Saving Hundreds of Dollars on Our Homeowner's Insurance Policy

We replaced the roof on our home last month. This morning, I called the insurance agent and inquired about an adjustment to our homeowner's insurance premium (due in just a couple of weeks) because of this new roof. 

I needed to submit proof of the new roof. So I went downtown to bring the required paperwork. The agent contacted a central office while I waited. She will be able to give me a final dollar amount of savings for this year's renewal in a day or two. 

Replacing an aging roof with a new one can save anywhere from 5% to 35% off of one's homeowner's premium. In my case, we went from a cedar shake roof to an asphalt roof. Wood roofs are typically more expensive to insure than asphalt. I'm hoping for a sizable reduction.

While I was with the agent, we discussed increasing our deductible. A higher deductible suits my husband's and my style of dealing with insurance. We tend to pay out-of-pocket for smaller repairs and not deal with the insurer, whether for our home or car. We save our insurance for catastrophic loss. So, we increased our deductible amount. That right there will save us a few hundred dollars per year. The caveat -- with a higher deductible, we are assuming a larger share of the risk of loss with our home than previously. But we are fine with that. In the 29 years that we've lived in this house we've only used our homeowner's policy once.

With insurance rates skyrocketing in our area, any savings is very appreciated.

Wins and Losses in the Kitchen This Week

In the loss category:

• about 1 1/2 cups of leftover refried beans that sat for too long in the fridge
• the liquid from canned beets (good intentions to use it) that developed mold on the surface
• some two-year old natural peanut butter that was in a container that was pushed to the back of the fridge, with some mold along the edges -- yuk!
• a container of cornmeal that had bugs. This was gross beyond belief to see those crawly things in the cornmeal. I composted this. Lesson learned -- if I'm not in a cornbread-baking period, keep the cornmeal frozen.

In the win category:

• a rhubarb and blackberry crisp that I made last Friday, and that no one liked -- so, I cooked it up in portions throughout the week by adding water and microwaving it. It turned into a pretty good rhubarb and blackberry oatmeal breakfast for me. No one else wanted to try this. So I guess, lucky me!
• the last chunk of a 2 1/2 week old watermelon. The tip of the chunk had gone soft, but the rest was delicious. I had this with my lunch today.
• 3-day old gravy from a pot roast. It's only about 1/2 cup. When I found it in the fridge on day three, I popped it into the freezer. Then tonight I added it to our vegetable beef soup.

In the part win, part loss category:

• about an inch off of a cucumber that went soft and slimy. My daughter cut off that part and used the rest.
• the fatty bits from a pot roast that I made last week. I had intended to render the fat into liquid beef fat to use in cooking. I didn't get to it, but my husband did. He did use the liquid fat in a meal he made for us, then he ate all of the cracklin' bits. I regard this part of it as maybe a loss, as he wound up with a pretty bad stomachache the next morning.

So what have been your losses and wins in the kitchen lately?