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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Then we had an unexpected storm and I turned my weather radio on. Another preparedness item I had purchased a while back.
- Then my camera decided not to work. Hmmmm, could be batteries. Yup, you guessed it, I have extra batteries on hand because I prepare.
- I broke my reading glasses this week. Yup, a couple of extra pair in my supplies.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
We also have been dealing with sinus/allergy “stuff”. Used some OTC Zertec that just didn’t do the work needed. Had ONE blister tab of BTC Claritin that we pulled from our truck’s dash (we keep a few meds there) and took them. Did the trick to get us over the hump. Now that we’re aging I guess we need something a bit stronger? Anyway, we now have BTC (not prescription) on our list of things we need to have at hand. Also discussed the fact that some prescription medications qualify for the $4 price, so may actually be cheaper…figure? We have some low dose antibiotics that we ordered quite some time ago from Canadian pharmacy. We still haven’t ordered any for our fish tank, another thing on our “to do list”…:0(
I like the pencil pouch organizing idea!
I have found that keeping antibiotics on hand saves me money!
The pencil pouches are GREAT because they organize things that I use most into easily accessible pouches.
My “Medical Backpack” is for both human and animal use. Last night I dug into it for a pain patch and vet wrap – with those at least I got a decent nights sleep!
I was always told to “store what you eat and eat what you store.” That way you keep rotating what you have so your storage is fresher. Besides, it’s best to have things that you’ll actually be comfortable using.
Smart lady Kathryn! Just keep rotating. :)
As I am not yet lucky enough to be retired, I am still taking my lunch to work 5 days a week. I am currently rotating out meats; beef, chicken, pork, tuna and ham that I canned in 2008. I keep a number of recipes in with my master list of food stores; Dad’s Beef Stroganoff, Dad’s Tuna Helper, Dad’s Beef Stew, etc. Each recipe makes enough for 5 lunch’s – now or when it hits the fan. I have everything I need for these recipes in storage in quantity and that is what I use to make my lunches for the week – you would be amazed at how long a few hundred pints of meat will last. Some things I do not bother to rotate, white rice, beans, popcorn, etc. I have stored all those kinds of foods in SS Corny Kegs and pressurized with Nitrogen – should outlast me.
Keeping recipes in with your supplies is very smart! And you reminded me that I need to start rotating my meats too. Thanks!
Bev :)
Excellent post Bev! Sooooooo many times my preps have “saved the day”. Often I have heard – “I can’t believe you have some of that” as neighbors run short on things.
As far as my prep’s recently used – normally its medical related. People needing band-aids, rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, etc. In the past week I took a tactical pistol and carbine class – had plenty of ammo and other supplies.
Thanks for what you do for all of us!
Rourke
Yes, each of you remind us of things that we can do to make our lives easier in an emergency. Wifey dealing with sinus/allergy and thought it was whipped…until vertigo set in and everything started to spin every time I moved. Found out via emergency call to doc that antivert (product in dramamine etc.) is used for vertigo. It’s OTC and very cheap (unless you buy it by name brand), so it’s another item we’ll be adding to our supplies.
DH was out of work for nearly two years. He’s working now and we are starting to rebuilding our food preps as we had gotten to the point we didn’t have enough to cover clothing, food and shelter for a family of 6. I’m glad we had started prepping when we did.
Jen, you are so smart to prep! We too are going through a very rough period and using our preps. Thank the Lord we did prepare for hard times! We are 4 months in and just now starting into the canned meats.
Hard times are inevitable and good times are a blessing!
Bev :)
Oh yeah I definitely do the same. I find it’s so much better if you use and rotate through your stockpile, especially with food. Would never just have food sitting there for years and years that I never looked through… I wouldn’t remember what was there and it would probably be so stale and even expired by the time we needed it! Not good.
So yeah, agree with you 100% on using preparedness supplies.