72-Hour Emergency Kit: What to Pack and How to Build It on a Budget
A 72-hour kit is three days of water, food and basics, plus a week of medicine, packed in one or two containers so you can leave fast. Gather what’s already in your cupboards, then add one item each grocery trip. Water comes first: three gallons per person.
The 72-hour checklist
| Item | How much, per person | How to get it cheaply |
|---|---|---|
| Water | 1 gallon a day: 3 gallons | Sealed bottled water, or your own clean containers filled at the tap |
| Food | 3 days of non-perishable, easy-to-prepare food | Pull from the pantry |
| Medications and medical items | A 7-day supply | Ask your pharmacist whether an early refill is possible |
| Flashlight and extra batteries | At least one | Check drawers first |
| Battery-powered or hand-crank radio | One per household | Check before buying |
| First aid kit | One per household | Check before buying |
| Phone charger and backup battery | One per phone | Use what you have |
| Copies of documents | ID, insurance policies, medication list, proof of address | Photocopy or photograph what you have |
| Cash in small bills | Small bills; a few days of food and fuel | Set aside a little at a time |
| Sanitation and hygiene items | Wipes, garbage bags, personal items | Pull from the house |
| Multi-purpose tool, whistle, manual can opener | One per household | Check before buying |
Amounts: American Red Cross survival kit list (3-day supply for evacuation; 7-day medication supply) and CDC emergency water guidance (1 gallon per person per day for 3 days; replace stored tap water every 6 months). Item list: Ready.gov Build a Kit. Cash: the Red Cross list includes extra cash, and Ready.gov advises small bills. Quantities for tools and lights are this page’s suggestion.
Why three days
The American Red Cross sizes an evacuation kit at three days of water and food, and CDC sets the same three-day floor for stored water. Ready.gov is looser: you may need to get by on your own “for several days.” Build to three days first, because it’s the supply you’d take if you had to leave. Three gallons a person is heavy, so keep the water in a few smaller containers you can load into a car. Once it’s done, the 14-day emergency kit covers the larger supply you keep at home.
Build it in steps: gather what you have, then one item per shopping trip
Start with what you already own, like a flashlight, batteries, document copies, water and canned food, then pick up one extra item you normally use each time you shop. That’s the low-cost method Ready.gov recommends, and it means no single big shopping trip.
- This week: one gallon of water per person, a day of food you already have, a flashlight with extra batteries, a charger, copies of your documents and your medication list. Put it all in one place.
- Over the next few weeks: two more gallons per person and two more days of food, one item per trip.
- Next: the 7-day medication supply, if your pharmacist and plan allow an early refill, plus sanitation items, a backup phone battery and the cash.
- Last: the radio, first aid kit and tools.
If money for food is tight, community food banks can help families stock an emergency kit, according to the same Ready.gov page.
Cash
Keep a small amount in small bills: ATMs and credit cards may not work during a disaster (Ready.gov). No agency names a dollar figure, so aim for a few days of food and fuel. Savings beyond that belong in an insured account, sized in months; the emergency fund guide works out how many.
Keep it ready
Store the kit where everyone in the house knows to find it, in airtight bags inside one or two easy-to-carry containers. Check for expired items, and rethink what your household needs once a year (Ready.gov). Water you bottled yourself gets replaced every six months.