Emergency supplies in car

[StopEatinNutellaOutOfTheJar]

Hi all. Your advice has been spot on in the past so I'm returning for more.
I got stuck in the most abysmal traffic jam tonight and it took an age to do a 5 minute journey to my house. It was about an hours walk home and at one point I considered dumping the car and walking back.
I had my toddler in the car and it got me thinking it would be good to have some supplies incase it ever happens again on a motorway or away from any shops etc.

I'm planning on creating a little caddy for the boot with nappies, wipes, drinks, snacks, blankets for the kids. Just wondering if there's anything else I should include.

Thanks 😊

I’m not a prepped but have always kept the things you listed, in my car. We have a little first aid box in our boot and a spare phone charger. We also keep a couple of cheap raincoats in there.

Not a prepper, but especially in the winter my car is well stocked as I drive a lot for work and its easy to get caught out.

Mentally, you can divide it up into: dealing with emergency issues, stuck in the car for a few hours, stuck outside the car, having to walk to safety.
So in 1, first aid kit and basic medication like antihistamines, immodium; emergency lights, hi vis tabard, foil blankets, car power bank to start, tow rope, jump leads. Number for RAC or whatever written down with membership number. Cash money
2 - drinks, long life snacks (or remember to rotate them), emergency sweets (hidden so no one can find them), fleece blankets, physical books. She wee/ Travel John, phone power bank and multiway charger lead
3 - coat, hat, gloves each. Plastic emergency ponchos. Chemical hand warmer sachets
4 - Boots, thick socks, over trousers, yak trax

If the weather is bad, or forecasts are dubious, I add more in on the day like a sleeping bag, even a flask of boiling water and thermal mug plus soup/ hot choc sachets just in case.
People would say I have over prepared, but I once spent 5 hours sat on a motorway when a sudden snow made lorries jack knife and I was able to be tucked up happily in my car in the safe knowledge that no matter how long it took to clear I was warm and fed. Or the time my car broke down on a dark and very wind/rain windswept hill when I was on the way back from a customer (dress, tights and heels) and it was very unsafe to be in the car - so for the 2.5 hours it took for the RAC to come I was stood by a hedge. But in my big emergency coat, boots etc and with a powerbank so my phone was working, hi vis so people could see me, and a head torch so I could see - a much less stressy evening

Drinks
Snacks (biscuits) non-melty.
Mints for travel sickness.

Hats, gloves, coat and blankets each. Waterproof trousers. Umbrellas.
Wellies.
Sunhats and sunspray sunglasses.
Foil blankets,
Reusable hand warmers. (Two each)
Spare socks. (So you can get dry feet)

First aid kit.
Seatbelt cutter/window breaker/phone charge adapter.
Salt. (Cheap Tesco value)
High Viz jackets.

Hand cream. (Stops hands getting sore in the cold)
Chap stick.

Power banks and wires.
AAA batteries. Solar lantern. Head torch.

Travel potty and bags. Antibac spray. (Use on wee or milk to stop smell handgel)

Folding camping stools
Carrier bags. (Sit on/rubbish bag, etc)
Ruck sack for shopping but useful to transport stuff.

Jack and tools. Jump leads. Tyre pump, tow rope.
Warning triangle.

Crayons, sharpener paper colouring book.
Bubbles.
New toy (matchbox car, etc)
Small toys
Pack of cards or travel game for adults/teens)

Spare clothes.
Change Mat, wipes, nappy sacks, nappies.

Emergency crochet hook, yarn and scissors.

On long journeys I add a flask or two of hot water, soup sachets, coffee powdered milk and dd's tea bags,

I really need to sort out the car boot. This thread has reminded me.

I had a small Stanley toolkit box int he boot with emergency thins (so did and she didn't take them out!) - torch, work gloves, dishcloth (to clean windows or check oil etc as needed - it got brought in for washing a fresh one from under sink replaced it when used), screwdrivers and Allan keys and an adjustable spanner, Stanley knife, heat packs that are recharged by boiling, pack of tissues, small ziplock with pair latex gloves/3 antiseptic wipes/handful bandaiids, mini packs of jellies etc. I also kept a microfibres towel (bath sheet size) that could double as a rug if needed. And in winter, couple of hats and gloves sets and tried to keep a pair of walking boots for me.

Glove box held painkillers (and cal pol melts when dad was younger), cereal bars, dried fruit and usually a bag of toffees or mints in wrappers. And normally I had a bottle of water in the car too.

In particularly bad weather or anytime I thought traffic may be bad, i added extra things depending on the weather forecast and my plans.

First aid kit with the little travel sachets of calpol in.

I keep the usual in the car, but things like nappies, spare clothes etc I keep in large resealable food bags with the air squeezed out, so they don't get damp.

Adding spare knickers and sanitary towels to all of the above, as well as a full change of clothes - since they're for emergencies I keep an old pair of joggers and jumper that has seen better days in my car, as well as a raincoat that was bought at a car boot sale one day because it rained and I didn't have one - so they're not stuff I'll miss in general circulation.

