How to Build Your 3-Day Emergency Kit on a Budget

The Be Ready checklist can look expensive at first glance — water, food, a radio, a power bank, a first aid kit. But the government's own guidance says you don't need to do it all at once: "Build up your readiness gradually over time by taking it step by step, and picking up an extra item or two when you can." This guide turns that advice into a concrete plan that spreads the cost over about two months.

Start with the free stuff (week 1, £0)

Three of the most useful steps cost nothing. First, write down your important phone numbers — family, GP, energy supplier, insurer, bank. Put the list in your kit box and one copy in your wallet. Second, photocopy your ID documents (passport, driving licence) and keep the copies with the list. Third, sign up to the Priority Services Register at thepsr.co.uk if anyone in your home might need extra help in a power cut — it's free, and our full guide walks you through who qualifies.

Also free: gather what you already own into one place. Blankets, warm clothes, sleeping bags, candles and matches, a bag you can use as a grab bag. You'll be surprised how much of the checklist is already in your house.

Water and tins (weeks 2–3, ~£5–8)

Add two large bottles of water to each weekly shop — supermarket own-brand water is pennies per litre. Two weeks of that gets a single person most of the way to nine litres; a family of four needs longer, but every bottle counts and none of it goes to waste.

Same trick with food: one extra tin per shop. Baked beans, chopped tomatoes, tinned tuna, sweetcorn — whatever your household actually eats. Own-brand tins are often under 50p. After a month you've got a solid base of no-cook food for the price of a takeaway coffee per week.

Light and hygiene (week 4, ~£5)

A basic LED torch and a pack of batteries: a few pounds from a pound shop or supermarket. A big pack of wet wipes and a bottle of hand sanitiser: another couple of pounds. These are the cheapest categories on the whole list and some of the most useful — a winter power cut without a torch is miserable.

The radio (week 5–6, ~£10–15)

This is the item most households don't own. A small wind-up FM radio costs around a tenner online or in high-street electronics shops — no batteries needed, ever. If you'd rather have a battery model, they're similarly priced; just add a pack of spare batteries. Test it once when it arrives so you know it works.

Why the radio matters: in a serious outage, when mobile networks are down, official information still goes out on FM. It's the one item on the list you can't improvise.

Power bank and first aid (week 7–8, ~£15–20)

A basic power bank that'll charge a phone twice over costs £10–15. Keep it charged and top it up every couple of months — they drain slowly in a drawer. A simple first aid kit (plasters, bandages, antiseptic, painkillers) is under a fiver from any pharmacy or supermarket.

Total for the two months: roughly £35–50, spread so thin you'll barely notice it. And several steps — the phone list, the document copies, the PSR sign-up, gathering blankets — were free.

Keeping it going

A kit you build is only useful if it still works when you need it. Twice a year — when the clocks change is an easy reminder — spend ten minutes checking: water dates, tin dates, torch batteries, power bank charge, medication buffer, and whether the phone list is still current. Rotate anything close to expiry into the kitchen and replace it on the next shop.

The campaign's message is deliberately undramatic, and your kit should be too. No bunker, no panic-buying — just a box in the cupboard, built a few pounds at a time, that means a stormy weekend without power is an inconvenience instead of a crisis.