How To Build A Summer Highway Survival Kit

Estimated reading time: 13 minutes

Having a summer highway survival kit in the trunk of your vehicle is not just essential to have; it’s vital when traveling.

emergency safety kit — How To Pack A Summer Highway Survival Kit

Being Prepared While Driving

A few days back, a chemical spill from a truck crashed, which closed the 400 series highway by Newmarket, Ontario, between Hwy 89 and 9 for 11 hours.

Reports of tweets from parents complaining that their kids have not had food or drink to eat popping up, and overall frustrations of the slow chemical spill clean-up.

A vehicle safety kit, or survival kit as I like to call it, filled with all the necessities, would have been very important for this situation.

I plan for a holdup whenever I’ve been held up on the highway between Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area up to Windsor and London.

They do happen often, and I’m always ready for the ‘just in case’.

Although concerns are significant from motorists stranded on the highway, especially in medical emergencies, motorists need to be responsible when travelling.

Don’t have the “It will never happen to me attitude” because it could.

You might not have everything you need in your prepared highway summer survival kit, but at least you will have something.

I like to pack enough for 4 people lasting for 72 hours.

Community support and awareness

Social media is a hub for just about everyone looking to reach the masses of people or anyone who will listen.

Thankfully in this situation, Bradford area residents came to the rescue of stranded drivers bringing water, food, and baby formula.

They did what they could to help those in need, as it was a mass of confusion and upset for many motorists.

A simple call to the OPP will get you help in an emergency. This is why a cellphone when travelling is a good idea, especially if you have a GPS app installed.

Any time I drive the highway, a full tank of gas, a spare tire, jack, GPS, Cell phone, jumper cables, and CAA roadside assistance are handy things to have in your car.

Some credit card companies offer free roadside assistance, as I found out while chatting to a credit card rep on the phone for Canada Trust the other day.

Learning The Back-Roads

Highway driving doesn’t bother me at all. It’s the idiot drivers who don’t know how to highway drive or aren’t paying attention that worry me most.

Taking the back roads has been part of my learning journey in Ontario, Canada, since moving here almost 11 years ago.

I find I can work through small towns avoiding highway traffic, but even then, you may face accidents and hold-ups along the way.

Another good reason to learn back-road driving is in case you’re diverted by emergency services and unfamiliar with an area.

I don’t always have a GPS in the car, but I certainly try to remember it each time I know I’m travelling on the 400 highway series, especially during the summer months.

My wife has a Samsung 7, so if I know I’ll be away, I’ll take that with me.

Keeps the wife happy and I feel safe knowing I can contact someone if I need to.

Summer Highway Survival Kit

If you don’t want to build your auto emergency kit, you can purchase many variations of a survival kit online.

One of the most expensive car safety kits I found for sale was a Safeguard Deluxe 72-hour roadside kit for $299.95 plus tax.

That is very pricey, but buy one if you don’t want to create a summer highway survival kit.

Make sure to personalize the kit as you see fit; every kit has something different and possibly not everything you need.

You can even buy a 3-4 day emergency food kit, but why would you do that?

It will cost you far more than you need to spend.

A simple trip to the grocery store is all you need to stock your summer highway survival kit.

So, let’s get into our summer highway survival kit emergency supplies list.

How many people do you stock supplies for in a summer highway survival kit?

Well, that depends on how many people you generally drive around.

Perhaps if you are a family of four, you could pack for five so that you have something extra.

You could also pack for how many seats are in your vehicle, even if that means extras.

In the case above, you could always use extras to help other motorists who need supplies.

Stock Your Summer Highway Emergency Kit

What should be in an auto emergency kit when on the road?

Essentially you want to add to your kit everything you believe would benefit you or your family in the event of an emergency while travelling.

This list is just a general idea of items you could bring, but remember your situation when building your highway survival kit.

Another consideration is if you are travelling on the highway for work, to ensure you have an emergency company kit filled with survival items in the vehicle.

If you are part of the health and safety committee at your work, perhaps this is a great topic to bring up with your team for those employees who travel.

