The government’s Be Ready campaign asks every household to be able to cope on its own for three days. That’s a 72 hour emergency kit, and it sounds like a big shopping job. It isn’t. Most of it is food, water and toiletries you can pick up on your next supermarket trip. The part that trips people up is the kit that keeps working with the power off: something to see by, something to hear the news on, something to charge a phone and something to heat a tin of soup.
So we’ve done that part for you. Below is a 72 hour emergency kit on a budget: nine items, every one rated 4 stars or more on Amazon, that you can add to your Amazon basket in one click. It came to under £100 when we checked it. It covers the basics today, and further down we show you how to improve it over time.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Hot Food and Drinks | |
| Coleman Fyrelite camping stove | £22.50 |
| Coleman C300 gas cartridge | £11.36 |
| Long-reach refillable lighter | £3.99 |
| Light | |
| Mini torch | £5.94 |
| Head torch | £4.86 |
| LED lantern | £5.49 |
| News and Power | |
| Battery radio | £11.08 |
| INIU 20,000mAh power bank | £22.40 |
| AA and AAA battery pack | £10.03 |
| Total | £97.65 |
Prices checked at time of writing (24 October 2026). Click any item to jump to it below, or check the button on each item for the current price.
Get the whole 72 hour emergency kit in one click
Add All 9 Items to Your Amazon Basket →
You’ll need to be signed in to Amazon. Amazon shows you every item and price before anything goes in your basket. If an item has sold out, Amazon skips it and adds the rest, so check the list and grab any missing item from its own button below.
72 Hour Emergency Kit: Hot Food and Drinks
The official list sticks to food that needs no cooking, and that’s fine for an evening. By day two of cold beans, a stove that boils a kettle and heats a pan is what makes a power cut bearable. In Darren’s words, from his interview with the i: “We live in an area with regular power cuts, so we’ve got a portable gas stove in the kitchen cupboard. It’s the cheapest bit of kit in our power cut setup, and it’s the one that gets used every single time, because the first thing anyone wants when the lights go out is a cup of tea.”
Coleman Fyrelite Camping Stove
A small, single-burner stove from a name you’ll know, that screws straight onto the top of a gas cartridge. It puts out 3,600W and boils water in about three and a half minutes in still air. It lights with a flame, not a button, which is why the lighter is in the basket too.
How long does the gas last? The Fyrelite uses about 246g of gas an hour on full, so one 361g cartridge gives you roughly an hour and a half of flame. That’s plenty for boiling water for brews and reheating tinned soup, stew, chilli or curry, but not enough for “real” cooking from scratch. For a full 72 hours, aim for three cartridges, one a day. The basket has one to get you started, so add two more when you can.
Tip: buy ready-cooked rice in pouches. It only needs heating through for a couple of minutes, where dried rice needs 20 minutes or more of boiling. That’s the difference between one cartridge lasting the day or not.
Use it on a stable, heat proof, flat surface. Your existing cooker top is ideal. Have a window or the back door open, and see the carbon monoxide alarm below.
Coleman C300 Gas Cartridge
A 361g butane and propane blend, with the standard screw thread the Fyrelite takes. The valve reseals when you unscrew the stove, so a part-used cartridge comes off safely and keeps for next time. Screw-thread cartridges are made by several brands, so a replacement is easy to find in a camping shop as well as online.
Long-Reach Refillable Lighter
A long-nozzle gas lighter with a safety lock and an adjustable, windproof flame. The long reach keeps your fingers well away from the burner when you light the stove, and it’s refillable, so it isn’t one more thing to run out of.
72 Hour Emergency Kit: Light
Three lights, three jobs: a torch for finding your way, a head torch for when you need both hands, and a lantern to light the room. All three run on AAA batteries, so one battery pack keeps the lot going. Leave the candles in the drawer; they’re a fire risk and give off poor light.
Mini Torch
A small 60 lumen torch with a focusing head that slides from a tight spot beam to a wide flood, a range of up to 110 metres and up to 14 hours of light. It’s sold as a kids’ torch, with a hand loop and a rubberised grip, which makes it just right for small hands in a power cut too. It comes with its three AAA batteries.
Head Torch
Hands-free light for cooking on the stove, checking the fuse box or getting the kids to bed. This Status head torch has an elasticated band and a white LED, and it comes with its three AAA batteries, so it works straight out of the box.
LED Lantern
A compact LED lantern with five modes, from strong to weak light plus flash and SOS, and a hook so you can hang it from a cupboard handle or light fitting. It’s IP43 rated against splashes and runs on three AAA batteries from the battery pack.
72 Hour Emergency Kit: News and Power
Battery Radio
When the power’s off and the mobile network is busy, a radio is how you find out what’s going on. The Be Ready list asks for one. This ZILON is about as simple as radios get: AM and FM, a big tuning dial, a volume wheel, a telescopic aerial and a headphone socket. No apps, no menus, nothing to charge. It runs on two AA batteries from the battery pack. Find your local BBC station on FM before you need it.
