The topic of prepping for survival has exploded in the past couple of years. The fact that it’s now mainstream means more people than ever are looking for ways to become fully prepared to face any dire situation – whether it’s weather related, financial, civil unrest or otherwise.

Many newcomers to this way of life mistakenly believe they will simply pick up a few extra goods when they head to the grocery store each week. They don’t understand that there are many different preparations and scenarios to consider, in addition to food and water supplies.

When you are new at survival prepping, you need to take a methodical approach to how you want to plan for possible SHTF situations and even small, short-term emergencies that you don’t want to be caught unprepared for.

Below, you will find information about 10 different starter plans you need to begin working on so that you can fulfill each one over a period of time without getting distracted or doing tasks that are not prioritized or not fully fleshed out.

Start By Mapping Out Your Water Plans

Water is the most important resource you can have in a survival event. Many people mistakenly think it’s food, but you can live longer without food than you can live without clean water.

Because of this, you need to have your water plans prepared before anything else. There are many different situations that can happen with water. For example, many weather events can cause your water to become contaminated, and they will require a boil water notice to be sent out to all residents.

But there are other situations, including one that is happening right now, where a city or town will be without water completely. That means nothing is coming out of the tap, so make preparations to have water on hand at all times.

You never know if a drought could eliminate all water sources or if a flood could knockout the water purification plants. There are different plans you want to make in terms of your water situation.

Start by knowing exactly how much water you need per day per person. Not only do you need drinking water, but you also need water for bathing, washing clothes and dishes, and even for first aid in some situations.

You definitely want to stock up on some store purchased water ahead of time. That can be individual bottles, gallons, or even bags that you can buy online and store easily. You may also want to get some 5 or 7 gallon stackable containers online that you can fill with water and treat so that they will store for a longer period of time.

You also want to have some way to gather water on your property in the event that you can’t simply run up to the store and get water before an emergency situation. Rainwater collection barrels will work perfectly for this purpose.

Another thing you want to consider is an event where you are not even at home but having to bug out to another location and drink water from rivers, streams, lakes, or ponds.

You have to have a purification system in place, whether you are at home or on the go, so that you and your family do not become sick from drinking water that has microscopic contaminants in it.

Add in Plans to Secure, Grow and Store Food

Because it is such a mental and physical concern to many people, the second preparation plan you need to place on your to do list is for food. The thing you want to focus on most with survival food plans is making sure everything you get has a long shelf life.

You need to plan for enough calories for each member of your family per day. You can purchase ready made survival food buckets that will last 25 to 30 years, but you also may be purchasing individual cans of vegetables and fruit as well as dehydrated items that you can rotate out over a shorter period of time.

You want to plan to be shopping smart so that you are choosing food that has the maximum amount of nutrients in them at the lowest cost possible so that you can spend the additional money purchasing more survival supplies.

It’s always best to plan to buy items that your family already enjoys. You don’t want to suddenly find yourself in a survival situation and make everyone eat foods they can’t stand, because this will add stress to everyone.

Not only do you want to make plans for store bought food, but you also need to plan where you’re going to keep all of your food supplies. You should have an area of your house that is cool and dry, which you protect from any pests that could spoil your food stores.

In addition to purchasing and securing your food, you also have to think about plans for a major survival event when you are unable to purchase additional food. You would need to grow your own food and know how to harvest and prepare it for storage.

That means you need to plan for methods such as canning or dehydrating food that you can put up for later use. You may also want to make plans for raising your own food, if you plan on having chickens, cows, goats, sheep add more.

Make Sure You Have Proper Bug Out Plans

You won’t always be able to shelter at home in a survival event. Your home may become compromised by a weather or civil unrest situation, and you will have to bug out to another location.

You have to make plans and proper preparations for this type of survival event. First, you will have to have a bug out bag for each member of your family that is ready to go at all times.

This should include food, water, clothing, and other material that you will need when you do not have the conveniences of whatever you have at home. Make sure you have fire starting materials as well as first aid gear.

Because you will have to carry everything on your back when you are bugging out into the wilderness, you have to make sure that everything you take with you is light enough to carry.

You have to have items such as knives that you can use for survival purposes – and that may include clearing an area to camp out in, helping you build a shelter, hunting, and even using it as self-defense.

