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“Timestamped Pictures”: 51 Random Things People Did That Really Saved Them Later
“Better safe than sorry” is one of those sayings that gets thrown around all the time, but often enough we simply assume things will just work out. However, every now and then, we go that little extra mile, double checking the stove, getting that better insurance, and it ends up working out.
Someone asked “What’s something you did just to be safe that ended up saving your [b**t] later?” and people shared their best stories. So get comfortable as you scroll through, perhaps take some notes, upvote your favorites and be sure to add your own thoughts in the comments below.
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#1
Started taking photos of my apartment during the final walkthrough when moving in. Landlord tried charging me for preexisting damage when I moved out but those timestamped pictures saved me $2,000 in bogus fees.
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#2
Got a blood test done in 8th grade at the insistence of my math teacher. I'd been leaving class every 30 minutes to use the restroom and he'd had it, and told my mom to go rule out a kidney infection or something since I insisted I wasn't leaving to skip class. The doctor told us I seemed fine but we did it anyway since I was there.
They called us back at almost midnight and told me my blood sugar was 926 and to get to the hospital before I went comatose. Diabetes is so fun.
#3
This didn’t save my life, but it could’ve saved others had they also done it …
I camped A LOT in my teens through Boy Scouts and took the first aid and emergency prep aspects very seriously. In my early 20’s I went out camping with some friends and supplied the bulk of the gear we used. A small river ran through the park we were at and all of them wanted to set up next to it, so they could go swimming easier.
I pushed back HARD. The river was obviously already sitting a bit h**h and they wanted to set up shop in an area next to it that looked like a regular flood plain. In the end, after a lot of back and forth, I essentially told them “My gear, my choice. Walk down if you want to go swim. The tent and camp will be up here.”
Fast forward 2-3 weeks and a flash flood pushes through that river in the middle of the night, sweeping over that area where they’d wanted to camp. A few people ended up dying, seemingly being caught off guard in their sleep and getting trapped in their tents.
Don’t [darn] around with water.
#4
I’ve mentioned this one in a similar post before, but it still lingers in my brain
I was babysitting my toddler nephew and he’d managed to find a colorful metal straw somewhere in my house. He was just waving it around like a wand and tapping things, but I remembered a Reddit post I’d seen just that week of a woman who fell while using a metal straw and f****d her whole face up. I took the metal one away from kiddo and gave him a soft silicone one to play with instead.
Less than five minutes later he takes off running, falls, smushes the silicone straw directly into the side of his face. I don’t think I could breathe properly for like 30 mins after that.
#5
Early 2000s, I would packrat paperwork and receipts, but ADHD so none of it is organized just stuff shoved in random places.
Stationed in Germany, landlord came around after two years claiming I never paid the deposit or first months rent. I’m like what, military housing office said I had to pay it and was no help, bank (military branch of Bank of America ran by a shady German woman) claimed they had no record and said I never paid it.
Dug thru my random piles to see if I had that money transfer receipt somewhere. Ended up finding it in a baggie in some drawer.
Saved me around $6000.
#6
I took out salary continuance insurance until I was 65 instead of just the 2 years I was originally thinking. 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 coming in each month.
#7
Not me but my mother. My mom bought the travel insurance on her Disneyworld trip because she is bipolar and thought if she had a bad day they would get a refund. Turns out it absolutely doesn’t cover that (shocker,) but what it did cover was my dad having a heart attack on property. He ended up needing to be life flighted, we had to get a hotel near the hospital, the whole thing. Insurance covered basically everything. Unfortunately, my father ended up dying, but we didn’t come home with a huge bill on top of the tragedy.
#8
Kept a hidden account from ex to put in birthday cash etc and kept a go bag hidden in my car. Pretty sure to this day it saved my life.
#9
Shaved my whole head after 2 separate doctors told me the tiny lump on my scalp was nothing to be worried about and went to a 3rd 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
PSA: Get regular skin checks and if you know something is wrong with your body, whatever it may be, stay adamant because it could save your life.
#10
This was years ago. I decided to change phone providers and get a new phone with a new number. The store clerk wrote down my new number on what seemed like an empty business card where they would write any customer’s new number on it. I knew you could look up your own number on your phone but I decided to stick the card in my wallet so I could just pull the card out and look at the number quicker that way.
