In the past year a few friends and people I follow on social media have found themselves being asked to leave their home quite suddenly by emergency services. From gas leaks and flash floods to unexploded World War 2 bombs and wild fires, there are a multitude of issues that mean you might need to dash out of your house with a few essentials and not much else.
Various European governments, particuarly the Scandinavian ones, have recommendations of what to have prepped in your home in case of an emergency, including food and water to last for several days. Here in the UK we don't have a history of preparedness and the general cost of living means that many people would struggle to even come close to the requirements set out in other regions.
But a basic emergency bag can be created quite cheaply with things gathered from around the house or purchased in supermarkets. With that in mind I thought I would take a look at how much it cost for me to set up our emergency bag.
(Caveat: This is not a "bug out bag". We are not taking supplies and camping equipment to last us days. We have a car, family who live 20 minutes away, and a selection of hotels in several nearby towns. This is a bag that would simply keep us comfortable for a few days while the issue that has caused us to leave has been resolved).
The bag
I had a sports bag that I bought to use as my hospital bag when I had our toddler. It’s quite deep, has handles and a shoulder strap, and there are a surprising number of pockets both inside and outside. It easily fits enough things for 2 adults and we don't use it on holidays so this is where I started.
In the long run I would prefer to upgrade to a backpack each for me and my husband as they’re easier to carry on your shoulders. But as a starter just using this bag has saved us money.
Cost: Nothing (the bag was originally purchased from Amazon for £19.99)
Clothes
This was the easiest part. There is no point spending money on brand new items that may be uncomfortable, don't fit properly, or are not suitable for the season. We packed clothes that are old but functional and still fit fine. One pair of trousers each (swapping to a skirt for me in the summer), one top each, two pairs of pants and two pairs of socks. No need for pyjamas, in an emergency we can sleep in our clothes.
Coats and hoodies live next to the front door and are easy to grab on our way out, as are shoes. Likewise our toddler’s nursery bag, which we bring home every evening, lives on a hook near the front door and always contains two complete outfit changes and a spare pair of shoes. There’s no need to pack extra for him, if anything his bag is the easiest to remember.
Cost: Nothing
Toiletries and medicine
We have a stock of toiletries (easier to remember to occasionally bulk buy than to remember to refill as each individual item runs out) so I rummaged through the box and took out some essentials. This means we’ll just need to refill the box slightly quicker than if we were just using things normally. But it also means that these are full sized toiletries so they take up quite a bit of room. If you have easy access to travel sized toiletries (perhaps you or family travel a lot) then these will be lighter and save space.
We’re also very lucky to not need regular prescriptions or medication, so all we need is some over the counter painkillers.
The toiletries in our emergency bag are:
- New toothbrushes for the 3 of us - £3.00
- Tube of toothpaste - £2.50
- Bottle of shampoo (Alberto Balsam) - 95p
- One deodorant - £1.40
- Small bar of soap - 95p
- Small packet of tissues - 17p
- 4 menstrual pads (tampons or a cup would save some space) - 70p
- One toilet roll - 60p
- One bottle of Calpol - £3.25
- One pack of Neurofen - £1.90
I’ve put everything except the shampoo (which is standing up in a corner of the emergency bag to reduce the risk of leaks) and the toilet roll (which takes up a lot of space anyway) in a ziplock bag so it is easy to find everything. This was something I did for my hospital bag and it was really helpful to not rummage to find one thing.
We also have a first aid bag which lives downstairs and contains plasters, antiseptic wipes and sterile pads, along with more paracetamol. Should we forget to grab that in an emergency we also have a smaller version in the boot of the car (for excursions with the toddler).
Cost: £15.42
Entertainment
This is where we spent a bit more money, as there isn’t a lot that we could raid from other parts of the house that we don’t use regularly. It has to be analogue, ideally something that at least two of us can do, and can age up with our toddler so we’re not constantly buying new things every year because he’s outgrown them.
This meant that I focused on paper-based games. I bought an Uno pack (£4.99), which comes in quite a small box so it’s easy to store, and it’s something that can be scaled up to more players quite easily. I also purchased a puzzle book (£3.85), and a pencil and paper games book (£6.43). There’s enough variety in each one that we should be able to stave off boredom for at least 10 minutes!
