Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally

HairyHandofDartmoor

Good news and bad news.

The electrical circuit for the downstairs sockets is working today so we have tv, hot water, etc. The sockets have obviously dried out enough not to trip the trip switch :T.

The bad news is the freezer still won't switch on . The freezer seems to trip the socket when we turn the switch on (we've tried plugging it into a different socket). DH reckons the freezer motor may still be wet. So if the freezer won't turn on for much longer then we'll lose all our frozen food . So that would be worth a claim on the house insurance.

We'll have to wait and see. The fridge is turned on now and the food in that seems okay, we're using it anyway and we're still alive :rotfl: and we have tv thank goodness :T.

My back is so stiff and sore after heaving boxes around in the void, followed by mopping up water, that I intend to do nothing today apart from watch tv. I kept waking up in the night because my back had stiffened up. I should have got up and put deep heat on it but I was too tired to get out of bed. So a lazy day is scheduled for today with absolutely nothing planned, as otherwise I won't be fit for work tomorrow .

I hope everyone els has a good Sunday .

earthgirl

Sorry to hear about your pipe and the flooding, fingers crossed for the freezer. Do you have anyone close by with freezer space for a few items? Photograph it if you do decide to throw out.

[Deleted User]

I know you probably don't feel like it at the moment, HH, and you definitely could do with a lazy day after all your hard work during the week but life sometimes dictates otherwise:( so could you muster up enough energy to cook some of the food in the freezer and have a real feast tonight? It would make an enjoyable event out of an emergency. Maybe DH will help as I know he cooks too. If you have some big, solid items in there such as whole chickens they take ages to thaw out in the fridge and would still probably be safe to cook tomorrow. Depends, of course, how thawed out they already are. The freezer has been off since early yesterday evening so some things might have to go by now such as ice-cream.:(. Keep the door of the freezer closed as much as possible and you'll be surprised how long some things take to thaw out to danger-levels. Don't re-freeze any meat and fish that's totally thawed though without cooking it first.


Good luck with it all anyway:beer:

HairyHandofDartmoor

jwil wrote: »

Glad the plumbing got sorted quickly. Hope the electrics are working today!

Thank you Jwil .

earthgirl wrote: »

Sorry to hear about your pipe and the flooding, fingers crossed for the freezer. Do you have anyone close by with freezer space for a few items? Photograph it if you do decide to throw out.

Thank you Earthgirl . That's a good tip to photograph the contents. The stuff in the freezer is still frozen at the moment because I took some berries out for my breakfast and that's the first time we've opened the freezer since the flood. Our sausages are still rock hard . If we don't open the door again I think the food will stay frozen for longer.

Noella wrote: »

I know you probably don't feel like it at the moment, HH, and you definitely could do with a lazy day after all your hard work during the week but life sometimes dictates otherwise:( so could you muster up enough energy to cook some of the food in the freezer and have a real feast tonight? It would make an enjoyable event out of an emergency. Maybe DH will help as I know he cooks too. If you have some big, solid items in there such as whole chickens they take ages to thaw out in the fridge and would still probably be safe to cook tomorrow. Depends, of course, how thawed out they already are. The freezer has been off since early yesterday evening so some things will definitely have to go by now:(. Keep the door of the freezer closed as much as possible and you'll be surprised how long some things take to thaw out to danger-levels. Don't re-freeze any meat and fish that's totally thawed though without cooking it first.


Good luck with it all anyway:beer:

Thanks Noella . The food is still frozen at the moment, our sausages are still rock hard. So hopefully if the freezer comes on by the end of today the food will be okay. We don't have expensive joints of meat in there or a whole chicken luckily. Just two packs of sausages, half a pack of beef burgers, a few chicken burgers, chicken pies etc. One drawer is all frozen veg and another is all DS2's food.

We won't open the freezer door again until we cook dinner and that should keep it all frozen a bit longer.

[Deleted User]

These websites were the most useful ones I ever found when we had a freezer malfunction. Ours was crammed full at the time, newly restocked, and there was a miniscule amount I threw out, just ice cream and desserts with cream really. Probably could have got away with eating them but DH had food poisoning years ago (not from anything cooked and eaten at home;)) and I know how serious it can be so erred on the side of caution.

https://urbansurvivalsite.com/frozen-food-power-outage/

https://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/frozen_food.html

HairyHandofDartmoor

Thanks for those links Noella, I'll have a look .

HairyHandofDartmoor

According to the link Noella put up, as our freezer is almost full the food should be okay for 48 hours as long as we don't open the freezer door. So that gives us until 6pm tomorrow. Hopefully by then the freezer motor will dry out and stop tripping the trip switch.

We can eat egg and beans on toast for dinner so we don't have to open the freezer.

teafor2

Hi HHD Glad the problem is mostly sorted Fingers crossed the freezer will sort itself out soon as well. I think a day of rest is well deserved after the drama of it all and especially as you're back in work tomorrow. Hope the back pain eases off. xx

HairyHandofDartmoor

teafor2 wrote: »

Hi HHD Glad the problem is mostly sorted Fingers crossed the freezer will sort itself out soon as well. I think a day of rest is well deserved after the drama of it all and especially as you're back in work tomorrow. Hope the back pain eases off. xx

Thanks TF2 . I hope the freezer heals itself soon too.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Well it's not been the best half term ever. Feeling ill for five days, three days of de-cluttering (that bit's good), but then a plumbing disaster and now feeling totally exhausted with a sore back . We didn't manage any days out to NT places or anywhere else despite good weather apart from meeting our friends briefly last Sunday when I was feeling ill. But there's always the summer holiday to plan some days out and I'm glad I did the de-cluttering.

I won't be doing any washing or ironing of work clothes today as my back is too sore, plus we need to wash and dry every towel in the house from mopping up flood water :eek:. But I think I have enough clothes for tomorrow at least.

Back at school tomorrow for seven weeks. It's lucky I enjoy going there, but I'm serously tempted to skip volunteering and just do my lunch time job tomorrow because I'm so tired .

DS3's term ends on the 14th June so he'll have to come then home :T so I'm looking forward to having him back, despite the extra food consumption and laundry .

I'm pleased with my de-cluttering though :T even though I only had three days to do it. There are four cardboard boxes left in the toy void that need going through, so I'm hoping to do that next weekend. Then the toy void will be completely de-cluttered. I found the tennis racquet DS3 had been looking for too .