Along with food
and water we need to consider some nonfood essentials to add to the prepper
pantry. I thought I'd go over some
inexpensive and very affordable options, some of which you may already have
around the house, in your garage or can acquire for not much money at all. A nice thought given the current rate of
inflation.
Soap
Bar soap stores
well and is very usable not just for washing our hands or bathing, but it can
also be shaved and used for laundry and washing dishes. Bars of soap can be purchased quite
inexpensively. Along with that consider
watching the sales and looking for coupons in order to purchase other soap
options as well. I often am able to get
dish soap or laundry detergent on sale with a digital coupon or even a paper
one I print online. Lately, however,
I've gone back to making my own homemade laundry detergent. Every once in a
while I pick up an extra ingredient to add to my prepper pantry so when I run
out I have plenty of supplies on hand to make more. It lasts a good long time and my current
recipes seems to work really well.
Oral Care
Toothpaste,
toothbrushes, dental floss or flossers, even mouthwash go on sale frequently as
loss leaders. I will use this opportunity
to stock up on oral care items whenever they go on sale. Adding a coupon shaves even more off the
final cost of these items and there are a lot of paper coupons for oral care in
the Sunday paper as well as online. Look
for multi packs of toothbrushes as this is typically a much less expensive
option over buying singles.
Wipes/Sanitizer
Watch the sales
for baby or sanitizing wipes as well as sanitizer. I will often find these on clearance and pick
them up for pennies. Wipes and hand
sanitizer are great options to have on hand whenever water isn't available such
as in the car or if the municipal water or your private well goes down.
Coffee Filters
If you stocked
up on coffee did you make sure you have filters? After price comparing I picked up coffee
filters at the dollar store, but I've also found them in clearance bins as
well. When they are on sale however,
they are often less expensive than the dollar store, especially now that the
dollar store is no longer just a dollar.
Save even more by making a one time investment in a reusable filter that
you can dump and rinse out with a little water.
A coffee cone is a good option too for making your coffee when the power
goes out. Additionally, disposable
coffee filters can also be used as filters for more than just coffee.
Foil/Food Storage Bags
Having extra
boxes of aluminum foil and various sizes of the zipper style food storage bags
is a really good idea. Aluminum foil of
course can be used for cooking and wrapping food. You can even make a makeshift pan out of it
or line a pan in order to reduce clean up.
Zipper bags can be used to store food, divide up larger packages of food
as well as storing many non food items.
I use zipper bags to put extra socks in to keep them dry on camping and
hiking trips. Matches and lighters too. They also are very helpful for organizing
items I want to keep together.
This is just a
start to what should be kept in our prepper pantry along with food. I'll be back soon with part two of this
little series. In the meantime watch the
sales, search for coupons and check the dollar stores and clearance shelves to
see what you can come up with. And then
let me know. I really want to hear about
what you find and how little it costs.
Good ideas. I keep a lot of soap and toothpaste
ReplyDeleteExcellent!
DeleteI must have a ten-year supply of Dove bar soap. The older I get and now no longer can lift cast iron, I use more foil for lining pans. Tommy loves it since he always scrubs the cookie sheets on which I cook. I do keep a supply of bags and foils and parchment paper--lifesavers. I do need to stock up on toothpaste.
ReplyDeleteExcellent! I hope you find a good deal on toothpaste soon ;)
DeleteI just saw a blog from a woman in the UK who used foil on the outside of her windows to keep the sun out during this deadly heatwave without air conditioning. Good tip if power goes out in the summer
ReplyDeleteI do that on my bedroom window. It really works and helps block outside lights too so I sleep better.
Delete