Hi everyone! I’m visiting from my neck of the woods, Lyssa-Beth.com! I’m giving you the easy low-down on preparing and having a 72-hour survival kit!
Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God; – D&C 109:8
Emergency Preparedness is something we are focusing on this year so I started searching online for ideas. Most of them were helpful but not exactly what I was looking for.
Here’s what I was looking for:
- Food that wasn’t dependant on water or heat to prepare.
- Pop tops for cans so a can opener would not be needed.
- Something that totaled less than $15.
- Something my family and I would actually eat.
- Items that wouldn’t expire for at least a year.
- Something compact and easy to grab in an emergency.
So with that in mind, I took my calculator (aka phone) and my 2 boys and headed to Costco, Freddies & *gasp* Walmart to see if this could be done.
So after my research, I was able to find items that fit my criteria.
All this below for $11:
Here’s the Cost Breakdown: I added gas in there for compensation since i’ll be driving all over town to pick up supplies. Plus, it helps round things up nicely. I have to add that i’ve lucked out this month for cost. Lot of items that I got at Costco are on sale right now, like the Snack Pak’s, Fruit Snacks etc. So if you catch this in time, you’ll get a great deal like me. Otherwise, it’ll be a tad more once they’re gone.
Here’s the Daily Menu for each day:
Most would say this is not enough water. I agree. But I also know that there should be another source of water in your Emergency items. This is purely for quick escapes and you don’t want to be hauling gallons of water per person!
Survival Kit DAY 1:
Survival Kit DAY 2:
Survival Kit DAY 3:
As far as packing them, I attempted to fit them all in a 1 gallon ziploc bag….ya there was no way they were all fitting in it. I will be heading to Walmart today and getting 2 gallon ziploc bags instead, which should fit it all in there. Then you can add it to the rest of your 72 hour kits.
Remember to check back in about a year and rotate your items!
Thanks for the great list and the daily breakdown. I think I’ll be building us some emergency food kits.
Great! If nothing else they are great to snack on in a year!
My little 72 hour packs look a lot like yours except I use the Hormel compleats meals, snickers minis instead of M&Ms, and sometimes toss in ‘quick cook’ items, like instant oatmeal, or cup of soup and a packet of chicken. And little boxes of raisins and and ‘on the go’ individual peanut butters go in every bag.
We have to ‘evacuate’ home a few times a year due to tornados, and my little bug out bags have been a LIFESAVER when you have to head to shelter with a toddler in tow!
Pretty good article, but may I make a few suggestions?
For a short term emergency food stash I would lose anything not canned, and ditch the easy open pop tops as well(I do not trust them to really last).
Canned food lasts decades, or much longer) if kept in a cool place with low humidity(rust problems) To control the rust(especially for those who live in a really high humidity area)you can also wipe the can down then spray it with a clear polyurethane sealer, just be sure you use one of those side cutting can openers that let you sit the lid back on top, and keep some sandpaper or a file to clean the sealer off the edge before opening.
Here is a link telling about canned veal that went on an arctic expedition way back in 1820 and was opened and tested in 1938 and found to be nearly perfect, having lost just a small amount of it nutrients. Oh and the fist “canned” food was invented in 1809. Sanitation and personal hygiene weren’t that big of a deal at that time and yet this food still lasted so I see no issues with better made modern cans canned with good sanitation practices lasting just as long.
http://www.cancentral.com/can-stats/history-of-the-can/search-new-territory
And here is another where the cans were under water for a hundred years and were in excellent condition, again having lost some vitamins, but calcium and protein were basically unchanged, It also had no microbial growth problems. Oh, and they explain that a 40 year old can of corn looked and smelled like recently canned corn.
Don’t believe the 2 year thing on most cans, that is there because the government makes them put a date on them so they chose 2 years simply because they were 100% sure that the taste would be basically the same as the day it was canned. It’s not uncommon for slower selling canned goods like salmon to have dates of 4-5 years.
Sorry so long, guess I got carried away. :-)
Oops, forgot the 2nd link.
http://web.archive.org/web/20070509153848/http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/CONSUMER/CON00043.html
Thanks Robert for all the great info and research! Feel free to get carried away anytime! I’ve heard canned food lasts much longer, but I appreciated the links and info you shared!
Where do you find the canned mac’n’cheese? This is my 5 year olds favorite food and I have been looking for it for awhile to put in her bag but never seem to be able to find it.
She got everything from Costco, Wal-Mart or Freddies. It’s jut the Chef Boyardi Mac N Cheese. I think that’s at Wal-Mart, but not sure?
That’s not enough water. Minimum should be .5 Liter bottle per meal. I have a 6 pack of .75 Liter Aquafina
(Pepsi product). They come as a 6 pack bound like 6 packs of soda pop in plastic bottles.
What about cleaning up? Use bottled water? Gotta wash your hands & around your mouth.
Baby wipes preferred by troops in Afghanistan, doesn’t leave your hands a sticky mess like handi wipes with aloe, etc.
Travel packs of tissue as Kleenex, 10 sheets / pack. Doubles as Toilet paper, you’re gonna need it.
You can get travel toilet paper at target, lasts a long time, doesn’t take up much space. Was a lifesaver on a mission trip to Kenya.