Last night I was sitting watching some television when my house suddenly went dark.  Every light in the place was dead.  The flashlight I was so proudly congratulating myself for having stowed in my kitchen junk drawer had dead batteries.  My car was locked in the garage because my garage door was electric and I didn’t know how to make it work manually.  I had no candles because I’d thrown the ones I had, which were old, out when I moved.  I had one working flashlight, with batteries that were who knew how old and that was it.  Luckily, the lights were only out for a relatively short time.  It was long enough, however, to show me that I was woefully unprepared.

Part of using your money wisely is being prepared for the unexpected.  This might mean something as simple as having working flashlights stowed in easily accessible locations, so you don’t trip and injure yourself stumbling around in the dark.   Being prepared could require devising an alternate way to keep food cold if your electricity was out for days and your refrigerator no longer worked.  Perhaps being prepared might require having an alternate place to stay if your home became uninhabitable for some reason.  Planning for the unexpected can be difficult, precisely because it is the unexpected.

Part of any frugal lifestyle should be planning for the “what ifs”.  These are the things that you don’t expect will happen, but which might occur.  The “what ifs” include things like a serious illness, a car crash,  a severe storm that knocks out power for several days,  the loss of a job,  and other events that most people don’t like to consider.  I can understand and identify with the need not to think about what might happen, but the problem with that sort of need is that, should the “might” happen really happen, you’ll be left with no plan at all.

Do yourself a favor and take a few hours to devise a simple plan for some of the major things that could happen.  Make sure all the adults in the family know where important documents are, who the insurance agent is and who to call should something happen.  Everyone in the family should know what to do in the event of a fire or other disaster,  and the plan should be rehearsed until everyone knows their part and can carry it out smoothly.

Hopefully you’ll never have to use the plans you make, but having them in place will make things easier should something unexpected occur.  The actions you take and the plans you make now could be the difference between a unexpected occurance and a disaster.

Posted: 10|14|08 at 9:05 am. Filed under: Organize Your House/Life.
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