My last big prep was in 1999 just prior to Y2K, if any recall that? I grew up in a farming community so it was always natural to have stores on hand that ran with growing cycles. My mom and grandmother always canned.
Wife and I still had 5 kids at home, almost all teens, and we didn't need to think about watching the children starve, had plenty of money and so it began. Rice, beans, canned meat, spices, water bladder, lights, communication devices, heating equipment, propane bottles, storage shelves. The whole enchilada. We were set.
When it was all said and done we easily had enough on hand for at least 3 1/2 years (the magic 42 month mark) for a family of 7
And THEN it was a big nothing burger, and we had all this food!!!
Kept some of the canned meat and used it. But you can only make stew so many times before you get sick of it.
Some of it went to the church food bank.
Enough went to my parents and a brother living with them at the time that they fed themselves for, I believe, almost 7 years til some of the cans started to go bad with rust.
A simple lesson learned was don't prep with what you don't eat in the normal course of life. We didn't eat much in the way of rice and beans as an everyday part of the diet.
At least none of it went to waste.
When when we sold the house 11 years later I found a one gallon glass jar of Franks Red Hot sauce that got stuck in a corner of the basement. It was still good and we used it up. Use by date notwithstanding.
Prepping since is having enough food on hand for a few months, and food we eat consistently in our normal life.
Waste not, want not
IF there was ever a time to prep, I'm feeling it now, for sure. Might get the 20 quart elec pressure cooker out, thaw out some meat and can it, just in case. Have the jars and equipment. It will still get et regardless
IF we think things will get so bad that we lose our currency or our government, prepping or hoarding precious metals might not mean very much. Better to have guns and bullets. Better yet, gold bullets so you can recover the shots and spend it when needed. Just bite off the bullet end.
Seriously though, I would probably have fed all the neighbors for a few weeks if anything ever happened. And hope they don't bump us off for our food. Prepping wouldn't be just for me and mine.
You really can amazingly make a lot of friends with free food, even in good times. More than you can imagine. It makes for a good witness. Boarding up the windows and hunkering in the dark eating white rice with salt boiled on a propane burner just doesn't seem like it would be all that great of a way to live.