Suggestions on ways to restock the fridge

[Kellyscrapbooks]

Well.. you probably saw us on the news... Buffalo NY and surrounding areas got SLAMMED on Thursday and friday with what they are calling "The October Surprise Storm" (stupid name if you ask me.) We just got power back after 5 days. Of course I had just gone grocery shopping the day before. Lost everything in the fridge, everything in the freezer and had to spend a ton on other things as well including upcoming cleanup. (Sump pumps don't work when there's no power, my basement flooded as well.)
Any good suggestions on how to restocking for minimal? And if you wouldn't midn while you're doing it, some good vibes and prayers for the 123,000 homes still without power in this area would be wonderful. It's just devestated, we lost so many trees. It wasn't your typical storm, it looks like giants went through here and just had a field day. It's very sad.

 

[DawnM]

First of all.....I am very sorry you have had to go through this. What a blow!

I am not sure what you mean by restocking for minimal? You mean in case you lose your power again?

I would get lots of water, some powdered milk (or canned milk) and things that don't have to be refridgerated, just in case. Canned goods, non-elec. can opener, maybe even a carosine stove, maybe pancake mix, stuff you would take camping. Then I would get just a few actual fridge items.

Dawn

Well.. you probably saw us on the news... Buffalo NY and surrounding areas got SLAMMED on Thursday and friday with what they are calling "The October Surprise Storm" (stupid name if you ask me.) We just got power back after 5 days. Of course I had just gone grocery shopping the day before. Lost everything in the fridge, everything in the freezer and had to spend a ton on other things as well including upcoming cleanup. (Sump pumps don't work when there's no power, my basement flooded as well.)
Any good suggestions on how to restocking for minimal? And if you wouldn't midn while you're doing it, some good vibes and prayers for the 123,000 homes still without power in this area would be wonderful. It's just devestated, we lost so many trees. It wasn't your typical storm, it looks like giants went through here and just had a field day. It's very sad.

 

[Kellyscrapbooks]

Mostly what I meant was ways to maximize my budget on groceries I guess. Hopefully we wont' lose power again, although they have told us it may happen. If it does we have "non-cooking" stuff, because of course I have an electric stove, so no stove, no oven, no micro. (Blech!!!) We've been cooking on the grill when we could but since we have to stay out of the yards because of falling power lines and braches, that was minimal too. It's so strange, because it was a beautiful day yesterday, you would never have known how awful it was here just a few days ago. At least they finally lifted the boiling water ban. that was fun... don't use water unless you boil it, but um.. you can't boil it cause you have no power.

 

[annsteere]

We got hit too. But were only out of power for two days. And, had a battery operated sump pump that kept our basement nearly dry.

My plan is to begin restocking with very basics and then add "goodies" as sales and coupons keep the price low. You gotta buy milk and eggs right away. Sesame salad dressing can wait.

 

[sharlon]

I am so sorry to hear how bad you were hit. Unfortunately, I can relate. Two years ago, Hurricane Ivan hit Florida, came through Georgia, and, believe it or not, hit the mountains of Western North Carolina. We lost 6 big trees in our yard alone, flooded basement, no power. Everything was closed, roads were blocked. So...you have my sympathy.
One thing we discovered was that most homeowners insurance will pay to restock the frig due to a power outage, with no deductible. It is worth checking on, as most people don't realize that this is part of their coverage. Our insurance company (USAA) asked for us to estimate how much the food we lost was worth and sent us a check. When my sister lost power, her company (don't know which one) had her buy groceries and submit receipts. She had just gone to Sam's and stocked up, so it was well over $500.

Good Luck! I will be thinking about all of you!

 

[~Kathie]

I'm sorry this happened and glad no one was hurt. Mother Nature sure has been acting up lately.

We stock for hurricanes (Florida & RI ) and winter storms (Rhode Island) and have what we call "storm stock". We have a well for water in RI so when we lose power, we have no water. We do have a wood stove for heat, and can always use melted snow (or water from the pool in summer) to flush toilets but other than that we keep 5-6 gallons of bottled water on hand for consumption. We rotate it throughout the year so that it does not become expired.

First thing to do is to get a propane camping stove or make sure your gas grill is where you can get at it and use it safely. That way at least you can cook. Get 2 fairly large coolers. You can put items from your fridge in one and freezer in another and pack it with snow to keep the food cold.