Fast forward a few years to a concert I went to, I lost my wallet and didn’t realize until later in the night. Boy did that [be bad], at the time Apple Pay was just starting to be a thing but I didn’t have it registered and could only Uber back to my place, but no food or souvenirs from the concert. My night was ruined, and I was devastated. The next morning I get a call from a number I don’t have saved, “Hello, I have your wallet”. I think I teared up when I heard him but I asked how he has my number, and he told me it was in my wallet. I had no clue what he meant by that because I only remember having my IDs and debit/credit cards. We plan a meet up and when he shows me the card with my number I then remembered the clerk that wrote down my new number on the card.
Till this day I carry a laminated card in my wallet, with my name and a message saying if found please call [intimacy]-number. What a life saver that card was.
#11
Installed some water alarm sensors under boiler, washing machine, dishwasher, WC, etc. Got them just because „you never know“, they use the same system as my smart smoke detectors, and they were discounted.
First night, 2AM, alarm in the whole house goes off, I wake up, look at my phone „Water leak in basement“. First thought: yeah, no way, the f£$%ing new sensor must be faulty. 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 find out that my basement has turned into r/poolrooms.
Edit: Wow, 1000 upvotes. I‘ve never had more than 150 or so. :).
#12
I was looking up some minor random symptoms and one website said they could in very rare cases be a sign of testicular cancer. I gave the boys a check and sure enough lefty felt wrong. I lost a [private part] but caught it before it spread so no need for chemo.
#13
Bought the optional flood cover on our investment property, for just $30. Almost didn’t, as it was only $30. Two months later it flooded, and the repair bill was $380k.
#14
One time I was sanding some pieces from my 3D printer using a rotary t**l and suddenly got the idea that I should be wearing safety glasses. Only I didn't own any, so I drive my a*s to Walmart and got a cheap pair. Came home, went right back to sanding. Not even 2 minutes into it, a sharp piece of plastic flew up at me and hit me right in the goggle. I felt good about my decision that day.
#15
When my mom went into labor with me, she was going to go to the local hospital to have me. My dad, on the other hand, knew that the local one didn’t keep the surgical room prepped. Therefore, he suggested going to a hospital a bit farther away that had the surgical room ready, should something go wrong. Long story short, mom ended up abrupting a few minutes before she got to the hospital and needed an emergency C-section. If she had gone to the local hospital, there was a strong chance that she would have lost me. Sooo something that my dad did ended up saving my a*s.
#16
“There’s no reason for me to keep wondering around anymore. I should go back to the hotel room” — Me at 2am on Bourbon Street on NY 2025. (The attack was at 3am).
#17
The other 3rd grade teachers and I held a parent night in the cafeteria. The parents and kids were at different stations doing little simple experiments. I left my area clean and ready to go, because I’m human. The others couldn’t care less. At the end of the night I happen to video the aftermath and my section. I had a gut feeling. The next day the custodian complained that a mess was left and the older teachers literally blamed me for a lack of organization. The weak principal was going to also put it all on me when I presented the video and shut down any discussion. TLDR: I had proof I cleaned up after myself.
#18
Added a $4/mo health insurance option that covered like 8 weird things. Turns out my wife indeed needed one of those 8 things (vertebral arthroplasty). Saved us over $100K or a $30k trip to Spain to have it done.
#19
In 2020 my husband and I bought new cars for the first time (we were both driving hand-me-downs previously). We had gotten married in 2014 but I was slow about changing my name on everything, and as we were getting ready to buy new cars I realized my current car's registration still had my maiden name on it.
I had done all of the research, negotiating, etc. so by the time we were ready to go in and buy, I had a binder full of stuff to make sure no one tried to pull anything sketchy (emails with offers in writing, our trade-in offers from Carmax, etc.). I also threw in a copy of our marriage license just in case.
When we said we wanted to trade in our current vehicles (for which Carmax had already offered us 3k each), first they tried to tell us that KBB values for them were like, $500 and $800 respectively, so we said we'd just sell to Carmax instead. They asked for those offers and we handed them over and they went back to the back. Then a bit later they came out and said they were having a problem with the trade because my car was still in my maiden name, and did I have anything that could prove I was the same person? So I said, "Like our marriage license?" and whipped it out of my binder, and their jaw nearly hit the floor. They couldn't believe I had thought that far ahead, lol.
I'm still so proud of that car-buying binder. It was also one of those situations where the salesman kept trying to ask my husband stuff, despite him being fully pushed back from the desk and playing on his phone while I had the binder full of info on my lap.
#20
I purchased renter's insurance and had no memory of it. When hurricane Florence came through, I was living in a coastal town in North Carolina, and it was coming straight for us. We had to evacuate, and I thought we were screwed. I called my insurance company and asked if it was too late to buy renter's insurance with the storm being so close, and they informed me that I had purchased the insurance years prior. It really paid off because our house flooded, and we lost a lot of our stuff. They were also very helpful and seemingly gave us $500 every couple of days for lodging, groceries, gas, anything needed while we waited out the storm.
