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.
Sarah says
Like the “Cribs” style fridge shot…And you guys need a Wegmans!
YoungHouseLove says
We do! John’s parents used to shop at one near DC when they lived there and loved it!
xo,
s
Sara says
I didn’t read through all the comments to see if this had been posted but we have a $500 deductible on our home owner’s insurance and had $250 worth of spoiled food. We reported not thinking of said deductible and STILL got a check. They said the deductible didn’t count for spoiled food. It’s worth checking out.
elaine K says
Our Samsung bottom freezer kept our food frozen for 2 days with two bags of ice added about 20 hours after we lost power.(We were lucky to find ice the first 2 days though!) After that we were able to keep it cold with ice added every day for the 5 days we didn’t have power. I didn’t have as much success with my old side by side fridge/freezer during Floyd. So am glad I have the Samsung!
Sarah B says
I would definitely check with your insurance company. Depending on who you have, you might not have a deductible at all. We didn’t lose power, but some of my co-workers did, and they called their insurance company and received a check (up to $500) and/or direct deposit within a day, and no deductible.
And am I crazy, or is there a smilely face in one of the hearts at the bottom of your background? :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- yes. That’s our traffic tracking software. We love that he’s friendly.
xo,
s
K (Barking Babymama) says
I love that two cans of whipped cream were on the must-have grocery list :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- John be crazy for his ice cream & whipped cream. Gotta keep the man happy!
xo,
s
Krystal says
I definitely feel you on the “it smells ungodly bad” situation. I worked at Dairy Queen for over 2 years where the owner was extremely cheap and refused to invest in a generator. The building was in an area of town where the slightest rainfall would knock us out of power for 2 to 3 days, and all us minimum wage employees got to come in and clean out 12 freezers and a walk-in’s worth of spoiled milk. Nasty.
YoungHouseLove says
Ugh- so gross!
xo,
s
Patty says
I love coupons!! My best deals were two packs of Pampers for $1.70 each, shredded parmesan cheese for $0.80 for a small tub of it, and Axe body wash for my husband (that I ended up not liking how he smelled after using it) for $1.25 each. However, since my husband got a new job working second shift, I haven’t had time to coupon. :-( the boys (3.5 years and 8 months) do not enjoy it as much as I do!!
Cortney says
Hi there. Sorry you had to replace everything. We live on Cape Cod and some people lost power but we were lucky even though we made sure our fridge was cleaned out and we were stocked on every non persihable item I could think of. Go figure… Better safe than sorry though…
I was wondering… I see that in your fridge you have organic and non organic products. How do you guys decide which things to buy organic and which are ok non organic. I’m just curious because I would like to start buying more organic products but unsure where to start since i’m not sure I can afford everything organic… Thanks…
YoungHouseLove says
We try to get organic produce and organic diary. For meat we alternate between organic (if it’s on sale or we get it for a good price at the farmer’s market) and just grass fed or more natural/eco in some other way. We also like brands like Kashi and Stonyfield Farms who generally use natural/healthy ingredients, and for things like pasta sauce and ketchup, if the organic stuff is on sale we love it but it’s not a necessary thing to us. I guess we just do our best and figure some organic is better than nothing- but you can always be more pure too. I mean John’s ice cream and whipped cream and soda habit doesn’t help either. Haha. I think starting with organic produce is easy. And add dairy when you can. There are even lists online of the best fruits and veggies to buy organic since they’re the most full of pesticides (the thin-skinned ones in general). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
pattilouwho says
I stick to couponing for just house-hold items or condiments. I find that most coupons are for things I never buy and I refuse to use them just to save money. I still save quite a bit on the items I do coupon for, and I figure I’m so frugal in other areas that it all balances out in the end. I try not to buy anything at full price and I’m notorious for finding awesome deals on used clothing for my girls too.
Kristin says
Just a heads up, as a fellow ground turkey lover, you may want to double check your Kroger turkey as there was a recall this week again, including some Kroger varieties. (http://yourlife.usatoday.com/fitness-food/safety/story/2011-09-12/More-ground-turkey-recalled-because-of-salmonella/50366448/1)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, thanks for the tip!
xo,
s
Wom-mom Ethne says
Ya know what gets me every time: leftovers! We save them with the best intentions of taking them to work the next day, then forget and we don’t throw them out till the fridge is full. Doesn’t take too long, but still, I like a clean-looking fridge. I especially appreciated how John’s ice cream fits perfectly on the fridge door shelves.
