Tuesday List (Week #6)

How's everyone doing so far? Hang in there, we're almost done with our car kits and will be moving on to our 72 hour kits. Consider your car kit to be a miniature 72 hour kit, we're taking baby steps to the real deal!

Emergency Car Kits: This week look around for an extra blanket or a couple of towels to fit in your car kit. These are great to have around, not just for emergency purposes, but also for a impromptu picnic or splash in a lake. Also, if you have children, toss in a change of clothes. Children get dirty easily (especially mine) and some have "issues" with sleeping in the same clothes, so clean clothes would be handy if you were to get stranded somewhere, or stay late at Grandma's house. Don't forget underwear!

If you want, you can throw in a spare change of clothes for yourself too. Maybe an extra t-shirt for a hot weather climate or a sweatshirt if you live in a colder area. Keep in mind that you are not packing a suitcase, just the bare minimum for an emergency situation. If you have children in diapers, throw 3-4 diapers into your kit. I like to store mine in a gallon-size ziplock bag to keep them extra clean. You can never go wrong having extra diapers in the car.

Three-Month Supply: Grab an extra meal for your three-month supply or check out the grocery ads. Is there anything on sale this week that your family loves to eat? Buy extra! Later this week we should have a sample Dinner Menu and Shopping List for the 3-Month Supply as a free printable on the left sidebar, so keep checking for that.

Long-Term Supply: How are you doing on gathering rice? All done? Great! Plugging along? That's good too. Don't overwhelm yourself, just get a little every time you walk in a grocery store.

I did a little research on food grade five gallon buckets. I found them for sale here and here. I also read on some message boards about how you could buy used ones from restuarants. I also noticed people selling them on Craig's List, so it might be worth while to check the listings in your area.

Long ago, in a land far far away, before I knew of such things as "food grade buckets," I purchased mine from Home Depot. I've been storing sugar, flour and dog food in them for short term storage (basically to keep out the ants, darn things) and nobody's died yet--but to be safe, especially for long-term storage, invest in food grade buckets. Read some information about that here.

Good luck and keep up the good work!