And a high viz waistcoat and emergency triangle.

I always have a phone powerbank in my handbag, and emergency numbers like RAC and next of kin etc physically written down in glovebix in case of lost/dead phone.

Sealed bottles of water and snacks (currently cereal bars and athose protein balls from Aldi/Lidl in the boot), also big bags of plain nuts that are my day to day snacks inside the car.

Something sealable to serve as an emergency toilet if needed.

You used to be able to buy weird cans of self-heating coffee in the supermarkets. They sounded gross, but I kept one in the car because I wouldn't usually go to the bother of/be organised enough to take a flask of hot water for just in case. I've just looked on amazon and they are £30 for a pack of 6 😬 but they do a hot chocolate pack and if they had a long date on them and you have a family it would still be worth it imo.

This is in my mind at the moment as a friend recently broke down on the motorway alone with a baby and toddler in the car.

i gave my supplies in a box but I’m going to transfer them to a rucksack so that I can be hands free to control the children in such a situation.

Great ideas above, some of which I need to add, thanks. Things I have that I didn’t see mentioned:

-A set of reflective toddler reins
-A pen, notepad and sellotape in case I need to leave a note somewhere eg to say where we have gone or whatever
-Old hats for each of us
-insect repellent

I keep pretty much all of the things mentioned above in our car. We travel frequently through the mountains. Following a motorway car crash, I've also moved our high vis bibs to the doors. So each door has a high vis vest in its pocket. It's the only sensible place to have it as you step out the car, when there may be no safe way of accessing the boot.

We tend to keep a pillow and blanket on the back seat, just for comfort, but would also be useful in an emergency. Sleeping bags, full sets of spare clothes, waterproofs, boots and winter coats in the boot.

I keep emergency cash, but was surprised recently that it was 'paper' notes - rather than the 'plastic' we use now. Must have been there a while! So, it's worth making sure cash is current.

I have a tool for cutting seatbelts and breaking and cutting glass, along with a hammer and shovel. Also, very low temperature windscreen washer fluid, as temperatures can be -10 and you go through a lot of it.

I have a good med kit, including burn ointment, inhalers, pain killers, antihistamines, regular medicines and spare glasses for everyone.

Food wise, I keep ship's biscuits; there's no risk of them being eaten other than in an emergency!

In addition to the main preps, I also have a a more routine emergency bag for unforeseen overnight stays - which includes the usual deodorant, toothbrush etc.

Our car has a false floor over the spare wheel (which should be a proper full size wheel, not a spacer), and I keep everything in that lower area, so the boot looks empty at a glance.

I have a rechargeable battery in the back of my car which has leads attached so I can restart the car myself if for example I accidentally left the my lights on and the battery went flat. No hanging around for the AA or another motorist!

I have a rechargeable battery in the back of my car which has leads attached so I can restart the car myself if for example I accidentally left the my lights on and the battery went flat. No hanging around for the AA or another motorist!

I was coming here to say this - I had a dodgy battery a while back, and bought one of the new little jumpstart battery packs (they're not as big as a 6-pinter milk carton any more)

This ones more like a large, rugged phone battery pack, which you plug jump leads into and it works like a charm (had to use it a few times while waiting for the appointment to sort out the software/battery). You can also use it just as a power pack if you need to as well.

I also always have a medium tupperware of salt in winter, a fire extinguisher, tyre pump, medical packs (bigger one in boot, smaller one in glovebox with painkillers and protein bars), water (used all the time), general car kit with warning triangles/spare bulbs, blankets and raincoats/hats/gloves in winter, and a 50 pound note tucked into my visor just in case.

Oh, and less important, but chewing gum, ketchup and salt :)

Those self heating cans are great. I don’t drink coffee but the chocolate one is nice.

Our three friends recently got stuck in their car (together with 1000 other cars) for 22 hours. Lots of snow and -15 outside. They had too pee in front of others basically, so blankets to cover yourself and toilet paper is not a bad idea. There were people with diabetes, dogs, small babies in the queue. People actually helped each other out with what little they had in their cars.

Tea lights. Power bank. Water to drink and wash your hands. Or individually wrapped hand towels are great (like wet wipes but real towels). Some basic medicine. Maybe a book.

We are quite lucky in that my husband uses our van as his day to day vehicle which we have turned into a day van but he has stayed more than a few times overnight in it when he has had to work away from home so he has a comfy bed, torch and lantern, several sleeping bags, small cooker with gas bottles, pan and saucepan/cutlery/plates, tea/coffee/sugar/mugs, curtains to keep heat in the back, full tool box, phone charger with solar bank and a petrol generator as an emergency back up. I suspect he would be quite comfortable in a SHTF situation if he was stuck in traffic/snow etc.

Things I generally will put into the car if he has to use it though are.

• snacks of some sort
• drink of some sort - diluted squash, water.
• basic first aid - painkillers, plasters, asthma pump, soluble paracetamol.
• sleeping bag or blanket
• spare socks, pants and tshirt
• hat and jacket
• phone charger
• cash
• wipes