#21
Went on a ski outing organized by my h**h school, and they made helmets mandatory. I had been skiing multiple times in my life and felt comfortable, and complained the whole trip to the resort about the helmets. On one of my last runs, I did some stupid s**t and wrecked hard going crazy fast, slid down the slope on my head long enough to think “[darn], I’m glad I’m wearing this helmet” as I felt the hard-packed snow grinding against it at probably 20mph.
Wear your helmets, ya’ll. It’s worth it.
#22
Got a baseline mammogram at 35 at my gyno's suggestion (for comparison purposes when I would turn 40)
Long story short I had breast cancer. No family history or signs.
#23
Making sure the gas alarm chirps wasn't going off just from old batteries and driving down to a gas station to get in new batteries at 2am...... Alarm continues. It was a real gas leak in the middle of the night, glad I didn't ignore that.
Old furnace was replaced immediatly and its wonderful, and costs so much less every month compared to the old rickety furnace.
As I drove down to the gas station I ran over a screwdriver in the middle of the road--it punctured a gas line on my truck, which died as I was pulling into the gas station. A policeman was inside, so I told him what was going on--I bought the batteries and he gave me a ride home--it was a very lucky or UNlucky night depending on how you look at it.
#24
Had an orbital xray 'just in case' before an MRI because I misunderstood one of the questions they asked and they ticked the wrong box. Honestly thought I was wasting their time and almost cancelled it.
Turns out there are metal fragments in one of my eye sockets and the MRI would have superheated it/pulled it out via the quickest route (I wouldn't have that eye anymore).
#25
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 ended up purchasing it for my two cats. About 2 months later one cat has a urine blockage which was about a $4k emergency vet visit, insurance covered 80% and paid for 6 months of their new prescription food. About 8 months later my other cat had a stomach issue and ended up costing about $1k in vet visits and medications which insurance covered 80% and another 6 months of their new prescription food.
I kept a spreadsheet of how much I spent in premiums, how much the vet bills were, how much insurance covered and right now insurance has paid out about $3300 more than I have paid them and my part of the vet bills.
#26
On holiday inn Gambia (on a resort); after a day or 2 I noticed you could lock the bathroom door from the outside. I showed my girlfriend, we both thought it was strange, but since the lock was there, why not use it as we were on our way out. When we came back the bathroom window was forced open and they had tried to enter the apartment.
#28
I keep a folded $20 bill in my phone case. It has been both convenient and has saved me a lot of hassle.
I taught my kids to do this and it has saved them too.
#29
A $100 bill I keep inside my hat saved me from being stranded far from home. Got 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.
#30
Stay in the city for finals rather than driving from the village I lived in.
I was a mature student studying at a university about 35 miles away. Usually I’d drop the kids off at day care and then drive in. For my finals I decided to crash at a friend’s place who lived near my uni. No idea why I decided to do this as it meant finding someone to take my kids for 3 days, which was difficult.
On the second day a plane overshoot the runway of a small regional airport and landed on the motorway next to the airport, blocking it for most of the day. If I had driven in I would have been caught in the resulting traffic jam, missed my exam and would have had to repeat the year.
#31
I keep a sort of "emergency overnight kit" in my car at all times. A few travel-sized soaps, extra pair of shoes, change of clothes, a pillow, blanket, toothbrush, bit of cash, old pair of glasses, etc. Doesn't take up much trunk space (about the size of a shoe box) but it's saved my a*s more times that I care to admit.
It makes it much easier to just jump in the car and go anywhere spontaneously with zero notice, and also helps if you get stuck somewhere overnight and can't drive home. Being able to wake up in the morning, take a good shower, and then put on a fresh set of clothes really helps you get over whatever got you stuck in the first place. Weather, road closures, too tired to drive, being intoxicated, car broke down, whatever. Just having that available helps you feel better in the morning!
#32
I traveled for almost year, with a couple of weeks break in my hometown about halfway through. I'd given up my apartment and crashed on a friend's couch. Now, before my trip, I'd checked all the mandatory vaccinations, and yellow fever wasn't on there, though it was recommended for Kenya. But travelling from my home country, I didn't *need* it for any of the countries. My doc said: your insurance covers it, yellow fever is a b***h, and the side effects of the live vaccine are vastly exaggerated, you should get it. So I got it.
