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MoneyWi$e: Building an Emergency Kit on a Budget · Talking FACS

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  Welcome to Talking FACS, what you need to know about family,
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  food, finance, and fitness.
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  This nationally recognized, award-winning podcast is hosted by the University
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  of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
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  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families,
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  and communities to improve quality of life.
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  Hello, and welcome to Talking FACS, what you need to know about family,
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  food, finance, and fitness.
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  I'm your host, Mindy McCulley, Extension Specialist for Instructional Support
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  with Family and Consumer Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky.
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  We are housed in the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment.
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  September is National Preparedness Month. We all need to be prepared for whatever
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  emergency might come our way.
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  But my guest today, Annhall Norris, who is our Extension Specialist for Food
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  Safety and Food Preservation, is here to talk to us about building an emergency kit on a budget.
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  Hi, Mindy. Thanks for having me. I'm so glad that we're going to talk about
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  this because we don't always think about being ready before that emergency comes.
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  Having that emergency kit ready to go is just one of those things that's going
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  to prepare us in the event of whatever disaster might come our way.
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  That's right. And today I want to talk about building that kit on a budget because
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  a lot of people think that you can, and you can just purchase a kit pre-made.
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  They're quite expensive, but you can make one using things you have in your
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  home, or you can build your own kit over time.
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  You don't have to buy it all at once. And so it doesn't have have to be a disaster
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  on your finances in order to get prepared.
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  Love that. Yes. Always the play on words. But, you know, it does make very good
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  sense to make sure that we are prepared, but we don't have to break the bank to do it.
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  So that's right. What are just some of the very basic elements that need to be included in that kit?
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  Well, you need food and water, and you want to make sure you have non-perishable
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  foods, so shelf-stable food, canned goods, or dehydrated foods.
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  And water is an absolute necessity, and you want to make sure you have one gallon
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  of water per person per day.
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  So when you start building your kit, you should have a three-day supply of water and of food.
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  And I like to start checking with my friends and neighbors to see if they're
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  building a kit and see what maybe we can purchase in bulk and cut down on our
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  costs. So that's how I started building my kit.
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  So when you think about my husband and I, there are just two of us in our house,
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  so we need to include six gallons of water.
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  So we can technically buy one of those big five-gallon jugs of water, right?
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  Yes. And add just one extra gallon, and then we're not going to have to try
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  to juggle space for six single gallons of water, right?
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  Yes, that's right. And if you
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  don't want to purchase water, you can bottle your own water, tap water.
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  But don't use a milk jug or a juice container because those are going to be
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  difficult to clean and sanitize.
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  Right. Use a two liter soda bottle.
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  Those are usually a thicker plastic and they're easier to wash, rinse and sanitize.
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  And then let them air dry and then you can fill them with your own tap water
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  and just put a date on it. You'll want to replace that home-bottled tap water every six months.
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  Okay. And if it's commercially prepared, it's good for?
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  The date that's on the packet. On the bottle. All of your bottled water will
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  have that date on it, yes.
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  And you should check your kit every six months to make sure that products aren't going out of date.
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  If you have canned soup or canned beans in there, just rotate those in with
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  what you're normally eating so that the dates stay good. Okay, good. Good.
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  So food, of course, canned goods are a great option because those are things
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  that have been commercially prepared.
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  We don't want to put our home canned goods in there, right?
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  Yes, that's exactly right. You want to use commercially canned products.
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  And another trick of mine is to shop sales after a holiday.
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  So maybe after Thanksgiving or after Easter, items will go on sale and you can
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  put those items, usually high-protein items like canned beans or canned meat.
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  Your soups will go on sale right before soup season. Nobody thinks about buying
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  soups in July and August, but they're usually cheaper at that time of the year.
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  And so I don't know why, but for me, I check my kit after Thanksgiving.
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  I guess I'm stocking up on other things and Christmas supplies,
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  and I'm doing a lot of cooking.
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  And so I will usually take everything out of my disaster kit and bring it up
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  into my cabinets or my pantry, tree and then put new dated products in.
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  And the reason that we don't want to use home canned goods in our emergency kit is?
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  Well, their shelf life, they're good for up to two years.
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  But should your kit get wet, you can't effectively sanitize underneath that ring.
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  And you just, they're easily damaged. They're in a glass jar.
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  And so you might be moving that kit or taking that kit, and if there was wind
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  damage, you wouldn't want anything to break.
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  So you don't want to have anything in a glass jar in your emergency kit. Okay.
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  So once we have built our kit, we've put it all together, and we've built it
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  over time because we aren't doing this when the emergency is getting ready to happen.
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  So once it's all complete, then what do we need to think about to wrap it all up?
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  Wrap it all up, you would want to purchase a weather radio.
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  So that's the only, well, not the only non-perishable food item.
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  There are other things in there like a flashlight and batteries and things that
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  aren't food related, but a weather radio is a good idea.
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  And I would suggest looking for those online, maybe checking prices and get
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  those when they go on sale.
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  You don't have to get a battery operated radio. You can get a hand crank radio
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  and they are very beneficial because you can tune them to your area and be notified
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  whenever something is happening.
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  In the middle of the night, it seems that we're always asleep when the tornado
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  comes through or the flash flood.
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  And so we don't always have the TV on or the radio on. We're not in our cars.
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  So the weather radio, plug it in and have it ready, you know,
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  to notify you in the event of an emergency and then have one in your kit. Yes.
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  And I always like to advise people to put the weather app on your phone that
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  gives you those alerts as well.
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  Yes. Typically, your phone's not going to die at the same time as,
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  you know, the weather event comes through.
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  So you might get those alerts as well. That's right. Great idea.
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  In-haul, before we wrap up this conversation, is there anything that we need
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  to add to our emergency kit or our emergency kit discussion?
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  Well, I find that chocolate is always helpful in an emergency,
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  and we did not put chocolate on any of our lists of must-haves,
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  but you might find that you need a sweet treat or something to pick up your
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  spirits when an emergency happens.
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  So, my tip is to have chocolate in the kit, and then, of course,
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  visit your Extension office for a complete list of items.
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  Well, that's a great idea. Whatever your comfort food is, put a little bit of that in there, right?
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  That's right. Right. Annhall thanks so much for taking the time to share with me today.
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  Thanks, Mindy. If you are just tuning in, you're listening to Talking FACS,
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  and we're available wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
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  Thank you for listening to Talking FACS. We deliver programs focusing on nutrition,
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  health, resource management, family development, and civic engagement.
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  Visit us online at fcs.uky.edu to learn more about the University of Kentucky
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  Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program or contact your local Extension
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  agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.
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  Music.