Now that we have talked a little about budgeting and saving money, how are you going to use your budget to your advantage? How will you feed your family each week as well as make sure you have money for emergencies, emergency preparedness and long term food storage?

You can definitely do it. I'll start with 72 hour kits. This should be your first thing to be completed. I started getting mine together today, after recovering from the bug infestation of our 72 hour kits. The first place to start is in your house! Make a list of what you need to put in your kits and then start with what you have on hand. I have things like toothbrushes, toothpaste, mini first aid kits, that I have gotten free using coupons, these are perfect!

If your family is like mine, we go to the dentist religiously every six months, that means all seven of us get a new toothbrush (which you should change out every three to six months anyway), trial size toothpaste and trial size dental floss. I have so many regular sizes of these, that all the trial sizes just pile up, but they are perfect for the 72 hour kits! I found some little makeup pouches at the DI the other day for $1 or less and that will give me a little toiletry bag to put all of this in for each of my family members, keep an eye out for those on clearance at different stores as well! I also took a little single burner stove I got with two cans of cooking fuel and put with it. Also don't forget the medical masks and gloves! I have a bunch of those on hand all the time too and can throw in a bunch for everyone.

How are things sounding so far? Most small things can be found at home or anything thing else can be found at the dollar store or even the travel sections of any store! Walmart also sells a lot of medicine products for 88 cents! These are the small size ones but are perfect for this or for your car or any first aid kit!

I have looked at the dollar store though and have found nearly everything there for a dollar, including medicines, vitamins, toothpaste and brushes, combs, brushes, even coloring books and plush toys for the kids! Make sure you have something for the kids to do, like books, coloring, small toys, etc.

And don't forget clothes! This is something I really need to do better with! A change of clothes for everyone plus extra socks and a change of underwear. You may also want to include a couple packets of laundry soap in case you really need to do some laundry!

Last but not least is food and water! It is recommended that each person have at least a gallon of water per day! This may be kind of hard to carry! Get what you can into liter size bottles for the packs and then have some water cubes or some kind of water containers that have handles that a few people could carry. Don't forget you need enough to be able to cook what food you are packing as well. There are also water packs or canned water you can store, these can be found at emergency supply stores.

Make sure to have enough food for your whole family. I need to check mine and make sure my 1/2 month supply for 4 people will be enough for us. Plus take into account any food allergies. The food packets we have are from Daily Bread, a long term food storage company here in Utah. We purchased a six month supply of freeze dried meals, milk, juice, oatmeal, etc and as a bonus for buying so much, we also got a 1/2 month supply of individual packets that are perfect for 72 hour kits! This was a huge purchase for us and unless you have lots of money to just throw at something like that, build your storage slower with in your budget.

If you have someone in your family with food allergies, make sure to have their things separate so as not to contaminate theirs. You definitely don't want to have sick people in your family because of this and make sure all allergy Meds are there as well. A lot of the food that we have going in to our kit has milk, soy and eggs, which is something I can't have, so I will most likely pack my own oatmeal, soups and crackers that I can have. I will put them in either a Mylar bag or some type of food saver type thing.

If you have pets, don't forget about them either! They will need food, water, treats and anything else that will help comfort them. They are part of your family too!

I hope everyone is getting prepared for whatever will happen in life! Plan your budget each month, decide how much you can spend each month or each week on a few extra items. Most canned items that will last or toiletry items that don't go bad, I will usually buy more than one, sometimes upwards of 5, just so I have a stock as the weeks go by.

What are you doing to prepare? I would love to hear your suggestions and what you are doing to better your situation. Let's help each other get to where we need to be! Love and support to you all, until next time!