Emergency Preparedness on a Budget

With all of the natural disasters flooding the news in the last weeks, I have been motivated to take inventory of our family's emergency preparedness. If you're on a tight budget, this can feel overwhelming, but just like saving money, you can reach your goals by taking small and simple steps.

As I began to go through my 72-hour kit, I realized that many of the items I had stocked were items I already on hand, and anyone could take a few moments to create a very basic emergency kit with items already in their homes.

• Extra clothing- If you don't keep much extra clothing, this is a great thing to get cheap at thrift stores. Ladies, if you're still growing your family, be sure to include pants with an expandable waistband. (Tip- store clothing in an extra pillowcase. This will keep it organized and can serve as a pillow in emergencies)
• Small towel and/or washcloth
• Basic toiletries- I actually keep a toiletry kit stocked with travel-sized versions of products I normally use, extra toothpaste and a toothbrush. Whenever I travel I just toss this in my suitcase, then I refill it when I come home and keep it near my emergency kit so that I can easily pack it if I have to evacuate.
• First Aid supplies- even just band-aids and some pain medication will work. At least it's something!
• Plastic bags
• Pen and paper
• Contact Info- List of family members' names, phone numbers, and photos, plus an agreed-upon emergency action plan (meeting locations, etc.).
• Tissues- just put a few in a plastic ziplock bag.
• Toilet paper- individually wrapped roll, if you have it
• Matches- put these in a plastic ziplock bag also
• Water- fill a water bottle with tap water and store it. If possible, store enough for 1 gallon per person per day, but even if you only have one bottle in an evacuation kit, that's still something!
• Food- granola bars, canned food, etc. While these are not necessarily ideal, they are still something!
• Baby Wipes- I just heard one of the guys on one of the professional emergency response crews on CNN saying that baby wipes are one thing they never leave home without.
• Flashlight- You might not have an extra, but you can get these at the dollar store and they're essential.
• Backpack or bag- You will need some kind of portable container to hold all of your emergency supplies. While a backpack is ideal, even a cardboard box or grocery bag(s) will do.
• Shoes- In case of a sudden evacuation, you might not have a chance to change shoes or even put on shoes. Find an old pair of sneakers or maybe a pair of hiking boots you don't wear often- just something sturdy and comfortable- and stuff a pair of socks in the toe and use the shoelaces to tie them to your emergency kit. If you need them in the meantime, you can still access them easily.
• Grab-and-Go List- If you are fortunate to have more than a moment's notice of an evacuation, you may have time to grab a few sentimental/useful items along with your emergency kit. Go around your house and make a list of items- photos, computer, kids' special lovies, journals, important documents, etc.- that you would want to take with you if evacuated. When possible, try to keep these items grouped together for easy packing. Decide now what kind of container you will use to pack them- maybe a container currently being used for winter clothes or a cardboard box- making these decisions now will save you panic and chaos later on!

These are just the basic basics. My purpose in this post is simply to show you that you don't have to run out and raid your local camping supply store in order to assemble a decent emergency kit. Remember- when an emergency strikes, some preparation is better than none at all.

When it comes to improving your long-term food and water storage, I believe that the best method is to just do it a little at a time. Wash out empty soda and juice bottles and fill them with tap water. Dedicate $1-$2 a week, if that's all you have, to increasing your food storage. That $1 can buy you a gallon of water and a can of vegetables. Continue to increase your supplies by just a little each week and you will see your storage grow!

I will say it again: When an emergency strikes, some preparation is better than none at all. I challenge you to DO SOMETHING TODAY to become better prepared!! You don't want to find yourself saying, "If only..."

Makeover Monday (A Day Late): Wrap it Up!

I apologize that this Makeover Monday turned into a "Makeover Tuesday", but my sweet husband needed the camera yesterday so I was unable to snap these beautiful photos. :-) And since it's Tuesday, I thought I'd add this to the Talk About Tuesday blog carnival from the Lazy Organizer. Welcome!

