This week will eat cash. Fans, gloves, a pump, contractor bags, a dry place to sleep, gas for the generator, a cheap phone charger at a drugstore on Washington. Every one of those lines can matter to a claim, a FEMA file, or your own taxes later.
You won’t remember the Home Depot total on day nine. Houston humidity and a wet kitchen will turn paper receipts into gray pulp. Photograph each one on a dry table before it dies.
If someone says “don’t worry, the crew will bill insurance direct,” still keep your copy. Direct billing fails. You want the paper.
Do this now
- Start a single envelope or phone album titled with the address and the words flood receipts.
- Photograph every receipt the day you get it, laid flat, all four corners in the frame.
- On the back of paper receipts write what it was for: “garage pump,” “hotel night 2,” “PPE.”
- Keep mitigation buys (fans, dehumidifiers, extraction) separate from grocery comfort buys in the album.
- Do not throw a box of receipts into a wet closet “to sort later.”
What is worth a receipt this week
Emergency mitigation: pumps, wet vacs, dehumidifiers, air movers, plastic, plywood, a tarp, gloves, boots, N95s. Temporary living: hotel, extra laundry, extra mileage if you are documenting ALE. Debris: dumpster or a licensed hauler. Meals if you truly have no kitchen and the carrier or FEMA asked for that kind of proof.
A new TV is not mitigation. Do not bury a lifestyle purchase in the fan receipt and hope nobody reads. That one trick poisons the honest lines.
Cash, Venmo, and the guy with a truck
If you pay cash, get a handwritten invoice with a name, a phone, a date, the address of the work, and a description. Photograph it. If they will not give you that, they are not who you want in a flooded house.
Venmo and Zelle notes should say what the payment was for. “Thank you” is not a scope. Houstonians often report paying a “crew” who vanished at lunch. Your note will not get the water out. It may support a police or fraud report.
Share the folder on purpose
Send the carrier a clean set when they ask, not 200 blurry thumbnails in random order. Same for a FEMA or SBA upload. Name files with dates. Keep the originals.
If two people in the house are buying, merge albums every night. Duplicate claims for the same Shop-Vac look sloppy. Missing the $400 dehumidifier looks worse.
Free is still worth a note
If a neighbor lends a pump or a church drops fans, write that down too. You may not get money back. You will remember what equipment was in the house if an adjuster asks why a room dried or why a floor cupped.
Do not invent a receipt for donated goods. A dated note is enough.
Do this next
- Call, claim number, and photos before you forget
- Flood policy vs homeowners: what usually covers what
- Commercial providers hub
More in Start your insurance claim today.