Some staples we keep handy

Canned Soup
Canned Chicken
Canned Tuna
Canned Beans (all kinds not just baked beans)
Canned Beef Stew
Canned 1 pound hams
Canned or instant potatoes
Parmalat Milk (no refrigeration needed)
Canned veggies
Foil packages of chicken and tuna (no refrigeration needed)
Pasta

This doesn't help you now but hopefully if there is another storm it will.

You might consider getting a generator in the near future for the stove and refrigerator and a battery operated pump like someone else here mentioned.

Best wishes.


Edited to add: I just realized I never answered your question....sorry!!

I would just buy the basics first and re-stock as sales come around. Or check out BJ's, Sam's Clubs or Costco. You can get most items there at a discount but you have to buy in bulk.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I'd be careful about calling on your homeowner's insurance to restock a fridge. Save that policy for the big stuff. Many policies will drop you after your second claim- whether it's for a small claim or a big one - esp. the companies that advertise a lot.

You could also consider buying a generator. Some of the smaller ones aren't that pricey, but it sounds like you don't lose power all that often, so maybe this isn't worth while for you.
Power outages are part of the reason why we personally don't have a large storage feezer.

I'm not being facetious here, but if you know someone who hunts - it is hunting season in much of the country. If you like venison or other wild game meats, that would be a cheap way to restock your fridge.

If you are looking for bulk, you could also try contacting a local beef farm. Many will sell you aside of beef for a pretty good per pound rate. They will even wrap and store some of the meat for you. If you go in the a neighbor, you could split the meat.

Otherwise, you just have to restock gradually. It really bites to lose power after you've just been shopping. Been there, done that. Personally, I'm also wary of dining out right after a huge regional power loss (beyond the necessary), but that's just me.

You could try some classic budget meals - like eggs dishes, stuffed cabbage or stuffed peppers, vegetarian meals, adding beans to as many meals as you can (soups, Mexican). Home made pizza is a low cost meal. Time consuming, but low cost. Soup is a great option for strecthing the dollars. Turkeys will be on sale very soon. You should eat whole turkey within a few days, but you could cut a whole turkey in half and freeze half of it. Fixings for turkey are pretty inexpensive too - like potato, sweet potato, and stuffing - especially this time of year. Meatloaf is another old standby. In college, we were all experts at making spagetti. You can now use ground chicken or ground turkey - use large cans of tomato to make the sauce instead of the more expensive jarred stuff (it's pretty easy too. Suate an onion, add the tomato,a little basil and/or oregano, salt, sugar, and simmer) to stretch the meat even further, make meatballs.

Any dish with caggage is going to stretch you dollars. Home made cole slaw, saurkraut, soups.

 

[patsal]

Well.. you probably saw us on the news... Buffalo NY and surrounding areas got SLAMMED on Thursday and friday with what they are calling "The October Surprise Storm" (stupid name if you ask me.) We just got power back after 5 days. Of course I had just gone grocery shopping the day before. Lost everything in the fridge, everything in the freezer and had to spend a ton on other things as well including upcoming cleanup. (Sump pumps don't work when there's no power, my basement flooded as well.)
Any good suggestions on how to restocking for minimal? And if you wouldn't midn while you're doing it, some good vibes and prayers for the 123,000 homes still without power in this area would be wonderful. It's just devestated, we lost so many trees. It wasn't your typical storm, it looks like giants went through here and just had a field day. It's very sad.

We're in the same situation. I shopped on Thursday becasue we just returned from Fla. and the fridge was nearly empty. Bad decision on my part since I had to throw everything out . I filed a claim with my insurance provider and I am waiting to hear back, hopefully the food will be covered I have a full sized freezer that needs to be emptied and trashed as well. We got our power back yesterday and I headed to the supermarket. I only bought what we needed in case we lost power again. I found the supermarket here was price gouging on water $8.69 for a 12 pack of Dasani--just a bit high huh! However the store brand of water was 32 bottles for $5. The boil water was lifted last night so that hopefully will help. Your description of the giant was very appropriate--we have so many trees down in the back that it wiped out our lawn furniture, gazebo, part of the fence and part of the shed. For what it is worth, our losses are pretty minimal compared to many other natural disasters. BTW I too grow weary of the "October surprise storm", the kids have run out of "snow days" and it isn't even snowtime yet. I am planning on purchasing small sized items until what I had goes on sale BOGO and hopefully I'll have coupons as well to offset the prices. I can't imagine refilling the freezer--that one is going to be two weeks pay with all the meat I had. I know we are lucky in that we all know where our relatives and loved ones are and that despite the inconvieniences we are pulling together to get things cleaned up and back to normal.

