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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)…
… 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).
It was about this time that we realized just how much stuff we would have to rebuy. Boo.
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).
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).
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?
Happily, we came home with a ton of stuff (we didn’t even have enough reusable bags for all of it!)…
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.
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.
And you know we love a good after picture or two, so behold… the freshly stocked fridge:
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.
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.
Natalie @ Queen of Whirled says
Living in the Florida Panhandle, we’re pretty familiar with hurricanes. The first thing we do after the storm is organize neighborhood cookouts to use up all the perishable goods. These go on daily, for all three regular meals, until the power comes back on. Friends, Food, Fun, and no stanky fridge to clean out.
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds like fun! We were so scared to open ours up and lose the coldness, but maybe we just should have had a feast!
xo,
s
Meggan says
There is a great and very easy recipe for homemade yogurt on crockpot365.blogspot.com. It only takes 1/2 cup of yogurt as a starter and then whatever milk you want to put in it. Great for people who buy organic or non-dairy yogurts. Then you can just add your own fruit or natural sweetener like stevia, spices like cinnamon, etc. It’ll save you a ton!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much!
xo,
s
Melissa says
Ah, as painful as it is to replace things all at once, isn’t it nice to have a stocked and CLEAN fridge!
I’m wondering how you and John split up grocery shopping, since he does the cooking (right?) My husband also does the cooking for our little fam, but I seem to end up doing the grocery shopping so sometimes it’s hard to get the right items purchased. Any tips? I assume you guys grocery shop together?
YoungHouseLove says
We grocery shop together. With Clara too. It’s a family affair. Burger would be there too if he was allowed, haha. We sort of divide and conquer in the store (sometimes I have a list of things that I have coupons for and John has a list of food beyond that, and he gets that stuff and I get the coupon stuff (we cross reference lists to make sure we don’t duplicate).
xo,
s
Ashley says
I hate that most coupons are for processed foods, too. However, if I find a good deal (ie free or one that gets them to pay me, which I use towards a purchase of produce) I buy it and donate it.
YoungHouseLove says
I love that! So smart. I have yet to figure out how to get anything to be free or to get anyone to pay me. Haha. Someday I’d love to donate stuff using that method all the time!
xo,
s
adrienne says
Probably too late, but i swear soy sauce doesnt need to be refrigerated… at least i’ve never died from it being in the pantry. :-)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, you’re not the first person to tell us that today! Good to know. Haha. We had no idea. Ours said “refrigerate after opening” so we did. Haha. Wish we were rebels though!
xo,
s
Cheree says
When Alabama had the day of tornadoes back in April we lost power for 4 days. Thankfully we had family in Nashville that we were able to go and crash with. HOWEVER we are so glad we had the foresight to clean out our fridge/freezer before we left town. We filled a cooler with as much stuff as we could take to donate to my sister’s fridge and everything else got tossed. While we were at it, we cleaned the fridge and left the doors open to air out while we were gone. We made sure to turn of the circuit the fridge was on just in case the power came back on (we didn’t want to be cooling our entire kitchen)! Sorry to hear you lost everything. I think you live and learn with every new experience.
Leah says
I love to use coupons, but I swear that half of them are always for things where the store brand is still cheaper, so I end up not using them.
I love to see the “You Saved $XX.XX” at the bottom of the Kohl’s receipt, which they circle in red. I tell my hubby, “See, I saved $125!” to which he always says, “Yeah, but you spent $65.”
YoungHouseLove says
One tip about the store brand things being cheaper is to remember if your store doubles coupons (Kroger will double any coupon that’s 50 cents or less to make it a dollar) that even if the store brand is cheaper than an item with a coupon, if the coupon is doubled a lot of times the store brand isn’t cheaper anymore. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
C says
Speaking of home insurance, just curious…
Do you update them when you make major changes to your home? It can affect your coverage A limit!
Just making sure you’re adequately insured. :p
YoungHouseLove says
Yup! I’m a crazy person about that! They’re probably sick of hearing from me, but I want to make sure our whole house and all of our improvements are covered at all times!
xo,
s
SJ says
We only lost power overnight during Irene, but I was up all night tossing and turning, thinking about my poor, brand new pint of ice cream in the freezer. I actually thought about getting up and eating it at about 3:00am, just in case. Hey, it was the good kind! Luckily, my ice cream didn’t even melt. I can’t imagine losing everything! That really stinks!
