Emergency Preparedness

[Trac]

I am finally getting around to this, and I know a lot of you are much further ahead than I am!  At this point, I'm trying to get together all of our important papers, ID, etc. and put it in the right place...which is more confusing than I first thought!  I'm running into conflicting ideas all over the place.  I'm not sure what to put in the safe deposit box, what should stay home in a safe, and what should go in the go-bag.  Those of you who have figured this out...what have you done with:

passports

birth certificates

social insurance cards

marriage certificate

property title

valuables things such as jewellery

Also, I'm wondering what is a good amount of cash to keep in the house.

I bet the answers are going to be varied, but if you've got a minute, please tell me what you do!!  TIA!

[Trac]

Oh, I see that there's another thread about emergency cash, so I'll go there to cover that question!  Sorry...this site seems to go so terribly slow, I give up on searching sometimes.  Still wondering about the rest, though.

[mommariffic]

We keep all our documents together (passports, marriage stuff, etc..) so we could grab and go if we need to

I don't really have any jewelry besides my wedding ring, and my DD currently tried it on/misplaced it (grr, it's a very thing twig ring and I know it's in the bedroom but it's MIA) so I don't really need to have a stash of things like that...I have a few special things I would want to have in a box to grab though -- baby book and momma journals that I would want kids to read/would want to have, a few of my favorite children's books (I know weird, but I'm a huge reader and if the world is falling apart I'd like a copy of The Secret Garden..) and I'd like to have a doubles of the essential oils and health stuff we love. I think comforts of home on the go in case of emergency..

As far as money, we need to work on this. We both never have cash on us, but I imagine if the world was going to shit money wouldn't be important -- I think ideally I'd like to have $500 in cash in the house, at all times though. 

[Arduinna]

It depends on what kind of emergency you are preparing for. Natural disaster or something else? I really can't think of any emergency where I'd need my passport or marriage license. Jewelry, well if you put it in the safety deposit box you likely wont get access to it in an emergency if you need to barter it for goods or services, but it would probably be safe in event of a flood or something.

[nlandrum]

I was also confused and overwhelmed. I chose to scan all my important documents and crucial information and then I put all the documents on a password protected flash drive. I hide this little device in my car and remove it once a quarter to update if needed.  I also sent a flash drive with the essentials on it to my aunt in another state. (birth documents, deeds, car titles, insurance and bank info)   Hope this simplifies it a bit. It gives me peace of mind that if the house or bank box was destroyed, I would more easily be able to prove ownership and get insurance claims moving.

[Trac]

Thanks for your thoughts!  In the end, I decided to make copies of all our important documents, which I have in a binder that will be in our go-bag.  I put the originals in the safe deposit box.  I decided to keep $200 cash on hand as well.  I make sure our vehicles have at least half a tank of gas at all times.  Still trying to figure out a few details, but I'm slowly getting there!