Alisa says
We had that problem til this past summer when I read a good tip. There’s just two of us and we never eat a whole meal (especially if it’s a casserole or something). So what I do is when I’m cooking, before I put everything into the final pan to cook, I put between a third and a half of it in a smaller pan to flash freeze then we cook it later in the week. It’s cut our grocery bill a lot and I don’t have to deal with the stinky leftover-throw-away every trash day.
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh that’s a great tip!
xo,
s
Michelle H says
Our baby girl was born 4 days before Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and while I was in the hospital, my mother in law stocked our freezer with 60 DAYS worth of precooked meals. Because of the hurricane, no power, and being evacuated, we lost it all! I think the thought of my hubby throwing away all that food was worse than dealing with being evacuated with a newborn!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no- that is beyond sad! What an amazing mother in law you have! 60 days worth of meals after a baby is priceless!!
xo,
s
Amy @ this DIY life says
A few years ago we lost power in an ice storm. It was out for almost 4 days. The only good thing about it was that we got to use our deck as a freezer and our cooler outside actually made a pretty good fridge without freezing too many things. I took my crockpot to work where I cooked food for those few days so we would have something to eat. Ahhh, those were the days…the ones I never want to repeat.
I think you did great on your shopping trip! I think that the couponing show has made people feel like if they don’t save a certain percentage, they have failed. With $47, you just bought yourself another gallon of paint chica! That’s enough to make any DIYer smile right? And I think you put the $ in Sherdog too. Most of the people featured on that show participate in unethical couponing methods and some are illegal as well. I’m not going to jail to save an extra $10. Here’s my big save from the beginning of the summer: http://thisdiylife.wordpress.com/2011/06/12/extreme-couponing/. And a little peak at what my SIL can do armed with a stack of coupons: http://thisdiylife.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/all-about-the-q/
Happy couponing!
YoungHouseLove says
Love the links!
xo,
s
Emily says
I defo would have kept most of the condiments. Even the butter. I don’t even refrigerate my butter normally. Soy sauce is not gonna go bad.
Miranda says
***INSURANCE*** You should check with your insurance company anyway. A friend of mine went out of town for the weekend and somehow the town’s power went out. It ended up bursting a fuse in their house that the fridge was on. She thought the same thing about insurance (higher deductible) but checked anyway and they ended up covering all the food lost over the weekend without her having to pay the deductible.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tip Miranda!
xo,
s
Maria says
My freezer (minus sippy cups) looks shockingly similar to yours. Don’t you love Buitoni tortellini?! Have you ever been able to find a coupon for Buitoni stuff? I regularly clip coupons and am a member of multiple coupon websites, but never see Buitoni ones!
YoungHouseLove says
Mmm, so good! I think I have found a coupon once or twice (I think in the insert from the newspaper) but they’re not often. Which is a shame!
xo,
s
Alisa says
We get coupons for those! I think our grocery store (Tom Thumb) puts coupons in their circular but I could be wrong about that.
julia says
The insurance company won’t reimburse you – but have you called your electric company?
NYC faired really well during Irene ( Hurricane Irene: it was a breeze). Sorry for the pun. . .been a long day.
But I was worried we’d lose power and had stocked the fridge just in case. Con Ed said on their website they’d reimburse for spoiled food up to $1000. We didn’t lose power, but it was good to know for next time!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tip! We might call Dominion to see. Why not, right?
xo,
s
Cortney says
Definetly did. Thanks so much!
Amanda R. says
I’m sure this tip would only help with a shorter power outage, but before the storm, I filled a bunch of plastic take out containers with water, leaving enough room at the top for freezing, similar to the Ziploc bag idea you tried. Plus side with the take out containers was that it wouldn’t spill if they melted! If you don’t hoard take out containers like I do (time for a cabinet clean out!), you could always pick up a cheap pack of the Glad or Ziploc containers before the next storm. On the bright side, you have a sparklingly clean and organized fridge now!
Laura says
I have trouble saving more than $20-$30 per week. I pretty consistently do that, but rarely much more. I feel your pain there. :-(
Nine says
I just can’t stop thinking how ironic it is to have a contest about not having any power …..on a website…..
