The Be Ready list: what to keep at home for three days, and what it costs
For two people, the three days of water, food and hygiene on the government's list come to about £29 at Tesco's cheapest standard prices. The kit you buy once — batteries, a power bank and a first aid kit — adds about £31 if you have none of it: £60 in all, or about £89 for four people. A torch and a radio are on the list too; we could not price either today.
Power cut? Call 105 in England, Scotland and Wales to report it; it puts you through to the company that runs your local electricity network. In Northern Ireland call 03457 643643. Write the number down: in a power cut your phone may be the thing that runs out.
Priority Services Register. Your energy and water companies keep a list of households who need extra help when the supply goes off — and, in the government's words, "lots of households are eligible, including those with children under 5". It is free. Check if you can join.
The list, and what it costs
Every item below is on the government's Be Ready checklist. For each one we priced the cheapest standard version we could find on 27 October 2026, and worked out how many a household needs for three days.
| Item | 1 person | 2 people | 4 people | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water | ||||
| Bottled drinking water, 3 litres a person a day keep · check 6-monthlyTesco Ashbeck Still Water, 5 litres — Tesco £1.50 | £3.00 | £6.00 | £12.00 | |
| Food | ||||
| Tinned food you usually eat: baked beans keep · check 6-monthlyTesco Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce, 420g tin — Tesco £0.39 | £0.78 | £1.56 | £3.12 | |
| Tinned fish: tuna keep · check 6-monthlyTesco Tuna Chunks in Brine, 145g tin — Tesco £0.63 | £1.26 | £2.52 | £5.04 | |
| Tinned meat: corned beef keep · check 6-monthlyShip Corned Beef, 340g tin — Tesco £3.50 | £3.50 | £3.50 | £7.00 | |
| Tinned fruit keep · check 6-monthlyTesco Peach Slices in Juice, 410g tin — Tesco £1.15 | £1.15 | £2.30 | £4.60 | |
| Crackers keep · check 6-monthlyTesco Cream Crackers, 300g — Tesco £0.49 | £0.49 | £0.98 | £1.96 | |
| Nuts keep · check 6-monthlyTesco Salted Roasted Peanuts, 200g — Tesco £1.40 | £1.40 | £2.80 | £5.60 | |
| Dried fruit keep · check 6-monthlyTesco Seedless Raisins, 500g — Tesco £2.30 | £2.30 | £2.30 | £4.60 | |
| Cereal bars keep · check 6-monthlyTesco Banana Bonanza Cereal Bars, 6 bars — Tesco £1.15 | £1.15 | £2.30 | £4.60 | |
| Hygiene | ||||
| Hand sanitiser keep · check 6-monthlyTesco Health Plus Antibacterial Hand Gel, 50ml — Tesco £1.10 | £1.10 | £1.10 | £2.20 | |
| Wet wipes keep · check 6-monthlyFred & Flo Fragrance Free Wipes, 4 × 24 — Tesco £1.75 | £1.75 | £1.75 | £3.50 | |
| Toilet roll and bathroom products keep · check 6-monthlyTesco Luxury Soft White Toilet Tissue, 4 rolls — Tesco £2.00 | £2.00 | £2.00 | £4.00 | |
| Light and warmth | ||||
| Torch (torches are safer than candles) buy onceNot priced on this date, and not in the totals: the only torch at a supermarket was a clearance line, and the high-street shops' pages gave no price. | — | — | — | |
| Spare batteries buy onceTesco Extra Long Life AA Batteries, 4 — Tesco £3.70 | £3.70 | £3.70 | £3.70 | |
| Communication and information | ||||
| Battery or wind-up FM radio buy onceNot priced on this date, and not in the totals: no battery or wind-up FM radio was on sale at a high-street shop's own site. | — | — | — | |
| Charged power bank buy onceJuice 10,000mAh Portable Power Bank, 1 — Argos £19.99 | £19.99 | £19.99 | £19.99 | |
| Medical and health | ||||
| First aid kit buy onceTesco Health Travel First Aid Kit, 28 items — Tesco £7.35 | £7.35 | £7.35 | £7.35 | |
| Supplies to keep | £19.88 | £29.11 | £58.22 | |
| Kit to buy once | £31.04 | £31.04 | £31.04 | |
| Everything | £50.92 | £60.15 | £89.26 | |
On a phone this shows two and four people; turn it sideways for one person (£50.92 in all).
