Tier 01 · Survive
If you've never prepared for anything, this is the starting point. By Sunday evening, you'll be ready for the kinds of short emergencies that actually happen — power outages, storms, the quiet first night when the lights don't come back on.
What this tier covers
The 72-hour benchmark exists because it covers the vast majority of disruptions a household actually faces. Most power outages end within a day. Most severe weather events pass within 24 to 48 hours. The roads reopen. The grocery store restocks. Help arrives.
What you're preparing for, mostly, is the in-between: the quiet stretch before normal returns. A weekend of work now means the next one of those stretches doesn't catch you flat-footed.
The framework
The same six pillars that organize every tier of preparedness, sized for 72 hours. Honest cost ranges included — no surprises when you shop.
01
One gallon per person per day, for three days. A family of four needs twelve gallons. Store in sealed food-grade containers and rotate every six months.
~$20–$50
02
Three days of non-perishable, no-cook food. Canned goods, peanut butter, crackers, dried fruit, energy bars. A manual can opener. Skip anything that needs water or refrigeration.
~$40–$80
03
Two LED flashlights with spare batteries. A battery or hand-crank lantern for the main room. Never candles indoors — fire risk is real and the leading cause of post-outage house fires.
~$40–$80
04
A three-day buffer on every prescription in the house. A basic first-aid kit: bandages, antiseptic, pain reliever, tweezers. Anything specific to chronic conditions.
~$20–$40 + scripts
05
A battery or hand-crank NOAA weather radio. A printed contact card with names and numbers — cell phones die, and most of us no longer remember anyone's number. One out-of-state contact who can relay messages.
~$30–$80
06
Copies of IDs, insurance cards, prescriptions, and the deed or lease in a waterproof bag. $200–$300 in small bills — ATMs and card readers go down with the power.
~$10 + your time
Total cost, starter kit: ~$160–$340. Less if you already own flashlights, batteries, and a manual can opener — and most households do. Use what you have first.
The kit, assembled
One way to build this. The picks below are gear we own and use. Most pillars can be DIY'd from what you have — but if you'd rather skip the shopping, this is the kit we'd put together for a household starting from zero.
01 · Water
~$25–$30
Food-grade, stackable, with a built-in spigot. Two of these cover a family of four for three days. The default.
Backup option: Sawyer Mini filter ($25) for any non-chemical water source.
02 · Food
$0 if you already have it
Canned tuna, peanut butter, crackers, dried fruit, granola bars. A manual can opener ($10) if you don't already own one. Honest answer: most households have three days of food in the kitchen right now and don't realize it.
Shortcut option: ReadyWise 72-hour kit ($50–$70) if you want pre-portioned freeze-dried meals.
03 · Light
~$45–$55 together
A bright handheld flashlight that runs on AA batteries (which are everywhere), paired with a collapsible solar-rechargeable lantern for a whole room. Spot and area, the two lights every household needs.
Skip: "tactical" flashlights with strobe modes. Marketing, not utility.
04 · Medicine
~$30
A pre-stocked first-aid kit sized for two adults for several days. Includes bandages, antiseptic, pain reliever, and trauma basics. Cheaper than assembling the same contents piece by piece.
Plus: a three-day buffer on every prescription in the house — talk to your pharmacy.
05 · Communication
~$80
Hand-crank, solar, and USB-rechargeable. Receives NOAA weather and AM/FM. The USB output charges a phone in a pinch. The single most useful electronic in the 72-hour kit.
Budget alternative: Eton FRX3+ ($60). Always: a handwritten contact card. Free.
06 · Documents
~$20
Holds the photocopies of ID, insurance, prescriptions, and the deed or lease. Sized for an emergency, sealed against water and dust.
DIY: a 1-gallon zipper bag works for starting out. Plus: $200–$300 in small bills, kept with the documents.
All-in: about $250–$300, plus your existing pantry. Less if you DIY the documents container and skip the freeze-dried food shortcut. The Midland radio and the water containers are the two items worth paying for. Everything else has a reasonable budget alternative.
Common mistakes
Worth knowing because the marketing in this category is heavy. The mistakes below are the ones we see most often — and the ones that quietly waste money or undermine the kit.
