Vehicle Emergency Kit

Here's a little kit I put together a while back for my vehicle. And yes, it was in the suburban when I had the flat tire, so if it had happened somewhere where Incident Management Team was not available to fix my jack issue, I would not have died waiting for my sweet husband to come save me. I've had a partial kit thrown in and out in no particular container for some time, but figured I'd better get it organized so stuff wasn't floating around and I'd know what I had. So I swiped an Action Packer container sweet husband hadn't used in months (you know, the one from the food room) and packed it up. This also served to make some more space in my food room to put a couple buckets of oats . . . :)

This kit takes minimal space in the back of my suburban and could easily fit in a car trunk as well. Yeah, you'll have to pack your groceries around it, but it's worth it to have a little preparedness with you!

We only have the one vehicle. If you have more than one, make one for each one you drive, or be ready to swap your kit over to the car you're driving that day. Here's what's in my kit (most of it's in the picture):

Bottled Water
Flashlight (the shaky kind--I'm actually not a real fan of this flashlight, but had an extra so in the kit it went. I also have a LED light on my key ring.)
Batteries if you have the kind of flashlight that takes batteries
Light sticks

Food--I have hard candy, old MRE crackers, and my Homemade Survival bar bricks
A couple of cheapo rain ponchos

A couple of cheapo space blankets

Wet wipes
Toilet paper roll (anybody with kids has experienced this emergency)
Diapers/Feminine needs (okay, I don't have diapers in mine since my kids are thankfully past that stage, but I used to keep diapers in the car when we used them and a change of pants/clothes for the diaper wearer or potty trainer)
Basic first aid kit (can't tell you how many times we've needed a bandaid at a ball game or the park)
Blanket
Umbrella

Hand warmers

A cute little buddy burner like cub scouts make with the cardboard rolled up in the tuna fish can and then doused in wax (just had one of these laying around, so I tossed it in)

Fire starting stuff in an old cookie tin (matches and dryer lint firestarters)
Hand sanitizer

Long sleeves for everybody (light jacket or button up shirt)

A box to hold it all

Cash (coins and bills) or a prepaid visa card thingy (stashed discreetly)

Outside the box:

Jumper cables, tool kit, extra car fluids (oil, power steering fluid, wiper fluid, antifreeze, etc.)
Jack, tire iron (which I now have both of ;-)

That's about it. Seriously, we can't all drive around with Incident Management Team's truck of goodies (what a shame), but your car is naked without some gear in it! Plus, you'll feel better driving around knowing you won't be one of those people stranded for days who survived on chewing gum and restaurant mints until somebody happened to find them.

Don't stop now! Click comments and read on for more great ideas!