Winterizing the Car Kit

As you know, we are big proponents of having a car kit in your car for little emergencies.  Ideally, you should check your car kit regularly, but the reality is...that just doesn't happen.  But I do try and check my car kit twice a year: once when summer starts and once when winter starts.

So this week, I pulled out the car kit to see what was missing and needed to be replaced or replenished.

First up, I opened the box!  My first car kit I put in an open box and realized quickly that it wasn't going to work. Dirt got everywhere. Now I use a lidded box.

 Three fruit strips were all that was left of the snacks.

 Not quite sure where the jumper cables disappeared to.

Checked the first aid kit to make sure I have everything.

 A few odds and ends in the bottom.

 Used my notebook to write down a few things I needed to find/buy.

 At the store I picked up some snacks (non melty ones, although that doesn't matter as much in the winter), bandaids and water. I love the mini size water bottles, especially with kids.

I also raided my change jar and scrounged up $10 in coins.  Hopefully having the money in change will discourage my husband from using it to buy Burger King, which is what happened to my last emergency stash of money.

All set back up in the car--for just in case.

If you have a car kit, have you checked yours lately?

Food Storage Goals 2012

It's that time again. Time to go through last years goals and kick ourselves for not doing them evaluate how we did, and make some new goals for the next year.

Last year my food storage/emergency preparedness goals were:  

1. Go through and "revitalize" the following:

• Car kit  Car Kit Revamped! Check out the post here.
• 72 hour kits  Not even close...although I did "go through" them and used all the cash for my kid's school lunches when money was tight this fall. I guess we can count that as rotating?
• 3 month supply menu plan  Yep, this didn't happen either.

2. Eat up current food storage

• Make bread often (eat only homemade bread) Well, I wouldn't say we ate only homemade bread, but we eat mostly homemade bread. It just tastes better.  I even have a new favorite bread recipe that I'm sharing this week for our Food Storage Friday recipe. It's delicious.
• Keep ground wheat flour in freezer for any cooking/baking Check! It's definitely easier to make the choice to have whole wheat pancakes, or healthy up a recipe when I have whole wheat flour already ground and ready to use.
• Eat the pantry and freezers clean I did a great job of this! I think we only moved one box of "pantry food" (maybe it was two) but it was mostly spices and things like that. Moving is good for cleaning out cupboards. Not great for much else.
• Make a 3 Month Supply Menu plan and grocery list (catered to our family) so that when we move into our new home I'll know exactly what to buy  This didn't happen, I have definitely not been on top of this.
• Buy as much of our food storage as budget allows when we move into our new home Due to some financial strains this fall, the budget didn't allow ANY food storage to be purchased.  But luckily, things are looking up and we should be back on the bandwagon soon.

Considering all that happened in 2011, I'm pretty pleased with my little attempts at my food storage goals. 2011 was a tough year for me, but 2012 is already looking great.  I'm very excited to get going and get my family prepared.

Here are my  

2012 Food Storage/Emergency Preparedness Goals

1. Write out a 3-Month supply Menu plan and grocery list and BUY IT!  No more excuses, just get 'er done.

2. Redo the 72 hour kits, adding the baby items, and replacing the money.

• Rotate the food in the 72 hour kits/batteries etc, every six months (or 2 times this year)

3.  Buy more candles/matches/flashlights/batteries and stock them where I can find them easily.

4. Make a family emergency plan and practice it with my family.

5. Can triple or quadruple the amount of salsa I made in 2011. Because I only have 3 jars left and it's only January.

What are your food storage and emergency preparedness goals for 2012?

Reader Question: Car Kit in Extreme Temperatures

Karen (Canadian Soldier's Wife) writes in:

Question for you about car kits.

We live in an area with a wide range in temperature... -40C (-40 degrees F) in the winter, up to +40C (104 degrees F) in the summer. This makes it a challenge to keep food/water in the car - which became very evident when the bottled water in the trunk froze into solid bricks! And in the summer, the temperature inside the car gets so high that most energy food will turn into melted goo.

Any recommendations for food/water to keep in the car in an area with these rather extreme temperatures? (We moved here from an area where the temperature from January to August only varied by 10-20 degrees, so this has been an adjustment!

My thought is in the winter to just fill up water bottles as you go places and bring them with you. Or maybe putting the bottled water by someones feet instead of in the trunk where it is by the heater.

About the food, I would look for food that doesn't have chocolate in, or is soft. So think nuts, crunchy granola bars, things like that.

What are your suggestions for Karen? Do any of you live in such extreme temperatures?

More car kit questions and information here.

Revamping the Car Kit

One of the things I am learning about food storage and emergency preparedness, is how easy it is to "complete" something, like put together a car kit and then cross it off your list and forget about it.  That doesn't work because food storage and emergency preparedness are two subjects in the school of life that are never done. To be prepared one always has to be thinking about, rotating, and prepping your "completed" projects.  It's something I am not very good at, but I'm learning as I go.

In January, I put together a list of food storage/emergency preparedness goals that I wanted to complete this year. Revamping my car kit may be the only one I cross off the list this year!

I started by cleaning out my trunk opening up my kit and taking inventory of what I had. What I had was outdated jacket (just one), one not very fresh granola bar, and a few other things.  My car kit was in desperate need of repair. I printed off this list of Emergency Car Kit supplies and went through each thing that I needed. It's definitely important to cater your car kit to your individual family as well as to your specific area.

