Being a prepper is no easy task. It requires careful planning as well as the ability to think ahead and evaluate potential risks.
Yet, it’s also pretty much guaranteed that you’ll bump your head or run into some snags along the way.
While it’s important to make sure that you have enough food, water, and supplies to last you through an emergency, some mistakes are so easy to miss that they can foil the plans of even the most skilled preppers.
In this article, we will discuss some common mistakes that preppers make that can be valuable experiences to learn from.
Over-Stockpiling Food You Don’t Really Like
Have you ever made a grocery run and stocked up on too much food you don’t really like?
You probably know how great beets are for you so it seems like a no-brainer when you see canned beets are on sale and decide to stock up. However, when it comes time to eat them, they just don’t seem as good as they did in the store!
Related: 23 Overlooked Survival Foods You Need To Add To Your Pantry
This is an all-too-common prepper problem that many of us have probably faced at one time or another.
Fortunately, there are some simple tips to help you make the most of your food purchases, even if it is something that isn’t necessarily your favorite.
- Add small amounts of surplus food to foods you enjoy. Hide the offending foods in things like meatloaf, salads, casseroles, etc.
- Rotate your stockpile – That way, you never have cans that are too old in your supply. That 10-year-old can of carrots that’s starting to bulge a bit is probably not going to help you when SHTF.
- Trade cans with other preppers.
- Eat them anyway – at least as much as you can stomach it – all food is tasty food when you’re hungry enough! Still, food fatigue is very real, so be sure you’re getting enough variety in your diet to stay healthy.
- Find a way to cook the food to make it palatable. (use spices, honey, salt, or whatever you need to make it taste good)
Bugs In Your Flour And Other Grains
Storing grains like flour can be a tricky thing. When you get bugs in your flour, improper storage techniques are the usual culprit. Still, even if you store everything properly and up to code, there is still a chance you could open the bag to a bug-filled surprise.
This is because bugs can lay bugs in flour pretty often, and it can happen before your flour is even processed and packaged for sale.
This isn’t just a problem unique to flour. Most dried foods are breeding grounds for moth larvae, mealworms, aphids, and other usually harmless insects.
In fact, it’s so common that the FDA allows up to a certain small percentage of insect parts to be sold in most of our food.
Still, tiny insect parts are one thing… Live bugs, on the other hand, are an entirely different problem. So, what can you do? Do you need to throw the whole bag away?
Most preppers would say it depends on the bug or pest. However, most of the time when you get a bag of flour with a few bugs in it, the bugs aren’t likely to be poisonous or dangerous. If you find yourself in a similar situation, you have a few options:
⇒ Why You Should Freeze Flour Before Storing It
- Sift out the bugs then use the flour as you normally would.
- Add bay leaves, cloves, or cedarwood to your bag, this will kill the bugs or prompt them to evacuate your flour bag.
- Conduct routine inspections of your food stockpile. Check your food storage – like mylar bags and airtight containers – for holes, leaks, or cracks.
- Eat it anyway… Desperate times call for desperate measures, right?
- Diatomaceous earth can dry out and kill pests while protecting grains like flour, rice, pasta, and more. Plus, it keeps the moisture content down!
Stocked Up On Gear Right Before A Big Drop In Price
This is a common mistake almost everyone experiences at one time or another.
Nothing is worse than spending a considerable amount on new supplies or survival gear only to find the price dropped the next day, or you found it cheaper somewhere else.
What can you do in this situation? Depending on the items in question, it may be worth your time and effort to try to repurchase the item at the newly discounted price.
If this is the case, you might have a few options to get the most out of your purchase.
- Cut your losses and chalk it up to bad timing and luck. Try independent research to anticipate price drops in the future.
- Go back to the store and ask if it’s possible to do a retroactive price match on the purchase if within the timeframe for returns. However, depending on the store, don’t be surprised if there’s some policy prohibiting this option.
- Return the goods for a refund if possible and repurchase them, either at the same store or at a neighboring location.
Forgetting To Manage Supply Inventory
For preppers, one of the most important aspects of being prepared is having a well-managed supply inventory.
