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Restocking Our Fridge For Less

As many of you know, hurricane Irene was a total jerk to our neck of the woods. Not only did it knock trees into nearby homes, cars, poles, and roads, it also took the power out for a nice long time. Three days for us. But that was nothing compared to some other areas of our neighborhood (where it was out for over seven days), and other parts of Richmond (which didn’t get it back for close to two weeks). There was even a contest for the last person to get their power back on a local website.

Irene Tree On Powerlines

So yes, three power-less days were annoying, but it could have been waaay worse. The only thing it really ended up affecting was our fridge. Yup, everything spoiled. So we lost every last container of salad dressing and mustard and soy sauce and cream cheese and every other item that you take for granted because you don’t usually buy them all at once (you know, you tend to amass them over time so you’re not met with the harsh reality that you just spent $200 on condiments). Yikes.

So yup, this is a post about the state of our fridge. Because it’s house related and save-a-buck related and just something I wanted to blather on about. I actually get a surprising amount of requests for couponing updates (and you’ll see how those tie in momentarily). The good news is that we didn’t lose everything. There were some items in the fridge that didn’t absolutely need to be cold to survive, like:

  • various containers of berries and other fruit
  • some veggies
  • sandwich wraps
  • wheat flatbread
  • garlic
  • soda
  • chocolate

So during our day-three clean out when the power came back on we were able to pull them out alive. But everything else had to go.

Fridge Before

The weirdest casualty was a container of biscuits that actually popped open on its own from the lack of refrigeration. It was very Twilight Zone.

Fridge Busted Pillsbury Rol

Melted ice cream sammies = sad ice-cream loving hubby. Especially because they weren’t just melted, they were curdled and rank. So no amount of refreezing was gonna save them.

Fridge Melted Cookie

But let’s rewind. Before the hurricane we saw a tip on TV about freezing ziplock bags of water so you could transfer them from your freezer to your fridge to keep things colder (much like a giant cooler) to hopefully save food if the power is out for an extended amount of time. Wellllll, that was a bust. We diligently filled five or six ziplock bags with water (leaving enough unfilled space for them to expand, as directed) and placed them in the freezer. We didn’t immediately want to transfer them over when we lost power around 4pm (didn’t want to open the fridge/freezer just yet), so we went to bed in our interior rooms (explained here) while the hurricane continued to loiter over our fair city for another eight hours and decided to make the switch in the morning.

Kitchen Bed

I don’t know what went wrong, but by morning there was a big old wet spot in front of the freezer. You can even see the towel shoved next to the fridge in the picture above. The bags that were supposed to be ice that we could transfer to the fridge had already melted completely and were now leaking out of the fridge and onto the floor. Booo! At least two of them inexplicably punctured themselves or something during the freezing and unfreezing process (although we left lots of room for them to expand when frozen). So looking back, we wish we had never seen that tip since it made for a mess that we wouldn’t have even had to deal with had we skipped it. Oh well, it was worth a try. And it might work better for someone who could transfer them faster (when they were still ice) although I wonder if they would melt and drip out of the fridge side instead of the freezer side in that case. Hmm. Maybe our fridge just doesn’t hold cold air as well as others do, so ice melts quickly and doesn’t really make much of a difference in a power-outage situation.

There was one rescue mission that went on about 15 hours into the blackout though. In order to stop the leaking situation we realized we had to toss open the doors to the freezer and grab those bags of water and toss them into the sink (to keep them from continuing to leak/drip)…

Fridge Melted Ice Bag

… so although it’s totally not ideal to open any fridge doors without power (keep that cold air in, baby!) we knew we had to get in there for a sec. So we figured while we were at it we should probably quickly reach in to save a few things on the fridge side by packing a cooler and bringing them to Grammy and Tom Tom’s house (where they miraculously never lost power at all, and sweetly offered up half a shelf of their fridge). In hyper-speed, before slamming the doors shut we grabbed:

  • 12 organic yogurt cups
  • organic whole milk (Clara’s) and organic skim milk (ours)
  • a pack o’ cheese sticks
  • a package of strawberries and blueberries
  • 2 laughing cow cheese wheels

All of those items made sense since Clara eats/drinks them a lot so we would have had to rebuy them right away if we didn’t save them… except for the laughing cow cheese. I have no idea why I panicked and grabbed that. Total auto-pilot grab-the-dairy madness. But at least we saved a few things (which would probably have set us back about $30 if we had to rebuy it all).

