My blog sis Teresa and my blog bro _Jon have expanded on the suggestions and discussion of preparedness. My thanks to them for their contributions.
I just have one more item inspired by Teresa's post. To make sure that all the perishable items in my Go Bag are consumable at any given time, I enter each item;s expiration date in my PDA as I purchase it. I then set the alarm on the entry 2 weeks ahead of the expiration date to give me plenty of time to purchase a replacement. It's the simplest way I can keep my bag up to date without any fuss or major inconvenience.
Also, in talking with a pharmaceutical engineer neighbor of mine he indicated that 99.9% of meds are still consumable for a little over 6 months beyond the expiration date. So if there's an emergency and that's all you've got, then give it a shot. He said the worse that can happen is that they don't work.