I haven't given much thought to prepping since that whole y2k fiasco, when I started stockpiling cans of baked beans and not much else... (well, we do like baked beans!)
A couple of years ago the last of our three kids moved out, and the future was looking more relaxed for hubby and me, with a bit more money to spend and plenty of free time. Then my daughter got pregnant with twins. She and her partner moved in with us, and we now have a house full again, no spare money and no spare time. We started to realise how hand-to-mouth our existence had become, never quite making it to the next pay day, always running out of vital supplies and having to dash to the supermarket. This is in spite of the fact that hubby and I both have allotments, and grow a fair bit of our own fruit, veg and herbs.
Then I came across a reference to 'prepping' on the web, followed a couple of links, and dived head first into a whole load of worst case (shtf?!) scenarios that scared the life out of me. I realised I needed to start preparing myself and my family against future disasters, but found it difficult to work out exactly what those disasters might be, seeing as most of the websites were American-based and seemed to advocate moving out of the cities and stockpiling arms and ammo. There was lots of talk of terrorist attacks, tornadoes and earthquakes etc, but the worst I could imagine hitting us in Devon was a power cut or problems with the water supply.
I was relieved to find there were a few UK-based sites too, so here I am, hoping to find some sensible ways in which I can start prepping without causing too much panic (or hilarity!) amongst the rest of the family.
So far all I've done is reorganise our food storage so that I can start building up supplies of the basics, as and when I can afford to, and started getting rid of some of the clutter that clogs up every available storage area in our home.
I'm looking forward to finding my way around the site and hopefully absorbing some of the wisdom of the more seasoned survivalists in the forums
we are more likely to be prepping for unemployment, ill health, bad weather, economic instability. 