So when the power came back on during day three (I heard angels singing) we gave everything a little bit of time to firm back up thanks to the cold and bravely opened the doors. Yuck. It was staaaanky in there. So we held our breath and walked things directly out to the garbage pail outside (which stunk to high heaven until the trash truck came a few days later). But we were able to save the few items that I mentioned in my first little list o’ bullets since they didn’t need cold air to not spoil (we just kept them in the fridge for added lifespan or because we didn’t have a breadbox, etc). But everything else was done-zo. Even the bagged salad was slimy and gross. And the giant tub of yogurt. I can’t talk about that. Scarred for life. Note: after snapping this picture we realized we could compost/recycle some of the stuff in the trash so out it came and into our compost/recycle bins it went (must have been in shock from the smell at first and couldn’t think straight).

Fridge Trash Can

It was about this time that we realized just how much stuff we would have to rebuy. Boo.

Fridge Empty With Clara

But John was smart about it. As we tossed things he suggested that we write them down, so we ended up with a shopping list to remind us of all the take-for-granted, perpetually-stocked stuff that we’d probably completely forget to rebuy until we reached for it and didn’t find it (like ketchup, salad dressing, hummus, syrup, butter, etc).

Fridge Johns List

It was handy to see all the stuff that we needed to rebuy but also kind of a buzz kill in that how-much-is-this-gonna-cost-us way. Then I decided it could become a fun little self-imposed coupon challenge since I seem to have hit a plateau with my couponing adventures (I can save around $40-55 on a big shopping trip, but can’t seem to get past that since we buy a lot of produce/organic stuff and refuse to buy stuff just because we have a coupon for it if we don’t actually need it just to see the “you saved X amount” number go higher on the receipt). But I started thinking… maybe all these common household items that we only buy occasionally could be the coupon jackpot?

There are a heckova lot more coupons for ketchup, mayo, and salad dressing than organic ground turkey and kale, so I figured that my challenge would be this: to try to save as much as possible by hunting down coupons for as many of those items as I could. Of course this big coupon idea set me back a few days while John kept saying “we need to go shopping, woman” and I kept saying “give me time to hunt coupons, man” and we just ate stuff from the pantry like pasta and cereal along with the few things we saved by bringing them to Grammy’s house (yogurt, milk, fruit, etc). Sure I had a little stockpile of coupons already laying around from before Irene, but this was before I knew my entire fridge would get wiped out (so none of them were for staples that we already had and later lost).

Coupons Pack And List

Then we went to the beach for the weekend so that bought me a bit more time (I reasoned with John that going shopping for a big haul before leaving town for a holiday weekend might not be that smart). But even on our mini beach vacay I bought the Sunday paper and got a few coupon inserts from John’s mom after she clipped her own stuff and went online to all of the coupon sites that I occasionally peruse (you can read more about those here in this initial couponing post from a while back).

When I got back home I printed and clipped to my heart’s content and even digitally loaded my Kroger card with virtual coupons that I could use when they scanned it at the store (more on that here). So when we finally hit The K-rogue (that’s how $herdog says Kroger), I was armed and dangerous coupon-riddled. Note: I have no idea why it took me over a week to get my act together and write this post up. Maybe it’s the same defect that made me inexplicably grab the laughing cow cheese?

