A Note From The Guru

I guess I learned my frugality from my Dad, who dumpster dove for perfectly good throwaways: new rugs used less than a year, radios, lamps, even all-wood chairs and tables, and recycled them. He came out of the Great Depression, and that's what they all did back then.

I keep various containers and use a few sealed 5-gallon paint pails (or mud pails) to store dry food like rice and beans and flour (as well as my empty chest freezer, which is the last stop before it gets rotated to kitchen use). We do not have a sealed supply of water but I do depend on the water heater as a reservoir here in the home (Turn the juice off first if it’s electric.) — I should probably get a few sealed distilled water containers (do have a couple left over from when the babies were on formula and we avoided the tap).

I do have a couple of unused backpackable bacteria/virus water filters that will provide several hundred gallons of good water from muddy and infested sources in an emergency. Today, though, the best bet is a relatively inexpensive "Lifestraw" since prices have gone so high so quickly (everyone preparing for 12/21/12 I guess, so there will be good prices AFTER that date when everyone divests themselves of their new and unused acquisitions). I also have some old (but still good) purification pills from Army surplus, as well as household bleach.

I use a large plastic big-mouth gallon-sized parmesan cheese container next to the door with de-icer in it for the steps and walk. That is just one of my many uses for plastic containers.

Again, all this is not for Armageddon, but is simply common sense for relatively short term disasters.