For the toddler we have a small Thomas the Tank Engine book that contains 3 stories, and two Hot Wheels cars. These were things already in the house that we have multiples of, so easy to sneak away and pack without him missing them.
Cost: £15.27
Food and drink
This is where we’ve spent the most money. And the bulk of it was on just two items – 710ml food flasks by the Thermos brand at £22.40 each.
I decided to buy these ones, rather than one large Thermos, as although they’re heavy and a bit chunky they take up the same space as one large Thermos. Having two means that we could keep hot water in one and cold water in another. And the cup lids are small and shallow enough that our toddler can hold them to have a drink without spilling water all over himself.
To make up for all the space they take I have packed them with individually wrapped teabags (£2.00 for a box of 25, 4 are in the Thermos and the rest were consumed at work), sachets of instant coffee (£6.99 for 50, 4 are packed and the rest are slowly being worked through), instant hot chocolate sachets (2 x 50p each), and instant soup (£1.65 for a box of 4, 2 sachets are in the Thermos). There are long shelf lives on all of them, and I have a note in my planner to check them twice a year and replace anything that’s close to its best before date.
I didn’t want to pack any tins or jars as the space is limited and we don’t want the bag to be too heavy. Packets of mini breadsticks (£1.40 for 6, we've packed 3) are light, have a long shelf life, and can be enjoyed by us and the toddler. We also have a few individually wrapped Kiddylicious biscuits (£2.85 for 6) for the toddler, and some Rice Krispies bars (£2.25 for 4). These were part of the usual weekly shop, I just removed two or three from the packs and put them in the bag.
The costs for the individual bits we've packed are:
- 2 x Thermos - £44.80
- 4 x teabags - £0.32
- 4 x instant coffee sachets - £0.56
- 2 x instant hot chocolate sachets - £1.00
- 2 x instant soup packs - £0.83
- 3 x mini breadstick packs - £0.70
- 2 x Kiddylicious biscuits - £0.95
- 2 x Rice Krispies bars - £1.13
Cost: £50.29
Miscellaneous
And of course there are a few essentials that don’t fit in the above categories but were still things I felt we needed:
- Pens and pencils (£1.70) – We have two pens, two pencils, a rubber and a sharpener. They can be used to make notes or fill in the games books mentioned in entertainment.
- Small notebook (90p) – We have a small notebook in which we’ve written emergency contact details for utility services (Cadent, UK Power Network, our GP surgery) and for our families, in case we can’t access our phones. We’ve also written down policy numbers, expiry dates and providers for various insurances, and the numbers of important ID documents.
- Charger cable and plug (£2.70) – We bought a spare phone charging cable (USB-C) and already had a USB plug adapter so we can access mains charging if needed.
- USB memory stick – I had a stack of these as I frequently back up photos. This one has a text file with the same information as our notebook, as well as copies of important documents.
- Cash – We have a small amount of cash in mixed notes (£5 and £10 notes) and £1 coins. This was collected over six months in a cash bag after selling things on Facebook marketplace so there was no need to withdraw anything from our accounts.
- Cotton tote bag – No idea how much this was as I was given it years ago. Easy to fold up and it stores in one of my emergency bag’s many pockets.
- Mini hot water bottle (£5.89) - Should we have to leave in winter and stay a few hours somewhere with less-than-ideal heating then this will help keep one of us warm. Also very helpful for general aches and pains while waiting for the Neurofen to kick in.
Cost: £11.19
The final total
As you can see above, there are plenty of ways you can create an emergency bag without needing to spend huge amounts of money. A basic bag is better than no bag at all, and everyone has different priorities and things they see as essential. You do not need to have a Thermos, I just know that I function better with a nice hot cup of tea. If you don’t have children you won’t need to worry too much about entertainment. If you have pets then you will need to consider food and water for them.
In total our emergency bag has cost £92.17 to set up. This is still a lot of money, but it would have been more if we hadn't reused a bag and clothing we already had. The Thermos' were the biggest chunk of that cost, without them it would be £47.37. If you remove the "entertainment" section as well that gets you down to £32.10.
In the future we may upgrade a few things, especially when we graduate from having a toddler to having a child. But if you’re worried about needing a lot of money to prepare then hopefully this has shown just how much you can use from around the home, or source quite cheaply from the shops.