Accessories

GPS
Booster Cables
Battery Operated Radio
Blankets
Pillows
Foldable Chairs
Utility Jack
Spare Tire and Tire Pump
Map of Ontario or wherever you live or are travelling in Canada or the USA.
Flashlight
First Aid Kit
Whistle
Spare clothes and shoes
Candle, Coffee Can and matches or electric candles.
Bug spray
Sunscreen
Diaper bag stocked with necessities.
Small shovel
Window Washer Fluid
Extra Vehicle Oil
Duct tape
Emergency flares or lights
Fire extinguisher
Towing rope
Toilet paper
Towels
Soap
Respirator Masks
Small Tent
Gloves
Pocket Knife
Small tool kit
Rain poncho or umbrella
Tie wraps or cable wraps
Seat-belt cutter
Orange Safety Vest
Cloths
First Aid Guide
Emergency warning Triangle
Bungee chord
Full Gas Tank

Food And Drink

Bottles of water
Baby food
Snack items
Pet Food and supplies if you bring your pet along

Build A Summer Highway Travel Kit That’s Right For You

You might not need or want many of the above mentioned in your emergency summer highway kit, but this list gives you an idea of what you could pack.

Most of the stuff you can find at your local Dollar store or on sale at Canadian Tire, Princess Auto, and other shops that offer these types of products.

Also, don’t forget to look on Amazon Canada, as there are always fantastic deals for Prime members.

If you buy a complete emergency highway travel kit, great, but the only kit I typically buy is a first-aid kit; even then, you can make one for pretty cheap.

When the summer is over, I swap my kit into a winter emergency survival kit which I would never leave home without.

Free Printable Summer Highway Survival Travel Kit

Emergency Summer Checklist — **Emergency Summer Highway Survival Kit Checklist**

Preparing for something you know could happen is one of the smartest things you could do. Why wait?

Print your copy of the Free Emergency Summer Highway Survival Kit Checklist here.

Discussion question: What else would you add to your emergency summer highway survival kit that is not mentioned above?

Please leave me any questions below.

Mr. CBB

A Week In My Life

This has been the holiday recovery week which I feel has been important for me to have.

Travelling with a toddler is more like work than a holiday at times, so it has been nice to be home getting chores done that is long overdue.

I have some exciting news for everyone coming up soon that I can’t wait to share, so stay tuned for that.

I’m working on getting the Grocery Game Challenge sorted from the holidays and looking for new topic ideas.

Over at Facebook, I’ve offered a contest asking for topic ideas that haven’t been discussed yet.

You can find all GGC post topics in the Ultimate Grocery Shopping Guide.

To enter, just LIKE Canadian Budget Binder on Facebook and comment your idea on the contest post pinned to the timeline.

I will pick those who have unique ideas and enter them into the draw.

Besides that, it has been busy as usual and I look forward to a rejuvenated rest of 2017.

Have a great day.

Mr.CBB

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Making a Difference (MAD) 2017

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Learning about money didn’t come easy to me.

In fact, I only started learning a couple of years ago when the debt I incurred from getting my Master’s degree made me realize I needed to make some big changes.

I grew up in Canada, where high incomes were earned and then quickly spent and where money was always the source of stress.

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I am also a millennial, but my struggles and lessons learned apply to people of any age who value financial wellness and are trying to balance that with all of life’s other demands.

Writing about the factors that affect our ability to maintain motivation toward financial goals and to follow through on that motivation with consistent action in the long term.

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My journey in learning about money is far from over, and if you would like to come to learn with me, then stop by the Debt Dummy blog and check it out!

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I was on my own today but had a time limit, lol (I managed to get to about 10 sales which was most of them).

Books $.50 (asking was $1.00)
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Top Chef Recipe Pick

Fudgy-Brownie-Mint-Chocolate-Chip-Fudge-6

One of my favourite recipes to bake is my fudgy brownies, as I’m a confessed brownie lover.

You can’t put a brownie before me without seeing me get overly excited.

I’m not a mint lover, but I will enjoy mint desserts.

When I stumbled on this Chocolate Mint Fudge Brownie over at Peas and Peonies, I knew I had to take a look.

I’m glad I did because they were fudgy as I expected them to be.

Enjoy.

DIY Weekly

I’m a huge fan of re-purposing furniture or building something unique like this Double X Bench at Her Tool Belt.

It’s the perfect bench for a front porch or on our walkway in the circular section.

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How to live mortgage free in Canada?– Pay it off. It’s that simple.
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My wife spends all my money, and she is pissed- So, is she drunk or just pissed off that she spends it all and she wants more of it? – Either way, you need to talk.
Can I check my father’s bank account balance online?– You could if you knew the bank card number and his password. However, it might not be a smart idea unless he authorizes it.

That’s all the fun for this week; thanks for dropping by, and we’ll see you all again next Saturday.