Robin @ our semi organic life says
I love reading about other people’s fridges! It’s so nosy but so much fun! Sabre hummus = my jams! I agree, it can be hard to coupon with fresh/organic stuff but it can be done. Random but have you guys ever been to “Fresh to Frozen” on Midlothian tnpk? Its a discount/scratch n dent/salvage place? Its perfect for re-stocking random stuff since their prices are so cheap!
YoungHouseLove says
Never been! Thanks for the tip!
xo,
s
kristen says
love that place! they’re good about making announcements on facebook when they get a truck of good stuff…
Nicole says
What kind of recipes do you guys use ground turkey for?
YoungHouseLove says
We put that in sauce to make meat sauce sometimes! Or brown it and make burritos or tacos. Mmm.
xo,
s
OMG Ponies! says
I am gearing up to get back into couponing. I used to do it all the time and then one day I lost my little coupon holder (same model as yours just pink in color)…I was so bummed I kind of gave up for a while. Now I’m almost ready to get going again.
We’re closing on our first house in October :)
I need to find deals for a washer and drier
Lindsay says
I think my favorite part was seeing how much ice cream you keep in your freezer. I think it made me feel better about how much I like to keep mine stocked…on a side note, I was a breyers ice cream kinda gal until I discovered blue bell, now I’ll never go back.
YoungHouseLove says
I’ll have to tell John about Blue Bell! He’s the ice cream fiend in our house (yes, all of that stockpile is his – haha). Although I have a spoonful every once in a while. Can’t lie. Haha.
xo,
s
ashley b says
Most places don’t sell Blue Bell ice cream in VA. I sadly learned this fact when I had delicious Blue Bell ice cream in TX and couldn’t find it anywhere here in VA. Boo!
YoungHouseLove says
So sad.
xo,
s
Julia @ Chris loves Julia says
My husband is a fanatic about Blue Bell. We have had it shipped to us on two separate occasions since being married and it cost a little over $100! So…they were very SPECIAL occasions.
Also, Clara’s romper is adorbs.
Amanda L says
Is that huge jug of vinegar for cloth diaper washing? I thought I was the only crazy person who walked out of the grocery store with one of those. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Yup! For laundry (we wash all of Clara’s clothes in it for the first time since we heard it strips out extra dyes and chemicals) and also to wipe down our stinky night tables!
xo,
s
Rhiana says
You guys should call your insurance agent anyway. My mom has a 5k deductible and the insurance company is sending a check for $500. The insurance agent said her deductible didn’t come into play here? Might be worth a shot?
Charlene @ Sweetchic says
I don’t know how you do it… how you write a long post about food in your fridge… And make it so interesting to read!! I even find looking at what food you bought to be interesting!! Hehe
Julie says
Gotta say, I am a little surprised to see all of the processed/pre-packaged foods in your fridge! Especially the salads, hummus, and salad dressings. SO much cheaper and healthier to make your own! Just because something is stamped “organic” does not make it healthier. It’s really not much effort to buy your own lettuces for salads, garbanzo beans for hummus, and there are such a variety of easy salad dressings that you can make with just a few simple ingredients. Cuts way down on your sodium when you make your own, not to mention all of the yucky preservatives present in all of the processed versions.
Betsy says
I thought the same thing about my deductible so called to just try it out. Turns out that food spoilage has a seperate deductible with my insurance…which was $100. You could claim up to $500.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much for the tip Betsy!
xo,
s
Krys Carter says
So, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen them, but there are a few websites that might help you with your couponing!
Try:
Afullcup.com (a grocery forum that people post deals and scoops for every major store out there)
Livingrichwithcoupons.com (A lady from New Jersey with some good deals)
Thekrazycouponlady.com (She does Krogers amongst others)
healthylifedeals.com (organic, healthy couponing)
True couponing requires small trips rather than large ones. Don’t let those damn TV shows fool you. Eventually you build a small stockpile of condiments and food staples (pasta, cereal, etc).
Every once in a while (in the beer section) there are rebate forms and in certain states, although I’m not sure about VA, you don’t have to buy beer to get the rebate just the accompanying products. Most of the time it’s veggies or meat. The most recent one I had was to spend 50.01$ on meat and produce and I received a 30$ rebate in the mail.
Couponing requires some organization and weekly maintenance. I spend roughly 3 hours a week organizing my coupons, gathering the expired ones, and planning my trip.
