The More Depressing Side of Preparedness

Not to bring up a totally depressing subject, but because its such an important one... I was wondering what plans you girls have set in place in case anything were to happen to you and your husband? This is SO something I don't like to think about, but at the same time, I hate to think what would happen to Cecelia if something did happen to Scott and I and we hadn't made our wishes known.

Right now we are in the process of setting up a trust. In my research on the topic, a trust seems a better option than a will as it takes less processing time and doesn't involve as many legal fees. Obviously, our trust will be constantly changing as we have more children and such, but as of right now, if anything were to happen to us, Cecelia would be placed in the care of my sister Kayti and her husband. We are also setting it up so that whoever was caring for Cecelia would get a certain allowance of money from our life insurance policies each month to help provide for Cecelia's needs, but that the bulk of the money would not be available to Cecelia until she was in college or married.

So, what do you girls have set up? Is this something you and your husbands talk about?

The Wonder Wash

So this is something I never thought I would do-- hand wash my clothes. But when we moved into an apartment without a washer and dryer, costs quickly were adding up to do our laundry at the apt. machines. At a $1.45 per wash and then another 1.45 per dryer load and doing anywhere from 3-5 loads a week, we were spending from $9-15 a week on laundry, which turned into the lovely amount of $36-60 a month! That is awful on our student budget!!!

In order to save money, we found this amazing little hand washing machine. It costs $43 at http://www.laundry-alternative.com/ and is great! You put in your water, your detergent, then your clothes, turn the crank for 2 min. to wash, drain the water, then rinse, and voila! clean clothes! Here are the advantages as listed on the website:

-Washes a 5-lb. load super clean in just a couple of minutes.
-Has a patented pressure system that forces detergent into the fabric at high speed for a fast, efficient, economic and very easy wash
-Is ideal for campers, single persons and even for the housewife with small frequent loads like hand washables and diapers.
-Is ideal for delicates such as woolens, silks, knitted dresses and cashmere garments.
-Uses 90% less water and detergent than conventional washing machines.
-Uses far less water than even hand washing.

I still do our under garments in the conventional washing machines along with Margaret's clothes. But everything else is done by hand. We can't hang clothes outside to dry so I either take my wet clothes to the dryer (at least I'm saving half the cost of doing laundry!) or wring them out really well and hang them on our makeshift clothes drying rack inside.

At times I feel like a pioneer and get excited about our new found way of saving money. But I do admit, sometimes I get overwhelmed at how quickly laundry piles up and the fact that I have to spend about 30 min of my time after Margaret goes to sleep doing laundry (just about every other night). But it's a budget saver for us and therefore is worth the extra effort to me!

Water Storage in Tight Spaces

When I started accumulating food storage, I started with what we use most, which was bottles of water (basically, just disregard this post if you don't drink bottled water, as the bottles are definitely not the way to go for long-term storage). We always keep a tray of 24 in the car anyway (we all drink like fish), and since one tray is 3 gallons and 1 pint, I just decided to start buying those when they were on sale (usually $4.30 or less at Target). Since we only need a two week supply per person instead of a whole year, I felt like I'd really accomplished something. About a third of our water supply is stored in cleaned out juice bottles filled to the very top to minimize gross stuff growing on the cap. I dump those and run them through the dishwasher every six months (at conference time, when we also look through our 72 hour kits, eat the expired candy bars, and try to cut out all the unnecessary stuff--candy bars are necessary for us). I don't stress much over the disinfecting process, since those bottles would just be used for cleaning, not drinking. We're in an apartment, so most of it is packed on the bottom of the linen closet and under the sink of our daughters' bathroom, plus I think two or three trays in an armoire we've dubbed our "pantry." We've stuffed it with all our food storage--mostly pastas, canned soups and vegs, dry milk, and our favorite cake and brownie mixes--you know, the essentials. ;) Also, I've decided that our one year old is not allowed to graduate out of her crib until we live someplace with more storage space, as our boxes of #10 cans of wheat from the cannery fit perfectly on their sides under her crib...and there is nowhere else to stash those puppies!

If you're looking to really learn more quickly, there's another girl in my ward (Aubrey) who was also interested in learning about food storage, and since neither of us knew anything about it, we decided to start a food storage group to try to pool our resources. We meet once a month at a set time, and either recruit a teacher or just research our monthly topic individually and come back and compare notes. There are about ten of us in the group, and an average of four come each month--we usually meet at someone's house. So far, topics have included storage containers, how to cook with wheat, water storage, wheat grinding, a food storage recipe exchange, and this month is canning. Since Aubrey and I are the only ones who come consistently, we have the luxury of just picking whatever topic we want to learn about, without consulting with the group and making it a big process.

Sorry for rambling. Oh! One more thing. If you're really tight on space and just don't want to mess with storing all that water, I just bought a Katadyn Combi filter with faucet attachment (you can get it from Amazon or Katadyn.com or in camping stores). It has an amazing filter that purifies the water, and you can use it camping or just attach it to the faucet if your normal water source is available, but contaminated. I also got a Katadyn Exstream water bottle that you can literally dip into a lake (or puddle, if you're desperate) and drink immediately, with no wait time. (Disclaimer: A guy in our ward works for Katadyn, and he taught our group's water storage meeting. Hence, my decision to buy that brand over whatever else might be there--I'm no expert, but I trust him.) Okay. Now I'm really done. Happy storing! :)

Food Storage Friday??

Food Storage and Emergency Preparedness. Those five words make me feel queasy when I hear them. Why? Because admittedly I am unprepared. At church, I'm embrassed to ask questions because I'm so behind. For example, I truly do not know what people do when they go to the cannery. When the sign-up sheet goes by, I want to sign it, but I don't know what I'd be signing up for.

I told myself I'd worry about food storage and emegency preparedness more when I lived somewhere where I actually had some space to store it. Now I do and I have resolved to get started. I just wondered if there were any among us who have any level of expertise in this area (i.e. more knowledge than I do which is probably most of you). If so, can we designate Fridays for the next several weeks as a day to post a tidbit of information that you could share and/or questions that others might be able to answer???