MAJOR Downside To Stockpiling

[oscamaya]

I am so so sorry that you lost your stockpile. I would be devastated. We have been looking into renter's insurance. With all the money that we have saved with couponing we actually have a few items of value that we probably would not be able to replace on our own. The quotes that we have gotten are like $100 a year. It would make it totally worth it IMO.

[jillibean_1978]

An old friend of mine had a complete loss from a fire. She rented and I think she only paid about $50/year. This was several years ago. But she got replacement on contents and after she listed everything they had enough to BUY a used trailer home and replace everything. They got about 20k-30k. It was a really bad thing to happen to them. But it paid off for the better.

[kelmarfar76]

re: renter's insurance- if you have car insurance, your insurance company will often offer you a multiple policy discount on the renter's insurance. When I used to rent, I carried both types of policy and I'm fairly certain I paid under $100 a year and I had $15,000 or $20,000 in coverage. I don't remember the percentage of the discount, but I know it was pretty significant.

My parents had a similar situation once- the city was having work done on the storm drain/sewer system and a huge storm came blowing through. Since the drainage system was compromised, anyone that was within 4 or 5 houses on either side of the huge drainage pipe had 3 feet of water in their basement, and the pipe ran through 5 or 6 streets. There was no power for 2 or 3 days while they got the system back together and the basements pumped out, and the insurance company for the contractors that were doing the work had to pay out a ton of money in claims. My parents alone had a $10,000 claim because they had to have a new furnace, new hot water heater, etc, plus professional cleaning of the basement, lost food (fridge and an upright freezer), lawnmower, anything in storage, etc. They must have paid out a fortune in claims- there were over 100 homes affected.

Don't let the power company off the hook. They are insured for things like this and the fact that they were so slow getting to you to fix the problem probably caused your loss. They should own up to it and reimburse you (or at least give you some $$ off your utility bill!)

[temroy2]

Originally Posted by kelmarfar76 the fact that they were so slow getting to you to fix the problem probably caused your loss. They should own up to it and reimburse you (or at least give you some $$ off your utility bill!)

Oh, that is definitely the reason for our loss. We tried keeping our more parishiable items in coolers and kept refilling it with ice, but even most of that had to be tossed.

But I have to give major kudos to Sara Lee (Hillshire Farms). In an earlier post I said I emailed the companies of the brands I used most and asked if they could send some coupons to help replace what I lost (I told them what happened). Well, today in the mail was something from Sara Lee. Two coupons. Now, you might be saying to yourself "Only two? How cheap" but let me tell you...these weren't for cents off (which is what Pillsbury and Hormel and Hershey's has sent in the past). No. These two coupons were for FREE product. One is for any Sara Lee deli product up to $8.99. That's a pound of lunch meat from the deli counter. The other is one free Hilshire Farms product...any variety...up to $5.99 That's more sammich meat or one of their new wraps or their salads or the sausage. I love the cheddar sausage. I am quite happy.

[lssugoalie]

Insurance is ridiculous. I find it unbelievable that thye can raise your rates for 1-2 claims. The reason you pay month after month, year after year is in case something happens, then when it does, they want you to pay 5x more than what it would've cost you to repair the problem with your own money. No one should be "afraid" of making a claim because they may get dropped or rates go up. Unbelievable.

[TerryTerrific]

People:

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When it comes to your homeowner’s insurance policy …

You really do not want to make a claim unless it is m-a-j-o-r.

Insurance companies are ‘clamping down.’

The story goes that even making an inquiry about your policy is a red mark on your account.

Too many red marks can lead to your policy being cancelled.

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Make a claim and you risk having your policy cancelled.

It gets worse …

Now that you are without insurance, trying to replace it, you may find yourself in a higher risk category, making your replacement policy more expensive.

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What Atlanta-based consumer reporter Monsieur Clark Howard recommends is that you ‘save for a rainy day.’

Have high deductibles, that lower your premiums and the money that you save on your premium payments, you sock away for that rainy day.

