My cousin Jaime’s been talking about earthquakes a lot on Facebook, so his wall is full of these fascinating but terrifying discussions with different people about psychics predicting huge earthquakes in the Philippines in the near future. 

Eeek! Given my overactive imagination and tendency to exaggerate everything, you can imagine the effect these discussions are having on me. 

In an attempt to alleviate my “OMG WE’RE DOOMED!! DOOMED!!!” paranoia, the hubby volunteered to put together a disaster survival kit (also known as a bug-out bag) — which is supposed to contain all the things we’ll need to survive for three days in the aftermath of a killer quake (or other calamity).

But of course we’re now locked in an all-out Bug-Out Bag Battle over the contents of our survival kit, because we can’t seem to agree on what constitutes “necessities”….

What he wants to put in the bag:

What I want to put in the bag:

Hey. Quit laughing. If I have to be homeless for 3 days or more, with no internet, running water or electricity, I would least appreciate being able to have decent toilet paper for when I have to answer the call of nature GOD KNOWS WHERE!

Gimme a break. Plus, the toilet paper can double as a pillow. So there.

And peanut butter is healthy, filling, and doesn’t have to be cooked. The factionless people in the Divergent books ate it all the time. 

SO THERE!

Of course this escalating battle means that we’re nowhere close to filling our bug-out bag. So if a quake really comes any time soon, we’ll be scrambling around like idiots trying to gather up our “necessities.”

Like I said… IDIOTS.

So FINE. In the interests of peace and post-earthquake survival, I finally looked up  the suggested contents of a bug-out bag, and here’s what I found.  

And yes, that’s what we’ll pack. Plus a few rolls of toilet paper. Because I insist. 

If you’re interested in preparing a bug-out bag of your own, you can find more info here, here and here. 

Let’s pray we never really need it — but it’s always good to be prepared anyway. :)