01
The plastic breaks down within months. Jugs leak. The water tastes off. Use food-grade containers built for storage — a $30 Aqua-Tainer outlasts a hundred milk jugs.
Read more →
02
The pyramid is inverted. Get 72 hours fully real first, then 2 weeks, then think about months. Most households who buy ahead never come back to fix the bottom.
Read more →
03
The MOLLE-loaded "bug-out bag" sold at sporting goods stores offers nothing over a normal backpack at half the price. A plain Jansport with the right contents inside it does the same job.
Read more →
04
The talk — who picks up the kids, where do you meet, who's the out-of-state contact — matters more than the kit. Households often buy the kit and skip the conversation. That's the half that has to happen out loud.
Read more →
05
The 4-gallon bucket goes in the basement, sits there for ten years, expires, gets thrown out. Better: eat what you store, store what you eat. A normal pantry rotated through normal cooking beats any "emergency food supply" — and you'll actually know how to prepare it when the moment comes.
Read more →
Two kits, not one
Most emergencies you stay put for. Some, you leave fast. The two kits overlap, but they live in different places for different reasons.
The full 72-hour supply set. Lives in a closet, garage, or basement — somewhere accessible but out of the way. Comfortable rather than portable: bigger water containers, bulkier food, the full first-aid kit.
This is the kit you build first. Most emergencies — outages, storms, ice — you ride out at home.
A grab-and-go subset. One per person. Lives by the door, in a closet near the entry, or in the trunk of the car. Sized down to a backpack: a water bottle, a day's food, a flashlight, a change of clothes, copies of documents, a small first-aid kit.
For the moments you have to leave fast — wildfire evacuation, flooding, a power line down across the driveway.
The household plan
A kit doesn't help if no one knows where it is, or where to meet, or who picks up the kids. This is the half of preparedness that doesn't show up in a shopping cart — and the half most households skip.
Pick one person who lives in a different state. When local lines are jammed, long-distance often still works. Everyone in the household calls the same number to check in.
One near home — the corner park, the neighbor's driveway — for the small stuff. One regional, farther away, for the kind of event that makes the neighborhood inaccessible.
Two people, in priority order, listed on every school and daycare emergency form. Both know the meeting points. Both have permission on file.
Pets aren't allowed in most public shelters. A short list of pet-friendly hotels along your regional evacuation route, plus a friend or relative outside the area who'd take them in.
Tonight, in 30 minutes
None of this requires a trip to the store. Most of it uses what's already in your kitchen and your phone.
Empty soda bottles, large pitchers, even pots with lids. Store somewhere cool. This alone covers about a day for two people. ~5 minutes
Test each one. Replace dead batteries. Put one in every bedroom and one by the front door. ~5 minutes
Out-of-state contact, two local emergency numbers, your home address, your medical info. One copy in each wallet. One on the fridge. ~10 minutes
Driver's license, insurance cards, prescription bottles, the front of the house from the street (for insurance claims). Email the photos to yourself. ~5 minutes
Just one, for now. Somewhere obvious and walkable. Tell everyone in the house — including the kids — out loud. ~5 minutes
That's it. You're now more prepared than most of your neighbors.
Take it with you
One-page printable PDF. The full kit at a glance, with checkboxes and the recommended gear inline.
Download →
Fillable PDF: contacts, meeting points, childcare protocol, pet plan.
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Credit-card-sized printable. One per family member, kept in the wallet.
Download →
Affiliate disclosure New World Survival participates in affiliate programs including Amazon Associates. When you buy through our links, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend gear we'd use ourselves, and our editorial picks are made before any commercial consideration. We say no to gear we wouldn't keep in our own kit.
What to read next
Also relevant
Water, food, energy, and skills — the deeper capability layer that makes every kit more effective.
Emergency alerts, family plans, radios, and paper backup — what to build before phones fail and what to do when they do.
What actually threatens your area. Enter your ZIP and see the hazards that apply where you live.
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
— Benjamin Franklin
Go deeper
Affiliate disclosure: New World Survival earns a small commission on purchases made through links on this page, at no cost to you. We only recommend gear we’d put in our own kit.
When you're ready for what's next
Hurricanes, regional grid failures, winter storms that close roads for a week — they happen, and 72 hours doesn't cover them. Tier 02 is where most households should actually live.
Continue to First 2 weeks