I know this is late, but I have 3 little girls all down with a cold. So my week has been a little nutty.
Last week we talked about BOBs. What happens when you can’t or don’t want to leave your house? I personally am thinking about this coming winter and illnesses. With all my children if this H1N1 flu really takes off I will be staying at home and not risking going out in public.
If are considering this too, now is the time to start laying out your plans. If things were to get bad and you didn’t want to leave your house for a month or two would you be able to stay in and not worry about it. Do you have the supplies in your house? What supplies do you need to make it happen?
First thing you need to do is take an inventory. Look in the pantry, cabinets, and medicine chest. What do you have in there right now. Think about everything your family uses. Toilet paper, paper towels, cold medicines, prescription medicines, food and drinks. Based on what you have in the house right now, how long until you would have to go to the store? Does it provide you peace of mind? If not, you have some work to do.
Next would be to determine how much you would need to have in your house so that you could avoid going out for a month. Based on what you have right now in the house how much and what would you need to purchase?
After you know what you need to purchase, make a plan. So you know you won’t be going out for a month to any store you will need to have canned or frozen fruits and veggies. How far will a can of fruit cocktail go for your family? Will you need one, two or three cans for a meal? How many times can you serve it before the family goes ICK! You need to plan for a variety too. You also need to start serving them now so the family can get used to it or you can find out that they REALLY won’t eat it and plan on other things to make sure the family gets all the nutrients they need. Plan out a month’s worth of meals. Start stocking now from sales.
Also you need to think about medicines. What do you need to keep the family comfortable if they are sick? Think fever reducers/pain killers like Tylenol and Motrin. What forms do you need them in? For my family I need pills, chewables and liquid. If I had everyone sick I would need a lot of them. So I have started purchasing it now. BJs has the huge bottles of the generic tablet forms so I have been purchasing a bottle a month. For the chewable form, I get the Equate brand at Walmart. I don’t need as many of those since I only two of my tweens have a hard time with swallowing pills. I also purchase the liquid Equate Brand. I wish they had it by the gallon. When all three of the girls are sick I can easily go through a bottle within 2 days, probably sooner now that they are older and larger.
How about other cold medicines like sudafed, zycam or occillium? Think about how much you would need and start to pick up them up now. What about prescriptions? How do you purchase them? Are you able to get them mail order, 90 days at a time? See if you have that option and start stocking up.
How about your paper supplies like TP, paper towels, or tissues? How much do you go through in a day? What if people were sick and using more? Would you have enough? Again if you are not brand loyal, start stocking now so you will have enough.
Cleaning supplies? Do you have enough cleaners in the house? Make sure you have enough cleaners in the house. Oh and don’t forget the trash bags too!
Do you know how to make homemade cleaners? Start doing some research on that, it tends to save money and better for everyone in the long run.
Once you have a month’s worth of supplies in the house you need to determine if it is enough for you and your family? If not decide how much you need and make a plan to accomplish it.
To learn more come join us on the PrepWise board.
A married woman must often leave God at the altar in order to find Him in her housework ~~St. Francis of Rome
Managing Mayhem and Multiples 