Pre-Winter checks...are you ready?

[Niall]

We get a 'winter pack' every year at work. Consists of a bottle of water, a small bag of salt and a foil blanket with instructions and do's and dont's. We aren't allowed to do anything with our cars. Get a flat and we have to call the AA to change it unless the car comes with one of them ridiculous repair kits.
Our do's and dont's sheet is pretty obvious but worth pointing out some bits;
Keep something warm in the car
If you know you are going on a long drive or you know there is going to be bad weather, keep a flask of something hot in the car (coffee, soup etc)
Try and avoid journeys in bad weather and if you do have to travel, always check out travel news before hand and plan your journey around that and any known areas effected by the bad weather.
Keep some sort of sealed food in the car. Like dum says, mars bars etc.
Clean all lights and number plates and make sure ALL your lights work. Bulbs are more prone to going when you start the car in the morning because of the sudden temperature change.
Have a fully charged phone (with credit!), or a car charger or like we have, a spare charged phone in the car and make sure you have your breakdown number stored in both phones and keep the card with you.