Cupboard · What you keep · 8 min read
This weekend, under £100: the seven-item starter kit
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You can put together a working emergency kit this weekend for under £100: bottled water at 3 litres per person per day (GOV.UK Prepare, checked 26 August 2026), nine tinned meals, a torch, a power bank, a radio, £100 in small notes and two free alert sign-ups.
Why these seven
Most disruption in Britain is ordinary. The power goes off for an evening, a burst main leaves the taps dry, card machines stop for an afternoon. These seven items cover all three, and none of them needs a specialist shop.
You are also further ahead than you might think. LINK’s Cash Index (published May 2026) found 49% of people already have a battery-powered torch, 47% keep tinned goods and 37% have a charged power bank. And even among people who had already taken some step to prepare, only 23% had done anything in the previous three months, so finishing this list in a weekend genuinely puts you ahead of most of the street.
The government’s own advice is that you don’t have to buy everything at once: “you could just add to your emergency kit when you are able and build it up over time” (GOV.UK Prepare). This list is the floor. When you want the fuller version, with first aid, medicines and a documents folder, move on to the full home emergency kit guide.
Note the arithmetic on the cash: the kit costs under £100 to buy, and the £100 in notes isn’t spending, it’s moving. The money stays yours, just in a drawer instead of an account.
How do you do it in one supermarket trip?
Five of the seven come from one big supermarket. Work the aisles in this order.
- Water aisle. One 6 × 1.5 litre multipack per person is exactly 9 litres. ≈ £1.50 a multipack (typical supermarket price, Aug 2026 — check monthly).
- Tinned aisle. Nine tins you would genuinely eat cold: baked beans, tuna, sweetcorn, fruit, rice pudding, soup. The Prepare campaign’s wording is food that “doesn’t need cooking, such as ready-to-eat tinned meat, fruit or vegetables (and a tin opener)”. Add a manual opener from kitchenware. Nine tins ≈ £12, and that covers three days of meals for one adult. The ≈ £63 family-of-four starter total assumes one shared set of tins to begin with; add roughly £12 of tins per additional adult appetite as you build.
- Electrical and hardware shelves. A torch and a pack of spare batteries, ≈ £10. Larger supermarkets also sell power banks (≈ £20 for a 20,000 mAh one) and sometimes a battery radio (≈ £15); if yours doesn’t, any high-street electrical shop has both. A wind-up radio never needs batteries at all.
- Cash machine on the way out. £100 in tens and twenties if the machine offers a choice.
- Home, kettle on. Sign up for the free alerts below. That’s the seventh item done from the sofa.
Everything here is available from any supermarket, and the recommendation comes first: buy whichever torch, radio and power bank your usual shop sells.
Where should it live?
One box or bag, in one place everyone in the house knows about: the bottom of the under-stairs cupboard, a kitchen cupboard, the top of a wardrobe. The Prepare campaign’s advice is to keep supplies together somewhere easy to find if the lights aren’t working.
Keep the torch nearest the door of the cupboard so your hand finds it in the dark. Write 105 on a sticker on the box: that’s the free number to report a power cut in England, Scotland and Wales (03457 643643 in Northern Ireland). Keep the water cool and out of sunlight; our water storage guide covers the detail. Charge the power bank now and set a monthly phone reminder to top it up.
The two free items are the ones most people skip
Cash. Only 17% of people keep any cash at home (LINK Cash Index, published May 2026). Yet in the April 2025 Iberian blackout, parts of the Iberian Peninsula were without power for up to 19 hours (NESO, checked 26 August 2026), and card payments failed widely, as reported at the time; notes kept working. Small notes matter: a £50 is hard to spend when tills can’t make change. £100 is a sensible round figure for a few days of food, fuel and taxis for most households.
Alerts. If you’re in England, the Environment Agency’s flood warning service is free and takes minutes to join at GOV.UK; warnings arrive by text, phone call or email. It doesn’t cover surface-water “flash” flooding, so still watch the forecast in heavy rain. Scotland uses SEPA and Wales uses Natural Resources Wales. Then get Met Office weather warnings, issued in yellow, amber and red, through the Met Office app or its email alerts. Our alerts guide walks through both sign-ups.
The twice-a-year check
Do this when the clocks change in March and October; it takes ten minutes.
- Write the purchase month on every tin and bottle with a marker.
- Eat and replace anything within six months of its best-before date.
- Test the torch and radio; swap tired batteries.