 

I'm not going to lie, the most important thing in my car kit, is definitely the snacks. We use those for every day emergencies all the time.  Back in April we did a reader question asking about different kinds of snacks for the car kit. A couple of you suggested nuts, which I thought was a great idea! Nuts are healthy, plus they have a great storage life. Another snack that I also put in are the crunchy type granola bars. Because I don't like them, so I'm less likely to sneak and eat them. Which is good because my "I'm really hungry, what's there to eat" emergencies tend to happen more often than actual "I forgot snacks for my kids" emergencies.

New bandaids went into the first aid kit (those always run out), new snacks, new package of wipes (which I use for just about everything), a little cash in small bills, and so on.


 
I used to keep my car kit in an open bucket, but I noticed that dirt got into everything and I didn't like that, so I borrowed Hannah's idea and found a lidded tub thing.  Another great idea would be an old backpack.






It's all set and stashed away until I need it again.  And I'm resolved to not wait this long to do a full restocking of my car kit.


What about you? When was the last time you revamped your car kit? What was the most outdated thing you found?

I had a 2T jacket for my almost five year old. That's not going to help us!

Reader Question - What snacks are best?

I know we aren't currently working on the car kits, but we got a great question from a reader a couple weeks ago, and Abs and I want you all to weigh in with your opinions!  The question is,


What kinds of snacks work best for the car kits?


So, readers, tell us: what kinds of snacks do you pack in the car kits?  I think the biggest thing to consider is that chocolate melts, and other things might night hold up well over time (although, you should rotate your food every couple of months if you haven't eaten it by then).


(Thanks, Mary W, for the question! If anyone else has questions, please feel free to contact us at safelygatheredin (at) gmail.com)

Reader Question: Car Kit...Emergency or Everyday Use?

Hey all, reader Sadie wrote in with a great question:


HI, I have a car kit question... well more I want your opinion. My friend and I were discussing car kits and she thinks you should only use them in emergency. But I think I can use it like I use my food storage... whenever I need it. We are an hour drive from any city and a lot of times my kids get thirsty so I let them get a water bottle from the car kit, etc. Do you think it should be for emergency use only?


Hannah weighs in:
I think that one of the biggest benefits of the car kits is that it's right there for ANY situation! I use my car kit a lot too, and just replace anything I use. It's not only for emergencies, it's to make life easier!


Abs says:
I agree with Hannah in that we use our car kit whenever we need it. Although I try and bring snacks and drinks whenever we go somewhere, if I've forgotten and we're 15 minutes from home I have no problem busting out the water bottles for the kids.


However, if you know that you won't constantly replenish your car kit as needed, then maybe you'd better leave it alone and just rotate the snacks every 6 months as planned. You would hate to not have the things you need in a real emergency, just because you don't go out and refill your car kit whenever you use it.


What do you think? Do you use your car kit for everyday "emergencies" or do you save it for the big time?


We're building car kits one week at a time, check out the list on the right to see where we are in the process. For a printable list of what we suggest go into a car kit click here.

Preparedness saves lives

I know we're technically taking a break until next Monday, but I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to share this article with you.  A Nevada couple was stranded in their car for three days because of snow; thankfully, they were fine because their car was stocked with food, water, and warm clothes.


It's obvious that being prepared can save your life, but sometimes that's hard to remember when we are in the process of stocking up.  It's easy to get discouraged and/or bored with it all.

Click here to read the article - it's a great reminder as to why preparedness is essential.  Hurray for car kits! (fyi - we'll be starting to put together our car kits in just a few weeks - as soon as the 72-hour kits are done.  We gather a few items a week, so follow along!)

Car Kits

First of all, what's a car kit?


In a nutshell, a well-planned car kit will include anything you and your family might unexpectedly need while you're traveling, whether you are taking a road trip or just driving to Church.  It contains things like changes of clothes, toilet paper, water, snacks, jumper cables, etc.  Click here for the printable list of items we recommend.  Feel free to add things you feel you might need as well.


You should have a car kit for each of your cars.  It may feel overwhelming, but take it one step at a time.  Here on our blog, we take it week by week, and we "assign" you one or two things to gather each week (see our sidebar).  We are always either working on the car kit week by week, or the 72-hour-kits.  So, follow along with us and you'll be ready in no time.


Here's a list of links to our car kit articles:
Printable list of car kit items
What snacks hold up best? (check out the comments)
Emergency, or everyday use? (the comments on this are great, too!)
Keeping your kits updated
A car kit could save lives

Keeping your kits updated

Ever since we started this blog last June, we've learned lots of things from our readers. One thing that many people have mentioned to us is that they rotate their 72-hour kits every General Conference weekend. Since General Conference happens every 6 months without fail, this is a great way to remember to do it!

For those of you not familiar with the LDS faith, every 6 months we have a "General Conference" which is broadcast via satellite (from Salt Lake City) to members of the Church all over the world. It occurs during the first weekend in April, and the first weekend in October.

So, here at Safely Gathered In, we're going to start doing that as well. Every General Conference time, we'll remind you all to rotate your 72-hour kits and your car kits. Of course, if you just finished your 72-hour kit with us a few weeks ago you won't need to do it this time around, but if you've had your kits done for a few years, it's time to open them up and see what you find!

Things that should be rotated are: clothing (sizes), diapers (sizes), water, and food. The water and food doesn't need to go to waste - you can just put it in your pantry and eat through it in the next couple of weeks (provided it's still good). If you notice that some of your food still doesn't expire for another year or so, you don't need to replace it if you don't want to, since you'll be doing this again in 6 months.

During this rotation weekend, you should also check the status of your flashlights and batteries, and any other items you think may need updating or checking.

Of course, this doesn't have to be done this weekend, but you should do it in the next few weeks. Then, at the end of September, we'll be reminding you all to do it again. Remember, a 72-hour kit (or car kit) full of expired food and dead batteries probably won't do you much good, so it's important to update!