I am pleased to say that all of my Christmas shopping is done, with the exception of a few stocking stuffers. Thanks to amazon.com, all of the gifts I have purchased have been arriving with regularity in boxes on my doorstep, and I have not had to set one foot inside a mall or crazy department store. (By the way, you can still get Free Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25 at amazon.com, and if you order by tomorrow you can still get your items in time for Christmas!)

So now I am facing quite a few gifts in need of wrapping- luckily, not as many as last year since I did such a good job sticking to my Declaration of Independence and carefully selecting only a few quality gifts for each of my children. :-) However, the presents do add up, and they must be wrapped. Upon assembling all of my various wrapping supplies, minus ribbons and bows, this is what I had to face:

Well, rather than going out and spending $10 or more on a fancy wrapping organizer, I decided that a garment bag would do the trick:

It holds all the rolls of wrapping and some folded-up gift boxes, and with a hanger in the top it hangs neatly in the closet. Just add on a plastic shopping bag with all of the tools and accssories- scissors, tape, tissue paper, tags, etc.- and I have a portable wrapping center that cost about $1.50. :-)

Here is the bag hanging up:

No more running around searching for tape and scissors; no more wondering where that one roll of Santa paper went- it's all nice and neat and can be hung up and tucked away in a closet until I need it. 

Okay, I gotta go now. I have gifts to wrap, people!

Check back later this week for some nifty gift wrapping ideas...

Makeover Monday: A Welcome Closet!

Messy stuffed closet before...

Clean empty closet after!

This Makeover Monday post will be a little bit different, and I'm hoping over the next few weeks that I have more Makeover Monday posts like this- because I need to! Since the weather has gotten colder and we've had to wear our coats more, I have realized that stuffing them into the closet and yanking them out with stuff falling on you the whole time is NO FUN! So it was time to crack down and do something about it.

My hubby and my kids got in on the action, and as a family we managed to get it all cleared out. We used 2 bags- one for trash, one for giveaways- and one box for items to be put away. The rest of the items were things that actually belonged in the closet (the smallest group by far!) and so they got put back. 

All in all, it took us less than an hour to do, and it is so nice to have a little breathing room in there now! We assigned one shelf of the shoe organizer for each family member, and we discovered a plethora of empty hangers for guest coats- that's right, guest coats! When we have guests over, we can actually open the closet without shame and hang their coat! Just in time for the holidays.

Okay, so here's your challenge- find a part of your house that needs a decluttering makeover, and get to it! Give yourself an hour, or if you don't have an hour then do it 15 minutes at a time. I'm just going to keep plugging away over the next few weeks and you'll get to see all of my hidden messes...and all of my clean accomplishments! 

For more on decluttering, check out Flylady.net. Are you going to send your clutter packing this holiday season? Leave a comment and share your game plan!

Mother Hubbard Meal #1

So tonight I was planning on doing the Chicken Noodle Soup with dumplings, but as I looked through my pantry I decided to change the menu a bit. I came upon a family-sized can of Cream of Chicken soup, so I decided to use that as my base, and then I added in a can of chicken, carrots (I steamed these separately because I didn't want to boil the soup), and some sliced green onions for a little color. Then I cooked up some instant mashed potatoes, and I served the soup over the potatoes.

Well, it was a big hit! I loved it, my husband loved it, and I'm sure that if the kids had eaten it, they wouldn't have complained too much (I had some leftover mac-n-cheese that needed to be eaten, so that was their dinner, much to their delight). It was also very filling, which is important when you're trying to stretch your budget. The best part was that I even had some left over for lunch the next day... yum!

See? Old Mother Hubbard doesn't have it so bad!

Old Mother Hubbard and Me!

My husband's job is mostly commission-based- he installs security systems and gets paid by the job and the devices he installs. Well, a couple of weeks ago he suffered an injury that put him on "light duty". Light duty= office work= low paycheck. So this week I am putting my frugal muscles to work to see how little I can spend when I do my weekly grocery shopping tomorrow! 