Whether you keep a spreadsheet, a physical list, or a combination of these, organizing and maintaining your food, gear, and supplies is essential for any prepper.
Not only will keeping inventory help you to rotate food and gear so that they don’t become unusable when you really need them, but it can also help you to identify which items are running low and need to be restocked or fixed.
Related: 6 Places You Can Go Dumpster Diving For Your Prepper Stockpile
Failing to manage your supply inventory can lead to wasted resources, time, and money. To ensure you get the most out of your supplies with zero waste, there are a few habits you can adopt. These tips can help you avoid this common prepper mistake.
- Take inventory of your supply, gear, and food stock on a regular basis. Most people do this on a seasonal basis as the need for supplies can change depending on the season.
- When taking inventory, check for signs of moisture, pests, spills, and other vulnerabilities.
- When tracking your food supply, take notes about the types of food you’ve eaten the most of, and what ends up staying on the shelf. This can help you be aware of what you consume and what you need to keep an eye on in the future.
- After you use any of your supplies, write down how much is left, even if you have a backup. You don’t want to be in a situation where you think you have something only to find out you only have less than you need.
- Create a system of organization – whether that’s a spreadsheet or a notepad for gear, or a stackable cans system with the dates clearly marked for cans – so you know what needs to be used, how often you use it, and what you need to stock up on in the future.
- Put new cans and items in the back of your stockpile. Since you’re more likely to use the ones in the front, it can help you stay organized, use what you have, and avoid unwelcome surprises.
From pests invading the flour stash or buying way too much of one food type to buying cheap gear or letting fear and panic get the best of you – new and experienced preppers alike are sure to make their fair share of mistakes.
While this list can’t possibly cover all of the myriad mistakes preppers might make, using the tips above can help you make the most out of your time and supplies to help be better prepared when it really counts.
What common prepper mistakes are you glad you’ve made or learned from?
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you lost me when you hit the repeating of that old old old wive’s tale of freezing grains – in this case flour – if it actually like the larva form of the pantry critters >>> The entire northern hemisphere of the planet would be bug free – Mother Nature provides – grain is stored for months and even years thru temperature swings to below zero all winter long ….
Bug larva is laughing at you thinking a few days in the freezer will stop them …..
The difference between the cold north and the freezer is that in the cold north the critters can move around to find warmth while it’s more difficult in the freezer. I have opened both flour and rice bags I had in the freezer because I used the ‘old wives tale” method and found dead critters in them both. Did I just get lucky? Dumping rice and flour etc in vacuum sealed bags probably helped.
guy they dump the grain harvest into silo/bins – no where to go buy a parka – face the fact that Mother Nature is at work and there’s nothing much you can do to stop them using methods that she knows about …..
if you want to preserve grains – go ahead and do the dumbcrap freezing bit – just make sure you’re not doing more damage than any good >>> need to bring everything back up to room temp – and – since you could have added moisture to the mix you need to include desiccant packs in your LTS packing – if you want to start playing with black mold just leave out the desiccant ….
Bugs in survival food;
Can the rice or other grains we have stored and find out we have bugs in them. Is there a way to save those grains without throwing the food out?
Can flour be saved from bugs found or do we also throw the flour out?
I see articles on safe storing food supplies, no basic articles on trying to save food infested with bugs. Is it possible?
Is it too much of a health hazard to try to save the food?
Have some preppers been able to save their bug infested food supplies?
That should be a deep dive as survival food is getting expensive to purchase.
Most people would say throw it out. But what if we can’t get a replacement source. Are there true options or not?
Put the rice in a deep pot, fill with water and pour off water. Do again and stir the rice, pour off water. Do this 4-5 times and the rice will be free of bugs. Cook as normal. Flour can be sifted thru a fine mesh, tap the side and the flour will fall through the mesh, leaving the bugs behind. Use flour as normal. Lived overseas, this is normal over there, we are spoiled.
But once you add water to rice it’s no longer able to be stored long term.
Am asking can we get the bugs out and still store say the rice for long term storage?
Filtering the flour, sounds like that can be saved for long term storage. And repackage the flour.
