My Preparedness Binder

I thought I would share more details and links from my preparedness binder. I have spent a couple of months compiling resources from all over the Web and you might find them to be helpful, too.

Today I'll go through the Food Storage/Preparedness Stocking Plans section. It contains lists and information about what to have on hand and various purchasing plans:

• A list of our frequently eaten meals and their ingredients. I also listed all of the non-food items we use - hygiene items, cleaning and paper products, etc. I used the Excel file from Food Storage Made Easy to develop an inventory and shopping list for our three month food supply.
• I also downloaded the Excel file from Food Storage Made Easy for long-term storage. I haven't gotten very far at all on long-term storage (I have fulfilled only our baking soda and salad dressing quotas!), but at least I know what I'm shooting for.
• If you don't have Excel, you can go to About.com and find the same long-term storage calculator. These suggestions are based upon the LDS (Mormon) church's recommendations for food storage.
• The three month supply list from http://www.everydayfoodstorage.net/
• My Prepping Plan, month by month. These are the items I am going to purchase and the actions we'll take.
• Another LDS resource, The LDS Preparedness Manual, has a TON of information. I printed off the pages having to do with food storage lists and a monthly food storage purchasing calendar for this section of my binder. We're not Mormon, but since the LDS church preaches preparedness, they have lots of resources that are useful for anyone wanting to develop their food storage.
• Print-outs of the Babysteps Checklists from Food Storage Made Easy. You can sign up for free bi-weekly emails that will guide you through developing your food storage over the course of a year.
• A copy of a handout by Wendy DeWitt. She has developed an easy system of food storage with recipes that use a solar oven. An excellent resource! You really get a good idea of how you could use your long-term food storage if the SHTF. There are also videos of her presentations on YouTube that fully explains her system.

I will go through the other two sections of my binder sometime soon.

Month One Preps, Part Four: Three Month Supply of Food

In my last few posts I have tried to illustrate what I've accomplished during my first month of prepping. It doesn't feel like I've done very much because I see all of the shortcomings of my plans and I know how far I have yet to go. Plus there's the whole issue of my desire to spend money on preparedness vs. Hubby Dear's gazelle-intensity to pay off his vehicle. I'll wear him down yet, LOL!

The last item I have to discuss from my month one preps list is a three month supply of food. Basically, this is normal, everyday food, not designed for long-term storage. What do you eat regularly? You should store three months' worth of that food.

Some people include frozen foods in their three month supply. I'm kind of ambivalent about that. If I'm storing food for a minor emergency - job loss, quarantine, etc. - that is fine. But if the power goes out, a three months' supply of fresh or frozen food will quickly spoil.

In addition to food, it is recommended that you store up at least three months of non-food supplies. These are items like toilet paper, diapers and cleaning supplies. I have decided to go above and beyond these recommendations and build a year's supply of non-food items. The only exception to this is diapers. With two children in diapers, a year's supply would be HUGE. I could definitely get better about storing diapers and formula, though.

The best explanation of how to store three months of food is from the ladies at Food Storage Made Easy. You can read about it here. They have a wonderful Excel spreadsheet that helps you calculate just how much you need of any one item. It is also available as a print-out if you do not have Excel.

Another helpful resource is this Three Month Supply List from http://www.everydayfoodstorage.net/

Obviously I'm not going to be able to build up an entire three month's supply in one fell swoop. I am buying a few extra items each time I go to the store, however, and they will build up. I'm having a kind of hard time with this. We do not eat a lot of canned food besides beans and tomato products. My children are so used to eating only fresh or frozen vegetables that they refuse to eat canned veggies of any kind - even home canned green beans. It's taking some extra thought on my part to plan three months of shelf-stable meals we'll all enjoy.

And then there is the problem of where to store it all. But I'll tackle that in a future month.

Month One Summary:

1. Get Hubby Dear to back-up the computer
Status - Still need to do this.
2. Create emergency kits for both vehicles
Status - Hubby Dear's vehicle is complete. I need to figure out how to fit it
all in my van.
3. Make Bug Out Bags for our family
Status - Complete
4. Buy a large box of N-95 Masks
Status - Complete
5. Buy a crank flashlight/cell phone charger
Status - Complete
6. Create Emergency Binder and Preparedness Binder
Status - Complete, though I continue to find and print off useful articles for
my preparedness binder
7. Stock up on 3 Month Food Supply items
Status - In progress
8. Start saving cash and add to Bug Out Bags
Status - In progress. I've got a measely total of $34 at the moment and will
continue to add to it each month.

My Month One Preps, Part One: Data Backup

In a past entry I posted the list of items I selected to do/buy during my first month of prepping. I've accomplished most of these, but I still have a few odds and ends to clear up.

1. Get Hubby Dear to back-up the computer

• We have one desktop computer that has files from the last 12+ years. It would be heartbreaking to lose all of the photos we've taken of our children.
• I have basic computer skills, but I've never backed-up a computer before. Since Hubby Dear doesn't feel the need to get prepared, I need to either ask him very nicely (perhaps with a bit more of that wifely persuasion!) or subscribe to an online backup service like Mozy. I could probably accomplish that on my own.
  

2. Create Emergency Binder and Preparedness Binder

• Another form of data backup is my emergency and preparedness binders. We live in the country and have some strange sort of Internet service that frequently goes out in bad weather. If the power goes out or our Internet goes down, all those bookmarks I've collected are useless. I've started printing off useful survival information and placing it in my preparedness binder. Additionally, there is some information that is vital to have if you have to evacuate - SS #, family phone numbers, insurance information, etc. Having this readily at hand in an emergency could literally be a life-saver.

----EMERGENCY BINDER:

• I used the information from Food Storage Made Easy to create my initial emergency binder. Signing up for their Baby Steps Checklist was one of the first things I did when I started thinking about preparedness.


• Then I read this post from The Survival Mom on Grab and Go Binders. Her post is excellent! She has a very detailed list of items you need in an emergency binder.


• Over the course of a couple of weekends, I gathered all the paperwork I needed and made photocopies. I inserted them into plastic page protectors and them stuck them into my binder. The binder is organized into financial, personal, and medical sections.

----PREPAREDNESS BINDER

• I didn't have an example to follow for this. I divided a binder into three sections: Food Storage/Preparedness Stocking Plans, Food Storage Information and Emergency/Disaster Information.
  

1. FOOD STORAGE/PREPAREDNESS STOCKING PLANS SECTION:

• My Prepping Plan


• A list of our frequently eaten meals and then all of the ingredients I need for those. (This is used for our 3 month meal supply - the subject of a future post.)


• A print-off of the results of this food storage calculator


• Print-offs of the Food Storage Made Easy Baby Steps Checklists


• Some other food storage information from other websites.

2. FOOD STORAGE INFORMATION SECTION:

• I have printed off a bunch of information about water purification, the shelf lifes of various foods, etc.

3. EMERGENCY/DISASTER INFORMATION:

• This section includes print-offs on what to do in case of a nuclear disaster, chemical spill, etc.

I'll give more information and links to the various resources I've collected in future posts.