Fridge Coupons

Happily, we came home with a ton of stuff (we didn’t even have enough reusable bags for all of it!)…

Fridge Grocery Bags On Floo

It actually felt pretty good. The fridge went from almost completely empty to looks-like-normal-full for $257.40. It’s definitely not nothing. And if you watch those pro coupon shows (where they get 1K worth of food for three dollars) it’s downright sad. But we actually expected it to be a lot worse I think. Some of our normal grocery shopping trips can top $200 when we’re running pretty low on stuff (we usually go every two weeks or so, to avoid impulse buys that can add up when you go more frequently). And we were almost starting from zero this time (we had filled almost an entire trash can with spoiled food), so we expected that we’d have to buy a lot more than usual (and spend a lot more than usual too).

The only sad thing. I still only saved $47.51.

Fridge Receipt Totals

Can’t a girl catch a break and save over fifty five bucks for once, K-rogue? Oh well, $47.51 is still money saved. And it definitely would have hurt more to see a total that started with a three at the register (it was originally over $300 but thanks to the coupons it came down near $250). And there’s always next time. At least the fridge is full again and my wraps won’t go hummus-less while my salads go dressing-less. And the fridge itself has never looked cleaner. We scrubbed that baby to the bone when she was empty.

Of course I got a few catalinas at the checkout (not all ones that I’ll actually use, but we’re definitely suckers for yogurt, so…). The cycle continues.

Fridge Catalinas

And you know we love a good after picture or two, so behold… the freshly stocked fridge:

Fridge After Far

Fridge After Close Alt

Fridge After Shelf 2 Yogurt

Fridge After Shelf 1 Hummus

Fridge After Door Shelves

All in all, it was a nice little fridge makeover. Now I’m off to call my insurance company because someone mentioned that some of them might reimburse you for food that spoils in natural disasters like hurricanes. That would be pretty nice. Update: just realized our deductible is much higher than $250, so never mind.

Fridge After Close

Anyone else doing any fridge cleaning or restocking? Or hitting a coupon plateau? Better yet, have you broken through it and ache to tell me your secrets? Please do.

Psst- Check out this initial post all about couponing for specific deets about how I save money/use coupons – and check out a ton of awesome tips in the comment section while you’re at it. I’m totally JV but there are lots of varsity couponers out there.

Psssst- We announced this week’s giveaway winners. Click here to see if you’re one of them.

Comments

  1. Brittney says

    We were out of power for 26 days after hurricane Ivan in 2005, which is by far the longest we have ever experienced aftehave hurricane. I have to say that the biggest tip I have involves a grill and your neighbors! You can cook frozen pizzas on grills, prepare any veggies you have, put pots on the grill to cook all kinds of things. We go after the expensive items first, like a ham or roasts, and toss cheap cold cuts and whatnot. Then you invite your neighbors over and chow down. We also bought a cheap inflatable kiddie pool that is very wide and is fantastic for beating the heat, but in Florida that tends to be the unbearable part with no power. we luckily rarely have lost water. I hate to see hurricane hit at all, but especially in places people aren’t used to getting them.

    Reply

  3. Sarah B says

    We’ve recently started shopping at Aldi (in Atlanta) and have saved a ton. Sometimes it’s hit-or-miss, but we tend to be able to load up for almost two weeks (for two people) on about $60-80. We get loads of help from our local farmer’s market for meat and produce too!

    Reply

  4. Jennifer says

    We lost everything in our fridge AND deep freeze April 28 (the tornado day as we say in Alabama). We took our 2yo son to my parents house 1.5 hours away to stay until we got power back…6 days later. I was able to save 2 packs of frozen chicken by taking to my parents house, but everything else was lost. I still have not replaced everything we lost. Like yall we had a ton of condiments!! Oyster sauce, housin sauce, odd ball things you need for that one recipe you cook maybe once a month. It was evident that we needed to clean out the freezer, there was some old stuff down in the bottom (Halibut, anyone??). I’m not a big fan of Kroger, I L.O.V.E. Publix, not sure if yall have one up there. They have awesome BOGOs every week and with coupon match ups you can get a lot for nothing!!

