Emergency Cash

Today I went to Food Max and I bought the rest of the water I needed to have in my storage.  Which was all but 2 gallons of it.  I now have 28 gallons of water in a closet under my 72-hour kits.  There are 3 flats of 16.9 oz. bottles x 35(cost $3.74 per flat), 4 1-gallon containers(cost $0.78 each) , and 5 2.5 gallon containers(cost $2.39 each).  All together it cost me $32.24... I figured that wasn't a bad price to pay for piece of mind. I put 5 bottles in my "car kit" (1 for each seat in my car).  I also put 3 bottles in each 72-hour kit.  That way if we grab our kits, one 2.5 gallon container (I spent a little extra money for the convenience of these water cases- they have pretty study handles and are easy to stack), and our sleeping bags and tent we will be set.  The rest of the water is for more "long term" storage so it is in our closet underneath our kits.  I really would like to put some shelves in our storage closet but for now I just stack things as best I can in order of importance.  That way I can still get to the most important things first.

I also went to the bank and got out some cash to use for emergencies.  After reading and pondering a lot of different opinions my husband and I decided on the following:  We will keep $20 in our car, $50 in each 72-hour kit, another $50 for each person in our home, and $20 in each of our wallets.  We both know that this money is for emergencies only and I don't think we will have problems with spending it.  We came to this decision because this is more than enough money for us to pay for gas, water, and food in case of an emergency.  We could last a month on that amount of money in a crisis.  Also, we made sure to only use small bills and change.  A twenty dollar bill will do you know good in an emergency.  People won't have change to give you and if you need water.... well your out $20.  In addition we have $250 set aside in our savings account that we will only use in an emergency. This is our financial reserve.

Overall, I feel very accomplished today.  Next step... finish my car kit and my 72-hour kits.  Then all I will need to do is to continually build up my food storage and continue to add and improve my kits, water storage, and financial reserve.  :)