1MoreTip #1

What if there were a flood or ice storm like we've seen several in the past few months and you had to remain in your home for several weeks? What if gas prices this summer were to cause a trucker strike and grocery store shelves were bare for over a month? Could you make it on what you have in your house right now?

Get a notebook and open your pantry. Roughly group your food on hand into meals and see how many days you could make it stretch. If you're like most Americans you'll have about a week's worth of food in the home. Here's a great way to start a small food reserve, courtesy of TheSurvivalPodcast.com:
Clear off a shelf in your pantry. This will be your food storage collection area. On your next few trips to teh store, but multiples of a few of your common items (two cans of tuna instead of one, four boxes of cereal instead of two). Remenber: store what you eat normally, so you don't have and (ahem) surpises if you ever have to depend on your stored food. Now, put the duplicate items on your empty pantry shelf. When the shelf is full, put it all into a Sterilite container and throw in in the basement. This is a great way to get a few more weeks of food in the home without spending a lot of extra money and time.

You can also apply this technique to things other than food. Make a first aid supplies collection shelf in the bathroom, or a water bottle collection area in the basement. Doesn't hurt to have a few flashlights/batteries, candles and even reading material if you're holed up in the house without power for an extended time. My family was without power for a week last year and the local Krogers were closed from the outage as well. We were grateful to have a little extra food on hand but didn't realize how hooked on TV we'd become!