INIU 20,000mAh Power Bank
Your phone is your torch, your news and your way of checking on family, and it’ll be low on charge when the power goes. A 20,000mAh power bank keeps it going for days. Charge it now, top it up every few months, and it’s ready when you need it. We’ve reviewed this one in full. Unlike other power banks, this one will recharge low draw items like watches, ear bugs, etc.
INIU 20,000mAh Power Bank
We tested it so you don’t have to — here’s the one thing most power banks get wrong, and why this one doesn’t.
AA and AAA Battery Pack
Twelve AA and twelve AAA alkaline batteries with a 10-year shelf life. The lantern takes three AAA and the radio two AA, and the torch and head torch come with their own. That still leaves nine AAA and ten AA spare, which is a full change for everything, with some left over.
The Must-Have Extra: A Carbon Monoxide Alarm
If you’re cooking or heating with gas in a power cut, a carbon monoxide alarm isn’t optional. Carbon monoxide has no smell and no colour, and a mains-powered alarm is no use with the power off. We’ve kept it out of the basket so you can choose it on its own, but please don’t skip it. This FireAngel is a combined smoke and carbon monoxide alarm that runs on a sealed battery, so it keeps working through a power cut.
FireAngel Combination Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm
One sealed unit covering smoke and CO detection — with a 10-year battery that keeps it running during a power cut, when emergency stoves and heaters are out and a mains-wired alarm would already have gone dark.
Our Full Review: FireAngel Combination Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm →
The Rest of Your 72 Hour Emergency Supplies: Get Them at the Supermarket
Everything else on your 72 hour emergency kit list is cheaper and easier at the supermarket, and you’ll buy things your household actually eats. As Darren told the i: “Buy food you already eat, and a simple way to heat it without mains power. A supermarket covers almost everything you will need.”
Your supermarket list for 72 hours
- Bottled water: at least 3 litres per person per day for drinking, so 9 litres each for three days
- Food that needs no cooking, plus tins that only need heating: soup, stew, chilli, curry, beans
- Ready-cooked rice or pasta in pouches
- Tea, coffee, long-life milk and something sweet
- Toiletries, toilet roll, wet wipes and bin bags
- A basic first aid kit and any medication you or your family take
- Baby food, nappies and formula, if you need them
- Pet food for three days
- Some cash, in case card machines are down
- A box of matches as a backup to the lighter
Don’t forget the bits money can’t buy in a hurry: copies of your ID and important documents, and the phone numbers you’d need written on paper. Your electricity network’s power cut number is 105.
Improve Your 72 Hour Emergency Kit Over Time
This basket is the cheapest way to be covered today, not the best kit money can buy. Once it’s in the cupboard, upgrade one piece at a time, as and when you can. These are the next steps we’d take, each one reviewed in full.
More Gas
The cheapest upgrade of the lot. Two more cartridges gets you to one a day for the full 72 hours.
A Light That Comes On by Itself
The Xtralite NiteSafe sits in a socket as a night light and switches itself on the moment the power fails, so it’s the first light anyone in the house has in a power cut. Lift it out and it becomes a torch.
XtraLite NiteSafe
The NiteSafe is a dual-function device that works as both a plug-in nightlight and an emergency torch. It sits in a standard UK plug socket, charges continuously, and the moment mains power fails, it automatically illuminates.
Brighter Torches and Lanterns
For a step up in light, the Lepro torch two-pack, the Energizer Vision HD+ head torch and the Lepro 2000lm rechargeable lantern are the ones we rate. The lantern charges by USB and falls back to AA batteries once there’s nothing left to charge it from.
Lepro Torch
A pair of pocket-sized AAA battery torches with SOS and a zoom beam: one for the front door, one for the car, and nothing to charge when the power goes.
Our Full Review: Lepro Torch →
Energizer Vision HD+ Head Torch
Is this the most versatile head torch for your kit? Does it deliver what it promises? Does it have longevity?
Lepro 2000lm Rechargeable Camping Lantern
Charges by USB, then runs on AA batteries when the power’s been off too long. Up to 2,000 lumens, warm white and red modes, IPX4.
Our Full Review: Lepro 2000lm Rechargeable Camping Lantern →
A Radio That Never Needs Batteries
The FosPower emergency radio charges by hand crank, solar, USB or batteries, has a built-in torch and can top up a phone in a pinch.
FosPower Emergency Radio
Most emergency radios have one or two power options. The FosPower has four, and that redundancy is the single most important feature for preparedness use.
A Portable Power Station
The big upgrade, for longer cuts. A power station runs lights, charges every phone in the house and can keep small appliances going. Don’t buy a bigger one than you need; for most homes, a power bank is the place to start.
Anker SOLIX C300X
Two proper plug sockets, 288Wh of long-life LiFePO4 and 80% recharged in 50 minutes: the essentials kept running through a power cut.
