How to Create a Backup Plan for Your Family ~ guest post by Andrea @ Frugally Sustainable

Andrea and I are becoming regular blogging friends. She found me first, and I happily discovered that we had a lot in common. She blogs about frugality and sustainability of course, but that includes many topics I feel passionate about myself – gardening, homeschooling, herbal medicine, and survivalism for a few examples. Earlier this year I participated in her 23 Days to Frugal Living Challenge. So when she shared with me some of the steps she and her husband have been taking to prepare their family for the unknown, I knew I had to have her share her story with you! Please consider the things she and her husband have done to keep their family safe and let it mull over in your own mind. How can you apply her story to your own life?

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How to Create a Backup Plan for Your Family

Can you think of a time when being prepared is a bad idea? Preparedness, whether we realize it or not, is a part of all of our lives. For example, every evening, after the children go to bed, I make preparations for the next day. We prepare for vacations and times when we are away from home. Meal planning is another common form of preparing for the days ahead…

Likewise, preparing for emergencies and sudden disruptions in “life as we know it” is a wise choice and should naturally be a part of every family’s budget, routine, and lifestyle.

My Family’s Backup Plan

A few years ago, my husband and I began actively preparing our family’s backup plan. The fact that we currently live in the Desert Southwest really frightened me — concerning the lack of water – tons of questions started to roll around my head. What would we do if anything happened? I can’t live to see my children suffer! Where would the water come from? It all just snow-balled from there.

Both my husband and I are medically trained; therefore, we tend to think in terms of basic human survival and work our way up from there. This way of thinking provided the basic framework for our backup plan:

Water
I began storing a small amount of water in mylar bags, we located our nearest water source (http://www.findaspring.com/), and have learned how to purify in any situation. For those of you living in areas where it rains and water is abundant, I encourage you to begin with a few water barrels and a small scale rainwater catchment system.

Food
Our family lives off of one income, so a large budget is not something we are accustom to. Over the past few months, we have slowly been able to transition our monthly food allowance in the direction of bulk buys. We, by no means, are able to afford the fancy-pants dehydrated meals (although I do have several bags of homemade dehydrated veggies from last year’s garden), yet over the course of one year we have been able to store nearly 8-9 months worth of beans, grains, and spices.

Relationships
Developing relationships with like-minded families, farmers, and businesses has been vital to our backup plan. I strongly oppose the term “self-sufficient.” There’s nothing “self” about it. In the case of an emergency, it is the communities that come together to help each other out that end up thriving. It is vital that our backup plans include a community – a group of people that will be there for each other.

Land
Preparing a homestead — or at least a place outside of the masses – was another important element to our plan. But remember, we are not wealthy, in fact we live on a super tight budget. Buying a tract of land seemed near impossible. However, we began looking for land being sold on a land contract or owner financed. And by the grace of God we, along with my sister’s family, were able to purchase 20 acres of raw land. It is rich in timber, pasture, and has 2 fresh water springs. Slowly we are making attempts to develop the land and one day soon we hope to move there permanently.

God
There were those times when we became so focused on our backup plan that we lost sight of the one that truly provides for all of our needs. God is our provider at all times. He is the one that sustains us. Our family’s backup plan includes our meager efforts — and I believe it is God-honoring – yet I fully expect to see days in which manna falls from heaven and my jars are filled with oil.

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. “ –Matthew 6

What does your family’s backup plan look like?

8 scenarios in which you will wish you had food stored up

The basic theory of prepping is simple: to be prepared before a significant event (SHTF scenario) occurs. In essence, this is a proactive approach to survival… Prepping at its most basic is simply being prepared for an unknown event that will have a direct impact on you, your family, or your group.”     ~ Zion Prepper, The Prepper’s Handbook, 2011

We have shared with you some of the reasons why we store food and how we started, but even though we feel it is very important, especially for family with kids at home, I realized we haven’t given you many examples of why it would be beneficial to you to store up food. So here are 8 scenarios that could very well happen (or already have) in which you will wish you had a food storage. Remember, it may seem silly to you now, but when an emergency happens, your opportunity to prepare will be long gone.

1) You forgot to add something to the grocery list. Okay, so this is a bit trivial, but how many times did I start to mix a batter together only to discover that I didn’t have x, y, or z, before we started our food storage? Now that we have one, if I do forget something, I can almost always find what I’m looking for in the food storage and then add it to the grocery list.

2) You have unexpected guests. A friend drops by at dinner time and you weren’t planning on an extra person. Suddenly the casserole you were planning isn’t big enough to feed everyone, and you don’t know what to make. Simply shop in your food storage and with a little creativity, a larger meal can be made to accomodate everyone.

3) Bad weather or a natural disaster hits. You aren’t able to travel to the grocery store, and at a time when people normally grab a few extra things, transportation of food to your grocery store from the warehouse becomes more difficult and less timely, resulting in empty shelves at the supermarket.

4) Inflation or crop troubles result in food prices skyrocketing beyond what your budget can handle. This has happened to a minor degree in recent years. Generally we can manage and spend a little extra on food, but a food storage can help you spend less until the crisis passes.

5) You lose your job and have to cut corners until a new one can be found. Many people are finding themselves in this place now, and who wants to choose between buying food and paying bills? Again, having a food storage can help you to reduce your grocery bill so you only need to purchase fresh produce and meats.

6) Our country loses control of oil in the middle east. We know our government doesn’t want to drill for oil here, so less oil means less fuel for transporting food from the country and the warehouses to the grocery store, which means tightening up the belt for those who don’t store up.

7) China decides to confiscate our food supply. We owe an insane amount of money to China, and last I checked, we weren’t even keeping up with the interest payments. They have already traded payments for food on a small scale, what happens if they decide they want more than we can afford to give? 

8) Civil unrest results in rioting, and either martial law or no rule of law. As demonstrated by the occupy movement and other groups, people in our country are getting more and more upset with the way things are being run around here. Times like Katrina, and short-term events since then have proven that the government believes they have the right to confiscate and redistribute food. And even if they aren’t involved, travel would be unsafe and food sparse in such cases.

Please store up food for your family! A short-term food storage of one week to three months worth of food should hold you over for almost any natural disaster or minor emergency, but planning for at least six months to a year is ideal so you know you will be able to feed your family no matter comes down the line.