Hope this helps!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the list and all those tips!
xo,
s
Tami says
Now, I didn’t clean the inside of my fridge- but I did do the outside revamping!! And besides, I know how you love the chalkboard paint :)
http://tami-licious-life.blogspot.com/2011/09/going-rogue-on-my-refrigerator.html
YoungHouseLove says
Fun!
xo,
s
cappy says
opps again I was not clear…I used gallon sized jugs of water not bags. The jugs seemed to hold up without any breakage or leaks. Sorry I was not clear before.
YoungHouseLove says
No worries! The gallon jugs of water sound like just the thing!
xo,
s
Carrie says
Don’t keep garlic in the fridge! A cool dark cupboard is way better! For bulbs anyways, not sure about the jars you can get. I know all about food spoiling…. We lost all our food and lots of containers because of the flooding in North Dakota and from being evacuated. So sad! We are waiting on a FEMA trailer so we will have to do a big restoring trip too, but for EVERYTHING. Not looking forward to it.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tip Carrie!
xo,
s
katie says
not a couponing adventure, but related — there’s a grocery chain in our area called grocery outlet, colloquially known as “gross out.” =) we don’t dare do our normal shopping there — we’re the organic-produce-type, and this chain is like the ross or t.j.maxx of groceries — but i heard a radio commercial listing their wine discounts recently and one caught my attention. we had gone wine tasting in napa and wanted to sample an $80 bottle of wine, but since we weren’t likely to buy it they wouldn’t open it for us. gross out was selling them for $15, so i thought what the heck! worth a try. we liked it well enough to go back and buy a case (the vineyard has my same uncommon last name, so it’s fun to have a bottle of ‘our’ wine for family events). a dozen bottles rang up for nearly $200, but the receipt printed boldly beneat that: “CONGRATULATIONS! you saved $720!” i still keep that receipt… =)
YoungHouseLove says
Holy cow that’s amazing! I would never throw that receipt away either!
xo,
s
Kelly says
Fun post. YoBaby yogurt is a staple in every fridge in the home of a baby/toddler! Since it is so popular, why do you think the grocery store always gives coupons for it? I’m happy they do, but just a “deep thought” for today :)
Keep up all the great posts.
YoungHouseLove says
I have no idea but I’ll keep using them! Haha. I bet the company knows that we love them and keeps dishing them out to make us smile. Is that a naive thought? Haha.
xo
s
Amanda says
I just buy the big tub of whole milk, organic plain yogurt from TJs for my babies and then add my own fruit. This is WAY cheaper than YoBaby yogurt and you can control the sugar content a bit more by adding your own toppings.
YoungHouseLove says
Smart!
xo,
s
Lori H says
Sorry to hear about your loss! :) We are near Short Pump and were fortunate not to lose our power. But in our last house, we did have things spoil when the power went out while we were on vacation (yuck, welcome back!) A positive that I don’t think you mentioned about your big Kroger trip – you earned 20 cents/gallon off your next gas fill-up! That helps a little…
Maggie says
We never refrigerate our soy sauce. Gluten-free organic tamari from San-J (I am gluten intolerant). For gluten free waffles, I LOVE Nature’s Path organic. Their granola is awesome too. I love the pumpkin flax. It’s not labeled gf because they can’t be sure the oats aren’t contaminated, but I’ve never reacted to it.
Barbara is so right! Things like mustard, ketchup and salad dressing would have probably been fine! They’re full of vinegar which kills bacteria. I don’t think a few days would have spoiled them. Certainly a simple olive oil/balsamic vinaigrette would have been fine because neither of those need refrigeration. Creamy dressings would be iffy though.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tips Maggie!
xo,
s
Shelly says
We live in Barbados and while we’re not directly in the path of most hurricanes, we do get a few scares. Last year we were hit hard by Hurricane Tomas. We learned a lot from that experience. The most important was how to prepare food wise. We actually have 4 1 liter water bottles frozen in the freezer with our food to keep it colder longer. We also have an extra freezer. When we start suspecting any action we get a few bags of ice and put them in the extra freezer. If the power goes out we leave everything as is for awhile, but then we start pulling it out and putting it in coolers with ice. When the ice starts melting, we go to the store and get more.
The other thing is when it looks like we will get hit, we immediately do a pantry/food purge. We start trying to cook as much food in our fridge and freezer as possible and have a good supply of non-perishable items we can cook on our gas stove. You definitely have to become resourceful when faced with this frequently.
YoungHouseLove says
Really smart to eat stuff before it hits!
xo,
s
Cathryn says
Hey Sherry & John!
Saw your re-useable shopping bag overload! I love reading your blog and I thought I could help. (And I’ve never left a message like this, so I really hope it’s not too “spammy”!)
