Emergency Kits (Part 5): Cost + Top 10 Checklist
Note: This is Part 5 of a five-part series about emergency kits and emergency planning.
By Melissa Spencer
We’ve reached our final blog post of the Spencer family’s emergency planning journey. Whew! It’s been quite the undertaking, but we certainly sleep better at night because of it (mostly because of the peace of mind it provides, but maybe a little bit from the effort it took to put it together as well? 😉)
And now we come to the big question (drum roll please…):
What did all this cost?
Well, it wasn’t cheap. We spent about $2,850 for all our emergency supplies, not including a few items we already had on hand. Here is a broad breakdown of what we spent:
$400: Car emergency kits for 2 vehicles ($200 each not including snow chains)
$1,200: Gas-powered generator
$180: 2 boxes of emergency meals (28 servings each) with a 50-year shelf life
$170: Tent for 6 people
$900: Rest of emergency supplies
$2,850: TOTAL
It sounds like a lot. Honestly, it IS a lot, especially for stuff we may never use. But the peace of mind it gives us and how much it could help us in a real emergency makes it completely worthwhile.
And if you’re experiencing sticker shock from seeing that price tag…take a deep breath and hear me out.
The majority of our supplies will last us a very long time. Only a very small portion of our supplies – mainly food – will need to be replaced in the next 5 years, and much of it will last much longer than that. And even the food could be purchased in a way that it doesn’t have to be replaced for a very long time. Many premade emergency food kits have a 30-year shelf life! How’s that for a long-term investment?
Some of the things we decided to include in our kit may not be necessary for everyone. We live in a region that has a variety of seasons so something like a generator makes a lot of sense for us. If we lose power in the winter, we need a way to stay warm. That probably isn’t as big of a deal for those who live in a moderate climate. And, speaking of seasons, all the winter gear in our car emergency supplies wouldn’t be necessary for many people. Also, we are a family of 6! Preparing for a smaller number of people would likely be less expensive.
An emergency kit can absolutely be built over time. Want to have a kit but only have $500 to put toward it right now? Decide what are the most important things for you to have on hand and focus on that. Some emergency planning is way better than no emergency planning. And make it a goal to add to your kit each year until you get it to where you want it to be.
A few other thoughts:
There are several items that we feel better about storing separately from our emergency kits. Important documents like birth certificates, passports, car titles, estate planning documents, etc. will remain in a safe, fireproof place in our home ready to grab if we needed to evacuate the house. We also think it’s wise to have at least several hundred dollars of emergency cash on hand in case paying with cards or checks wasn’t an option. But just to ensure we don’t forget these, they are listed and highlighted on our emergency supply list.
Supplies are awesome; knowing how to use them is awesomer. (Yes, I realize that’s not a word. But if you’ve made it this far in my ramblings then you too are awesomer than the average reader, so well done you.) Anywhooo…make sure you have instruction manuals for any equipment that you don’t use on a regular basis. The manual for our generator is stored in our “All Emergencies Bin” as well as instructions on how to purify water with bleach, and when/how to use potassium iodide tablets in case of radiation exposure. And even better, practice using some of the tools and equipment you’ve bought. “I’ll never get the tent we bought back in its original packaging” isn’t a good excuse for not knowing how to set it up if/when you actually need it in an emergency.
Just so you know, Keith and I definitely don’t have it all together yet. Even a year and a half after being evacuated due to a nearby wildfire, we are still working on creating our prioritized “Grab List”. When that happened, we had a couple of hours to figure out what to pack up and we still brought a lot of stuff with us that we didn’t really need, and forgot stuff we would have been really disappointed to have lost forever. I guess you know what our next project is!
Emergency Planning Top 10 Checklist
And now, as promised, here is the Emergency Planning Top 10 document that consolidates much of the info we’ve shared in this blog series into a 1-page checklist.
Please remember, while we did a lot of research and put plenty of thought and effort into this process, we certainly aren’t experts. There may be other things that you should consider or include beyond what we’ve described.
Click here to download a PDF of the above document
Summary
We hope that our journey has inspired you to do some emergency planning of your own and that this list can be a tool for you toward that goal.
Blessings,
Melissa (and Keith)
“Confidence comes from being prepared.” – John Wooden