My OH thinks that I am mad for storing a few extra tins of food and rice. Luckily She is easy going and just lets me get on with it anyway. It does feel a bit lonely though sometimes not having any other prepper minded people to talk to. Does anyone else here live with a non-prepper and how do you cope?
Ironically my non-prepper OH is probably more prepared then me. She has considerable medical knowledge and experience, tons of DIY tools and experience using them, she is a good gardener, she is physically fit and strong, she is incredibly clever and keeps her cool in an emergency. She also has lots of other random old fashioned skills like being able to cook using only basic ingredients or being able to make clothes by hand from old pieces of material. Between the pair of us, me with my preps and her with her skills we would have most bases pretty well covered I think.
With skills and knowledge she's just a prepper of a different type. At least she's not openly hostile and humours you. Probably not worth trying to argue with her. If Covid didn't serve as an example of your foresight, you'll just have to wait till the next major event.
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought
Maybe call it insurance instead of prepping. And occasionally - as the news stories prompt, share horror stories you have heard.
e.g. A colleague of mine returned at midnight from a holiday to discover no water in the taps. The whole town had been out of water for 2 days by then but she did not know about it. Nothing to drink in the house. No shops open (or stocked) and so the first chance for a cup of coffee was mid morning the following day after getting to and queuing up at the bottled water station. Thankfully she does not have any very small children or it could have been dangerous for them to be unable to drink for that long. Unsurprisingly, she now keeps a couple of 5l water bottles. It costs next to nothing to insure against that sort of misery and turns a major problem into an inconvenience.
jennyjj01 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 23, 2026 5:16 pm
With skills and knowledge she's just a prepper of a different type. At least she's not openly hostile and humours you.
Yes she is fine about it all so I can't complain but as an eternal optimist she does not feel the need for prepping herself. I am extremely lucky though as she is so wonderful in so many ways.
In the past she has always proved to be an incredible asset for anyone to be around in any type of emergency. She is also a wonderful people person being great at socializing and networking with the local neighbors and villagers.
Your OH sounds very skilled, a lot of people cannot sew these days (me included). With her skills and your preps I think you are doing well. Me and my OH are much the same, he is a skilled tradesman and has lots of other skills too but cant cook apart from bunging a few things in the oven or an omelette. I am not particularly strong but great with a splitting axe, can cook, bake, make jam and cheese and bread and have first aid skills. He didn't get my prepping stores at first but over the last ten years has come round to my way of thinking.
Zoidberg wrote: ↑Fri Oct 23, 2026 2:20 pm
Snip> Ironically my non-prepper OH is probably more prepared then me. She has considerable medical knowledge and experience,
Ask her if she could put together a comprehensive First aid kit for real world use to share on the Forum.
Two is one and one is none, but three is even better.
She has considerable medical knowledge and experience, tons of DIY tools and experience using them, she is a good gardener, she is physically fit and strong, she is incredibly clever and keeps her cool in an emergency. She also has lots of other random old fashioned skills like being able to cook using only basic ingredients or being able to make clothes by hand from old pieces of material. Between the pair of us, me with my preps and her with her skills we would have most bases pretty well covered I think.