    Reply

  5. Melissa @ A Place to Nest says

    I have a silly question… How do you feed a family of 3 on only 400 per month? I feel like we spent tons on groceries but we don’t each out much at all. So we buy lunches, dinners, etc. Do you only buy “filler” stuff for 400 a month but order out/dine out often?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We actually don’t eat out a lot at all. We’re cheap. Haha. We do a lot of inexpensive meals though (like spaghetti and sauce with salad, which breaks down to like $1 a person). Rachael Ray also has some awesome super cheap recipes that you can save the leftovers and eat again (so you spend $40 for 7 dinners but they can be reheated for lunch the next day too)! Hope it helps.

      xo,
      s

    • Jennifer says

      We are a family of 5 soon to be 6 and we spend about 350-400 a month on groceries. I usually make enough for us for the next day for lunch and sometimes dinner too if I make a lot. I don’t coupon cause the coupons are never for what we want. We put aside money in an envelope to help us only spend that much. I buy all my produce at whole foods which I’ve noticed is cheaper than reg stores produce. I make a lot of our own snacks like buying celery and slathering peanut butter over it. Or making my own granola bars, or sweet potato chips. Also, we only eat meat 2 times a week which saves a lot.

  6. Laura says

    You should double-check with your insurance about the deductible with regard to replacing food. I’m with USAA, and they did not require a deductible to replace my lost food during Irene (my homeowners policy includes food replacement up to $500). I called them, gave them an estimate of the amount I lost, and they deposited $250 in my bank account the next day. (And I spent $247 on replacement groceries!)

    Reply

  7. kristen says

    We just had to do the same thing…I was really hoping to win the last Richmonder without power contest, but no dice! :)

    We didn’t get power back until Friday, the 2nd around 8pm-ish, so we didn’t bother to go grocery shopping until the next week, just for a few meals until we got paid.

    My friend has USAA and they just wired money to her to reimburse her for the spoilage, but State Farm said I’d need to file a claim, and our deductible is so high it’s not worth it.

    The good news for us was that getting rid of all that food really made us stand back and think about what we really needed to buy. Why do we have 3 types of mustard? 2 jars of chipotle mayonnaise? Frozen meals we never remember to grab while running out the door for work?

    We need to shop smarter, and maybe this was our wake-up call.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      That is all John. He has ice cream with whipped cream on it every night in front of the TV while I sip tea and look longingly at his sundae. And he’s skinny as can be! Haha. Infuriating.

      xo,
      s

  9. Penny says

    I know that you guys aren’t claiming it as far as the insurance is concerned, but I’m writing about my experience in case it helps other readers. I had computer insurance (through my home insurance policy), and when my laptop was run over (by my daughter who had leaned it against the wheel of my car and then backed over it)they reimbursed me $500 which thrilled me at the time. However, my insurance went up by about $72 a year, so in about 7 years they will have recouped the price of the laptop, and I’m sure they won’t turn around and lower my insurance. My insurance company is really well regarded and when I talked to the adjuster he recommended what a reader already mentioned-don’t put in claims unless they are for some serious dollars.

    Reply

  10. Jessica says

    We had to do the same thing after Hurricane Katrina. Then months later, our fridge went out, and we weren’t gonna be able to get a new one because it was Easter day! So we cooked all the food in the freezer and invited family over to eat! :)

    Reply

  11. Shawna F says

    We reuse half gallon and gallon plastic milk jugs instead of making ice for a cooler or to save the fridge trying a power outage. Would probably work better than the ziploc bags, and would be less messy for sure.

    Reply

  14. Jen says

    Depending on who you’re insured with they may reimburse you without you having to pay the deductible. I have a $500 deductible and we lost power for a week when a tornado ravished our neighborhood, no damage to us luckily except for loss of power, anyways we heard from a friend that loss of food due to power outage is reimbursable without having to pay the deductible. We took the chance and called to ask and sure enough they verified it and sent us a check for $200!

    Reply

  15. L says

    Ummmm . . . soy sauce, mustard, ketchup, pickles, salad dressings (not the mayonnaise type, the oil-and-vinegar type) really do NOT need to be refrigerated, even after they are opened. Manufacturers tell you to do that the same way clothing manufacturers put “dry clean only” tags on things that are obviously washable: to protect their heinies.

