Considering buying a Car emergency kit

complete bug out bag screenshot

After reading about that terrible experience of some people being stuck on a highway for 16 hours, I have been reconsidering buying a car emergency kit.

I know I wrote about this 72 hour emergency kit and for $250 it is still a great deal for many people. I wanted something more substantial for the car since there could potentially be a full car of passengers. So I did some research and I think this Echo-Sigma Bug Out Bag Complete Emergency Kit for $520 is worth it. Yes, it’s more than twice the price but offers a great deal.

The hard part for me is that most likely I will never need to use this kit. Since I live in an urban area, the car mostly is very close to all kinds of help. If I lived in a more rural place then this might make more sense. Some people will say that an investment in emergency supplies is always worthwhile, but I have begun to question that assessment. I have plenty of relatives who had tons of things stocked up “just in case” and when they died, their family members had to clean out their worthless trash. There is a balance between buying what you need and fantasy.

Often when I see preppers talk I feel they are hawking merchandise more than sincerely concerned for the well-being of the viewer. I have bought so many things to be prepared for life and in all honestly I have used very little percentage of all that spent. Let’s say in my life I have spent $100,000 in prepping. I think that I can honestly say that probably $10,000 at most has actually been useful and not even that useful.

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I have used a Leatherman tool a few times, LED lights the most, a solar generator the most, some odds and ends like paracord, and a few MREs and dried food. Almost everything else has been sitting in a corner getting dusty. Even for the few times I used the multitool I questioned whether it was worth buying. I could have gotten along fine in life without a multitool and I work in IT and used to upgrade computers. I the LED lights/solar generators use every day and I love that but that is because I want to be environmental and it just happens to also be a nice power backup. The odds and ends are like paracord I would have used something else if that wasn’t available. The MRE’s/dried food mostly made me feel sick and I don’t have any desire to eat them outside of an emergency. I have tried many emergency foods that I find disgusting and wasted too much money trying to find delicious and healthy emergency food.

Then my decision-making comes down to this. Do I see the need for this kit in the car? It would be a great addition to what I already have, but can I justify it? I don’t know the answer for you but right now for me, I can’t justify it. However if you have never bought an emergency kit before, and you have children I can see why this kit might be a good fit for your situation.