Anyone who prepares is by definition a prepper. I mentioned on another post to @kp128 that I have never met a prepper who was paranoid. Quite the opposite actually. Every one that I've met have all had a pretty sound peace of mind by being prepared. Paranoia is what happens leading up to or after a disaster to the people who did not prepare.

Yes, it is true that people can get obsessive and excessive about it. Y2k comes to mind. Too many people went out and bought thousands of dollars worth of spam and MRE's. Basically food that they don't normally eat. A rule of thumb for any prepper is to store what you eat and eat what you store and follow that FIFO method. Buy food when it's on sale or with coupons, discounts, or wholesale clubs and you can always get extra food for storage while still saving on your food bill. It's important to rotate and consume it all so nothing goes to waste. Doing this method you can easily build up a year supply worth of food without any of it going to waste.