Glad to hear you came through it ok! So strange that when I hear of bad news in the world somewhere, and I worry about my friends there, that now includes people whose blogs I read. Some people say that technology is damaging human interaction. I think it is bringing the world closer together!
YoungHouseLove says
I totally agree! I feel like I have so many people I think about thanks to blogs that connect us all!
xo,
s
mp says
My parents live in a part of Chester that was rural when they built their house 38 years ago, but is now quite suburban, and as a result their power line “spur” only has four houses on it, making it a last priority for restoration. By the time their power came back on last week, not only were the deep freeze and fridge ruined, but my dad, an Alzheimer’s patient, had to be hospitalized because he simply couldn’t deal with the disruption brought on by Irene. Thankfully insurance is replacing their appliances, and my dad is now stable, but I can’t help but remember that, when Isabel blew through eight years ago, he heroically kept both their appliances and mine cold by alternating generator runs.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, that sounds like a nightmare! So glad your family is doing well now!
xo,
s
The Distressed Mother says
Just wondering if you received any government assistance after the hurricane? Or other natural disasters? Here in Queensland, Australia, we had devastating floods in January. If you were without power etc for more than 48 hours you were eligible for government payout of around $500 per person in the household. I was without power for a week, so the money certainly covered restocking the fridge, takeaways, ice etc that I had to fork out for.
I’m pretty sure our government always kicks in to help people after situations like this.
TDM xxx
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- that’s so nice! None of that here except by going through your insurance I think. Although I believe there’s government assistance for worse situations (like those affected by Hurricane Katrina, etc).
xo,
s
Megan says
Hi Sherry,
I live on the east coast of Florida where we get lots of hurricane action, so I know what your family went through with Irene. I’m glad you are all doing okay! I’m not sure if anyone else suggested this already, but when we are concerned about losing power, we freeze gallon size jugs of water that we can transfer to our fridge, instead of gallon size ziploc bags. That way you don’t have to worry about the ziplocs tearing or becoming punctured somewhere along the way. The jugs seem to work! Good luck!
YoungHouseLove says
Such a better idea!
xo,
s
Rena says
Call your insurance company! Our daughter in Midlothian called theirs and was reimbursed right away. It didn’t matter what their deductible was.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for these tips guys!
xo,
s
Jess says
I’m sure someone has already suggested this, but we froze water in tupperware and gladware containers ahead of Irene incase the power went out. They worked for a little while, but not for five days worth of no power like we had. We use the same trick when we fill a cooler full of food for camping.
YoungHouseLove says
Smart!!!
xo,
s
Cassie says
I hate it when things like this happen, which is a BUMMER when you realize all the “unneeded needs” you keep in your fridge. I always hated moving out of an apartment/house when you use everything up and start new. bummer on the check book. I’m glad you checked into your insurance plan, because ours, covers any damage due to loss of power, including plants, trees, shingles,electronics and even groceries. I checked ours out for price and we get reimbursed for anything over $100!!! Maybe it’s a midwest thing since we lose power in the winter all the time with these snow storms. Thanks for the updates:)
Marney says
Not sure if someone already said this, but you might want to call your insurance anyway. We had a tornado take out power in our neighborhood a few years ago and lost all our fridge stuff. Because it was an “act of god” we didn’t have to pay the deductible on our insurance and were sent a check for like $200 to replace the food.
kristin says
I too am at a couponing plateau. I get 6 chicago tribunes a week which only costs me around $2.50 for all of them but I have not been using them too much lately. I am sotcked on toiletries but never seem to save a lot at the grocery store. I want to try to buy/cook/eat healthier but most of the deals I see are for processed foods. I’ve never shopped at a Kroger and although there’s one 20 min away, I’m leary to learn another coupon policy for another store. I always feel like I’m doing something wrong when I hand the cashier a stack of coupons and if they don’t scan I get nervous, like I’m trying to steal something!! Anyways, goal for the winter is to make some freezer meals (which of course I’ve pinned numerous ideas on Pinterest!!) but wondered if you guys have a list of healthy meals you make continually. I am good for buying healthy stuff but then not cooking/using it and I end up throwing it out.
