Winter Storm Survival - Keeping Warm When the Power Goes Out

Great article!  Thinking ahead to the coming winter.

Winter Storm Survival - Keeping Warm When the Power Goes Out

Almost Free Water Storage for Emergencies

Well as  you all know I am super frugal, not because I want to be, but because it is a necessity with our family size and income.  Whats that saying about necessity being the mother of invention, or in my case frugality?  Anyways I do take prepping very seriously and with the world on fire like it is now my prepping goals have stepped up a bit.  But prepping can be very expensive so I look for ways to save money any way I can.

Water storage is absolutely essential for anyone because well, water is essential right?  The red cross, homeland security, and fema all recommend that every American has enough stored water for at least three days of use.  One person will need on average one gallon of water per day.  So for our family of six not including dogs, chickens and cats that is 18 gallons.  Now I would like to have at least a weeks worth of water stored for our family because when you look at any natural disaster the water is usually off for one week or more.  So that ups the count to 43 gallons!  At the store the cheapest gallons of water are a dollar each so I'm looking at spending at least fifty bucks for water.  But did you know that half that gallon of water recommended is actually for cleaning and personal care, not for drinking?

So keeping that in mind I found a way to have water for the cleaning and personal care part of emergency water pretty much free.  What I do is whenever I use up a gallon bleach bottle I rinse it out and then fill it with tap water.  The residual bleach from the plastic keeps the water bacteria free and is perfect for using as washing water in an emergency.  Almost everyone uses bleach so this is a great way to save money, prep, and recycle at the same time.  Also the bleach bottles are made of tough durable plastic with a sturdy handle and a self sealing lid which makes it good for long term storage of your water.  I'm thinking the water will be good for at least a year and if you don't use it you can just empty them out with no loss of money.