So, what was the biggest mistake that you made to date with respect to your preparations? If we can keep this thread going, it could turn out to be a great learning experience for our members and those just starting out.

For me, my biggest mistake so far was initially purchasing too much of the same kind of food. Now I purchase more of a variety and also keep much closer attention to foods with more distant expiration dates.

Mine was buying too much crisco-an old prep book i read said it had a 15 yr shelf life-i ordered several cases from the local grocer but it had a 2 yr shelf life. i e-mailed the author and he said the older metal cans had that long of a shelf life but the new ones didn't. Oh well live and learn!

My 2 biggest mistakes to date were:
1) Not learning more about vegetable gardening from my grandmother.
2) Not learning how to can those veggies.

I'm now having to relearn the gardening and I don't know how I'll get the canning done until I can show the Mrs that we have too much produce.

Like some on this forum, I didn't start prepping as early on as I should have, but one of my mistakes was not rotating our children's clothes out quickly enough as the one time so far that we needed them they were almost too small to fit into. Now I have the kids try on their emergency set of clothes each season as we rotate the summer and winter clothes.

I have more than one mistake. First I didn't start soon enough. Second when I did start to purchase things, I did so with out a plan. Get a budget and make a plan if at all possible. Lastly I didn't talk with and learn from my grandmother nearly enough. She died two years ago at the age of 101, most of what we are preparing for she lived through. Some times more than once. A wealth of love and information lost!!!

Very true. Not only have the elders lived through things, but they have also lived the simpler lifestyle which was alot more along the lines of homesteading and self sufficiency.

Didn't take good advantage of my salary (when I had one) to stock up on things that are a lot more expensive now than they were then. Probably would have used them all up the way I did what I did have when I became ill, but it would have saved a bunch of money.

I've been thinking this over since it came back up and I would have to say that the biggest mistake I made, which was about 3 years ago, was telling people what I was doing. I didn't think much of it at first but after hearing the same response from several people I realized that I had made a terrible mistake.
The response? "I know where I'm going if things get tough"
I quickly stopped talking about it.