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Paying out of pocket to replace something like spoiled frozen food is better than making a claim on your homeowner’s policy.

IKYN (I Kid You Not)

- and -

Believe It Or Not (Believe It Or Not)

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I do not stockpile perishables because they are too 'iffy' (too many things can go wrong).

It is the same reason that I do not own a freezer.

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Terence in Brook Park, oHIo

[MommaDuck01]

I never thought about the insurance thing. There are a lot of people around here who are standing in line for disaster food stamps to replace lost food from the hurricanes. We only lost power for 22 hours (we were lucky) so I am not claiming anything.

Before Gustave, my mom came to my house with a huge ice chest of food and placed any food she left in the freezer in a large bag. My brother said he doesn't want to go through the freezer again like he did after Katrina. DH and my brother went and buried the rotting food in the backyard. It stunk so bad they ended up burying a few plastic containers b/c they were tired of dumping them!

A friend of my mom's told me she had just bought a new carton of ice cream before the hurricane. She put the ice cream container into another container filled with water and froze that. She said it showed no signs of melting when she got back and they were without power for days.

Of course, these suggestions are for when you know you might be without power. One precaution you can take is fill gallon jugs (or I often use Powerade bottles) with water and fill the empty spaces of your freezer. The less empty space, the better chance of everything staying cold. And the extra ice will help keep it cold, the containers won't leak, and your own block of ice for an ice chest when you need it.

After one hurricane, we got power back before they a friend so they brought their whole freezer to our house!

[uummm]

I am positive my husband would say "BUY A GENERATOR RATHER THAN LOOSE WHAT IS IN YOUR FREEZER" I am prety sure I have saved enough money with what is sitting in my freezer to support buying a generator.

I am lucky and the nearly 5 years we have lived here the power has gone out for more than 30 minutes ONCE, and that was when the entire grid was down even then it was down for less than 4 hours. We have underground wires here and live only 3 miles from the nuclear power plant. Also our local supermarket 1.7 miles away sells dry ice.

[neverfullprice]

[quote=uummm;1192672]I am positive my husband would say "BUY A GENERATOR RATHER THAN LOOSE WHAT IS IN YOUR FREEZER" I am prety sure I have saved enough money with what is sitting in my freezer to support buying a generator.


We lost most of our freezer items during Hurricane Dolly in July. We were w/o power for 6 days. We do have a generator, but it is just not big enough to keep the freezers completely frozen. I have 2 Ref's - one in the garage and one in kitchen. I combined stuff into the kitchen ref as best as I could and what would not fit, was lost. We cooked as much of the meat as we could and gave food to friends & neighbors.

We have a $1400 deductable on our Homeowners, so making a claim would be useless. I have decided to NOT stockpile during hurricane season (June-Nov) the rest of the year I will keep a full freezer.

[TerryTerrific]

Speaking of homeowner's insurance ...

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FREE C.L.U.E REPORT - http://www.choicetrust.com

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Q) What is a C.L.U.E. report?

A) C.L.U.E. stands for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange.

The C.L.U.E. is a report of the insurance claims and loss history of a property.

It can be ordered by the property owner only.

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From Atlanta-based consumer reporter Monsieur Clark Howard’s website (it is the sixth excerpt from the top of the page):

clarkhoward.com - Save more, spend less and avoid rip-offs

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June 14, 2007 - Protect yourself and get your free C.L.U.E. report

”Some insurance companies, when you call up and ask questions, will log it on your C.L.U.E. report.

This is a tactic that makes other insurance companies not want to insure you.

But, you can order your free C.L.U.E. report once a year just like you can with your credit report, and if something turns up false, challenge it.

The website to go to in order to order your C.L.U.E. report is:

http://www.choicetrust.com

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Fill in some blanks and you’ll have to give your social security number, but then you can check out your personal auto and your personal homeowners report.

They do charge you if you need a homeowners report on more than one address.”

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Terence in Brook Park, oHIo