I’m giving away a handy complement of re-useable shopping and produce bags on my blog, if you’re interested. Anyone can win! (I don’t get perked or paid for my posts, either. This giveaway was organized by me and purchased with my own moolah.)
I have a whole series of posts devoted to Greener Living that is running from Earth Day 2011 to Earth Day 2012. Feel free to stop by and take a gander:
http://caro-interiors.com/2011/09/15/in-the-bag-free-giveaway/
Best, Cathryn
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much for the tip! Love it!!
xo,
s
Meredith says
That completely sucks about your groceries! Our fridge has been randomly turning off lately and I am hoping this same thing doesn’t happen.
On the upside, it looks like you have a “fridge man” in your after photo. With the eye knobs and the doors open as arms.. It might just be my overactive imagination though. haha
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- those darn eyeball knobs kill me.
xo,
s
tabitha says
Don’t know if someone mentioned this but you should be aware that goods kept in the fridge while other food was spoiling may be contaminated. We were warned of that after the April tornadoes where we lost power for seven days. So it may be too late to warn you but wash those cans of soda before you drink them or use a straw :)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, thanks for the tip! We wiped down the whole fridge and the stuff we kept since it was all so gross (and wet from the spilled stuff/exploded biscuits, etc). So glad we did!
xo,
s
Stephanie B says
Our insurance covered our spoiled food WITHOUT requiring our deductible. ;) It was a very unexpected blessing.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much for the tip!
xo,
s
karen says
this felt like an episode of cribs!
well i guess everyday is kind of like an episode of cribs!!:)
i don’t know why…but it was fun peaking in your fridge. now i am hungry.
Jes says
The store I shop at does not count B1G1 deals in their “money saved” section… Major bummer. So, I can save $2 when milk is on sale, but it doesn’t add it to the bottom so I only ever save like $10 (with the coupons), so you have me beat! The fridge restock reminds me of when I moved into my first place… before I couponed. That was expensive.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, that’s annoying! I wonder why they don’t include those to keep you motivated?! Haha.
xo,
s
Lauren says
Haha I have to ask..is “catalinas” just a hilarious typo or like a new fancy term for coupons since they’re getting all sorts of popular these days?
YoungHouseLove says
That’s the hilarious name for the coupons that print out with your receipt. I learned it from some of the coupon sites I frequent (after a few weeks of not knowing what they heck they were talking about). Haha.
xo,
s
Lauren says
Haha..can you tell I don’t coupon?
Thanks for filling me in on the lingo.
Lindsey says
We also experience the coupon plateau, usually save around 25%. I’m trying to strike a balance on the stockpile concept by grabbing up non-perishables like mustard, salad dressings and cheerios when they are cheapest and store them in our basement pantry. We use grocerygame.com for about $5 a month and the ‘list’ that it generates helps you combine your store’s weekly sales with currently available coupons so you can get freebies (I have atleast 2 jars of mayo and 2 bottles of mustard stored right now that were either free or less than $1). I think the mega-couponers have to buy or beg for a lot of duplicate newspapers to get multiple coupons for those type of free/super-cheap items, plus they spend a full-time job’s worth of hours organizing and clipping. So we have decided we have to count what our time is worth– which for successful bloggers like you, I’d say is pretty dang valuable too! ;-) So, I suppose we should continue to strive for coupon stardom, but accept that $50 twice a month is still pretty dang good! P.S. Nice squeaky clean fridge! Makes me want to scrub mine…
Valerie says
FYI- You shouldn’t have the throw out syrup. It doesn’t spoil.. although if you buy the fake stuff you might want to double check the label. Oh and it still makes sense to claim your groceries so if something else happens this year that pushes you over your deductible you’ll get your money back. :)
Sandra says
We have AAA insurance in Michigan, and a $1000 homeowner’s deductible. They gave us $500 for spoiled food (we had a deep freezer full of grass fed beef, I nearly died), assured us that it would not increase our premiums, and it was the only damage from the storm so deductible was not even relevant.
It’s worth a few minutes of your time to call.
Good luck!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for sharing your experience Sandra!
xo,
s
AnnieM says
Just wondering..I saw the picture of your garbage can with all the spoiled food in it..do you not recycle things like cardboard boxes where you live? Or plastic jugs? Not nitpicking or anything (hahaha)just simply wondering..My recycling bin is always WAY more full than our garbage bin (they are the same gigantic size) because in our town we recycle ALL cardboard (including cereal boxes, pasta boxes, etc) ALL plastics (including yogurt containers, juice bottles, cottage cheese, etc) and of course all glass containers and paper products too.
