9 Ways That I Actually USE My Preparedness Supplies

I don’t believe in hoarding, even though sometimes it seems rather cluttered around here – well, maybe I do hoard my scraps of plywood, but that behavior has saved me so much money over the years that I am not going to castigate myself for it (In fact, I built a nice 8′ x 30” x 30” high, extremely sturdy shop table, for the cost of a sheet of 3/4” plywood, because I had everything else in scraps).

But I do use my preparedness supplies. Here are 9 ways that I’ve used them recently:

1. Just this past week, I woke up with a pounding headache – very unusual for me. As the day wore on, I realized I had a sinus infection. I have my medical backpack with supplies and then Dollar Store pencil pouches categorized for Pain, Antibiotics, Wounds, Syringes and Needles, Eye & Sliver, and Animal Only. I hit the antibiotics that I have prepped and within hours I felt relief. No calling the doctor and making an appointment, suffering until you can see him/her, waiting in line at the pharmacy for the prescriptions. I had the solution in my preps.
2. Then, right in the middle of making dinner, my manual can opener decided it was worn out. I went down to my preparedness supplies and got a second one. No frustration of running to the store and going down aisles and paying for a brand new one. Nope, I had the solution to the problem on hand and dinner was on time.
3. And then we had company this last weekend and ran out of TP. I had put Bob in charge of the housecleaning as it was his company and I did the outside tidying as they came specifically to see my flower gardens. He forgot to check the TP. When a guest mentioned that they had run out of TP, I sent Bob downstairs to get a pack. Hmmmm, he came up with his arms full of double 12 roll packs, and there are more. Saved a trip to the convenience store.
4. Then we had an unexpected storm and I turned my weather radio on. Another preparedness item I had purchased a while back.
5. Then my camera decided not to work. Hmmmm, could be batteries. Yup, you guessed it, I have extra batteries on hand because I prepare.
6. I broke my reading glasses this week. Yup, a couple of extra pair in my supplies.
7. And when my truck needed to be fixed a couple of weeks ago, I dove into my bug out bag and there was the cash to pay the mechanic – now I have to figure out how put it back on a tight budget.
8. And then there is the flashlight in my B.O.B. that I used this week, when I forgot to shut the door on the chicken cage while there was still light out.
9. And the duck tape I had on hand when I needed to secure a board before screwing it into place.

And yes, I have long term food storage that I’ve thoughtfully assembled from a survival food list – I call this my “life assurance”. But I also have life insurance, car insurance, house insurance, and health insurance. Most of these I hope to never use. But they are there if I need them.

What I’m getting at, is the practicality of being prepared and organized! You have what you need on hand and can find it at a moments notice. And you can replace what you are using when it is on sale and convenient for YOU.