Can another method be used instead of water to repackage the rice?
We too lived in the tropics of Papua New Guinea. Bugs in flour is normal. Just sift it and use it.
You can also spread dry rice in a large baking pan and put in LOW temp oven. Live bugs will evacuate. Freeze the rest for eliminating the larve.
You can dry can or vaccuum seal after it cools down from the oven.. so far mine is going bug free for over 3 years.
Grew up in the tropics… PLENTY of bugs in the flours.. my mom sifted the flours through hose/panty hose as she was going to use it… many pieces could get through a regular shifter. but we sifted everything multiple times… always thought that was one reason our baked goods came out so light… I’ve used the panyhose ‘sift’ in HI, TX, and CA quite successfully. I’m not so big on eating insects.. I haven’t worn panty hose for at least 30 years, but do buy cheap panty hose for ‘if needed’ for bugs.. cut off a leg in 2 major pieces, tie a knot on one end until used and you have at least 4 separate ‘sifters’.. we used to tie another knot and throw it in the trash… now I’d empty it out for my chickens…
With the open border hungry people don’t the food out, just give it to the illegals:)
Do you really understand what is going on and about to happen
if you give they will take even more , as is natural
and then Expect more FREEEEEEE
if you have a cost associated with it then you expect to pay for it
if you dont understand the element of the elites, oligarky and politically RICH , then YOU have not clue
Do the Research : 7 million homeless, illegals , no job, no purpose , no training , no background at your door step and waiting to get what you have FREE as was promised by the morons id DC
This is Why you have to slowly allow in
Check s and Balances
or Total Koas , Crime, Trafficking of slaves, minors, children and the new slaves to the Rich .
Open your eyes , see what is really True here
immigration or Control
Remember the WEF , WHO, CFR and Rich have one thing in common , Control , DEPOPULATION
That is Right : getting rid of YOU for thier own Wealth
Save the planet to feed the Rich , RESET to lower your ability to be like them ( Rich )
Wake Up
Speak out
Speak up
Start Your survival Plan , 90 day s min. 1 year optimal
The only kind of a person that would give this a thumbs down would have the mentality and morals of a wood tic
Stray cats keep coming around if you fed them, so will illegals and bums. send them on their way, by force if necessary. If given as a humanitarian gestor at first it will soon turn into an entitlement. Then what do you do? Keep giving till your supplies are exhausted? Then what? If you cut them off, they will turn on you. Can you handle that, especially if it turns deadly? Don’t Share your supplies that you planned and worked so hard for slip though your fingers, even if it seams like a nice thing to do. Share only with family and close friends that have something to give in return.
A squirrel has a brain about the size of a dime, but he has since enough to store food for the winter, (or hard times). People should do no less. Unprepared, homeless, and illegals will not show up for your benefit. They are scavengers, just like buzzards. They consume and then move on. They will show you NO gratitude for what you have done for them.
Why should one CCP puppet Biden destroy America by the Open Southern Border policy? Do this govt especially the US Congress really support and defend the Constitution. And represent us American citizens anymore?
We need to vote the swamp scum out in 2024, we can’t wait any longer. The border invasion is a real thing, our sovereignty is crumbling fast.
Who the heck voted for Blue Sanctuary States catering to illegals first America last?
Check for HOBO symbol signs around your property, if you gave a homeless free food.
There is so much a prepper can store food at. The long-term survival food also has an expiration date.
So the prepper needs to eventually resupply the damage and depleted food stock.
There are many prepper articles on stocking up. But very that mentioned what happens when and where to get resupplies. Especially in the current food supply chain sources.
Some stray cats are needed to keep the mice and rat population down.
The stray illegal, bums, hobos, homeless begging for food will become a bigger issue. As the flood of hungry illegal freeloaders come to our neighborhoods.
Those will become the real zombies people watch on Science Friction BS TV series and movies. The open Southern border is the real scary movie the public is asleep on.
We will see more people having to defend themselves like the NYC subway marine defending against a criminal. People forget the dead dude had a criminal rap sheet according to news media.