Hannah Jacklyn says
luckily my house didn’t loose power during the storm, but oddly enough our fridge did choose that moment to give up the ghost…
so i have just had a pretty similar experience! i hate throwing out that much food :(
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man that stinks!!
xo,
s
Kay says
I love peaks inside other people’s fridges! Thank you!
We only have one baby, and I have found that keeping up w/ laundry and groceries (even if the house is dirty/messy) helps me feel less unhinged.
My husband and I are trying to budget more efficiently on groceries these days. We also buy organic most of the time, and try not to eat out too often. Do you have a montly food budget? Discussing money can be a little tacky, so if you don’t want to answer this question, I understand!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Our budget is always “as cheap as we can manage” (that works on projects too, haha) but I’d guess we spend around $400-500 a month on food for our family of four (including Burger’s dog food, haha). We do buy our fair share of organic stuff, which can be pricey, but we also try to eat meat only a few nights a week since that can cut costs.
xo,
s
tracy a says
ahhh, couponing. that is a great perk of living in the states. i wish canada would jump on that bandwagon! i couldn’t help but notice, in my crazy recycling-minded way, that when you emptied your fridge it all went in the trash! i know you’re holding off on composting (at least i thought, but maybe there was a post about fixing up the compost bin??), but what about recycling? no judgement, just curiosity and saving-the-planet in mind….perhaps post-hurricane was too stressful?
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, we added a little note to the post about how we shot that and then realized we could compost some of it (like the bagged salad) and recycled some of the packaging too! Just didn’t take a picture of that part since it was kind of off-subject. Haha.
xo,
s
Ingrid says
Great update because I love seeing all the weird and unusual food you Americans get! Was that cookie dough in a roll?!!
YoungHouseLove says
It was sweet breakfast biscuits. But I wish it was Vegemite. I love that stuff. So hard to find around these parts. You guys have all the good food!
xo,
s
KellyA says
very timely post! After giving it a close look I realized that I have the same fridge. It’s new to me and I had to clean and haul it home so now I have a reference for placing those shelves!
So yes, lots of experience cleaning out moldy food (but 2-3 weeks without power, not 3 days) and found a combo of bleach/water spray, then vinegar/water spray really took care of the smell. And baking soda, lots of baking soda.
Lacey says
That is our fridge, all the way down to the Tortellini! Except in our house, we call it tortellOni, cuz we’re funny like that ;)
Jen says
I can’t go through the previous 365 comments to see whether anyone has commented or not about your lost groceries. Some homeowners policies cover that- especially since you have before/afters/lists of items lost. Check it out. (Our power was out for three days last year *right* after I had just spent upwards of $300 on groceries myself. Ouch! Unfortunately, our policy didn’t cover our stuff, but a friend of mine had a policy that did.)
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tip Jen!
xo,
s
KellyA says
p.s. don’t feel bad about the coupon “failure” one of the benefits of using coupons is that you can stock up on things before you need them. It’s much harder when you have to restock due to a problem like Irene. The chance that you’ll find enough coupons for everything you need is really low.
If you’re so motivated, consider what you paid for this restocking the “high price point” and then when you see sales lower or coupons come out you can save money restocking.
Lisa says
I haven’t done a major fridge cleaning in awhile, however I do a minor clean-up every week when I get home with the groceries. I go through and throw away all leftovers that are more than about 4 days old and I cut up any still-good but-not-peak-freshness veggies and freeze them to make veggie broth. This system helped when our fridge died because nearly everything fit in two coolers. Plus it’s so much better than the alternative of never cleaning out the fridge.
I grew up in a home where it was rarely safe to eat leftovers I found in the fridge because nothing ever got thrown out and there was no good way to tell how old something was without opening it and checking its state of decay(Is this the meatloaf from this week or three weeks ago? Yuck!). Every time I clean the fridge, I pat myself on the back for not becoming my mom.
