While not always pleasant or comfortable most people can get along, or learn to get along, quite well without toilet facilities of any kind. Yes, there is always the cat hole and squat. But the Chinese go for a semi-standing high altitude precision bombing. Often with less than sterling accuracy. Bigger holes and a certain amount of scraping into the hole for near misses can make it work while still preserving the environment.

There are a lot of aspects to the finance and food purchase patterns. Many families are quite literally budgeted down to the last dollar. An extra can of beans may mean doing without something else. Hard for a lot of people to imagine but there are a lot of people who live very close to the edge financially, emotionally, physically.

It is hard to overestimate how stressed the bottom ten percent of the population is.

Also it has to be noted that eating at McDonnald's is fairly effective in a calories per dollar basis. But the big payoff is in time and effort. A single mother working two or three jobs six or seven days a week, shuttling kids to school and daycare, and catching sleep a few hours at a time whenever they can often have little time or energy to cook. Hitting the drive-through on the way home from picking the kids up from daycare is about as good as it gets.

For these people tossing the kids old Power Ranger comforter into the car, refilling discarded soda bottles, and getting a few large deep-discount candles may be a major advance. These ten steps Baby steps are just barely doable.

The good news is the first steps have the biggest payoff for the least investment.

I would rather see hundreds of families with few resources get a minimalist kit together than one or two assembling extensive kits.

Exactly. A few liters of water and a flashlight is better than not having any water and a flashlight.

People have survived on far less than one gallon/person/day. Within certain limits more is better, a lot depends on what you are doing without to have more, but most people can get along with a gallon a day if you limit use to drinking, brushing teeth, and a sponge bath.

Presently,I'm Unaware of Any society in this world,That Even Tries to Get along,Of whom Lack the proper facility or Commode! China Certainly isn't one,OK Mongolia/Tibet,I haven't been there!I'm Mainly Concerned with My Country,when a disaster happens such as, Tornado sends your outhouse into your neighbors house,Earthquake swallows up your Bathroom & Then some,Flood decides to visit,& overstay's it Welcome,Hurricane Andrew's Momma wants to hang out for awhile,Stuff like that!When you lack the proper place to Vent your frustrations,You remain Frustrated!

I totally agree Art. Better is always better, but something is better than nothing. The easiest way to get someone to start thinking along these lines is to make it easy and cheap, especially when the family budget is tight. Organizing what you already have on hand can also be very empowering when you realize that you are more prepared than you thought.

What a great thought: Simple, direct, and very manageable. Just the fact you slow down enough to do this is a move in the right direction.

Honestly, I have a hard time knowing what I need to get when I go "major" grocery shopping. This step alone needs to be integrated.

Make a plan, make a plan, make a plan.....

Again, great thought.

What about those who are unemployed with unemployment insurance benefits (i.e. social security recipients with at least some minimal income with local currency), those who are unemployed without unemployment benefits (i.e. timed out social security recipients who have been referred to as bums, junkies and animals that don't deserve to be fed less they breed and not even counted on Government statistics as even being unemployed).

I'm a little confused how food stamps work, as they appear to be a system of (Local, Federal Government or charitable?) rationing out with the main stream economy yet there are tens of millions of folks reliant on this system (i.e. food survival). There appears to very little leeway (basically non existent even for those who are adept at planning a weekly diet rota) for folks on food stamps to put aside enough to cater for a general emergency.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW0wdlyXJBU

Is the food stamp system the fall back for unemployed people whose unemployment benefits have run out. How does this affect any housing benefits so that folks can remain in their place of residence (i.e Shelter esp with one of the coldest winters forecast for a generation)?

The underlying economic problems haven't been resolved, in fact they are even more dire since the banking and financial sectors in the western world went bankrupt in 2008. The real economic fallout has yet to be paid in currency devaluation and government debt default with the consequent inflation of worldwide commodities because they are priced in the worlds reserve currency (i,e, the UN food price index is once again at its highest level due to speculative actions as just before the previous stock market crash of 2008), whilst many other countries are actively decoupling their economies from the worlds reserve currency (currency war) to the point that I suspect gun boat diplomacy is being actively pursued to maintain the free ride that the masters of the universe have gotten so used to.

I suspect it may be to late for those on limited fix incomes or those on poorly paid wages without any savings to put together enough cash for a 3-6 month food stockpile. For those that can afford to do so, I would recommend that they do so immediately or at least have a cash float available under the mattress to pay for a food stockpile when required.

I've been in line at the supermarket,& Observed many a Folk,Using Foodstamps/WIC coupons & Talking/Texting on BlackBerry's & Razors(cells)/Bluetooth's,Parked in the Blue zones(Handicapped Only)Loading their Lincoln Navigators/Cadillacs with the Groceries,whilst being Oblivious to the Traffic/Life around them!As far as I'm Concerned,These types don't Deserve, Preparational Instruction!Murphy's law Tells me,They will Probably Survive,Any Disaster!

I've seen my share of those , load up a cart and when their bill was more than the amount of food stamps they had they would put everything back but the junk food. Some would offer $5-10 in food stamps in exchange for $4 to us pushing carts in from the lot in case so they could buy cigarettes (and get mad at me when I wouldn't take them on their offer).
I got paid weekly and allocated $20 to groceries our of my $100 per week take home pay, I got lunch at school and at work sat and Sunday when I worked 8 hours so that had to do breakfast and dinner for a week. I'd get the $0.19 loaf of bread, the $0.99 eggs, $0.99 gallon of OJ, $0.79 imitation pop tarts, cans of soup or such that was on sale. It was almost a game to see how far I could stretch that budget.