If you've got kids, consider buying a small set of speakers for your iPod and loading it up with short stories or podcasts they will enjoy. Classic sci-fi radio shows like X-Minus-One or H. P. Lovecraft short stores, Coast to Coast AM shows, Doctor Who audio books (some are short, but most are very long), award winning short stories - that sort of thing.

And make sure you have a solar recharger for your iPod too.

I also have a stockpile of tealight candles, matches, long life milk, drinking chocolate and marshmallows (amongst other more serious long-life food) so the kids can enjoy the structure of a candle-lit short story and hot chocolate before bed. Buy coasters and and put the tealights in the whisky glasses for safety and to protect your furniture. The average cheep tealight will burn for over two hours, but you can buy taller ones that burn for up to nine hours.

Apart from medical supplies, long life food, water, toiletries and female hygiene products, I also have a single-burner portable butane camping stove and two dozen bottles of gas. Each bottle will last about 90 minutes at full flame. If you're only using for 15 minutes a day to heat up baked beans / ramen / rice for dinner and hot chocolate for the kids, you'll get almost five supply from 24 gas canisters and they cost a little more than $1 each.