Lauren Q. says
Saw this online earlier: http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/guest-post/danny-seo-shares-5-ways-to-save-money-at-the-organic-grocery–155791
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Lauren!
xo,
s
Bklyn Amy says
My four year old is is gluten free because he vomits profusely when he eats it. It is definitely much easier to go gluten free nowadays, but be careful with gluten free products because they usually have more sugar and fat in them than their wheat based counterparts. While going completely gluten free can be beneficial and healthy for many people (even those who do not have celiac, gluten intolerance or a wheat allergy) it truly is an all or nothing kind of thing. Gluten takes 6-8 weeks to leave the body (and then it can take another 6-8 weeks to repair gut damage it causes, so overall 12-16 weeks to get neutral). If you are only feeding Clara gluten free waffles but she is eating regular pasta, crackers, bread etc. the benefit she is getting from the Van’s is probably negligible. You could probably feed her a whole grain/low sugar waffle with the same benefits and save a lot of money (they never have coupons for Van’s or Udi’s breads in the papers but you will surely find some Eggo Nutragrain and Nature’s Pride whole wheat :)
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much for the tip Amy!
xo,
s
Kari says
I’d just like to say that I’m totally jealous of your Turkey Hill ice cream (I think…) sitting in your freezer! I can’t find it out here in Indiana. I grew up in Lancaster (check out the little “Imported from Lancaster County” logo on the carton), and I miss it soooo much! I also miss the days when it was on sale for 2 for $5…
YoungHouseLove says
We love those sales! So sorry you don’t have it hear you. Sending good Turkey Hill vibes your way. Haha.
xo,
s
Alisa says
On the coupon thing- I use coupons a lot but we don’t have a ton of processed foods in our house. I’ve noticed that I routinely save the most on dog food (the good stuff, not the junk!), all natural cleaning supplies, cheese, pasta and pasta sauce. It adds up since it’s stuff we use all the time and usually makes up for us only buying organic salads and stuff.
EmJ says
This may have already been suggested, but dry ice is the way to go. If there is any warning of a big storm, or if our power is out for longer than 3-4 hours, we go to the grocery store and purchase some dry ice to stick in the freezer. Ours lasted 2 days and saved our frozen goods :)
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- so smart!
xo,
s
Kim Bauer says
That is probably the only good thing about hurricanes and tropical storms, we clean up the yard, trim the trees and after the fridge is spotless. Gotta look on the bright side when you live on the gulf coast.
Sara says
Hi! The fridge post had me wondering, did you do some prep in terms of stocking your freezer with healthy meals before Miss Clara was born? Our first baby is due in 3 weeks (YIKES) and as part of my obsessive nesting I am trying to have some healthy meals on hand for those busy first weeks when my husband is back at work and I am working on breastfeeding/keeping another human alive. Any good suggestions?? Thanks!
YoungHouseLove says
We made a few frozen trays of things (organic veggie lasagne and some sort of high-protein veggie quiche thing I think) but once Clara came along we were actually given so many great meals from friends and family (they saved our life). So I’d definitely make some veggie lasagne or eggplant parm or something you can heat up and nosh on when your brain is mush (because your cute baby is all you can think about).
xo,
s
Wendy says
I have to say, I was really intrigued by this post, because we went through the same thing! 3 days of no power, and a fridge/freezer full of food from three different stores = not so happy hubby and I. We both think we needed to clean out the fridge, and it was a sign :)
Patty says
Try your insurance company anyway. I didn’t have to pay a deductible for the spoiled food. It’s a separate item or some crazy insurance talk. Anyway, we had two different storms with power outages that wiped me out. $500 in hand to go shopping.
HeatherM says
Do you save all of your coupons and your preferred card, and then make the checkout lady scan those after she has rung up all of your groceries? I do. It makes me feel happy I’m not spending even more instead of upset over how much I AM spending :)
YoungHouseLove says
Yes! I do the same thing!
xo,
s
LeCheech says
Oh, we just had distant family get stuck with us for a few weeks, and don’t get me wrong, they’re okay kids… But Boo. They are slobs. They’re ‘those’ people.
To be fair, they’re young, and when your young you tend to care less.
Well, today everyone’s gone and I’m alone! That means DUN DUN DUNNNNN! I get to clean. I haven’t tackled my ‘fridge yet, but it’s on my to do list, and I’ll be posting more about that on instagrad.blogspot.com. These little windows would never hold enough.
Cheers!
-Cheech
Erin says
Our fridge issue wasn’t storm related, but a couple months back our defroster began dying a very slow death. We managed to research it online and do a DIY fix it job. It lasted for about 2 months, then the fridge decided to die while we were on vacation.
The first thing I did after pulling the suitcase into the house, was walk over to put my water bottle in the fridge, and out came that staaaanky smell. Definitely NOT the best welcome home greeting I’ve ever gotten!