While you may want to purchase a a tent that you can quickly and easily put up, make sure you have plans in place for when and if a situation arises where you do not have your tent.

Anything could happen to it and you would be stranded in the elements without a way to create a shelter. The plans you make for this may need to be printed for other members of your family to have in case you are not around.

Another thing you want to plan for in a bug out situation is knowing what wildlife you may encounter and have to defend yourself from. If you live in an area where you have mountain lions or dangerous bears, you need to have a plan in place to protect yourself.

Protection can also come in the form of the elements. If you live somewhere where the temperature dips greatly at night, you don’t want you and your family to freeze. And you also want to protect yourself from some of the plants that grow in the wild that can cause extremely uncomfortable rashes.

You never know how long you will be bugging out for, so make plans for both short term as well as long term wilderness situations. You need to know where any bodies of water are that you can hydrate yourself with, and know how to navigate during the day and at night without having the convenience of a GPS.

Prepare Self Defense Plans for Every Member of the Family

Self defense is something you never hope to have to use, but you definitely want to be prepared for it. You want to make plans to protect yourself and your family at all times. During survival events, anything can happen.

You might have to protect yourselves during civil unrest, times of war, or even from thieves and people who would do you harm and try to take your provisions from you that you have worked so hard to be prepared with.

Avoidance and camouflaging are the first forms of self-defense that you need to plan for. Being aware of impending threats is very important in helping you and your family distance yourself from any type of conflict that could cause you harm.

Knowing how to use a variety of weapons – from firearms and knives to pepper spray or tasers is an important part of planning your self-defense strategies. Not only do you need to know how to properly use these items, but you need to train for them so that you are safely using them only when necessary.

Hand to hand combat is another self-defense strategy that you need to plan for. Both yourself and your spouse as well as your children should be enrolled in some form of martial arts that will help you protect yourselves and eliminate any type of threat in case you do not have access to a weapon at that time.

Home defense is another self-defense plan that you need to make early on. If you are lucky enough to be sheltering in place at home, you can set up defensive measures ahead of time to keep your family safe.

This will include a variety of things such as making sure your doors and windows are properly secured and less likely to be broken into. You will also want to have a place for your family to hide or shelter in case of an intruder or even a weather event, for that matter.

Planning to invest in things like gates for your property or security cameras that can alert you to people who have entered your perimeter will be important to helping you have a bit of advanced notice to someone presence.

Not only do you want to learn how to use things, but you also want to have a family plan for what to do in case there is a situation where there is a confrontation. Sometimes, you will be caught off guard and it will be better to agree to the intruder’s demands, while other times you will need to know how to fight back.

Certain parts of your plan, such as food storage or financial planning, should also be considered in your self defense plans. If someone is able to breach your home, you don’t want them to be able to take all of your supplies.

Some of them will need to be stored in other places so that you can hand over a small amount to the individuals and know that you have plenty of supplies stored elsewhere. You don’t want to lose your life over any of your supplies.

Have Some Communication Plans in Place

Communication plans are an important part of your preparation process. You want to prepare for many different instances where you may not be able to know what is happening in the world or even be able to communicate with loved ones.

Everyone should have, at the bare minimum, a way to listen to a radio that is operated on batteries, solar energy, or hand crank energy. This way, you can tune in if there is a threat of weather or war or anything else.

You may also want to have some sort of short range communication system, such as walkie talkies that you can use on your property and keep in touch with one another. For example, you may have your kids in the house while you are out on your homestead in the garden or tending to the animals and they need to alert you to someone on the property.

You may also want to get a ham radio and a license along with the knowledge on how to use it. This will give you more long term reach in gathering information and planning with other individuals who also have taken steps to stay informed and communicate with their neighbors for protection.

An event may even happen when you and your family are not together. For example, you may have you and your spouse each at your workplaces and the children at their various schools.

There should be a plan in place for how you will all come together. Make sure you have planned for a situation where you are all not able to return home. Who will go pick up the kids and where will you meet up if this what happens?

Even if it doesn’t seem as if the grid has gone down, as we saw during the September 11th attack, there are times when the mobile system will become overwhelmed and calls are unable to go through.

If this happens, each person should know what the plan is on what to do and where to go for every type of scenario you can envision. This would include weather events, terrorist attacks, civil unrest, and more.

