A Suggestion...

If you happen to have a stand-alone freezer apart from your refrigerator, and there's any extra room in it, fill some empty gallon jugs with water and freeze them. I got this suggestion maybe a year ago from a friend, who said it would help with the energy efficiency by keeping the freezer full. Since that time we've used the jugs for two other reasons too:

1. When our water supply was contaminated back in May, we defrosted and used some of that water so we didn't have to boil quite as much.

2. Our fridge has been on the fritz the last week or so (we have ordered a new one to be delivered on Monday), and when it blinks out we turn it into an old-fashioned ice box using the ice jugs. So far this has saved all our fridge food (we emptied its freezer into the stand-alone freezer). So far we've been lucky enough that if we turn off the fridge for several hours, we can turn it back on and it will work for another day or two before quitting again. Here's hoping we can make it to Monday. Though honestly, we could probably manage with just switching out the ice jugs from the freezer downstairs and keep it cold enough if we have to.

So needless to say, those jugs have come in pretty handy!