YoungHouseLove says
Yes! If you check out the note right above that picture, we actually dumped it all in there because it was so rank and scary near the fridge and snapped that picture, but quickly realized that some of it could be composted and recycled so we broke things down!
xo,
s
Heather C says
If you’re willing to go through the paper work, you could still claim the groceries on insurance just in case something else happens this year. That way you’d be $250 closer to meeting your deductible on the next emergency.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tip Heather!
xo,
s
Jackie says
Hi! I don’t know if someone mentioned it above, as there are so many comments, however, have you thought to call your Energy Company?
We lost power once due to a traffic accident for 24 hours, our Energy company had us fill out a claim for, and they reimbursed us our grocery expenses.
Hope this helps.
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- never thought about that! Thanks!
xo,
s
Amanda says
You got a catalina for Oregon Chai? Wow… that is one awesome catalina. I’m obsessed with that stuff. The catalinas I get from Safeway are never for good stuff.
YoungHouseLove says
Mmm, it’s so good right?
xo,
s
rhiannon says
I feel like those crazy couponers everyone talks about buy tons of junk food. if you ever watch those couponing shows it’s like A&E’s Hoarders only with twinkies and baloney instead of dead cats and newspapers from 1950.
good job couponing though!
Sydney says
Ha. Love this. Not that you guys lost all your food, that stinks, but I am thrilled-and I mean thrilled-to see someone else with a clean, organized fridge…who also stores bread products there for lack of space, etc. I love me a neat fridge and I always put food in there that I have ran out of space for : )
ashley b says
I took photos too, and we wrote down everything we threw away, too. We spent $200 on groceries and saved $50 with my coupons and Kroger card. We were out of power for close to 6 days or so. It was awful-we threw our stuff out on Monday morning after the hurricane, BEFORE our trash people came. The rest of our neighbors in our complex waited to clean their fridges/freezers out AFTER the trash men came. The trash men didn’t come back until FRIDAY. With the windows open (no a/c!), it smelled awful like hot rotting garbage/food, Bleckh!! I hope to never experience that again.
Our insurance company had a set amount they cover for food spoilage, and when I called them the Wednesday after the hurricane, they kindly and quickly direct deposited the maximum amount for me without even asking for an estimated amount of loss. They just took care of it. Thank goodness. :)
And, if it makes you feel better-I am glad you saved the laughing cow cheese wheels. I had to throw mine away :(
James says
I’m in the same boat, kinda.. I just moved after being “homeless” for two months so my fridge has soy sauce. that’s it right now, soy sauce…. :-/
SD says
I don’t think all the stuff you tossed is perishable. Soy sauce, for example. It may not taste as perky, but it doesn’t spoil. Neither does most mustard. I tend to use the sniff/taste test to be sure. I tend to think that we’re a little uptight about things that *need* to be put in the fridge/expiration dates.
YoungHouseLove says
We’re just admittedly neurotic rule followers. Haha. So when they said “refrigerate after opening,” we believed them. Thanks for the tip!
xo,
s
Lesley says
you should still check with your insurance. Our policy had a separate deductible for food spoilageof $100 which was a lot lower than the norm. It also had a cap of $500 being reimburseable (so we could of lost up to $600). My husband also asked them if it would increase our rates at all and they said NO! We also asked them what info we needed to provide (like a list of things we lost/pictures) at first they said a list but then b/c so many people were inquiring they just said tell us the amount in $ that you lost and send it in an email. He sent them an email of the $ and within 3 days we had our check no questions asked. We absolutely love our insurance company if there is such a thing, but seriously there customer service is top notch.
Donna says
You forgot the beer! (just kidding!) Check out the TLC show “Extreme Couponing”. It is AMAZING how much some people save!!!
Eileen says
So glad that you kept your priorities straight and included ice cream and whipped cream on your Must Haves list! But I’ve got to say I’m sad to see that those ice cream cookie sandwiches didn’t make the Save Now list when the power went out. Save the ice cream next time!!! It makes having no power so much better :D
Barbara says
We use empty soda/water bottles in our freezer and just leave them there all the time. Then they are ready (they can take some time to freeze) and also we can use them in our lunch boxes :-) Sorry to hear about the loss/mess. As for coupons – apparently there is a new show called Extreme Couponing where people buy like $300 worth of stuff for $6. Unfortunately, then you go to their house where they have 700 bottles of laundry detergent. My husband thinks it is the organized version of Hoarders…