Debt Dumpers 2026

[sandam1]

I know that a lot of people are talking about the weather and generators, but there are a few things to think about. I live in Buffalo, NY (hi, firefly_ris!) and a number of years ago, we were without power for nine days due to a freak early October snowstorm that took down a lot of trees/power lines. We wound up getting a generator and learned a lot of these things the hard way.

- What do you think that the generator will be powering? Where are these things located? Do you have enough extension cords to reach from the generator to the appliances?

- Super important - where is the generator going to be set up? The 1000% WRONG answer is in your house or attached garage. Carbon monoxide KILLS! But the generator should be in a covered yet open-air area. Where is that at your house? Also, is that area secure? Theft is a concern in an emergency situation.

- Do you have enough fuel to run the generator? For a widespread emergency like this might be, I would plan on being without power for at least 48-72 hours. If you need more fuel, where can you get it? Keep in mind that gas stations may not have power either. Also, you should have a stash of cash as internet/credit card machines may not be working at stores.

- Unless you have a specific set-up, the generator is probably NOT going help you with your furnace which, even if it is run by natural gas, still has an electric starter. So what are you going to use for heat? Be very, VERY careful if the answer is space heaters. Read all of the warnings and recommendations and follow them.

Side note - After our experience with the extended power outage, we invested in a whole house, natural gas generator. It was very expensive, but the peace of mind is worth it.

A couple of other suggestions:

- Have a "go bag" ready for every person/creature in your house with everything that you would need for 3 days. That way if you need to go to a friend's house or a warming shelter, you're not trying to pack things up in the dark.

- Have a full tank in all of your household's cars. If you need to drive somewhere, you should have hats, gloves, boots, a change of clothes, food and water, battery back-ups, and blankets for every person/creature in the vehicle. It's going to be well below zero where I am so I also have emergency mylar blankets, hand-warmers, a shovel and kitty litter (for traction) in my car.

I've done a lot of reading about emergency planning for my job and the other thing that everyone reiterates is the time to think things through is before an emergency. Go through all of the "what ifs" in your plan and make those decisions now. Oh, and on the debt dumping theme, do you have any bills due in the next week? Set up those auto-payments now, just in case.

 

[piglet1979]

Oh, and on the debt dumping theme, do you have any bills due in the next week? Set up those auto-payments now, just in case.

In line with this. My daughter and I have a medication that needs to stay cold and gets delivered, mine by UPS and hers by Fed Ex. Mine was supposed to get delivered on Monday. They called and pushed it back to Tuesday but did say that there may be delays from UPS. Thankfully I am fine and have my next dose here already and won't need one for a few weeks.

If getting meds delivered make sure you have enough on hand so that a delay in delivery will not affect you. If you do not, have a back up plan of how you would be able to get what you need.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Our cat uses a probiotic now that needs to be refrigerated, each box is 30 day supply. Last week luckily we got more from the vet as we would have run out yesterday so that was good. The meds however can be left at room temp if needed for up to a week without losing strength which is also good.

We are expecting a package by the end of day tomorrow by the post office but I am expecting a delay there. It wasn't our choice both when the package was set up and when it was sent out by the company. It has however made it to our city from Michigan late last night.

 

[firefly_ris]

I know that a lot of people are talking about the weather and generators, but there are a few things to think about. I live in Buffalo, NY (hi, firefly_ris!) and a number of years ago, we were without power for nine days due to a freak early October snowstorm that took down a lot of trees/power lines. We wound up getting a generator and learned a lot of these things the hard way.

The October Storm!! -- I moved to Buffalo from Baltimore in August, 2006. 2 months later the October Storm hit. We were living downtown on Delavan near Richmond at a house my BIL owned at the time. That was my introduction to Buffalo. All of the leaves were still on the trees and they went down everywhere. I'll never forget that. Somehow our block never lost power or satellite dish TV the entire time, while everyone around us had nothing. I remember hearing chainsaws for weeks straight.

I thought, wow, that was crazy can't be worse than that was. Then "Snowvember "2014 hit and parked right over Alden and Lancaster and we got 6 feet of snow in one day.

Also, all really great winter storm prep tips.

I will also add, if you have a gas appliance that vents out a pipe from your basement like a high efficiency water heater, gas dryer, or furnace, make sure to check on that and that it remains cleared of snow or ice buildup. You don't want that to get buried.

I don't know if this is totally useful or accurate and I guess it's based on whatever size our generator is, but I find that ours tends to use about 5 gallons of gasoline in 12 hours, just for a point of reference. We have a portable generator that hooks into a special plug around the back of the house and runs a separate panel with 6 breakers on it, including the furnace.

 

[Twilghtsprkle]

- What do you think that the generator will be powering? Where are these things located? Do you have enough extension cords to reach from the generator to the appliances?

- Unless you have a specific set-up, the generator is probably NOT going help you with your furnace which, even if it is run by natural gas, still has an electric starter. So what are you going to use for heat? Be very, VERY careful if the answer is space heaters. Read all of the warnings and recommendations and follow them.

Our generator can run the whole house. We had an electrician set up the transfer switch. So no extension cords needed.

But we also have the furnace set up so that it can start up off a battery via a pure sine inverter. Again had an electrician add the option to the on/off switch at the furnace.

 

[pblack]

I hope everyone on here whose in this storms path stays safe! But I do gotta say, all this talk really makes me appreciate the fact that I live on the west coast.

 

[focusondisney]

I thought, wow, that was crazy can't be worse than that was. Then "Snowvember "2014 hit and parked right over Alden and Lancaster and we got 6 feet of snow in one day.

You mean Alden, Lancaster, West Seneca, South Buffalo & Lackawanna, lol. We finally had front loaders & dump trucks clearing the street 4 days later. My husband had to shovel off the roof.



We didn’t lose power then, but we have NYSEG for our electric. They are so unreliable it’s ridiculous. We stay on thru wind storms but randomly go out on sunny pleasant days. We got a stand by whole house generator installed 6 years ago & we’re so happy we did. Power was out for 12 hours in December 24, we had all our Christmas lights on. Don’t have to worry about what to hook up or gas for running it. We’ve seen many more generators all over our area the last few years. I highly recommend to anyone in areas prone to losing power.

 

[barkley]

Also, you should have a stash of cash as internet/credit card machines may not be working at stores.

that's IF the stores can figure out how to operate. our region lost power for a week and a half at one point and the grocery stores realized (1) their generators are only designed to run a minimal amount of hours so much of their stock had to be disposed of (and replacement deliveries were not coming in b/c they had no means to store it), and (2) because everything these days is scanned for prices-they can't scan on non operating registers or via cell phones when the cellular service is down.


I will add-if you think you might need to 'bug out' to a hotel/motel and have any cats-start calling now to those who identify themselves as 'pet friendly' b/c in reality that more often than not only refers to dogs and cats are prohibited so knowing which ones are available to fit your needs is important (also, figure out some kind of portable litter box to have ready to go).