The Suburban Prepper’s Tale

About The Suburban Prepper Blog:
Those of us in moderately populated areas have the right to prep. I don’t use the word survivalist in this to describe us because that term is not accurate to describe the suburban prepper. Many of us cannot or will not move out to rural northern Idaho in order to increase our chances (nothing is a guarantee) of survival in a SHTF scenario. For the suburban prepper, the goal is to minimize the impact on your family while maintaining sufficient food stores, home protection and maximizing your chance of being ready for the next quake, flood, economic collapse, riot, bird flu outbreak or dirty bomb that happens to come our way.If you are a suburban prepper or a survivalist who hasn’t convinced his wife that the northern Idaho way is for you … then Welcome!
The goal of this blog is to help those:

    - Who live in suburbia or a lightly populated city or town,
    - Who cannot telecommute so as to live in the boonies,
    - That have a family that you are not ready or willing to relocate to the boonies so they can lead a normal life amongst friends and family,
    - Who believe that it is YOUR duty to protect your home and family and not the governments’,
    - Who are willing to invest time and money in an insurance policy against the unexpected and
    - Who believe that the Stuff can hit the fan at ANY MOMENT…

About the Suburban Prepper:
The SP lives in an undisclosed town in Northern California. He has always been a fan of self-reliance and fears having to depend on anyone but his family for help (yeah that means you FEMA!)

The SP has insurance for his house, cars and life and he believes everyone should have insurance against unknown events out of their control.

The SP is very pro-gun and pro-second amendment. It is everyone’s constitutionally given right to bear arms!! How many guns is totally their call … but every home SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST ONE GUN WITH A PERSON THAT KNOWS HOW TO SHOOT IT.

The SP lives in a “sort” of suburbia. In the evenings he is out in the streets playing with his kids, shooting the breeze with his neighbors and sipping a brew. He keeps an eye to the sky and never wakes up without turing on the radio to get updated on any important news that he may need.

The SuburbanĀ Prepper Can Be Contacted at: SuburbanPrepper @ gmail.com
(There is no link and the spaces are to prevent dirty, rotten spammer filth)

12 Responses

  1. Keep it up! I like your humor and your high energy, and you speak to a lot of people who need to get prepared and aren’t going to give up suburbia to move to the “ranch”. I firmly believe that there is a need right now to address survival/prep issues for middle class-mainstream- suburban America. By now we all know that FEMA isn’t going to be much help when the BIG ONE hits…

  2. Just discovered your site. Keep up the good work. I am in a similar situation as you describe and have no plans at this time to move to a large spread in the outback of Idaho to survive. I have always believed in being as self-sufficient as possible. I guess I’ve been a “prepper” all my life. I live in a suburban area of a city in Oregon and can see many advantages of being in this type of situation over being out in the boonies. One of the things I would encourage all suburban preppers to do is find out what your local government’s attitude is toward being prepared. My city and county has very active preparedness programs and support volunteer organizations such as CERT and Emergency Communications (ARES) groups. I urge all to volunteer and be part of these organizations. Not only will you get some great training at no or low cost but you get to meet a lot of folks with similar preparedness attitudes. Regards

  3. I cannot help but wonder if you make money to survive or if you survive to make money. You say some good things about the 2nd A. and all that, but that is not survival. My biggest block of stumbling with you is your disregard for getting out of town. The rule of thumb is to live at least one+ tank of gasoline from the nearest big city. You also seem to ridicule those who have made it out and are doing okay. Why would you be down on these folks? Their methods might just save your life.

    We call ourselves Doomers and all that stuff but we really are pretty positive folks. We think we can make it. We think we can live through the catastrophes that are about to plague us. We just don’t, for the most part, think it is worthwhile to try and make it in a doomed city. Contrary to the reporting of some other folks we think the destruction will first concentrate in urban areas and then try to spread out to the farms and prairies.

    On the one hand you very accurately detail the failure of FEMA to handle the Katrina disaster. But then you say you want to stay in the suburbs and ride it out with all those other people who will not move. It sorta reminds me of Jerusalem right before Titus’s army came and crushed it to the ground in A.D. 70.

    Other nations have wanted to take America down for many years. The Japanese sent ballons over here with explosives during WW II. The Germans got a U-boat ino the Gulf of Mexico during hte same war. The Koreans wanted our butts pretty bad in the 50’s but Dugout Doug was against giving them the whole shebang. We built bomb shelters for the populace back in the 50’s and very early 60’s. We saved enough food for two years duration back in the cold war days. LBJ let them sell it off for cash to fuel his war. Castro was letting the Russians bring in big missiles in the early 60’s to turn Cuba into a missile base for a Russian attack. Jack Kennedy got that stopped. The arabs, for whatever reason, made noises about crushing our enterprise back in the late 70’s with their oil embargo. Reagan pulled us out of that one.