The quantities and totals are StreetOwl's arithmetic, not the government's. The government gives one quantity — 3 litres of drinking water per person per day, with more for cooking and washing — and asks for three days of food that needs no fridge and no cooking: "It's best to buy food you'd usually eat." Ours is a plain specimen; swap in what your household eats. Per-person amounts are added up for the household and then rounded up to whole packs. Children are counted as adults.
On the list, and probably already in your home
- Blankets, sleeping bags and warm clothing (Light and warmth)
- Cash in a mix of coins and notes, and your cards (Money and documents)
- Copies of important ID and documents, and a written list of important phone numbers and your medication with doses (Money and documents)
- Essential medication and medical supplies (Medical and health)
Not costed. Printing a page of numbers and document copies costs pennies; the government suggests keeping cash in a mix of coins and notes but gives no amount.
Babies and pets
The government's list adds ready-to-feed formula — "you may not be able to boil water to make up powdered formula safely" — with nappies and wipes, and pet food and bottled water for animals. How much depends on your baby's age and your pet's size, so here is the price of one, not a three-day total:
- Ready-to-feed formula: Aptamil 1 First Infant Milk, ready to feed, 6 × 200ml cartons, £7.25 at Tesco — £1.21 a carton.
- Nappies: Fred & Flo Ultra Dry Nappies, size 4, 48, £2.85 at Tesco.
- Dog food: Tesco Chunks in Jelly Chicken dog food, 400g tin, £0.55 at Tesco.
- Cat food: Tesco Adult Cat Food Mixed Selection in Jelly, 12 × 100g pouches, £2.59 at Tesco — about 22p a pouch.
Keeping it ready
- Check it every six months, the government says: look at the dates, and change the kit when your household changes. The easy way is to eat the food in your normal meals as it nears its date and buy its replacement in the same shop.
- Torches, not candles. "Torches are safer than candles," in the government's own words — a candle is a fire risk in a dark house full of blankets.
- Medicines. You can ask for a repeat prescription up to five working days before you run out; keep a written list of your medicines and doses with the kit.
- Build it up slowly. The checklist suggests adding a few items to your normal shopping rather than buying it all at once — which also avoids paying a spike price in a week when everyone else is buying.
- A household plan: agree a meeting point, know how to turn off the gas, electricity and water, and put an emergency contact in your phone's ICE or Medical ID. The government has a printable plan.
- In the car: a torch, a phone charger, warm clothes and a blanket, a high-visibility vest, jump leads, food and drink, a snow shovel and a first aid kit.
What could happen where you live
The same header that sits on every StreetOwl page shows today's weather and flood warnings for your postcode. For more:
Why everyone is talking about it
The government launched Be Ready on 22 October as the first stage of a three-year programme, asking every household to be able to manage for three days during disruption — severe weather, a long power cut, or an attack on the systems shops and banks run on (ITV News). The government's advice is to build the kit up gradually.
REPORTEDOver the following weekend shops reported a rush: Iceland said sales of tinned products rose 40%, Robert Dyas said radio sales were up 160% on the week, and Maplin reported torches up 284% and power banks up 106% (BBC News, 27 October). Bottled water, beans and soup sold out at several retailers (The National). Several of the products on this page were out of stock online on the day we priced them; the prices are still their shelf prices.
The checklist, the quantities in quotation marks, the 105 numbers and the Priority Services Register wording are from the government's Be Ready campaign (checklist, PDF), Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Prices are each shop's own shelf price, read from the shop's own product page on 27 October 2026 and linked above — Tesco for everything it sells, Argos for the power bank. Tesco has no own-brand tinned meat, so the corned beef is the cheapest tin it sells. Aldi was cheaper on several lines. Shop prices change, and this week several shops reported sharp rises in sales of exactly these things, so treat the totals as a guide. StreetOwl is not paid by any shop named here.