What will we do when our food supplies are gone, what to do with hard to find food sources drying up? A lot of our problems have been preplaned by the elites.
When SHTF time arrives , you need to be planting a garden to supplement your stockpile, having backyard chickens and rabbits is a good idea as well.
A little late if you’re planting when shtf
Which is more scary-
Running out of survival food preps and searching for new food source in the coming chaos?
Experts not able to contain AI, that is now a 20yr old level of thinking. It is teaching it’s self chemistry and other advanced subjects. Some experts say the public has about 12 months before AI goes beyond the ‘War Games’ movie threat.
What will the politics be like in 2024 with the non-vetted illegals flooding America? There are bad apples with evil intentions about to change America as we know it.
What are your solutions to our destruction of America?
What are we really prepping for? Has your mindset changed from today’s current issues?
I guarantee that if you give food to the mom/dad towing a couple of scruffy kids with them they WILL be back. Not only that, everyone they told about the “nice people who gave them the food” will be on your doorstep too. And if you refuse them at some point (maybe right then) they will TAKE IT FROM YOU!! If someone comes to my door asking for food the first thing I will do is say to them “thank God you adhere. We haven’t eaten in days do YOU have any food?” I will do this with my shotgun in my arms. MY family comes FIRST and I know how people will act in those situations. Don’t give me this “I can’t turn hungry people away”. You CAN if you want to survive. If you do NOT turn them away YOU will die. I see no other options. Maybe you have a prepping group and you trust them. That may be the only difference that I can see.
Yuppers, all it takes is one hungry body getting food to bring on a deadly event. The US and Mex govt are in collusion to bring in illegals. The freeloaders either have smartphones or the govt gives them free phones. So it won’t take too long for the illegal communication circle to you on the map.
Wait till AI gets involved into our smartphone communication.
Washington DC clown-show don’t care about us anymore. They live in gated communities with taxpayer paid armed security. While the elites disarm Americans to defend their families in a crisis.
Thank you Dummy Demoncrats and RINO’s for Bite Me destroying America in 2 yrs.
The hippies communes looked great on paper but not in real practice. Until the hippie people’s voiced their opinions and the groups failed from infighting. Most went back to the city.
Interesting throughout humanity, it’s always been a battle between the cities and the rural lifestyles. Now for this administration they have flown illegals far into America. Setting up hazardous situations of city and rural families.
Again as said by others, who’s America is this? Don’t believe the lib’s malarkey, saying we are a nation of immigrants BS. Other countries have built up their borders with walls. The influx of illegals in America is non-sustainable. We are going financially broke. Help everyone else but ourselves. Tax and spend, spend and spend more, go woke go broke.
Great movie on Amazon Prime right now, Atlas Shrugged. 3 part series. I equate the Frank Thompson Character with Biden. Could be real just like the movie in a short time. Check it out.
I am glad I made the happy “mistake” of joining this website. It is full of various kinds of articles: helpful, mundane, repetitive, and downright harmful at times. Why is it possibly a mistake? This site has some wonderful, knowledgeable people that want to see others survive; but it also has other people that come here with the sole intention of creating strife. When I first joined, I could see the camaraderie and strong bonds in the comments. Yes, there have always been those that will defend an ill-informed belief, or that will actually put forth bad information for their own twisted games, and some of them have been easy to identify, but there were also those easily identifiable “white knights” that were there to defend the truth. I do not care about your politics, religious, or sexual beliefs; those attitudes will be adjusted in the near future. What I do care about is having valid information that will help me to become a better prepper.
This article is helpful, but mundane at the same time. We have heard many times about stock rotation and storage. We have all been burned by price changes, and also of buying cheap/useless stuff. Mistakes are going to happen, but you can look like a hero when you overcome those mistakes. Did you buy too much of or don’t like some foods? Donate it to your local food bank or hold onto it for barter or helping someone when SHTF. Did the price drop the next day? I am sure we have all licked our wounds or taken the item back for a refund, but if a refund is not possible, then it is time to consider other shopping avenues.