    The 90’s became period of time in which the Middle East came into turmoil and war. Islamic fundamentalism reared it’s ugly head and we have been at war ever since.

    The ’00’s have seen us hit what we think is peak oil. The effects of this have just now started to appear. But hte reality of the matter is that things keep getting worse and not better. The more dense the population the worse the problem.

    The cities will collapse with the advent of violence in America. Nothing can prevent it.

    Why bother to ride that sinking ship? Get out while you can.

    Michael

  4. Michael

    I don’t see the need for a “scolding” of SP. He hasn’t said anything against those who are able or want to live in a rural surroinding. Alot of us can not move away from it all. I’m glad someone else is in the same situation that I am in. We have to stay in a moderately populated area to survive.

    All respects to you, Michael, from a daily reader and someone who looks up and forward to your writings.

    SP

    Great site and I hope you stay around. I’m in the People’s Republic of Illinois! Stay strong.

    Jerry in So IL

  5. I have to disagree with Michael, also. I read his blog, but it is just not realistic for all of us to move to the boonies.

    I am not far from you, Jerry, close to the big city, on the other side of the river. My kids are in school and I am not equipped to teach them high school, or enroll them in a new school (my oldest only has two years left.) We are self employed, and the work is here…and if gas goes over $4 or $5 a gallon, it would be ridiculous to drive in every day. I made everyone crazy, about y2k, and I am not going down that path again!

    That said, I have had this nagging gut feeling, to prepare (including one very vivid dream, @ 8 years ago). I grew up in the boonies, near a lot of old Yanks, who lived through the depression. We are religious people (though we weren’t very observant for a few years), and don’t have much family here, so we need the extended family of friends, that we have here.We are jack of all trades, master of none, type people, who are living in the suburbs, now. We are trying to be more frugal, and develop alternate plans. Blogs like this are great for us, and for newbies, who just need to get their feet wet. Please read dakin today (5/6). There all all types and we just have to thankful for whatever readiness anyone can do!

    As you can see by my name, I am a woman preparing (i know many of the blogs complain about women not being on board with them) and believe a less radical approach might bring some of my sisters around! I am even thinking of starting a blog, along those lines, if I can free up some time! Good luck, suburban prepper. Don’t get discouraged, many of us appreciate your efforts!

  6. I watched your food prep videos. You stated in the 3rd clip that you would include links to suppliers for what you used, but I not see any.

    Could you post those; also, what, exactly, are you getting for the staple foods? Wheat, beans, etc., and what should I ask for when going to the feed store, without raising suspicion and being asked questions that I do not want to answer? You can answer my personal email if you are so inclined.

    Thanks,
    Guy

  7. Thanks for providing your point of view. Your blog brings me back to earth after I read some of the other hard core survival blogs (that are a bit unrealistic, I think). I live in a suburb of Las Vegas and can identify with A LOT of what you bring up. I don’t have the time or space to do many of the things suggested elsewhere on the net. I suspect most of your readers are, well, suburbanites! Anyway, keep it up!

  8. Been reading your blog for a while, if you get a chance check mine out :)

    http://teotwawkiaiff.blogspot.com/

    It’s not 100% survival and preparedness, but there is a fair amount there.

    -Nate

  9. Great concept! Not everyone can afford to live off the grid in Idaho or Montana! Our daughter lives in a small town 20 minutes from our rural home but our son and daughter-in-law live in an adjoining state some 3 hours away . His preps involve bugging out to our home as opposed to the adjoining anti-gun state where his in-laws also live in suburbia.

  10. Hey. A friend just told me about your site and I have spent the past hour reading. Its officially in the bookmark list and I look forward to learning more from you and your bloggers!

    I was hoping to find a ‘contact us’ link so that I could tell you about our new on-line business: http://www.SurvivalOutpost.com. We specialize in emergency preparedness supplies and survival equipment for individuals, families and businesses. We also have a blog that you might find interesting: http://survivaloutpost.blogspot.com/.

    We were thinking about linking to you and thought you might want to put us in your “Places to Spend Your Money” link. I think both our visitors could benefit from the links. Just a thought.

    Thanks, and again, great job with the blog.

  11. Great site… the reason the site is here is great…. Thats exactly how I feel with my wife and kids… family etc.
    it’s great to find some place that will help with the things I worry about… living in a small town not willing to live in BFE!
    Thanks again… I will be back often.

  12. First time on your site..excellent info..We are in the process of stocking up on everything that will be needed when TSHTF. One observation from a newbie,print copies of all the good info,the internet will not help you when you need it most

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