- Charge the power bank.
- Check the cash is still there and still £100.
- Check your alert sign-ups still have your current mobile number.
Special cases
Babies. The Prepare campaign is specific: choose ready-made or “ready-to-feed” formula, because you may not be able to boil water. Add a few days of nappies and wipes, and rotate them as the baby grows.
Pets. The Prepare campaign’s reminder is blunt: don’t forget food for pets. Add a few days of pet food and a spare lead, dated like the tins.
Flats. Water is heavy, so buy one multipack per shop rather than all at once, and keep two 5-litre bottles per person as a sensible cupboard ceiling. Cold tinned food is fine for a few days; never bring a camping stove or barbecue indoors, because they produce carbon monoxide, a gas the NHS warns “does not have any taste or smell” (NHS, checked 26 August 2026).
What this asks of your body
The shopping trip is quietly the first fitness test: 9 litres of water weighs 9 kg, and a family of four’s water and tins comes to roughly 50 kg across several bags. Carrying two full bags up two flights of stairs without stopping is the first of the five Ready Body tests; if Saturday’s shop feels hard, that page has a four-week plan.
Frequently asked questions
Is a £100 emergency kit really enough?
For the common disruptions, yes: an evening or two without power, a day or two without tap water, an afternoon when cards fail. It’s a floor, not a ceiling. The full home emergency kit guide grows it into £200 and £600 tiers with first aid, medicines and more water.
Which tins should I buy?
Anything you’d happily eat cold. The Prepare campaign suggests ready-to-eat tinned meat, fruit or vegetables, with a tin opener. Nine tins is roughly three days of meals for one adult, so scale by household size. The only real test: would you eat it unheated from the tin?
Why keep £100 when the kit is “under £100”?
The cash isn’t spent, so it doesn’t count towards the bill; it’s your money resting in a drawer. Cards and cash machines can fail together, as Spain’s April 2025 blackout showed. Keep small notes, because shops struggle to change big ones when tills are down.
Do I need a 20,000 mAh power bank, or is smaller fine?
Smaller works; bigger buys more days. A 20,000 mAh bank recharges a typical phone several times before it’s empty. Whatever size you buy, charge it today and top it up monthly. A flat power bank is just dead weight in a cupboard.
Does bottled water expire?
Bottled water carries a best-before date, which is about quality rather than safety: after it, food and drink “is usually safe to eat but may not be of the same quality” (GOV.UK food labelling guidance, checked 26 August 2026). Rotate at the clocks change anyway.
Where do I sign up for alerts?
Flood warnings: GOV.UK’s “sign up for flood warnings” service in England, SEPA in Scotland, Natural Resources Wales in Wales. All free, by text, call or email. Weather warnings: the Met Office app or its email alerts. Ten minutes covers the lot.
What’s missing from this kit?
First aid, several days of your medicines, hand sanitiser, copies of documents and a head torch: those are the month-one additions in the full guide. A separate bag for leaving home in a hurry is its own checklist, the go-bag. Start with the seven; add the rest over time.
Sources & review
- UK Government, Prepare campaign: Get prepared for emergencies. Checked 26 August 2026. Water quantities (2.5–3 litres per person per day, WHO minimum), no-cook food and tin opener, torch safer than candles, radio, power bank, batteries, ready-to-feed formula, pet food, keeping supplies in one findable place, build-it-over-time advice, 105 power cut number.
- LINK: LINK launches new Cash Index, published May 2026. Checked 26 August 2026. Torch, tinned goods, power bank and cash-at-home percentages; 23% of those who had already taken steps to prepare acted in the last three months.
- NESO: Reflections on the April 2025 Iberian event. Checked 26 August 2026. Parts of the Iberian Peninsula without power for up to 19 hours on 28 April 2025.
- NHS: Carbon monoxide poisoning. Checked 26 August 2026. Carbon monoxide does not have any taste or smell.
- GOV.UK: Sign up for flood warnings. Checked 26 August 2026. Free service for England, delivery by text, call or email, surface-water limitation, SEPA and Natural Resources Wales for Scotland and Wales.
- Met Office: Weather warnings guide. Checked 26 August 2026. Yellow, amber and red warning levels; app and email alert routes.
- GOV.UK: Best before and use-by dates. Checked 26 August 2026. Best-before dates relate to quality, not safety.
All prices are typical UK supermarket prices, estimated 26 August 2026 — check monthly. Awaiting review (reviewedBy: TBC).