Now, for the freezing of bugs… Cold DOES kill bugs; if it didn’t, we would have an overabundance of mosquitoes here in the south. It does take a few days of freezing weather for the bugs to be affected, and the ‘skeeters here are smart. I am no scientist, but I am told that bugs will burrow under leaves and other brush to lay their eggs or go dormant for the cold weather. Out in the big bad world, bugs are active and generate body heat, but in a freezer that activity stops. Wives tale? I don’t know, but I would rather try something that does not work, or does not work effectively, than not try something at all that may work. But after SHTF, freezing something may not be an option if we have a grid down situation.
For some people, God does not exist now and never has existed. For me? God is very real. With that being said, I have God’s work and road map for the future, although I don’t know how soon that future is. The Bible has been more right than wrong about events that were future events to the writer but past events to us. Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revalations paint pretty gruesome pictures for what is coming. We have the WEF Agenda 2030 showing what TPTB have planned for us. I prefer to choose God’s way, but use both as a planning guide to be prepared as possible.
Like your food comments and there are fewer places people can let some steam off in comments without lib’s criticizing. Unfortunately today we have trolls with their agendas.
Belief in GOD is real, the part people are turned off on. Is the bible thumpers quoting scripture. Not that it happens too much on this blog.
Over the years people have disliked certain organized religious people like the watch tower folks. Quoting bible verses at strangers front door. You can lead a horse to water, but can’t make it drink the water. Religion is a personal matter to people.
Many of us Believe in GOD is a personal matter and don’t have to wear religion on their sleeves to make point of faith. Even the most religious people do swear sometimes in private to avoid public embarrassment.
Anyway good post, thank you and GOD Bless!
Will America survive in the next few months before the 2024 election?
The Mormons use to say their families should stock food for at least one year. That is including one year food supply per family member.
What will the food chain supply be like by 2024 with the illegals, homeless, welfare, freeloaders. Will the strain implode the food sources?
No other countries will becoming to rescue us. Our adversaries will come to assault us through our porous borders when we are vulnerable. The border czar is missing in action to protect us. Chinese owned farmlands in the USA will ship their crops to their homeland.
How much can you grow food in your garden to keep up with your families needs?
The HHS idiot in charge is trying to get work visa’s for the illegals. What about making the welfare freeloaders get to work?
The prepper articles on canning assume you have enough food from the garden to do so. There are insect damage, rodents eating the veggies. State regulations in some cities on gardening.
How long are your food preps going to sustain you or your family before you have a food and water crisis. When the supply chains are taken away by govt agencies like FEMA?
I used to have/find spiders in my cupboards quite often. Spiders scare me. Then I read somewhere that bay leaves will kill spiders. So…I put a bunch (probably more then I needed to) in my cupboards – every shelf. Soon I had no more spiders scaring me. I didn’t change them for almost 5 years (they probably should be changed more often). Whatever it is that keeps the spiders away, lasts a long time.
For people that just started preping ,I have advise of mistake I made. When making my bagout bag, I packed soap and cleaning stuff next to food and water filter. Year later while going through and replacing food and water I noticed that everything smelled and tasted like soap. I was still able to eat it ,but I learn to put food and cleaning suplies separated and double baged. Water filter I did put into ziploc bag full of coffee for few months and it helped a lot. I know that it’s common sence, but I didn’t think of it, so there is my advice. God bless.
another tip for you – in the SHTFtimes you need to blend in – your soaps and other personal care items need to be scentless as possible – clothes also
if you just have water to cleanup – addin smelling fresh & clean – clean clothes will push it over the top >>> it could be enough to set off the starving masses you might encounter – especially TRUE if someone is hunting you – you’ll stand out in a stinking debris filled world when you’re alllll perfumed up
Another article where the title is a bit misleading. Why, as the title says, *should* we make these mistakes? Aren’t these things we wish to avoid?
Yet, I bet most people who have stocked up for any reason have made them from time to time.
