The, it will be an adventure "go bag"! ...on a budget.

Now, we have all ‘been there done that’ with the diaper bag. We know the essentials and what our littles will need on an everyday outing. We are now ready to take it one step further and make our adventure go bag. We took the idea of a go or bug out bag and adjusted it a little to fit our needs. It is not a true preparedness bag to use in an emergency but rather a bag that is ready to go for any last minute (which many of our outings are) adventure, like an afternoon hunting trip. There have been too many times when we have gotten out in the field and forgotten something we needed and we also feel it is important to be prepared for what can happen as well. While Kevin enjoys reading and watching videos on all the EDC bags, bug out bags, get home bags, etc that are all decked out, our budget pushed us to mostly gather things we already have in the house, and find some good deals on what was needed. Although it also leaves room to improve the bag as we see it in action, and figure out what in it should be upgraded or added.

***This post contains affiliate links. If you make a qualifying purchase from these links it won't cost you any additional cost and we may receive a small commission on qualifying purchases.

To start putting this together we needed a good bag. We searched through the house but eventually we came to the conclusion we had to purchase a bag. After looking around a bit we found this small frame backpack at Cabela's that was the perfect size and better yet fairly inexpensive.

As we waited for the bag to get here we made a list of things we have forgotten or needed in the past, and things we probably should always have on us incase of an emergency. Here is the list of what we ended up filling our bag with. The list is in no particular order.

Tissues;

We have one daughter that gets bloody noses quite often, gets it from her mom. They can get pretty bad and last a while so we always have a bunch of tissues with us. But always good to have along for the occasional sniffle or when the kids try to hand me a booger. We unintentionally bought the million tissue pack from Costco so we just grabbed some of those and stuck them in a plastic bag. Most of the time we keep a pack of these pocket packs in our house to use for this. It is most likely what we will keep refilling this bag with.

Toilet paper;

Because, when you gotta go, you gotta go!

Wipes

In the case of bloody noses, messy snacks (or not messy ones that somehow our kids make messy), or just need a refreshing cleaning, it is nice to have wipes with. Once you open them, you have to use them so don't try and save these. They are fairly inexpensive, and one of the most used things in this bag.

Tweezers;

Slivers can happen any time, always nice to be able to get it out right away. Also nice to have for ticks. It is not uncommon for Kristin to have a tweezers and torch in her pocket at all times for ticks.. These are a favorite since they are "sharp".

Electric tape and gorilla tape;

These two can fix just about anything.

Here is the Gorilla Tape we purchased to put in the bag.

Knife;

We found a cheap one that was laying around not getting used much but was still capable of cutting what we needed.

Rechargeable flashlight with USB cord;

We were gifted this really nice flashlight made by Kodiak a little while ago. It works great and this is the perfect application for it. I will say that I have yet to try and charge my phone with it, so I can't speak to how well it works for that.

Blanket;

We had an outdoor quilt that was bought for a camping trip a few years ago and hasn't been used much since then. So we dusted it off and threw it in.

Multi tool;

We had an pretty nice one that Kevin was given through his previous job. It has a pliers, both a philips and regular screw driver, a knife, bottle opener, and can opener which is pretty much everything we were looking for. If I had to guess, this would be one of the first things that will get upgraded. There are some nice Leatherman's that would be perfect for in here.

Trauma Pak;

We purchased this kit pack from Adventure Medical. It comes with both a tourniquet and trauma dressing, along with a triangular bandage, EMT shears, permanent marker, Latex gloves, and has instructions right on the waterproof bag. It nice to know we have all of this on hand if anything were to go to wrong.

Lighters;

We went and got a five pack of lighters and to help keep them out of the elements, we put them in a small Pelican case we already had and to be honest, were not really using that much so it was perfect.

Carabiners;

So many applications for these. We had a few extras laying around so we just clipped them on.

Power bank;

This is something we didn't have, but could have used in the past and would be extremely helpful in an emergency situation. We had a hard time picking one out because there are so many of them. We ended up getting this one from LILIO because it was a great deal on a 20000mAh. I have used it a few times already and have been very pleased. Decided to go with a 20000mAh because it does provide really close to two chargers for a cell phone in one charge.

Wall charger;

We had a few extra laying around, so we threw one of these in.

USB power cords;

After doing some research, I found it is nice to have some quality cords that actually work. I had a 10ft cord that I bought when I forgot my cell phone charger on a trip. It was perfect to use for this now.

Waste bag;

Many times, we throw in a portable toilet we have for all the girls in our family when we go out and about. Just incase it is needed, we put in a disposal bag that has liquid solidifying and deodorizing gel in it.

Trash bags with twist ties;

To have the ability to pick up the car, or a place to put wrappers when done having a snack. Or we also have tried to teach our kids to pick up garbage left by others, in a safe way, and having this readily available makes that super simple.

When everything is loaded into the bag, there is still a little room to add anything we may have missed. It fits really nicely in a closet we keep our outdoor gear in, making it easy to access and hard to forget. We know the biggest thing missing that most real go bags contain is food and water. Having everyone bring their own water bottles along with packing snacks has become a regular practice for us when going pretty much anywhere.

If you have suggestions on how we could improve this setup, we would really appreciate hearing them. Now, lets go on an adventure!