Evaluate the Weather Plans You’ll Need

Cold weather can be a threat even if you live in an area where it is normally not a problem period for example, northern states typically expect to have blizzard conditions that they have to plan for where the grid may go down and they need to use a generator to stay warm.

But, as Texas discovered in recent years, no one is safe from cold weather survival situations. When the grid failed in this state, many individuals were caught off guard without any way to stay warm, get food or water, and stay alive.

Not only do you want to prepare your home for cold weather situations that may cripple the grid, but you also want to prepare for a bug out situation where you may have to stay warm while living in the elements.

Hot weather can be equally dangerous, so you have to be prepared with a good plan. If the grid goes down in many northern states, and the temperatures rise to over 100 degrees, you will see some people suffering and dying from their inability to handle the temperatures and their lack of preparation for something so rare.

Floods can be devastating, so even if you don’t think you’re in a flood zone, have a plan. The power of water, even if it is not a tsunami situation, can wreak havoc on an entire town, wiping out entire homes, and ruining crops, water plants, and more.

Fires can start and spread quickly, so you want to make sure you have a plan for this type of event. While most are started by individuals, some can be started by lightning or other situations.

Make sure you have a plan to protect yourself and escape safely so that you are not caught and overwhelmed in this type of survival event. Earthquakes are another type of event that you need to have a plan for, and although it’s not necessarily weather, it’s geographical, and you want to have a plan for it period.

Hurricanes have been known to devastate entire regions that cannot be rebuilt for years. If you live in an area where hurricanes are a possible threat comment you need to make plans to evacuate the area as soon as you have notice of it.

You may also want to make plans for what could happen if your home is devastated because of a hurricane, and you are not able to return to it after the immediate threat has passed.

Tornadoes are quick and deadly. You need to have a plan to protect yourself and your loved ones in your home. You may also want to have plans to have certain valuables protected in a safe.

If you cannot make plans to have a tornado shelter built on your property, then you want to begin saving up for that and have a plan ready to seek shelter the best you can without one.

Formulate Some Financial Plans

There are both short and long term, minor and major financial situations that can disrupt your way of living. You want to be prepared for both situations. That means you can handle a short outage at the ATM and you can also handle a global economic crash.

The first thing you want to do is make plans to eliminate your debt. You can use a snowball method or different type of debt payoff strategy, but you don’t want to owe anyone money and be paying interest on a loan.

The next thing you want to do is make plans to accumulate an emergency savings. You can start out with a goal of making sure you have enough to cover the first three months of living expenses.

But then, you want to become financially capable of handling a full year without any earnings period make sure you are saving enough for all of your bills and utilities, your home, food, health needs and more.

You may want to have some sort of investment strategy in place. You can meet with a financial advisor to see what would be the best approach for yourself and your family. You may also want to make plans for handling your estate if something were to happen to you.

Make sure you have some cash on hand so that if the grid goes down and you are unable to take out money at the bank or ATM, you will still be able to go to the store and make a cash transaction.

When you are making your financial plans, make sure you have a variety of places to store your cash on hand. You don’t want to put all of your money in one place, because an intruder could break in and demand it or find it and you would be left with nothing.

There are many people who make plans to invest in silver and gold. That may be something you want to look into. You also want to consider an extreme survival situation where cash would be no good and you would be bartering with other items in your life.

Luxury items and products that cater to people’s vices would be a good way to buy things you need. For example, in a major SHTF survival situation, people may not have access to chocolate, alcohol, cigarettes, medicine, and other things they would love to have.

You also need to remember that skills can be used to barter for things as money in a survival event. If you know how to build something or fix something, you might be able to purchase what you need by doing an activity for someone else.

Brainstorm Your First Aid and Fitness Plans

Another plan that you want to make sure you have set in place is your health. This is done with a dual approach. First, you want to make sure that you and your family are taking as good of care of yourself as possible.

That means you are managing your annual checkups appropriately, handling any diseases such as diabetes properly, keeping your weight in check, and making sure you have all of the proper medications and tools on hand that you need.

In a survival event, think about how you would all be able to strap on a backpack, put on your shoes and walk for miles in the wilderness everyday. This can be very difficult on some people, so you want to get in the best physical shape as possible.

Not only is your fitness and health managed by the physical activity, but it’s also influenced by your nutrition and other aspects of your life. You can sign up to a gym or do at home workouts for strength training and cardio exercises.