The day I left for Africa I piled up all my important documents I didn't need to bring on my friend's desk, thinking I'd leave them with her so I won't lose them. Literally as I was leaving, backpack already on, I saw my vaccine card on the top of the pile and remembered that this friend lost not one, but two of my library cards, so I grabbed the card and shoved it into my backpack.
Well, couple weeks later, after a chunk of time spent pretty far from civilization in Kenya, I was at the airport at some ungodly hour, honestly a wreck, checking in for my flight to Johannesburg, and the lady goes: vaccination card?
Turns out if you enter south Africa from Kenya, a yellow fever vaccine is mandatory. Thank [darn] I took the card just in case my friend buries it in empty coffee cups.
#33
Current house: Locked the basement door into my kitchen and then found a homeless man living in my basement later when he had come in through ANOTHER door. He probably wouldn’t have come upstairs and just wanted a place to squat for some days but you never know 🤷🏻♀️
Old house: called the gas company because I smelled gas and felt weirdly lightheaded but felt silly because I was like’ “surely, I’m being dramatic”. They came and found 3 gas leaks 😵💫.
#34
Back in 2021 I got put on a PIP, a “performance improvement plan”, at my first job that I had been with for 5 years. Long story short is my boss was new and incompetent, saddled me with the work of an entire team and I was being scapegoated for a bunch of missed deadlines despite my being able to show that I wasn’t the bottleneck. They promised up and down that it was just a formality triggered by a low performance review score, that my performance had already improved, and that it was nothing to worry about.
About a month into the 3 month PIP process I wasn’t getting a good feeling about it, so I chose to decline to resign my expensive apartment lease in the city in favor of moving home onto my parent’s farm about 2 hours away. It felt like a major step back to move back in with my parents, and I was stressed that my girlfriend (now wife) would think I was a l***r and break up with me, but I couldn’t justify resigning with what felt like a metaphorical axe hanging over my head. Things were fully remote due to COVID so I decided to move.
I’m lucky I did that, because about a month later I was tasked with developing and planning the entire 2022 marketing calendar for the game that I was working on (this was a video game studio I was working at). Keep in mind, I’m about 25 years old, first job out of school, studied game development and computer science NOT marketing, and my boss is giving me 0% help or effort because it turns out he’s never done marketing before either and doesn’t know what to do himself. Just being told to do the whole thing with no other support and have it ready in a week. After staying up for 72 hours straight to work on it, I dozed off in a Friday company wide meeting on Zoom and was fired the following Monday as soon as the day started. They used me falling asleep as reason to deny my unemployment because I was fired “for cause”.
So yeah, even though it felt like s**t to have to move back in with my parents it was objectively the right move and saved my a*s big time. And secondly, deciding to get a second major in Computer Science saved my a*s again when I went looking for jobs and decided there was no way in h**l I’d subject myself to the video game industry again. Being able to fall back into a corporate software development job has improved my life 10x.
#35
When I was a young helper I tied off a ladder that was up on a fire escape. The guy in charge told me I was being ridiculous. Well, the wind blew it over and we found it dangling off the side of the thing. Could’ve easily k**led someone.
#36
Had to deliver invites to everyone for a lunch party at work. I made a point to tell my employee with paranoid delusions first.
Next day he told HR he was the only one not invited.
I hope he finds a therapist, but as his boss I couldn't say that legally.
🙄.
#37
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.
#38
Bought my first house whilst with my partner. I bought the house on my own and despite thinking we would be together forever (Ha!), I only put the house in my name and opted out of her offer to contribute. Cut to two years later. She leaves me and I get to kindly ask that stranger to leave MY house. Messy and financially difficult breakout dodged.
#39
Hadn't used my inhaler for years.
On a whim, the one time I ended up needing it I just happened to put it in my pocket before leaving the house.
I carry with me just to be safe now.
#40
I agreed to purchase gap insurance (I always thought was a scam) for a used car purchase on finance on top of the usual comprehensive car insurance. Had my car stolen 2 months after purchase. Finance company valued vehicle to be $15k over what comprehensive insurance covered meaning I would have to pay $15k out of my own pocket to repay finance.
Gap insurance covered the $15k, plus stamp duty and rego on a new vehicle purchase. Best $1600 I ever spent.
#41
After the 2021 Texas freeze, I decided to pay the $80/year option on my insurance for long term water damage(leaks that last over 14 days). Friends I knew had found their pipes cracking, but not bursting, and the coverage is different. Initially, I did not realize it applied to appliances and AC units as well.