As for bugs in my food, this has happened a time or two for me. Depends upon the insects I find as to how I handled it. If it’s weevils, I sift and use. If it’s a bag of flour, then I put it in a zippy bag in the freezer for several days to freeze out the adults. I haven’t had this happen for a long while since I typically store my working bag of flour in the fridge. If there’s a great sale, and I buy a large bag of flour, I break it up into smaller amounts and put it in a mylar bags with oxygen absorbers. I put the bags in another container to avoid rodents ripping open the bag. Glass or metal work best for this, although glass won’t keep the food out of light so will need to be kept in a cupboard or other dark place for longer term storage.
In my first apartment, I discovered the building had cockroaches. When I found them in my foodstuffs, I discarded the infested foods. I learned then the importance of impermeable containers and stored most things in my cupboard in glass jars.
A commenter asked about infested rice. The water method another commenter mentioned works well. You can do that either every time you prepare rice, or if you want to do it for the whole bag, cook all the rice, keep what you’ll use for the next several days, and dehydrate the rest. It will dehydrate to about the same size it was before you cooked it. Once the dehydrated rice is cool enough and ready to be stored, store it in mylar bags with oxygen absorbers if you want longer term storage, or just in a container with a lid for short-term.
This latter suggestion will get rid of the bugs and provide you with instant rice. You’ll just need to add liquid to reconstitute. It’s not just for SHTF. Having that instant rice on the shelf is handy if you camp, hike, or stayed late at work, and you need to put together a quick meal when you get home.
Putting food grade diatomaceous earth (DE) in your dry foodstuffs helps with insects. It dessicates them and is not harmful for us to ingest. If the infected rice discussed above is something you’d rather store raw, then using DE in it and repackaging the contents would work.
One thing I’ve learned is that it makes sense to buy or package foods in amounts that make sense for your household. While people get all excited about a 5-gallon plastic bucket with a gamma lid that’s filled with rice, you risk the food’s integrity by going through it very slowly in a small household, as you’ll have to open that bucket up many, many times to use up all the contents. Plus, vermin can chew through plastic. While it might seem like more work up front and far more pedestrian, it’s better to repackage that 5-gallon bucket of say, rice, in smaller containers. Mylar bags or glass jars with tight-fitting lids and oxygen absorbers for long-term storage.
Dipping into just the one bag or jar (what I refer to as my “working container”), preserves the integrity of the rest of that bulk buy.
I tried an experiment with this using brown rice and steel-cut oats. We eat both of these things, yet if you look at storage recommendations, both get thumbs down for long-term storage. They go rancid, they say. I have had rice go rancid. I can attest it’s not pleasant to eat.
I figured out how much of these items we typically eat in a year. I had chance to buy large bags of both these items at a discounted price. The amounts of each were several years worth for my household. I didn’t care if these items weren’t going to keep for 30 years if I did the mylar bags thing, but I was very interested to see if storing them that way would keep them fresh for us to use entirely before rancidity set in.
I packaged both in amounts of what I thought we’d eat in six months or less. I figured that if we didn’t eat it quite as often, the opened package would likely still be okay, and if it turned rancid, I’d waste less by having just that one small bag go bad as opposed to one big bag or 5-gallon bucketful.
I consider my experiment successful, because I am opening bags I put on the shelf over three years ago and finding the brown rice and steel-cut oats still good to use. I pour the contents of the mylar bags into a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid and keep the jars in the cupboard. For each mylar bags, I labelled what the item is, how much is in the bag, how much constitutes one serving, and how to prepare it. I also include the date I placed it in the mylar bag. As I do nearly all the cooking in my household, I don’t necessarily need all that information on the label, but if anyone else in my household has to cook it and I’m not there to ask, then they have all the information they need to do it themselves.
So many harp on long-term storage or SHTF zombie apocalypses, but honestly, give some thought to intermediate food storage, and if there are others in your household who might have to step up to prepare it
If I can get food today and package it so it can be good to use several years down the line, it provides me with flexibility in my menu planning. If I think to include info on how to prepare that item, it allows anyone in the household who can read the ability to do so.
vacuum pack jn jars. Every critter needs to breath.
Combine stuff you did not like with stuff you do like? Let me tell you something son. You get hungry enough you won’t care what’s available in the can or jar.. if it is s food you will eat it.