Im a what? Crazy prepper..??Wasting time?

[scientia]

I suppose I have three answers. First, making dehydrated food isn't any crazier than brewing your own beer or making your own jelly. Many people used to can. My late wife's grandmother canned things from her garden until she was in her 80's. There's nothing wrong with canning and it could save you some money. Second, having supplies for a temporary disaster is probably prudent. The number of these that can occur are fairly high. These range from severe snow storms to floods to massive electrical outtages, to hurricanes, and in some cases severe tornados. How crazy your preparations might be would depend on how well you could deal with these types of things. For example, a basement full of dehydrated food that could get ruined by a flood would not make a great deal of sense. Third, the amount of preparation for any given disaster scenario is dependent on the likelyhood (just like insurance). For example, paying $5,000 a month for life insurance for a four year old would probably not make a lot of sense. Planning for the collapse of civilization due to hyper inflation or a coronal mass ejection in 2012 would make even less sense. Usually, if you think of long term disaster planning as short term plus a bit more, that isn't so unreasonable.