This whole thing is a basic process of identifying what can go wrong, and what I want to do about it. A big component is obviously the severity and layers I put in place to accomodate things.

One thing to consider is "How much discomfort do I want to have at any time". On one end of the spectrum is "Everything in my life must operate without any discomfort". While this sounds nice, it's probably impossible and if it was would be so expensive, the richest folks around couldn't afford it. On the other end is "I'll endure pain just short of death before I give a shit about that.". In the middle might be "I want to stay warm in my home", or "I can go a few days without using the computer". Every area of getting your life covered has spectrums we all get to make choices on.

This whole thing can be applied to any area of life. For example, I personally have a little tick about "why are we ever, ever, ever out of butter" It freezes, it's not too expensive for me, why would my life be set up such that I never have the inconvenience of not having butter? There are probably many simple areas of stocking the house shelves that are like this. I say this to illustrate the notion that I personally have decided I will ensure we have more butter in the freezer before we run out. Just so I "Never" have to make a run for butter. One aspect of my life I've decided the risk is that I may not have butter. The solution is to ensure we always have butter in the freezer (barring discussion on long term power outage or sourcing issues).

Another example of a small area I'm always ready for is batteries. Have you ever needed 2 AA batteries and not had them on hand? Why? They cost $3 and keep for a year or more. I have a little plano assortment box I keep in my truck, it probably has 20 AA batteries, 10 AA batteries, a couple 9v batteries, and maybe some others although using C and D batteries is so infrequent these days, I may let that stock run out. Beside a mag light I cant think of anything I own that still runs on C or D batteries. I also keep some CR2025 and CR2032 batteries in there. It's amazing how frequently these are used in electronics. Why do I do this? I don't like not having batteries when I want them, and I keep them in my truck so I have them wherever I am. In this case the risk is that I may be inconvenienced and have to run to the store if I need batteries. The solution is to keep some batteries in the truck. Each one of these considerations has forks and nuances that need to be evaluated by each person. Do you have hearing aid? you probably have a bit more critical need to ensure your stockpile is full and appropriately placed. Do you have an insulin pump that runs on batteries? Keep stocked.

So the point is to evaluate your life on a threat by threat basis (I use the word in a context meaning anything could be a threat such as the inconvenience of needing to go to the store), risk by risk basis, thinking through the scenarios on occurance, deciding what level you want to be prepared for and taking action to get that area of your life prepared to that level.