What it costs
Five levels, and where to stop.
Prices are rough EUR estimates for a two person household, at ordinary supermarket and hardware shop prices. Nothing on this page is a product we sell, and we take no commission on any of it.
Level 0
Nothing at all €0
The plan that costs zero and covers most of what will ever happen to you.
Covers: A power cut of a day or two. A short water outage. A payments outage. Being told to stay indoors.
Under a bed, in a dark cupboard. Swap them every six months when the clocks change.
The single highest value habit change on this entire site.
Everyone in the house, what they take, the dose. One page.
Passport or ID, insurance, prescriptions, tenancy or deeds, pet records.
Photograph each one so you can find it in the dark.
One person everyone rings if you cannot reach each other.
It is already on your phone and it is already free.
The most researched finding in disaster studies, and it costs nothing.
Level 1
The price of a takeaway about €18
Fills the two gaps the free plan cannot: light you can rely on, and a way to open a tin.
Covers: Everything above, plus an evening in the dark that feels ordinary rather than grim.
One that lives in a fixed place. A torch you cannot find is not a torch.
The most forgotten item in preparedness, every year, in every country.
Check the size against the things you actually own.
Bought one item at a time on normal shops. Never a special trip.
Whatever you can spare. Nobody can change a big note when the tills are down.
Level 2 . Most people should stop here.
One decent shop about €50
This is the level almost every household should stop at. Past here you are buying reassurance, not capability.
Covers: Three to five days without power, water or shops, comfortably, with children or an older relative in the house.
The only thing you own that works when power, internet and mobile all fail together.
Charged. Checked twice a year. Kept in the same drawer.
Aim for 3 litres per person per day for three days.
Including long life milk, which is the most missed item of all.
Plus the medicines list, in the same waterproof bag.
Head torches for anyone who will have jobs to do.
Paper copies of the things you photographed.
Level 3
A properly equipped house about €145
For households with a real reason: rural, flood risk, medical equipment, very young or very old people in the house.
Covers: A week without power or water, in winter, without it becoming a health problem.
Used outdoors or in a well ventilated space only. Never in a closed room, never a barbecue indoors. This kills people every year.
Warmth is the thing that turns a nuisance into a hospital admission for older people.
Collapsible, with a tap. A full ten litre container is heavier than people expect.
Enough to run a phone, a light and, if relevant, a small medical device.
The go bag, so that leaving in an hour does not mean unpacking the house.
If you have added any fuel burning anything, this is not optional.
Level 4
Real slack in the system about €340
Only worth it if you have already done everything above, and only if it does not come out of money you need this month.
Covers: Two weeks, which is the level FEMA asks American households to build toward and the level almost nobody in Europe needs.
Still food you eat. Still rotated. Still bought slowly.
Sized to the thing that actually matters to you, which is usually a fridge for medicine or a CPAP machine.
For rural supplies and floods. It does not fix chemical contamination and nothing you can buy does.
Including the person who never gets cold and therefore owns no coat.
The boring, unglamorous, genuinely useful end of preparedness.
Where to stop
If you have done level 2, you are better prepared than the large majority of households in Europe, and you are covered for essentially everything that is realistically going to happen to you.
Levels 3 and 4 are for people with a specific reason: rural supply, flood risk, medical equipment, or very young or very old people in the house. If none of those apply, the honest advice is to stop, and spend the money on something you will enjoy.