9 months later, I find out condensation had been collecting in my kitchen refrigerators, lower freezer. It created a sheet of ice on the bottom, until it got to the freezer seal, thawed, and was dripping under the refrigerator, got under the tile, and the sub floor of my pier and beam house.
Deductable was $2000, but I was reimbursed for having to take out food for our family over the long period of tear out, inspection, finding lumber during COVID shortage, and repair.
The whole sub floor of the kitchen was preplaced, several cabinets, the counter tops, new tile. I got a $30,000 kitchen remodel for about $800 out of pocket.
#42
When I started in the company I work in, I was worked in by a colleague who was a bit paranoid and forced me to check everything after reconnecting a computer.
I still do this, even when he is not in my section anymore and I'm the one guy who doesn't make mistakes, what saved my job when we had layoffs two years ago.
So: I also check things that "should work", because sometimes they don't.
#43
Bring a colleague to a meeting called by a new employee. I had a feeling this new worker would lie about me. Even with a witness, they still tried it, so I'm very glad I trusted my instinct.
#44
Was hunting grouse once with 2 of my friends and we decided to separate and meet back in about half an hour so each one of us can take a different trail to hunt. so i decided to take 3 cartridges with me since the limit was 5 grouse a day and i had already bagged 2. my friend sees this and says nah man take more cartridges in case i miss or something. i was trying to be as light as possible but he insisted i take more cartridges.
i ended up listening to him and took my bandelier (belt with cartridge pouches in it).
i got turned around in the woods and realized i walking in circles for about an hour and a half and couldn't find my way out.
i ended up firing the cartridges to signal to my friends that something was up and they followed the noise and found me and got me out. i was so far in the woods it was mind boggling.
TL;DR : got lost in the woods and signaled my position to my friends by using cartridges i wasn't gonna take to begin with.
#45
I missed soccer practice one time because I had to get insurance for my car right after school (lol) and my coach was so p**sed off at me and he even yelled. Next day i was on the way to practice and I got rear ended by a pregnant woman and 4 of my teammates actually witnessed this lol.
#46
Sprung for flight insurance even when I didn't really have the money to be throwing around. I ended up having a pretty bad accident that would have ruined my trip entirely about a month and a half before I was supposed to fly out. Now I always always always get flight insurance because I would have been out a good chunk of cash I didn't really have to begin with if I hadn't gotten the insurance and been able to move my flight to the following year. I'm the type of person who will pass on extended warranties etc but my gut said plane tickets weren't something to gamble on and I'm glad I listened.
#47
Recently I had my toenail ripped. I was gonna travel in a metro, a heavily crowded one the next day. Since the rip was fresh, i actually put on a very thick layer of cotton dressing so that if anyone steps it won't hurt me. Someone did step the next day in the metro and yeah I pretty much saved my a*s from pain.
#48
All the detailed annoying emails I had sent at work with the tone of “with all due respect”.
#49
Took an Uber 6 hours before the flight in Sao Paulo.
My friends thought I was being overzealous and knew the City more than me (my third visit their first) so left me to take the early Uber while they stayed in the City. The end result was them catching the flight with about 10 seconds to spare.
The hilarious thing is they didn't learn their lesson (that i know more about travelling) the next time we travelled together, and unfortuently because one of them was driving I couldn't get out and away early this time.
#50
Maintaining a solid 5.0 GPA in h**h school.
By the time I hit my senior year of h**h school I was working towards my dream career and before I even graduated I already had work in the field. The pay was amazing and I loved doing it. I honestly thought about slacking off in my senior year but decided to keep the status quo. I took both the ACT and SAT as well (34 ACT 1500 SAT) just to keep my options open.
Fast forward a few years and I got into a bad car wreck. This ended my dream career. So I went to college. My scores combined with my straight 5.0 allowed me to get into just about any university I wanted to (with every single one that I applied to offering a full ride scholarship). Because I'd had such good scores and gpa the dean of students signed off on me CLEPing my gen eds (she put it this way when I asked "It saves us a bunch of money because you graduate faster. So yes I'll allow it"). My 4.9 bachelor's GPA let me get into any postgrad program I wanted and I eventually ended up getting my Psy D. Sure the pay isn't quite as good as my dream career was but I'm still set to retire by 40 if I want to.
#51
Tying a rope from the gearbox to the shaft housing on my outboard.
6 months later the bottom 8mm of rudder hit a rock and smashed into the outboard. Gearbox and newly bent prop stayed connected just long enough to get us out of trouble before disconnecting.
I still have no idea why I decided to fill the hole in the anti ventilator plate with rope instead of epoxy.
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