    And, try using empty plastic milk jugs for your frozen H2O. They are less likely to leak than plastic bags!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thanks for the tip! We heard vinegar based things like that could keep for 3 days (as opposed to one like most meat/dairy based things) so we didn’t want to chance it since it was the third day!

      xo,
      s

  16. Sarah @ Redhead in Ruffled Flats says

    Oh man! The harsh reality of disasters. And this is not even close to some of the really harsh realities. It sucks that you had to spend that much to pay for things you already had. I still think your savings was good! It’s much better than I could do!

    This reminds me, we need to clean out our fridge and give it a good scrub down. It’s funny how we can live with a mess that we only see for a second each time we open the fridge door.

    Gross!

    Reply

  17. Jennifer says

    Not to take the mystery out of the biscuits incident, but that was probably just the yeast doing it’s thang. It would probably activate as the temperature rose (it’s what would have made the biscuits nice and fluffy in the oven)

    Reply

  18. Christine says

    My girls ate sooo much Yo Baby when they were babies! Make sure you sign up for the rewards program at Stonyfield.com. Enter the codes from the yogurt lids and you earn coupons for free products. I think I averaged a free 4 pack of yogurt for every 3 packs I purchased. They also have printable coupons!

    I coupon as well and usually save around $50 on a big trip. I don’t buy much processed stuff so I don’t get the huge savings either. My Target just got a grocery section and they have great prices!

    Reply

  19. Carol N. says

    I’ve been making my own yogurt for several months now and love it! I control what is in it and save money at the same time. Also, love seeing the large jar of applesauce…thought we were the only strange people who did that. I’m going to try making my own applesauce this fall too.

    Reply

  20. NatalieW says

    I LOVE yogurt too, especially organic and Greek, but it was really eating into my grocery budget, so now I make my own! Have you ever tried that? All you need is a crockpot, milk, and one cup of starter yogurt. It’s seriously the easiest money-saving thing I do.

    Reply

  21. Christina says

    So glad you guys had a happy ending! Extended power outages are no fun. For the freezing water thing – next time try old quart-size yogurt containers or ziplock food containers instead of plastic bags. They hold up a bit better :-) Another tip is to make your freezer and fridge one or two notches colder than normal (moving one notch every 6-8 hours, or as noted in the user’s guide).

    Reply

  22. Kathy says

    I’m amazed that some people can save hundreds of dollars in one grocery trip. It seems to me that there are a ton of coupons for “junk” or processed foods and not as many for organic, fresh foods–which is why I think I can’t achieve the mega-coupon deals that some of the coupon gurus do. Also, I don’t know if our area has the stores that allow “doubling” coupons. Maybe I’m doing it wrong…? Does anyone have tips on how to save $ on healthier foods?

    Reply

  23. heather says

    I know this is totally the homesteader in me, but another way to save money sans coupons is to make super simple things that cost dolla’ dolla’ bills y’all. Hummus is one of the easiest (and tastiest – yay!). The Tahini is like $5.00 but it will last you *forever*. Large can of Goya chickpeas, with coupon, about $1.00. Then add in whatever else you like to make it your favorite. We can normally make a huge batch for about $1.50 and it takes 30 seconds in the food processor (or blender if that’s what you have).

    Reply

    • heather says

      Incredibly awesome. So cheap. We used to buy Sabra too. With homemade there is no need to add potassium sorbate or citric acid (because let’s face it, you’re going to eat it long before you need the shelf stabilization factors). It tastes so different when it’s whipped up fresh and warm. Here’s one of my favorite ways to eat it: Cut a day old French bread roll (clearance normally in back of grocery store from their bakery, or make one) into slices. Drizzle with olive oil a little sea salt and pepper and put on a cookie sheet. Broil until slightly browned, flip and do the same. Be fancy and neatly spread the homemade hummus on top, or be a beast like us and stand in the kitchen over the food processor bowl and dip.

      As far as other foods, check out a winter CSA. You can normally score an awesome deal on local veggies, eat seasonally and save money.

