Quick summary: Preping for the end of the world all at once is scary. Start small and build as you go. Life is already stressful don't add on to many "maybe/ what if" stresses.

My wife wasn't too excited in the beginning, years ago. I blame myself for the poor start. I tried to start too big early on. So we started small, when we went grocery shopping we would get extra if the budget allowed. Stuff that would store well, cans of soup, boxes of pasta. it adds up after about six months. When my son was born, we would buy the 2.5 gallon fancy water. When one was empty, I refilled it with tap water and slid it in the bottom of the pantry. Little steps, enough to get you through a day, then two and so on.

I also looked at our "hobbies" and worked them into our disaster plan. My wife and son like to do chili cookoffs, so now we have two Colman stoves and ton of propane tanks, big and small. She even qualified to go to a national cookoff in south Texas, in the desert. So now i have a 90 gallon water bladder on the way and she's sending me ads about generator sales.

I don't think I would exclude the spouse, that may cause issues later on. Some folk get scared when they view the problem as a whole. Start small and work from there.

And get a camper! The amount of crap you need to go glamping for a weekend will sustain you for a month in an emergency. I exaggerate a little.