Preparedness Blogs

Here is a starting list of several emergency preparedness blogs to check out. If you know of one not listed, please let me know.

iprepared
Food Storage Made Easy
Preparedness Families
Safely Gathered In
Totally Ready
Everyday Food Storage
Let Us Prepare
Care to Prepare

Preparedness Blogs

Where are you at?

Here are some good questions to mull over this weekend.....

Where are you at in terms of food storage and emergency preparedness?
I encourage you to take some time this weekend to write down some goals and evaluate where you are. Do you need to put your 72 hour kits together? Do you need to inventory your current food storage? Do you want to change some things from what you have done in the past?

Make a list of what you want to work on and take it one thing at a time. This month I am working on updating our 72 hour kits. I put some good kits together about 4 years ago, but I have not updated them since! AH! I have had another baby since then and lots of other changes I need to update.

Here are some fabulous links for all types of emergency preparedness. There is a food caluculator on there that is good for figuring out what you need to store and how much.

How do you keep track of your food storage?
This is a never-ending battle I think for most everyone. What I do works for me. I have a sheet where I have written down everything that I have. I really only keep track of the long-term items I have gotten from the cannery, since the stuff I store in my garage (see photo above) I rotate on a constant basis. We live in a fairly small home (1675 sq ft) with not much storage space. So I have gotten very creative in where I store all my boxes of dry packed items. On my tracking sheet (which is not fancy at all) I have written down where things are stored, when I put it there, and the date the item was canned. I have lots of stuff in the crawl space on boards. Those dry packed items I am not touching for years and years. The dry packed items in my closet and under the beds are the ones I need to get to if I need to. So I have that all written down on a sheet that I date so I know where things are. I try to update it every time I purchase new items from the cannery. That way I know how much of everything I have. Right now I have 3 of those lists I need to consolidate!

Now that the church as told us that the food will store longer if stored properly, those are the items I try to be careful with. I know keeping food in the garage is a no-no, but I really have no other place to put it. Since we use that stuff all the time I don't really keep track of it like I do the other stuff. And we don't have a large freezer either. So we just do the best we can, right?

Here are a few good tracking/inventory sheets I found on the web if you are interested. If you have a tracking system that works well for you, please share! I love getting new ideas!
Trackmyfoodstorage.com
Tracking sheet downloads
USU tracking sheets (go Aggies!)

Don't forget to always be on the lookout for clearance and sales to build up your storage cheaper!

Where are you at?

A safe for safekeeping

It is important for everyone to have all their important documents together and safe. We used to have a safety deposit box at our credit union for many of our important documents. What I didn't like about that was:

1. It cost us $15 per year.
2. The box was small so my 8 1/2 x 11 documents had to be folded.
3. I wanted to fit more in there, but couldn't (and I wasn't willing to pay more per year for the larger box).
4. I had keys to keep track of.
5. Having to go over there every time I needed to access something (about 1x a month).

Our solution was to buy a safe to keep at home. Easy and quick access. It cost $40 from Big Lots. (they have them back this week, starting on Tuesday if anyone is interested).

I love this safe because it locks, it has hanging file capability so all my papers that I want to keep nice (like birth certificates & car titles) can be put in folders, and it is fireproof and waterproof. And, I think it is a good price compared to others I found. I keep all my originals in this safe. I am making a binder with copies in it for emergencies. It's called a GAG notebook (Grab it And Go). Click HERE for more info on that. I know many people like having a safety deposit box at their bank. You need to figure out what works for you and do it.

Do you like your storage method for your important documents? If you don't have one, think about starting one. Here is a list of important documents to get you going:

Car titles
Birth certificates
Passports
Social Security Cards
Immunization records
Insurance policies (health, life, house, auto, etc)
Receipts for large purchases
Letters of importance
Marriage certificate
Property records (house closing docs)
Lease contract
Packets I have on each of the kids w/identification info and fingerprints
Legal documents (wills, power of attorney, etc)
Tax returns (at least 2 years)
Investment records

A safe for safekeeping

72 Hour Kit list

(Thanks Tisha!)

Just FYI:
Here is list for a 72 hour kit that all fits into a one gallon Ziploc bag. Just in case anyone can use it, I wanted to pass it along!

72 Hour Kit list

Emergency Preparedness deal

Here is an awesome deal I found on Pinching Your Pennies today. Even if you have already used Google checkout before, use a new email address for this order and you can still get it for $1.99 shipped! When you are in Google Checkout, it automatically selects the $8 shipping, just change it to the free budget shipping before you order. :) Happy shopping!

Buy.com PYP link

Survivor 10 in 1 Solar-Powered Crank, LED Emergency Lamp, AM/FM Weather Band Radio with Cell Phone Charger - 00064 - New Factory Sealed - Limited Stock!

List Price: $39.99 (You Save: $28.00)

Our Price: $11.99

Shipping: FREE Buy.com

Total Price: $11.99

But here is the best part:

New Google Checkout Customers: Use Google Checkout to get $10 off your order! Offer valid for new Google Checkout customers only.

Price with Google Checkout $1.99

Emergency Preparedness deal