The reason I started this series can be found HERE.
Part 3 is about disposables ... paper plates, plastic cups, plastic utensils, paper towels, etc. As a general rule the only one of these items we use on a regular basis are paper towels unless we have a power outage!
A power outage for us means we do not have running water and if we do not have running water I'm all about those paper products. I'm all about using and throwing it all away. Why? Because it's just easier not to have to heat water to wash dishes in and in a temporary off-grid situation where everything takes longer and is harder to do this little convenience is one I'm going to use if at all possible.
Are they expensive, they can be, but they don't have to be! I have a collection of holiday paper plates we use that I've gotten by purchasing them for a fraction of their cost after the holidays are over. Just recently I added the plates in the picture above to my collection about a week after Halloween for $.37 a package. It doesn't matter to me that they are holiday plates, to me they are our emergency preparedness plates. So, in a plastic tub they will go along with our plastic cups and plastic utensils.
Once a year, at Christmas, we purchase red plastic cups in bulk to package the fudge in that my husband makes for food gifts (We get the cups at Sam's Club and I think there's either 180 or 200 cups to the package. The package usually runs around $10.). Whatever is left of those goes into our emergency paper products preparedness tub. When we travel and have to stay in a hotel, we bring home the unused styrofoam or plastic cups that come with the price of our room. Between the two, we can usually keep enough in our preparedness tub to get us through a power outage. Remember, we're preparing for a 1 month power outage so save accordingly.
We do purchase a box of plastic utensils at Sam's Club, the one's that are individually packaged with a napkin, fork, spoon and possibly a knife, to have in our preparedness tub. One box will last us a long time and it sure does make cleaning up from a meal in a non-electric situation a lot easier.
Being prepared by having disposables on hand will make a difficult situation a little easier to handle! Trust me on this!
Patsi
Sharing 42 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building
My second blog: From This Heart of Mine
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27
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