Our Full Review: Anker SOLIX C300X →
What the 72 Hour Emergency Kit Costs
The nine items in the basket came to £97.65 when we checked them. Add about £22 for two more gas cartridges, and the price of a carbon monoxide alarm if you don’t already have one. The rest is your usual supermarket shop, spread over a couple of trips.
📋 Clarissa
I’ve Made A Checklist
Here’s my checklist of the government’s Be Ready list, so you can tick off the supermarket half once your basket arrives. Print it and stick it inside the cupboard door.
Download: Government Emergency Kit Checklist →What the Rest of the Team Think
🦆 Keith the Prepper
My first power cut kit cost three times this, and when the lights went out I couldn’t find anything to light the stove with. This basket comes with the lighter. My wife says it’s the first kit I’ve bought that she’d actually use.
★★★★★
🪖 Black Panther
Light, comms, power and a heat source. That’s the core of any kit. I’d run a red-light head torch and a second fuel type, but for a family home on a budget, this covers the job.
★★★★☆
🤡 Camping Clown
I once paid a fortune for a 72 hour emergency pack in a tactical bag. It had a whistle, a foil blanket and a spork. This lot lights the room, gets the news and makes a cup of tea for less than half the price.
★★★★★
🐾 Weekend Warrior
Pet food goes at the top of my supermarket list. Pickle’s a creature of habit, and a power cut is stressful enough for her without a change of dinner. The lantern on its hook means I can see her without shining a torch in her eyes.
★★★★★
🐕 Pickle
Snorgle!
★★★★★ (translation: the lantern hook is exactly my height)
🐔 Chicken Licken
I’ve been saying for years that the shops empty within a day when the power goes. Nobody listened. Now the government’s saying three days. I’ve bought two baskets.
★★★★★
📋 Calm Clarissa
Basket on one shelf, supermarket items on the other, checklist on the cupboard door. Janet asked why anyone needs three lights. Janet has never tried to heat a tin of soup by phone torch.
✅✅✅✅✅
💄 Survivl Gurl
The head torch is literally giving festival. And the power bank kept my phone alive for my whole power cut aesthetic post, which is honestly the main thing.
★★★★☆
🌿 Aroura
Light, a little warmth and a hot cup shared by lantern light. My grandmother kept a tin of soup and a box of matches by the back door, and she never once worried about the dark. Namaste 🙏
★★★★★
A Budget 72 Hour Emergency Kit: Pros and Cons
Pros
- Covers light, news, power and hot food for under £100
- One click to add the lot, no trawling through listings
- Every item rated 4 stars or more on Amazon
- One battery pack runs everything that takes batteries
- Easy to upgrade one piece at a time
Cons
- Budget kit, so it’s basic: brighter lights and a better radio cost more
- One gas cartridge isn’t enough for the full 72 hours on its own
- The stove is for reheating, not proper cooking
- A carbon monoxide alarm is extra
- Amazon prices and stock change, so the basket total can move
Frequently Asked Questions
What should be in a 72 hour emergency kit?
Enough to look after your household for three days without power or shops: water (at least 3 litres per person per day), food that needs no cooking or only reheating, a torch, a battery or wind-up radio, a power bank, batteries, first aid, medication, toiletries, cash and copies of important documents. A small stove for hot drinks and food makes it far more bearable.
How much does a 72 hour emergency kit cost?
The kit side can be done for under £100: our nine-item basket came to £97.65 when we checked it. Food, water and toiletries are your normal supermarket shop on top of that.
Is it better to buy a ready-made emergency pack?
Usually not. Branded 72 hour emergency packs tend to cost more and fill the bag with things you’ll never use. Buying the few items that need to work without power, and getting the food and water from the supermarket, covers more for less.
How long does one gas cartridge last on a camping stove?
On the Coleman Fyrelite, a 361g C300 cartridge gives roughly an hour and a half of flame on full. That’s enough for brews and reheating tins for a day, so three cartridges covers 72 hours.
Can I use a camping stove indoors in a power cut?
Only with care. Use it on a flat, stable, heat proof surface, keep a window or door open, never leave it unattended, and have a working carbon monoxide alarm in the room.
Why does the one-click basket ask me to sign in?
Amazon only adds items to a basket for a signed-in shopper. Once you’re signed in, it shows you every item and price to confirm before anything is added, and any item that’s sold out is skipped.
Build Your Resilience
Further Reading: Related Guides
- How to Prepare for a Power Cut
- How to Make a Blackout Box
- Cooking Without Power
- The 3-Day Emergency Pantry
- Emergency Water Storage
- Your Home Emergency Kit: What You Actually Need
- Rechargeable vs Alkaline Batteries
All our guides can be found listed on our resilience hub.
Gear We've Tested & Reviewed
- INIU 20,000mAh Power Bank Review
- FireAngel SCB10-R Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm Review
- XtraLite NiteSafe Review
- Lepro Torch Review
- Energizer Vision HD+ Head Torch Review
- Lepro 2000lm Rechargeable Camping Lantern Review
- FosPower Emergency Radio Review
- Anker SOLIX C300X Review
All our reviews can be found on our reviews and resources page.
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