Make sure this is a family affair and not just one person getting in good shape. There are personal trainers who can help everyone in your group – from women and men to children, elderly and disabled.

Nutrition should be based on foods that can naturally help you with a strong immune system, a good level of reduced inflammation, and all of the vitamins and minerals your body needs to thrive.

For good health, you also need to make sure that you have the proper amount of sleep. Being deficient in sleep can cause many different health problems. Aim to get approximately eight hours every night so that you feel well rested and that your body can recover.

Another thing you need to do for a fit and healthy life is to keep stress to a minimum. Being bombarded by an endless amount of stress can cause many different physical problems, not to mention the mental strain it puts on you.

These should be daily plans that you carry out in an effort to keep yourself in tip top shape at all times period however, you also want to make plans for those times in a survival situation where you can’t simply make an appointment with the doctor or go to a hospital.

You have to have plans for first aid situations that range from a minor cut or scrape to major medical situations like a heart attack, amputation, viral infection, or even something worse.

Not only should your plans include making sure you have enough product on hand to handle any type of minor or major medical situation, but just like self-defense, this is a plan that has to be learned and practiced over time.

Don’t Forget Your Pet Plans

Whenever you are making plans for your survival, you will usually be thinking of yourself and your immediate family. Sometimes, you will be thinking of extended family who may or may not arrive on your property to ride out a survival event.

But you don’t want to overlook the pets that you have in your home or on your property. During the pandemic, there were many people who could not afford to keep their horses, and they were not prepared for the loss of income from their job being shuttered.

Animal shelters across the nation filled up because people could no longer afford to feed and care for their family pets. Others lost their homes and had to go to shelters, where they were unable to bring their pets with them.

You want to make sure that your dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, and other animals are also being considered when you are making your survival plans. That means stocking up on their food, cat litter, medications, and other things you may need if the store is not an option anymore.

You also want to make sure that you have enough water on hand to give to your pets in the event that you don’t have access to clean tap water. Keep in mind that if you have to bug out to another location, your pets will need to come with you.

You want to have a leash ready or a carrier, possibly with a wagon or something that you can transport them with. If you have animals that are on your property that you are using for survival purposes, such as cows or goats, you have to make sure that you have plenty of feed and water as well as shelter for these animals, too.

Make Sure You Have Contingency Plans as a Backup

A good survival prepper always has a plan B in place. That means, for each of the plans you have Called that are listed above, you have to have at least one, if not more backup plans to turn to.

You might have prepared for a specific event with the perfect plan, only to see everything fall through when your supplies are ruined or you are unable to navigate to where you need to go to get more supplies or get to safety.

You don’t want to have to make a decision in the spur of the moment. You need to have plans in place for moments when you are unable to access your food stores, for example.

That might mean you need to teach yourself how to forage for food locally. You would need to take lessons about which plants, berries, and nuts are edible and which are a danger to you and your family.

You also want to have backup plans for technology. For example, if you are relying on a system such as an alarm to protect you from intruders, you have to take into consideration that it may not work.

Many people mistakenly leave all of their plans on their computer, assuming they can simply turn it on and print out anything important if a SHTF a situation where to occur. But if the grid goes down, you will be left in a lurch.

Instead, have all of your important information printed out ahead of time in multiple copies and make sure they are laminated to protect them in case you have to bring them with you out in the elements.

Another type of contingency plan you might want to implement is when and if you have to leave your home and leave all of your supplies behind. Ideally, you will have a way to quickly hide or conceal any items you want to return to at a later time.

Many people who are new to survival prepping often focus on preparing for one survival event at a time. But you have to understand that things may snowball out of control and you will have more than one type of disaster to navigate.

For example, a massive weather event such as a solar storm could cripple the grid, rendering all electronics useless. Then, you might have chaos at local stores because people would be unable to use their credit or debit cards to purchase the items they need.

This could end up resulting in civil chaos and confusion. So you want to be prepared for, not only navigating an electrical outage, but also everything that stems from that type of situation.

Being prepared with plans for survival is the best way to give you peace of mind and ensure that you and your family are kept safe and are able to weather any type of storm that may come your way – whether it’s Mother Nature, economic, political, or something else.

Make your initial plans and then periodically update them to reflect any new knowledge you have gained, ideas that have come to you, and tools and supplies that you now have on hand to help you through possible situations.