There have been two times that my flight home has been cancelled and I’ve had to stay overnight somewhere unexpectedly. The first time I wasn’t prepared and had no fresh clothes for the next day! Since then I’ve always brought spares on every trip. That finally paid off this weekend when my flight back to Ireland was cancelled because of Storm Ashley an hour or so before it was meant to leave.

Given that it was nearly fifteen years between surprise overnight stays there is a good argument that carrying the spares every trip was a bit of a waste. I could just have bought anything I needed when I needed it. When you’ve to deal with the hassle of finding a hotel and organising cover at home then not having to find a clothes shop cuts down the amount of work you need to do to. They don’t take up much space or weight in the bag so it’s an easy choice for me.

What could you prepare in advance cheaply that would pay off if some kind of rare disaster happened?