  24. Courtney says

    I just love that while you eat a lot of fresh and organic foods, you’ve still got some welch’s and Prego up in there. Yeah for reality, boo for spoiled food!

    Reply

  25. Kat says

    Do you have a Publix by you? My Publix puts organic stuff on sale all the time, and they accept Whole Foods (and other) coupons and do coupon stacking (M,S, and C on one item)and doubling and deduct money makers off your balance so you can even save on produce and meats. If you have a Publix near you in may be worth switching over for a better coupon policy.

    Reply

  26. Michelle says

    Where do you guys normally buy your meat? The grocery store? About a year ago we started going to our local meat market and the meat taste so much better than the grocery store. We would buy organic at the grocery store but the meat market was waaay better. We also get more for our money at the meat market. We never knew there could be such a big difference in the taste. We are so glad we found the place. If you guys have a local meat market you should check it out. You might be surprised!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We sometimes buy it at the farmer’s market during the spring-fall and other times buy it if it’s on sale at the store (and always get it at the store in the winter). But I love the idea of a local meat market- we’ll have to check it out!

      xo,
      s

  27. Laura says

    What perfect timing! I’m moving this weekend and have been dreading the hundreds of dollars in condiments I was going to have to buy! Duh – why didn’t I think of coupons? Thanks!

    PS. Why did my eyes go straight to that Turkey Hill Ice Cream in the Freezer? Mint Choco Chip, I love you.

    Reply

  28. Megan says

    OK, I’ve got to know. Are those 2 cans of whipped cream, or aerosol pancake batter? My first thought was that they must be whipped cream, but then the way they are shamefacedly turned away from the camera makes me think they’re pancake batter. Inquiring minds want to know! :)

    Reply

  29. Rachel says

    Somebody looks like she hit a growth spurt in her 16 month photo! She’s so cute (and I still drool over that fabric)!

    A previous commenter mentioned Ingles marking down organic milk – our Kroger does this too and marks them Manager’s Specials. Where I live most people are not buying from the organic section (but I am) so I benefit from lots of my favorite things often being on this kind of “sale.” Just make sure they aren’t expired! We have tons of granola bars, soups, crackers, Annie’s stuff, etc. that we get half off in addition to the refrigerated stuff. I have even seen organic produce in there! I’m vegan so I have no experience buying marked down meat…but I don’t know that I would go there. ;)

    Oh and just ask the stockers next time you go what day they do the markdowns. Our are every day, but another Kroger does them M-W-F in the morning. With your flexible schedule you could definitely have your pick if you go in the morning!

    Reply

  30. Sara says

    I’ve broken my $50 barrier and hit 70-80 a few times but just because our good ole Harris Teeter does triple coupons or super double (doubling anything up to $1.99) everything few weeks. When they help me out I take advantage as much as I can!

    Reply

  31. Michelle says

    As a “survivor” of the 3 storms that hit Florida in 04.. a tip… EVERY single one of our appliances died within 2 years of those storms. We heard that it’s not uncommon, with the major power surge when the power comes back on(even though we had everything off, we were w/o power for 2 weeks). It was too late to claim of course, but keep an eye out for any weird signs!

    Reply

  32. Beau says

    I had my fridge go out on me half-way through a 16 day backpacking trip in Alaska and my girlfriend stumbled upon it one day when she came to water the plants…lets just say she earned herself a very nice dinner upon my return home!

    Reply

  33. Chuck says

    i prefer to use plastic milk bottles frozen. in tx, we usually fill and freeze at the beginning of the season, thaw and dump out at the end.

    the milk bottles work good b/c if your water is compromised it gives you drinking water. but you still need to put stuff into coolers, smaller space to keep chilled. ‘fridge is practically impossible.