What I have decided to do is to try this "Old Mother Hubbard"-style and to take a look at what I already have in my freezer, fridge, and pantry, and try to make some meals from it. Luckily, they are not completely bare thanks to my deals shopping of weeks past. So here is what I have come up with so far in no particular order (note: I usually only plan dinner menus because we always have cereal for breakfast and the kids always eat the same things for lunches, and my DH doesn't eat lunch...go figure...):

Dinner #1: Canned chicken noodle soup- I'll add dumplings (this is a first for me!) and some extra carrots that I have, maybe even some extra cooked chicken (see dinner #7)

Dinner #2: Spaghetti- no meatballs for this one, but I'll make either some homemade bread or rolls and accompany it with a big salad (I like the giant bags of salad from Sam's Club for $2.50)

Dinner #3: Tuna pasta salad- I have some of that "Suddenly Salad" mix that I tried for the first time this week and it was pretty good- I think that if I just add some canned tuna and have some cooked broccoli on the side, maybe some of that leftover bread and/or rolls with it then it will be pretty good!

Dinner #4: Frozen Pizza- Got this cheap, not particularly healthy, but it's a crowd-pleaser! We'll have some salad on the side.

Dinner #5: Corn pancakes or waffles and eggs- I like to make breakfast for dinner sometimes, but I like to use the Jiffy corn muffin mix (can't beat it for $0.33 a box!) and do corn pancakes because they're a little bit heartier than the buttermilk pancakes.

Dinner #6: Potato Soup- I just recently got a recipe for how to make a cheesy potato soup using items from food storage (dried potato flakes, etc.). I am going to give it a try and maybe add in some of those extra carrots and accompany it with some corn muffins.

Dinner #7: Grilled Chicken Salad- this is a favorite of ours! We just take some chicken breasts (I think I have 2 left in the freezer!) and season them with a little garlic salt and pepper and then throw them on the grill. Once they're done, we cut them up and put them on a green salad. Add some cheese and  your favorite salad dressing, maybe some bread on the side, and you've got a yummy and filling meal!

So that's the plan for next week- I'll be sure to post again to let you all know of my successes and (though hopefully fewer!) flops.

How could you reduce your grocery bill for next week with items you already have in your cupboards?? Leave a comment and let us know what you're going to try this week!

Water, Water, Everywhere!

Lately I've been on a bit of a kick to increase my food storage. I'm Mormon, and being self-reliant and "temporally prepared" is an important part of our religion. Well, I'm also getting into "going green" and I recently read something that inspired me to do both- for free! 

In the LDS family home storage pamphlet entitled, "All Is Safely Gathered In", it reads, "Store drinking water for circumstances in which the water supply may be polluted or disrupted. If water comes directly from a good, pretreated source then no additional purification is needed; otherwise, pretreat water before use. Store water in sturdy, leak-proof, breakage-resistant containers. Consider using plastic bottles commonly used for juices and soda." (read more here)

Well, it sounded like a great idea to me, especially since my husband recently made a connection with a guy who can get him his favorite sodas for really cheap, so he's drinking a lot of them! I just rinse out the bottle with warm soapy water and then refill it with clean water from the tap. And I now have a nice collection of water bottles sitting on my counter.  Now if only I had a place to store them...

It's funny though, whenever I do things like that, my motivation comes from this idea that someday I could be in the midst of a disaster emergency, where food and water will be scarce and the only thing that my family has to survive on is the items I have stored. I always wonder if that one extra item will be the difference between life or death. Wouldn't I just kick myself if it came right down to it and one of my precious little ones was wasting away from hunger or thirst and I just knew that had I filled one more water bottle, they would be okay? It really makes you think...

For others of you preparing for TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It), what are some ways that you have found to bulk up your storage without thinning out your bank account?