Accidents happen, and we’re usually not prepared for them. But sometimes, we do something *just because* that ends up making all the difference down the line. Over on Reddit, Sasha_SultryQueen asked, “What’s something you did just to be safe that ended up saving your ass later?” Here are the precautionary actions people took that ended up completely saving the day.
1.
“I bought the optional flood cover on our investment property, for just $30. I almost didn’t, as it was only $30. It flooded two months later, and the repair bill was $380k.”
2.
“A $100 bill I keep inside my hat saved me from being stranded far from home. I was ditched by some ‘friends’ after a house party because they didn’t feel like giving me a ride home after they told me they would prior.”
3.
“In my late 20s, I had a cold for a little over a week, and when most symptoms subsided, I still had a sore throat. My husband said I should see a doctor, and normally, I wouldn’t have just for a cold, but he kept bugging me, so I went in. When the doctor examined me, she felt some lumps in my neck. Turns out it was thyroid cancer. It was caught very early just because my husband told me to get my sore throat checked out (which actually was from the cold and had nothing to do with the cancer). I’ve been cancer-free for ten years now!”
4.
“A tropical storm blew through my city a few months ago, and we were projected to get wind gusts and significant rain. Because our parking lot isn’t large enough for all staff and our clients, many of us have to park on the street lined with large, old trees. As I rolled up on the morning we were due to get the storm, I parked in my usual spot down the block. Before I shut the car off, though, I noticed that this spot was directly across the street from one of the largest trees on the block…”
5.
“I took out salary continuance insurance until I was 65 instead of just the two years I originally thought. I was only 35 when I did that. The next year I was in a serious workplace accident and 20 years later and still unable to work full time, I am still getting 85% of my salary. I cannot imagine what my life would have been like if I didn’t have that money each month.”
6.
“I had a routine mammogram a few years back with a spot on it. I almost didn’t have it biopsied because the doctor thought it was just a little spot of scar tissue, but I decided to regardless. You guessed it: cancer. Luckily, I caught it early, and I’m doing fine now.”
7.
“I was out solo hiking and camping. It was the end of a long day, and I really didn’t feel like taking the time to tie up a bear bag (a bag with all your food tied up in a tree far away from your camp). I said, you know what, just to be safe, I’ll set one up. Cut to the middle of the night; I’m awakened by the sound of a black bear walking 30 feet away from my hammock and heading straight to where I tied up my food.”
8.
“I installed water alarm sensors under the boiler, washing machine, dishwasher, WC, etc. I got them just because ‘you never know,’ they use the same system as my smart smoke detectors, and they were discounted. On the first night around 2 a.m., the alarm goes off throughout the house. I wake up and look at my phone: ‘Water leak in basement.’ My first thought was yeah, no way, the new sensor must be faulty. I go downstairs to find a broken water pipe and water spraying out of it. Without the cheap sensor, I would have woken up in the morning to discover that my basement has turned into a pool.”
9.
“I was going on a road trip. We packed everything in the trunk. Then I realized I forgot to check the air in the spare tire. Faced with unpacking and repacking, I thought, ‘What are the odds? We’ve had the car for years, never had a flat, we probably won’t have one now.’ Then I thought, ‘screw that,’ and tossed the floor pump I use for my bicycle into the trunk, just in case. I got a flat in the middle of fucking nowhere. The spare was too flat to drive on. The floor pump saved my ass. It gets packed on every trip now.”
10.
“I always keep a fire extinguisher in my jeep. One night, while cooking dinner, I smelled smoke and saw flames behind my oven. I grabbed the extinguisher from the pantry, pphhff. It was dead. I grabbed the extinguisher kept next to the fireplace. It was dead. I ran out to my jeep, grabbed that extinguisher, and put out the fire (that had already spread to the cabinets above the stove. I replaced all three fire extinguishers the next day…”
11.
“I felt unexplainably ‘off’ and could feel the tiniest of unfamiliar twinges when I was pregnant. I called labor and delivery, and they said I could come in to get checked out and settle my mind at the very least. I was eight cm dilated, 100% effaced, bulging waters. Preterm labor. When my water broke, my placenta abrupted and became placenta previa. I had to have an emergency C-section to save our lives. I would have still been at work at that time. If I made it through work, it could have happened when I was alone on my drive home or in the middle of the night. I felt no pain at all, so I may have slept through hemorrhaging to death.”
12.
“I was browsing for cat supplies online and ended up looking at cat insurance. I didn’t think I needed it, but after a few weeks, I purchased it for my two cats…”
13.
“I went into the doctor for a routine check and mentioned that I thought my neck looked fuller on one side than the other. I assumed I had swollen lymph nodes since my son had just started daycare, and we were constantly sick with something. She felt around and told me it felt close to my thyroid. Turns out I had thyroid cancer that had spread to my lymph nodes, and it was hidden under a muscle. Even at my physical just a month prior, the doctor hadn’t noticed anything. I’m forever thankful for my own vanity that I mentioned it.”
14.
“My mother convinced me to take a physical map with me on a road trip, just in case, even though I was convinced I would be fine with my Google Maps. Taking the scenic route, I got stuck at a road closure in a dead zone where my Google Maps refused to load. I thought my only option would be to double back about 30 miles to the last turnoff to the highway from this road. That was until I consulted the physical map that showed a cut-through pass only five miles back. Turned out to lead up some windy mountain path and, weirdly enough, through a military base, but it was still a legit civilian road that saved me from adding hours to my trip.”
15.
“I shaved my whole head after two separate doctors told me the tiny lump on my scalp was nothing to be worried about and went to a third doctor just to be sure. Surprise, surprise…It turned out to be a form of skin cancer, and it was caught early enough to not be much of an issue.”
16.
“I took household insurance. Later, a flat in my building burned down, and the smoke affected every flat, mine included. I got a nice compensation for this incident.”
17.
“Making sure the gas alarm chirps weren’t going off just from old batteries and driving down to a gas station to get in new batteries at 2 a.m. Alarm continues. It was a real gas leak in the middle of the night, glad I didn’t ignore that.”
18.
“I had a rough spot on my face I was concerned about, like a scab that kept coming back. Went to a dermatologist to get it checked out. The doctor said it was probably nothing to worry about; he froze it off and said we’d get a biopsy if it came back. Well, as long as I was there, I figured I’d have him look at a spot on my arm I hadn’t given much thought to and probably never would have gotten checked if not for the other thing….and guess which one turned out to be melanoma?”
19.
“I started taking photos of my apartment during the final walkthrough when moving in. The landlord tried charging me for preexisting damage when I moved out, but those timestamped pictures saved me $2,000 in bogus fees.”
Do you have one to add? What is something you did just to err on the side of caution that ended up making all the difference? Tell us in the comments or in this anonymous form.
