Friday, October 28, 2005

Frugal Emergency Supplies




You don't have to live in Florida to maintain a stock of hurricane supplies. For example, I once read about a California man who drives around with a 72-hour emergency supply kit in his car.

I'm sensitive about storms these days. We were hit by Wilma and have tracked the heart-breaking devastation in New Orleans and Mississippi. As a live-for-today girl, I hate to worry about what-if scenarios. But ya know, I'll worry less if I prepare more.



So I've put together my own list of emergency preps:

1. Buy bottled water when it's on sale and save it! (Water that is more than a year old can be used to flush toilets in an emergency.)

2. And speaking of flushed toilets, if your local forecast includes a hurricane, a major electric storm or tornado, fill the bathtub. (Ignore this advice or lock the bathroom door if you have small children in the house.) When we lost our running water during Wilma, I was sooo glad we had filled up the bathtub. That water was used to flush the toilet.

3. Keep soapless hand sanitizers and baby wipes around. Enuf said.

4. Buy batteries on sale. Almost every week, Walgreens, CVS, Target, Rite Aid or other national chains offer batteries on sale. Keep an alphabet at your home. You never know! Buy up paper plates and plastic cutlery. Those items are important if you don't have electricity.

5. Set up a supply drawer and don't borrow from it. If you use it now, you won't have it later. Stock the drawer or shelf with batteries, flashlights, candles, matches, canned goods, nuts and other non-perishables. Buy stuff on sale!

Well that's enough stress for now. Stock up and let it go.

L'chaim!

Ciao
Be frugal and have fun.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We went through Hurricane Isabel a few years ago and that was plenty. At the time we only had two of us (my wife and I) to worry about. Now that we have a nine-month-old, more stuff to keep around. Thanks for the reminder!

By the way, I've linked to you as well. Thanks for visiting my blog!