I'll tell you my condensed story on how my wife became a beginner prepper....
She wasn't on the boat yet but she had one foot in & all I needed to do was pull gently to get her fully on board.
My wife & I lived in Arkansas in the 90's & had little money. I convinced her to go to the Aldi store in MO to avoid food tax & get cheaper food. Aldi is the "Stock Up Store" so we did just that, cases of this & that & boxes full of stuff we used. "Better to get more now so we don't have to come back for a month or two." We had stored 2 months of food & she still didn't know she was prepping.
Guns were taboo to her but I still had my .410 shotgun. We talked about them but it was No-Go, that is till she saw some TV show & now she tells me I "Need to get a Gun!" The Prepping continues & we make the move to Missouri. Again she tells me I need to get a gun cuz she listens to her Police Scanner & crime is all over our neighborhood. Now with some money I do get a gun & my CCW, which she encouraged me to get since armed & unarmed robberies are all over her Police Scanner.
Enter the Ice Storm of 2007.....
Losing power for 13 days was what it took for my skeptic wife to become my Awesome Wife & Prepper Companion!!
Living by candlelight, a borrowed kerosene heater which also doubled as our stove & washing up in the sink every morning was the straw that broke the skeptics back!
She was a real trooper & didn't complain or cry till day 12. I really love my wife & give her a lot of credit for lasting that long before breaking down just a bit. She still kept her chin up & knew things were going to be all right in a day or two.
Things have changed since then & financial difficulties prevent us from purchasing high dollar items right now.
We are prepping for 5 now so things will just be taken a step at a time but we keep on stepping together now, instead of apart.
For all of you with skeptical wives I can give you this advice.
Show her the crime statistics for your area for the last 2 years & she will most likely tell you to get a gun.
Show her food price increases over the last 2 years & she will tell you to stock food you eat all the time.
Take her to Lowes & walk her by the heaters and generators & mention how that would really come in handy if we had a snow/ice storm or disaster like they had in Katrina, etc... She will probably tell you "we need to get one of those when we can afford it."
For my wife, having a police scanner was something she always wanted & when she heard all the stuff going on, the "real life stuff", she knew there was trouble brewing. From there it was little steps in the direction of prepping.
I doubt you will hear on the news how a man was stabbed this Christmas morning while his roommate called for Police and the burglar was downstairs, but hearing it on the scanner, while it happens, is a totally real thing!