    Reply

  34. Kara says

    Our neighbors who got reimbursed for food did not have to apply their deductible. They got a check for $150 and their deductible is $1500. and you aren’t going to get your premiums raised for calling to ask a question about the features of your policy – that’s silly. As you know from asking for discounts in the store, it never hurts to ask. In fact, I think it’s kind of foolish not to. Our policy doesnt have that feature, but many do.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thanks for the tip Kara! I’m thinking about just calling to see what they say. Just don’t want them to cut a quick check and raise things next year (I’ll always wonder if it was connected to that call).

      xo,
      s

  35. Morgan says

    We lost power for 5 days, and although we lost everything in the fridge, I was so much more upset about the spoiled leftovers that had been in our freezer. Throwing away balls of homemade cookie dough and half of a pan of the best macaroni and cheese leftover from my boyfriend’s birthday was almost too much to bear.

    Reply

  36. Gena says

    Hi there, you might want to check with your homeowners insurance (re:home contents) as they might replace the cost of food that you lost. I am in Austin, Texas in the middle of all the central texas fires where some folks were without power for days as well. On our local news, it says that some insurance companies will replace the $$ lost of contents of your fridge! Maybe worth a shot, especially since you have photos :)

    Reply

  37. Michelle says

    Forgot to mention, we did get reimbursed for our food loss. We even claimed a freezer full of shrimp we caught ourselves. State Farm did not question anything, just sent us a check (our ded was $500 at the time). We also had fence damage, and they didn’t come out to inspect, just sent the check!

    Reply

  38. Noelle says

    I’m with you on couponing. I buy a lot of fresh produce, fair trade chocolate, organic stuff…hard to find coupons for it. I just save where I can and figure some things (like health and conscientious consumption) are more important than money.

    Reply

  39. Loren says

    This sucks hardcore. We had a similar problem when we lost power for a weekend because our main fuse was ka-put. I forgot how much it costs to buy all your condiments at one time.
    We do the ice in the freezer thing for trips. We put ours in Tupperware containers (gladware) instead of just zip-locks. It’s great for short trips & picnics too. When we get where we are going we usually give the melted water to our puppy. Dual purpose!

    Reply

  40. Laura says

    Been there, done that. I’m in Birmingham where the April tornadoes came through, and when we had to restock after losing power for so long, the shelves in my town were almost wiped clean. Example, there was no Heinz ketchup to be found anywhere. SOOOOO many of the “door” items for the fridge were just gone. And YES…when buying every condiment known to man at one time, it gets expensive fo sho! Here’s hoping I don’t have to do that again for a long time…and you either!

    Reply

  41. Tanja @ Postmodern Hostess says

    I wholeheartedly agree with Amy B that timing your shopping with sales is KEY. Just doing that, and stacking coupons on top of the sales, will get you over the 50% savings mark easily!

    My other big tip is to save your coupon inserts. You might only clip four or five coupons from an insert one week, but don’t toss the rest out. Put them in a little folder somewhere, and then if you discover down the road that you actually do need something, it’s easy to go back and find it. (It helps to write the date on the front of each one.) If you Google “coupon database,” you’ll find lots of sites that will tell you where every last coupon ever printed ran and when it expires, so it’s easy to track down where to find a missing coupon for, say, Heinz ketchup.

    Plus, and this is a big one to me, I know a lot of us don’t want to buy all of the processed stuff, but there’s free stuff available every week. It might not be something you’d buy or feed your family, but why not get it anyway and then donate it? I’ve donated almost a hundred tubes of toothpaste, loads of feminine products, and assorted other food and toiletry items to a local homeless shelter just this year, by buying the things that are free or super cheap.

    Hope that helps!

    Reply

  42. Nicole says

    Don’t know if you use this page on hip2save.com ever (it’s also available on other coupons sites), but it’s the best way to search if there are any coupons for a specific product right before shopping. Basically all you do is enter the brand – or any part of the product name – and it comes up with available coupons. For example, searching “yo baby” right now brings up 3 different 50 cent off printables that would double to a dollar each!

    http://hip2save.com/coupon-database

    Reply

  43. Casey says

    wow, it would be so nice to pay $3 a gallon for organic milk. i’m in alaska, and regular milk is $3. the organic stuff is more like $6. x__x