 

[mickeyfan2]

Sorry for all that are effected. Does your homeowner's insurance or power company's insurance pay for lost groceries?

 

[mickeyfan2]

I'd be careful about calling on your homeowner's insurance to restock a fridge. Save that policy for the big stuff. Many policies will drop you after your second claim- whether it's for a small claim or a big one - esp. the companies that advertise a lot.

Really?!!? We have had two hits from lighting that they have paid for and hurricane Isabel and we are still insured by the same company and are getting the claim free discount now too.

 

[kilee]

I'm in your area too. Only I'll sheepishly admit we never lost power or seen a flake of snow (I'm in Silver Creek), we were literally about 10 miles from the line of devistation. My work (in W. Seneca) and dh's (Blasdell) is still w/o power or phones. This close to the holiday's this isn't going to be good for anyone.

Anyhow-- I'd check w/ your homeowners. They do cover losses like that. Will depend on your deductibles and such though. Also, don't forget to keep every receipt in case that FEMA money comes through. The radio said losses like that might be covered.

Also, watch all the sales and possibly try supplementing w/ supplies from Aldi's or something like that. Glad you got your power back!!

Also, someone mentioned the school's snowdays. Since you were all w/o power. This was addressed the other night on the news- especially for those districts that are going to be off this entire week. I'd check w/ your school (when they're back up and running), because some are not going to have to count these days at all. They will be "waived" due to the declaration of a natural disaster.

 

[Plantlady]

I'm sorry to hear about the storm.

One way to restock the fridge cheaply is to visit the hillbilly Housewife website.

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com

She offers menus that will feed a family of four for $45 a week.

I hope things work out for you!

 

[PaulaSue]

Glad you got power back! Hope everyone else does soon.

Reading this and making notes to add to my stockpile.

 

[sharlon]

Really?!!? We have had two hits from lighting that they have paid for and hurricane Isabel and we are still insured by the same company and are getting the claim free discount now too.

We were told by our insurance company that this type of claim will not affect our coverage in any way. Both my mom and my sister have had lost power claims also, and it didn't affect them either.
Glad you have your power back. Hope you all get through the remainder of autumn with no more snow.

 

[Chicago526]

As others have stated here, start with the basics (dairy, eggs, fruit, veggies, and meat) and worry about the rest later. On future trips just buy two or three extra things (salad dressing one week, ice cream the next) until you get back to a stocked fridge.

We lost power for about a day when a powerful thunderstorm came through this past summer. DH had a power converter so we could plug the fridge, tv and a fan (it was hot!) into his truck, so we didn't lose any food. Our storage freezer was completely full so everything actually stayed frozen since it was only a day (we'd have been up a creek had it been much longer!). It sounds like your storm was about 10 times worse! Good luck to all of you!

 

[nuke]

We went through the same thing a few weeks ago. We only lost power for about 24 hours though. As i was throwing things away my DH was writing them down. Then I decided what was necessary and bought that. I hit Aldi's and got what I could there. It still ended up costing about $75 between the fridge and freezer for a family of 3.

 

[ilovejack02]

When Katrina hit Louisiana we were outside of the major damage area, but close enough to lose power. Lots of people around me lost power for up to two weeks.
(I didnt thank GOD!) My inlaws lost it for about 8 days. The LA. govt ( not FEMA) started distributing emgerency food stamps. How much you got depended on how many you had in your family, NOT by how much you money you made. This option of course was only open in certain parishes ( same as your counties) that had damage and only open to EVERYONE for a few weeks. After that it went back to how food stamps are normally distributed. If your towns were hit that bad and for a BUNCH of people lets keep our fingers crossed they do something like this to help you guys! My best friend got a little over $600 ( she has 4 kids) my inlaws got right at 200.00 i think.

 

[DawnM]

For future reference, you may want to see if AngelFoodMinistries has a location near you. They are not needs based.

Angelfoodministries.com

Dawn

 

[kilee]

The Angelfoodministries operates in my area- so it's possible they are alittle closer to the city.

 

[CarolA]

If you do happen to have USAA I would file without worrying about losing insurance. My father has had them for years... two stolen cars, two hurricanes and a few other crisis and no problems.... They do great customer service which is why I switched to them.