Module 9

Worst Case Scenario Challenge

This week we’re talking about worst-case scenarios – prepping for events beyond a power outage from a storm or a small blip that is an inconvenience.

It’s difficult to narrow that down to one challenge, so we opted for the most likely of these scenarios for our challenge: economic collapse.

An economic collapse can be on a grand scale, like the one occurring in Venezuela, or it can be personal, affecting only your family. This week, assess your current chances should an economic crisis hit close to home:

• For how long could you pay your bills if your income stopped?
• If you had to rely on the food in your pantry, how long could you make it stretch with only minimal trips to the store for other supplies?
• Is there some fat you could trim from your regular monthly expenses? The less we spend, the longer we can stretch our limited resources.
• For an event that only affects your family, there are more options for acquiring food than if it is a scenario in which everyone is hungry. In such a situation, what sources could you tap into to pad your food supply? Some examples might be:

Hunting

Fishing

Foraging

Growing vegetables

Raising meat animals

Spend some time making a plan to acquire food.

• Your ability to live with less utility usage can reduce expenses and give you a better chance at keeping the power on in a crunch.  Do an audit this week of your usage and find some ways to cut excessive use.

Use this information to make a personalized plan to weather an economic storm.

Sanitation

1. Set up an emergency dishwashing station. Purchase some inexpensive plastic basins. You’ll use one for washing and one for rinsing. Basins are recommended instead of the sink because the rinse water can be reheated to wash another load of dishes and the wash water can be used to flush the toilet. (This 12-pack is a great price for these very multi-purpose items.)
2. Get some heavy rubber gloves for handling waste, and also stock up on disposable latex gloves (assuming no one in your family is allergic to latex.)
3. In a long-term emergency, you won’t be using disposable products. Invest in some bar mop towels to use in place of paper towels, and some flour sack towels to use for drying dishes, filtering liquids, and much more.  This will be an initial investment that saves you money if you begin using them now instead of throwing away your money with disposables.

Sustenance

1. Create some menus for family favorites that can be made 100% from pantry basics (you may need to make some small adaptations, like using dehydrated or canned veggies instead of fresh.) Then, create a grocery list geared towards stocking up for those favorite meals.
2. Make an entire meal from emergency supplies. Be sure that you make it using a secondary cooking method.
3. If you have the space, fill some plastic bottles with water and put them in your freezer. Be sure to leave room for expansion. In an emergency, these will work to help keep your fridge cold for longer, and when they thaw, you can use the water for drinking.
4. Look for the best bargain on any vegetable that you can dehydrate. (You picked up a dehydrator last week, right?) Zucchini and tomatoes are good candidates. Follow these simple instructions and dehydrate your first batch of food!

Survival

1. Test your fire-building ability. Not only should you be able to start a campfire with matches or a lighter, but you should consider learning to use emergency methods like a magnesium fire starter. While you’ve gotten the fire built, be sure to roast some marshmallows and hot dogs with the family to make it fun.
2. Make a map! Particularly if your preps are stashed in various cubbies around the house, document where you store things and try to keep similar items together. Otherwise, when you really need an item from your stockpile, you may waste valuable time searching for it (and may still not be able to locate it!)
3. Prep your kids. If something happened to you in an emergency, would your kids be able to keep warm, hydrated, and fed? Sometimes we think that children are too young to do these things, but disasters don’t care about our desire to shelter them. Take a realistic look at their maturity levels and teach them the skills they need to survive in a crisis.

Shelter

1. Put together a kit to seal off your house in the event of a chemical or nuclear disaster, or a pandemic. Include enough duct tape and heavy plastic to seal all doors, windows, and vents to the exterior.
2. Look for a second-hand pop-up tent. A small tent can be used indoors to conserve and combine body heat in a winter power outage.  If you’re planning to use it indoors, it doesn’t have to be as sturdy and weatherproof as a tent for your bugout kit. Plus, the kids will enjoy “camping” on the living room.
3. Increase your home repair supplies. In the event of an emergency, you’ll need to make sure you can cover windows or patch holes.

Security

1. Harden your doors. A door is only as sturdy as the frame that holds it. Secure exterior doors with reinforced frames.
2. Make another trip to the shooting range. Increase your distance.
3. Look for a reasonably priced self-defense class in your area. The ones at martial arts studios are often the most in-depth.

Sanity

1. Get a long-term calendar.  Buy a 5-year calendar. If you can’t find a 5-year calendar, you can make one on the computer and print it out. (Here’s a free printable.)  Keeping track of passing time can help in a long-term emergency.
2. Buy some books. Hit yard sales and thrift stores. Even if you don’t have a lot of time for reading right now, purchase some fiction in genres that will interest your family members.
3. Hit the end-of-summer sales. Buy more glowsticks, citronella torches, battery operated fans, hand fans, and outdoor toys when they go on sale.

This week’s giveaway is a biggie! The NuManna triple family pack is valued at “just” $711! The lucky winner receives a total of 420 servings of tasty meals that are quick and easy to prepare, even during the most dire of emergencies. Even better, the meals are soy free, GMO free, with no added MSG or aspartame, and no high fructose corn syrup.

You can read all the details of this terrific prize here, and the lucky winner will be announced at this week’s Sunday Night Check-In! Good luck!