Mum explains her £50 doomsday box after advice to prepare for emergency

Mum explains her £50 doomsday box after advice to prepare for emergency The UK Government has told everyone to 'Be Prepared' A mum says you can make a 'doomsday box' for just £50 - stockpiling everything the Government's new campaign says you would need for an emergency. Claire Helen, 53, says stocking up is a must as she lives in Abergavenny, Scotland eight miles from the nearest town and says there is a high risk of floods. She started collating her stockpile in 2024, with son George, 21, calling it her 'doomsday box'. Claire says that "with how the world is" people are wise to consider preparing for any emergency from severe weather to cyber attacks as outlined in the government's 'Be Ready' campaign. The campaign, released in October 2026, issued advice from the government urging people to stock up on essentials to last three days should you need – including three litres of drinking water per day per person, food, hygiene products and a first aid kit. Claire started by buying a £20 wind-up radio and torch, batteries, matches, candles and tealights. Adding to her box over time, more recent additions include chocolate, biscuits and tea bags. Claire, a content creator, says: "I just thought 'I'll start doing this' back 2024 just purely because I saw mum doing it and thought, 'you know what we joke and make fun of her but actually she's got as point'. "Personally living in the area where we are it's a very, very high risk flood area and we get cut off regularly. Every winter the rivers flood and last year, we're just outside of Monmouth and there were horrific floods. The banks burst and the whole of Abergavenny and Monmouth were underwater. "There's also a lot of negative comments from people online saying 'you're a sheep' or 'this is all the government trying to scaremonger us'. The government have actually had this advice out since 2004. It's been out there for more than 20 years, they've just chosen to renew it and added a couple of new things. "As times change we're going to need new things like cash because cash machines could go down due to the increased cyber threat. Things like that I hadn't actually thought of putting in my original doomsday box – I hadn't gone that far. Now with how the world is I've actually started to think beyond the threat and risk of flooding and power cuts." Claire says she hails from a family of preppers and remembers her mum Joyce, 83, stocking up for the millennium and "buying into conspiracy theories". Her grandma Helen, also used to make her own jams and pickles as well as growing her own fruit and veg. Claire has been adding and rotating stock in her doomsday box since 2024, and also has a cupboard full of food like tins of beans, vegetables, fruit and lentils. "My mum was one of those people who stocked up for the millennium thinking everything was going to go down," she says. "My grandma used to make all her own things like jams, marmalades, pickles. "She'd grow her own fruit and vegetables in her garden and preserve it - she had her own greenhouse, would make her own wine, all sorts. It was kind of a thing of, 'we'll be alright if we get snowed in'. The nearest shop to me is over two miles walking distance down the hill to a little corner shop. "So it makes sense, there will be times of the year I don't want to leave the house. I am lucky to have a car and drive but it's not always as easy as that if the road is flooded and the roads are closed. Apart from those things that are weather related I did start to think 'it could go even further' and nobody wants to think anything is worse than it is, but it's the way of the world I think. "I've got a family, I've got four grown up children and a grandson, lots of pets as well. I've got a dog, three cats, and four guinea pigs and I think 'how would I feed them if they ran out of food'. I wanted to make sure they're OK and I want to make sure we've got enough in so we could go at least a week. And then if we had no power for a week if we had a flood and people really need rescuing the emergency services can get to the people that really need it first. "The more people are prepared it frees up the emergency services to get to those vulnerable people first." Sharing her doomsday box online, people have been suggesting to Claire things she can add into her stash, most recently adding in chocolate. She also has a separate cupboard of canned food which she rotates regularly to ensure everything is still in date, should she need it. She also had refills for her gas camping stove and has two water butts collecting rainwater throughout the year which, once adding her water purifying tablets, can be used as drinking water. "If it's doomsday, you're having chocolate," she says. "I'd say I've probably only spent £50 on all of the bits, the batteries and candles, things like that. "The torch was £20 on Amazon. I have a food cupboard but I rotate that - that was probably another £20 or £30 of you're canned food you can buy very cheaply in Aldi or Lidl. "We're not going to be having things like smoked salmon or caviar in a power cut, we'll be eating beans. As long as you can cobble together a meal people would be surprised once they started looking at what you can get. I'd just say think of prepping in the same way as, for example, getting a flu vaccine to prevent the flu, that's prepping. "The way I see it you're protecting yourself and your family in the same way." Claire's doomsday box: - Torch and spare batteries - Battery/wind-up radio - Power banks and cables - First aid kit - Essential medication - Bottled water - Non-perishable food and tin opener - Basic toiletries, sanitisers and wet wipes - Cash – notes and coins - Important numbers and documents - Pet supplies - Warm clothes and blankets - Chocolate, biscuits and teabags - Matches and lighter (stored away from gas cannisters) - Extra tinned food, long-life milk, rice, pasta and bottled water (all kept separately).