Here in North Carolina we recently had an ice storm that knocked out power for several days (actually the last few customers just got their's back....day 10 after the storm!). After less than 48hrs I found out that the food in my freezer was pretty much thawed! Since I had no ideas what to do with everything, I left it in the freezer, cooking as much of it as I could. Unfortunately, I have an electric stove and there's not much you can cook over an open fire. (Believe me, we tried!)

To make a long story short, I emptied out the freezer and threw it all away! There was probably 3-4 pounds (of various kinds) of chicken alone, as well as pork tenderloins, lamb, steak (tenderloins!), fish....and even over 1 lb of shrimp! Normally my freezer has little in it, but since I started LC I have been buying a lot more meat and fish....and storing them in the freezer! Refrigerator too....most of what was in there had to be ditched....I pretty much only kept condiments and cheese....everything else got thrown out!

I think for the rest of the winter, since we seem to loose power pretty easily around here, I'll stop buying in bulk and stick with just a few days at a time!

What a waste!

CindySue, that must have really hurt!

I've been tending to stockpile in my freezer as well. It's been so windy here, just today my daughter was speculating about a power outage. A couple of weeks ago a nearby native community had a power outage for over two weeks. The folks up there lost the season's hunting and fishing that was in their freezers.

Thanks for sharing your story. I think I'll try to resist hoarding so much. Seems like I'm in the grocery store every other day anyway. Don't know why I feel so compelled to stockpile. Guess old habits are just hard to break.

Take care,
amie

Amie

I must have had at least $150 in food I threw away! And now the cupboard's bare! LOL

I was going to buy a small chest freezer (still will, but later) and stock it with meat from Costco! I was planning on getting at least $100 worth of meat...they have very pretty meat! And the only place around here where you can get the nice thick pork chops and tenderloins! (Yum! they're so tender!)

I'm still fortunate...we had no power Wed night to Sunday night, a few hours short of a full 4 nights. Some people went a lot more! They just finished getting everyone hooked back up today! Day 10!

Wow, CindySue. Bummer about having to toss all that meat. Since you seem to lose power easily, have you ever considered getting an emergency generator?
I use my upright freezer a lot to stock up on meat when it's on sale. I also do my main grocery shopping for the family once every two weeks and cook meals ahead and freeze them for nights when I'm too busy to start something from scratch, so I really rely on my freezer. Since we live in a large metropolitan area, it's not likely that we'll every lose power for more than a day or so (at least we havn't so far), but my husband has brought up the idea of having an emergency generator a couple of times. What can I say? He's one of those guys who likes to be prepared for anything.
I've had a chest freezer and now have an upright that I like a lot better. I hated having to practically stand on my head to fish things out of the freezer (I'm vertically challenged) and I've found that with the upright, it's much easier to organize things so that I can find what I'm looking for quickly.

Check your homeownes or renters insurance policies. Many policies cover this. Our power was out once for about 5 days and I got reimbursed from my insurance company for the food I had to ditch.
asugar

In my post above, I forgot to mention that if this is included in your homeowner's insurance policy, that this is one thing that is usually NOT subject to the deductible. Therefore, you may get reimbursed in full!
asugar

Thanks for that tip, Asugar! It's certainly good information to have on hand if this should happen.

The only problem with doing this is that the insurance company will mark you as a fribulous user of your insurance costing you $$$$ in the future. Don't even report it if you don't want to have it red lined in your file. It sucks but that's insurance today. Better to save your claim for a big one.
Erika

If they try to raise your rates, then you can always shop around for another insurance company. If you file a claim, you can always ask if this is going to be earmarked in the future as justification for a premium rate raise. If claiming your food damage counts as a frivolous claim, you can also see if you can get a reduction in premium rates by having this coverage ridered out of your policy. Don't pay for coverage that you have no intentions of ever using. When we filed our claim, we also had a tree fall on our house that damaged our roof and our premium didn't go up. I do know that some homeowners insurance policies do drop people who file a lot of claims though. Seems like the insurance companies have NO problem collecting premiums, they just balk when it comes time to paying legitimate claims.
asugar

Lisa
I am looking into buying a generator. I lived in MA all my life and we rarely lost power for more than a few hours at a time. Doen here, the power goes out easier and it takes them so much longer to fix it!

As for insurance coverage, I did ask and was told that the deductable did apply....and that's $500. As for frivolous, I know from personal experience that there are 2 things with reporting claims. First they can and will cancel you and second they will report you to the underwriters and if THEY cancel you, it's almost impossible to get another policy. I had the underwriters cancel me one....prescence of a "vicious" dog...and had to a friend (who was also my agent) call them and get it back. If the underwriters won't accept you it will be difficult if not impossible to get adequate coverage!

On the freezer front, I always had an upright....until it died over the summer....and I definitly prefer them. But, since it's pretty much just me and my son here I don't want to get a big one, and the chests come smaller...I'm looking at buying a 7 cu ft) They also retain their cold better than uprights, since cold air sinks....everytime you open and upright you loose cold from the bottom....this doesn't happen with chests.

Thanks for the responses everyone....this was more of a rant than anything!

kalondra

LOL we actually did try putting a few things outside....it was in the teens and twenties! Unfortunately, I live right on the edge of the woods and some creature came calling and took it away! LOL I suspect it's the racoon that keeps tearing down my bird feeder....but I didn't put anything else outside!

It was not a fun week....I had so many friends staying here because of the outage....and my house still ins't back to normal!

I just hope we don't get any more heavy rain or ice or some more lines are going to come down! They still haven't removed all the trees and branches leaning on lines!

Cindy

My husband is also one who likes to be ready for anything! We got a generator last year. It cost about 800 bucks, but it will power our radiators, water heater, some lights, stove, fridge and some lights. Trust me, it is worth the cost! I put stuff up in the freezer all of the time when the sales hit. I'd lose hundreds of dollars of food alone. Not to mention cold showers, no heat, no electricity, etc.!

My husband actually wants to move to the country and have us completely self reliant, but that's another "goverment is trying to get us completely dependant on them so they can own us" story! Unfortunately, with all of the record credit spending and all of our financial and credit stuff getting lumped together, along with the eyes watching our every move, I'm beginning to believe it!

Amber

P.S. He thinks we're setting ourselves up to owe the gov., they'll call the debt in, we won't have it, and they'll turn us all into indentured servants, working for the gov.!