I’m going to kinda rant here. I heard something that just made me cringe. It had to do with Irene, the hurricane that has everyone plastered to their television sets, radios and Twitter accounts. I’ve seen news hounds doing really good impressions of Chicken Little with an umbrella, warning viewers that the sky is falling in torrents. I’ve heard weathermen and women trying to offer reassurance, advice and pictures of what could happen if the storm tightens like storms did in the ’50’s, even though they had different names and were on the other side of the world from New York City. And then of course, there are the crazy surfers sticking their tongues out at the New Jersey governor who is using the “H” word to order them off the beach. In short, pandemonium, chaos and a general sense of mental instability is racing up and down the eastern seaboard, while those of us in the rest of the country observe with a puzzled frown.


But what really got me today was the preparedness plans of two New York women and a picture of the grocery stores. If you haven’t seen it on the news, the grocery stores are empty. People have swiped the shelves clean. Anyone who was late to the party is flat out of luck. No water. No food and definitely no toilet paper. And what are two women, who were interviewed today, doing to prepare for the end of the world in New York City? One is ordering seven salads from the local deli, instead of her usual one salad. The other woman is making sure that she has plenty of yogurt for her daughter. Seven salads and yogurt? Do you think that they have any clue what “no electricty” involves?

I learned that “Be Prepared” involves putting one’s self on a budget (GS Law # 9: A Girl Scout is Thrifty). The best way to do that is to gather a list of all of your expenses for a month, including all the little stuff like every pack of chewing gum you buy or your daily Starbucks Macchiato Grande Mocha Vanilla Chocolate Cupcake Latte Frappuccino with whipped cream and sprinkles. Divide your expenses into categories (include a category for savings) and add up how much goes into each category for a month. Multiply each category total by 12 months and then divide by 52 weeks. That total is how much you should be spending out of a weekly paycheck into your categories in order to be able to pay the bills and miscellaneous expenses on time. Begin with one month ahead and then start adding in for the next month. That way you are always prepared a month in advance. You’ll even start saving money! It’s actually pretty simple.


Preparing for emergencies is no different from budgeting. Keep a record of what you use for one month down to the last matchstick, toothbrush, bar of soap. little liver pills and Pepto Bismal. At the end of the month, you will have a list of what you need for a month to keep your house running. Use two bars of soap a week? You’ll need to keep 8 – 9 bars on hand for the month. Drink a pot of coffee a day? Then figure on enough coffee for 31 pots of coffee. I know a family who planned ahead for a year and when the husband lost his job, they were able to go for the many months that it took him to find a new one without spending precious money on daily living. It was like their savings account in household necessities!


In your planning, also think ahead of items you can eat and drink that require no cooking and no refrigeration. Canning and dehydrating your own items really comes in handy for this project, however, store-bought canned and dried foods are fine too. The idea is to think ahead and consider, for example, if and how you would cook, what you would cook and if you would have enough water. If your electricity goes out or you get snowed in, etc, having that worked out ahead of time makes life so much easier. Living in Oklahoma with ice storms, tornadoes and heat waves that put a strain on the grid, we must be prepared at all times. You can look in the Index of Posts to the right to find alternative ways of cooking with a reflector oven and a solar oven.


The key to being prepared is that you hope you will never have to use these things, while facing the reality that you very well could. The neat thing is, that when you are prepared you are able to practice Girl Scout Law #3: To Be Useful and To Help Others! In other words, you can help someone in need. Just remember, when the hurricanes hit, the tornadoes destroy, the ice storms debilitate or the snow is 8 feet deep, being prepared can make a tough situation a whole lot more fun. A few board games and a kerosene lamp don’t hurt either! Who needs ol’ wilty lettuce, anyway?