    Reply

  44. Shelly says

    After coming home to the worst possible fridge/freezer situation after Hurricane Katrina (I had a freezer full of freshly caught fish from my dad, and they didn’t let us into the city for 3 months. My condo associate threw away the fridge for me but the smell never really went away the entire time I lived there. I was renting someone else’s condo, thankfully, so I just burned a lot of insense to cover it up) I had power outage preparation down to an art. I’d *always* evacuate since my parents live in Mississippi, and my aunt further north in Mississippi, so I’d throw everything crucial in an ice chest with plenty of ice, throw away things that would go bad, and leave the condiments b/c at least they wouldn’t smell up the fridge. I don’t keep a lot of condiments and I think that habit developed from living in Hurricane Alley!

    I do want to point out that you can make your own salad dressing and avoid the problem of having to restock in the future. Olive oil plus white wine vinegar, rice vinegar, red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar with crushed garlic and salt and pepper is a good start. I also love olive oil with lemon juice and parmesan, and olive oil with mustard, anchovy paste, garlic and either lemon juice or vinegar- although those last 2 have some more perishable ingredients. I just wisk it all together in a little bowl with a fork and serve it alongside salad with a spoon.
    But once I started making my own salad dressing I never looked back. You can find all sorts of fancy oils and vinegars to try as well and you can customize how tangy you want it. Start with 2 parts oil to 1 part vinegar and go from there.

    Reply

  45. Sara says

    Just an FYI: you don’t need to refrigerate ketchup or syrup.

    But just some food for thought. I’m a major couponer for toiletries and condiments, household goods. My grocery store is a Wegman’s and it isn’t a great couponing store.

    I have a small stockpile in my basement of like 2-3 things of ketchup, mustard, soy sauce etc. So, if that were to happen no biggie it is already there and I only paid $1 to nothing for it. Target is great for that with their store coupons and sales. Just some food for thought. Sorry you had to buy all that. That stinks.

    Reply

  47. Rabbit says

    Man, I am perpetually jealous of you guys who can save this much with coupons!!!! Our coupons are always for stuff we don’t eat/use, or junk food types of things. Bummer. We save by using store brands for a lot of stuff…

    (and before anyone asks, nope, no Kroger, and we live in New England where everything is pricier anyway)

    Reply

  48. Sara WW says

    What a bummer! I’m in DC and we lost power for about 30 hours, a lot less than you. We also filled and froze zip locked bags of water and it worked really well for us, our fridge is less than a year old and must be well insulated since even the bags that we put in the fridge stayed frozen. Like you we pulled out the things that would go bad the quickest – yogurt, mayo, etc. and put them in a cooler with ice. But luckily even after 30 hours everything in our freezer still had ice crystals on it (the ice cubes in the tray did start to melt a bit) and nearly all the items in the fridge were salvageable.

    Reply

  49. K says

    How have I not noticed this before? Are you appliances off-white/bisque? Ours our too! They came with the house, are perfectly good appliances but cause me design problems.

    Reply

    • Jenny @ DIY Newlyweds says

      We have bisque appliances too! When you redo your kitchen do you plan on replacing them or will you try to paint them or refinish them somehow. I would love white or stainless steel appliances, but they’re not in the cards right now for us, so I’m wondering what you crazy kids plan to do?

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We’re planning to try to reface the dishwasher with a stainless steel sheet and get a new counter-depth fridge. We also need a new microwave and wall oven (they’re old and don’t cook well / are half broken). But we definitely hope to save money via craigslist and scratch and dent places, etc.

      xo,
      s

  50. Mary says

    My favorite central couponing site is http://www.couponmom.com and is similar to the one that you listed in your couponing post last February. In the Grocery Deals by state section (43 states) I can match current specials to coupons at my favorite grocery store, which is King Soopers that doubles $ .50 or less coupons up to $1.00 and also a Kroger affiliate. I can also check other stores specials, Target, Wal-Mart, etc. to current coupons and print in-store coupons or get a coupon from the database. Sometimes I do find myself buying a little ahead but I only buy the products my family uses. I love couponing and my goal is usually to save at least 40% each week.

    Reply

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