Emergency Preparedness Tips on a Shoestring Budget

Who’d have thought that it would sneak up on us so quickly? Time just flies by, especially in the summer when the sun is shining, the music is playing, and you have to sell your first born son to afford a tank of gas. Still, here we are. Nothing quite signals the last big bash for summer quite like the start of National Preparedness Month. Wait, what? I thought we were talking about Labor Day? Nope, as it turns out, September 1 is, in fact, the start of National Preparedness Month, a time devoted to getting Americans on the ball and ready for emergencies.

According to FEMA, only about 10% of Americans are truly ready for a major emergency. Though more than half of all Americans have made some kind of plans for a disaster, most have stopped short of stocking up on things they may need in a crisis. Many people feel invulnerable, that a disaster “can’t happen to them.” For many, however, their reasons for not preparing are more pragmatic: money. In the minds of most, prepping for a disaster is expensive. With prepackaged or freeze dried meals costing upwards of $7 a meal, it’s not surprising that many on a shoestring budget shy away from popular brands like Mountain House.

I began prepping myself after the 2009 swine flu pandemic swept the globe. H1N1 was a relatively weak pandemic, as far as these things go, but it claimed its share of victims. The more disturbing and relevant aspect, however, was the difficulty for many to get treatment. Having been infected myself, it was a sobering moment when I realized there was nowhere to go to get treated in my area. Though I handled it with a heaping helping of sleep and orange juice, a more dangerous illness could have spelled disaster for yours truly. The thought occurred to me that, if a more serious illness were to make the rounds, the only way to avoid it would be to stay indoors, and in order to do that, one needs enough food on hand to avoid grocery shopping until everyone stops sneezing.

Though viral outbreaks are my pet disaster, others have since caught my eye. In 2011 Irene tore up much of the East coast. Towns as far North as Vermont were cut off for weeks. My own mother related a story to me about how she went grocery shopping before the storm to pick up supplies, only to find that none of the stores she visited had groceries left in stock. In truth, major disasters strike all across the country with alarming regularity. often hitting areas that hadn’t anticipated it, such as flooding from hurricane Isaac.

As a fresh college graduate working at a restaurant, I certainly didn’t have a lot of disposable income with which to build my stockpile. My personal goal was to have three months worth of food on hand. Like many would-be preppers, I wasn’t anxious on selling a kidney to make it work, and as it turns out, I didn’t need to. With a few easy steps I was able to build supplies without breaking the bank.

One of the most popular pages over at SurvivalCommonSense.com is their hardtack page, says Leon Pantenburg, journalist and founder. I’ve made a large amount of the stuff myself, and I can see why. Hardtack is a perfect emergency food. It’s durable, versatile, and it stays good almost forever. Sometimes referred to as a “ship’s biscuit,” hardtack was frequently taken on naval voyages because of it’s longevity. During the Civil War it became the ration of choice for both the Union and Confederate armies. If you’re trying to stretch your budget, hardtack is a great way to do it because each batch literally costs pennies.

The only ingredients in basic hardtack are flour, salt, and water. My recipe consists of two and a half cups flour, a few pinches of salt, and one cup water. Knead it into a dough, then spread it flat, about one inch thick. Poke holes in it (just like you see in crackers) and cut it down into manageable squares. Bake at 375 degrees for a half hour on each side. Don’t use butter or grease on the pan. The secret to the life-span of hardtack is a lack of ingredients that can spoil. As an added plus, the crackers can be crushed back down into powder and used just like regular flour. Storing flour as hardtack is a great method for getting rid of those pesky flour beetles, since they won’t go after the cooked hardtack.

Another method I’m fond of for storing food involves rice. Rice is a nice, easy emergency food because it can last for decades, if stored properly. It can even be cooked without heat. All you need to do is soak it in water until soft. Storing food staples long term can be expensive if you buy the professional, food grade buckets or vacuum sealed bags, but there’s an easier way that’s not only cheap, but green!

Two liter soda bottles make great containers for things like rice, beans, and pasta. The plastic is already food grade and the caps create an airtight seal. The hard plastic is also more difficult for pests to get through.If you’ve had trouble with rodents chewing through bags in the past, switching to bottles could save you some trouble. They’re also much easier to store, and can be stacked atop one another without losing their shape and falling over like a pile of bags. In my pantry, I’ve managed to fit a whole month’s worth of meals in a 2×2 space. The bottles are also handy if you’re in a situation where you may want to share; you can literally throw the things if you have to.

Since its impossible to deal with emergency food storage without mentioning emergency cooking, I thought it wise to include this tidbit for keeping clean. Many disasters can bring with them unsanitary conditions. Flooding, in particular, can cause chemicals and even sewage to float right into your house. Once the waters recede, these contaminants stay behind, and can be very dangerous to the unprepared. A cheap and easy way to disinfect even heavily contaminated surfaces comes in the way of vinegar and peroxide.

According to Kim Harris over at The Nourishing Gourmet, a combination of the two will kill just about any bacteria far more effectively than fancy, store bought detergents and disinfectants. They’re great on food surfaces because they’re nontoxic, and the cost is so low that Harris recommends switching to peroxide and vinegar anyway just to save some green on the side. Harris sites food scientist Susan Sumner for the recipe, who claims:

Using one mist right after the other is ten times more effective than either spray by itself and more effective than mixing the vinegar and hydrogen peroxide in one spray bottle. Tests at VPI found the two sprays used together killed virtually all Salmonella, Shigella, or E. coli bacteria on heavily contaminated food and surfaces.”

The savvy prepper knows that cost doesn’t necessarily go hand-in-hand with quality. Spending more money doesn’t always make you more prepared. The above tips are cheap and easy, but have gone a long way toward reaching my own three month goal. Combined with common canned goods like soups, tuna, and fruit, a smart survivor can eat well even in the most dire of emergencies, and probably have some to share.