Are You Ready? Part 1

Over the last several days it has been heart breaking to see the disaster that is unfolding in Japan. I am sure your heart is broken for these people as it has been in years past when we have witnessed or experienced our own disasters.

Are you Ready? I have half way prepared in the past but I am on a mission to make sure that my family is as prepared as we can be in the event we have a disaster.

You can visit Ready America there are a lot of great ideas and step by step plans to get prepared.

Most disaster preparedness plans state to be prepared to be self sufficient for a minimum of 3 days since it can take some time for disaster relief to reach some people. I think many of these items we have already thought about but there are others I wouldn't have necessarily considered.

• One gallon of water per person per day for drinking and sanitation. Remember we can live without food much longer than we can live without water.
• 3 day supply of non-perishable food - Some examples below.
• Pork and Beans 
• Chef Boyardees
• Canned Chicken
• Dried Fruit
• Nuts
• Tuna 
• Saltine Crackers
• Vienna Sausages
• There are sorts of non-perishable foods. Basically if it is in a can you can put it in your Disaster kit.
• Make sure you have a can opener -
• A battery powered or hand crank radio are suggested. A NOAA Weather radio  - Make sure you have extra batteries as well.
• Flashlights - I figure at least one flashlight per person in your home plus extra batteries.  A Flashlight like this one is waterproof which could be necessary in a disaster and it takes common AA Batteries.
• First Aid Kit - you can put one together or you can buy one that already has all necessary items included.
• Whistle to signal for help.
• Dust Mask  in addition to Duct Tape  and sheets of plastic for needed protection. I found these really great sheets of plastic with plastic drop cloths.
• Wet towelettes and garbage bags for personal cleaning. I am going to stock my disaster kit with baby wipes  since they are thicker and hold up better for wiping. I am also including garbage bags with twist ties to ensure the closure of the bags.
• Wrench or Pliers are needed in order to turn off utilities if needed.
• Cell Phones and Chargers. The site of Ready America mentions to have a solar charger. I had never heard of these so I did a little research and found one like this that can charge your cell phone.

End of Part 1 - there is so much information to give you I will be posting Part 2 tomorrow!

Savings Savings Savings!!

I was thinking this pay period my grocery shopping may be a little more than what I wanted to spend. Fry's wasn't having any special Mega Ten Deals and no additional coupons but I still set out to do the best I could.

First I went to Safeway (it is only about 2 miles from Fry's so no next extra gas was wasted). They were having specials on the Gusher Fruit Snacks for .99/each when you buy 4. Safeway makes all coupons a dollar and I had 2 coupons for .55/off 2 boxes of Gushers which would be 2.00 off the 4 boxes. So on my first order I had 4 boxes of Gushers for $1.97 except I also had 9 $1.00 off coupons for Vitamin Water. But if I bought 10 I also got 2 additional items for free. When I checked out the Catalina coupons printed off a save $2.00 coupon for your next order AND a save $1.50 on your next 3 Gusher/fruit roll-up purchase. I ended up buying 16 boxes of Gushers, 10 Vitamin Waters, and 2 Smart Waters for only $2.37.

Even with only paying $2.37 I still had 3 $2.00 coupons off my next order and since Fry's is taking competitor coupons I used this $6.00 off my Fry's order.

I always search for coupons where there is XX of one item so that will be $1.00 off the one item and then I always try to pair with a competitor coupon so I can get even more off. I still have one $1.50 off my next 3 boxes of gushers so I might go back to Safeway tomorrow to get another round since they are practically free and normally at best they are $2.50 a box

In total I have $387 in groceries and spent $156!! As you can tell from the pics with this $156 spend I still bought a lot of stuff including 6 bottles of Tide detergent, 3 bags of cat food, 16 bottles of Propel Water, 10 bottles of Vitamin Water, 2 Smart Water, 16 boxes of Gushers, 6 boxes of General Mills cereal. Excedrin Extra Strength,  2 Degiorno Pizzas, 1 California Kitchen Pizzas, 5 packages of hamburger meat, a bag of shrimp and 1 bag of chicken breasts. 2 bottles of Pantene, Charmin toilet paper, and LOTS more!!

SUCCESS!!!!

The Unusual Chef

When I am looking for help in the kitchen, I normally get help from the last person you would ever think!

Ok so maybe he isn't so little anymore but yes Cody is the one that almost loves to help me cook!

Cody is a great chef! I keep telling him that his cooking skills will really make his wife happy one day (a long long long time from now!).

We decided that we would have homemade chicken stir fry and of course he was totally up for helping me.

First we started out with our green bell peppers and sweet onions. We just cook them up in my electric skillet with some  and teriyaki sauce -   seriously these are the 2 items we use to add flavor to the chicken and veggies.

Normally I will cook all the chicken and veggies in the same skillet but I knew everyone was super hungry so I made so much I had to split it.

Cody is such a big help in the kitchen! The funny thing is you better watch him or you might end up with something super spicy! He loves to season when he cooks and it normally turns out super good but sometimes well I guess you have to live and learn!

The finished product was a super yummy plate of chicken, veggies, and chicken rice .

I figure that with Cody helping me cook we get to spend some quality time together doing something that isn't very typical for a boy his age and he is learning some valuable life skills at the same time!