yours, but we live in the 21st Century now, not the early 20th. You make a lot of assumptions about my situation, yet you know almost nothing about me.
I have that book, We Took to the Woods, it is prominently displayed and loved.
Never thought anyone would know about it.
Louise Rich’s “We took to the woods” is a fantastic read about living independently... I also loved her other books about the history of the Maine Coast and the Gouldsboro Peninsula.
In other words, eat what you can and what you can't, you can.