Should you have a stocked pantry in case of food insecurity?
I know you are very good at keeping to a weekly food budget but don't you ever feel that you should also have a stocked pantry in case of food shortages?
Am I the only one suffering from some anxiety about this or do your other readers feel this?
-Holly
Hi Holly!
I definitely am a person who keeps a stock of food in my house at all times. My chest freezer is usually pretty full, my laundry room pantry shelf always has food in it, my kitchen cabinets have food in them, and I have two big buckets of flour in my laundry room as well.
If pressed, we could eat off of our stash of food for quite some time. It wouldn't be the most well-rounded diet (no fresh produce!), but we would not starve.
So, in the spring of 2020, when grocery stores weren't well-stocked (and again recently) I did have peace of mind in knowing that I had plenty of food for us to eat.
There are other reasons I keep a stash of food here too.
It's not the end of the world if I skip shopping
Keeping a stock of food here also means that if I don't get to the store one week, it's not that big of a deal.
I like to stash seasonal food
When peaches are in season, I buy boxes of bruised ones and freeze them.
(Here's how to freeze summer peaches.)
When apples are in season, I buy boxes of bruised apples, make applesauce, and freeze it.
A bulk purchase is often cheaper
I have two big buckets of King Arthur flour in my laundry room because a 50-pound bag purchased online is way, way, cheaper than the five-pound bags from the store.
And I buy a case of coffee from Amazon because it's cheaper than individual bags at the grocery store.
I like to stock up if something is on sale
If I see a good markdown on something shelf-stable or freezable, I like to buy multiples and then store them for future use.
I like having backup items
On my pantry shelf, I always keep an extra jar of mayo, an extra bottle of vegetable oil, an extra container of salt, and so on.
That way, when I run out, it's no big deal; I grab one from the pantry shelf and buy another backup item the next time I go to the store.
_________
What about waste?
Of course, maintaining a stash of food is not without its challenges; it's easy to lose track of what you have and to let things go bad.
So, that's why I try to do a pantry and freezer challenge about once a year. A challenge helps me keep track of what needs to be used up, and I don't end up with things languishing in storage for five years.
(My food waste course has a module with some pantry/freezer challenge tips.)
How do you build a pantry without going over-budget?
I generally maintain my pantry stash by buying extras of an item or two at a time, not by buying tons of food all at once.
So, my pantry stash has been built while I've been sticking to the grocery budget you see me post here every week.
If I see a great sale on meat, I might spend a disproportionate amount on that one week.
If canned tomatoes are marked down, I buy a bunch of them.
Or if I find some half-bushels of bruised peaches or apples, I stock up on those.
I find this all works out over time; I might spend a bunch on meat one week, but then a lot of my other meal ingredients that week come from my pantry.
I might spend a lot of money on flour when I buy 100 pounds of it, but other meal ingredients that week can come from my pantry.
What if you don't have much storage space?
My house was built in the 1970s, so while I do have more storage space than people who live in super old houses, I wouldn't say I'm exactly rich in storage.
My kitchen doesn't have a pantry, and I don't have a lot of unfinished storage spaces in my house.
But I do have room for a chest freezer, and I have a couple of laundry-room shelves that house extra food.
I have also heard of people getting creative by storing extras underneath beds, or in linen closets.
(I actually have my electric griddle stored in my linen closet because I have no room in the kitchen for it!)
If you want to make some room for a food stash, you might want to consider what else you could declutter to make space for storage. Could you get rid of some other items under your bed, in your closets, and in your kitchen to make some room?
In summation:
Even if you are not at all concerned about food insecurity, I think there are a whole lot of good reasons to keep a stash of food at your house.
And if you don't have much space, you could try keeping a small stash of food. There's plenty of middle ground between a year's supply of food and no supply of food.
Do what's manageable for you!
I do the same thing! It is more that I hate being out of something basic and having to pay full price for it. And with four small kids it is easier to have extra around then make extra trips to the store. They often finish a box of crackers or the jelly or a sauce and don’t tell me. So I’m glad to have an extra one waiting in the wing.
We don’t have a lot of closet space either. I put an ikea billy bookshelf in a nook of my kitchen and it holds a lot of our pantry items (cans, cereals, baking supplies, etc.).
I do keep some stock to hand but I often wonder should I keep doing this. It is comforting to know I have stuff to eat and deal with other needs such as hygiene and laundry.
I was always a person that kept a well stocked pantry as I enjoy cooking and baking and being prepared to make a variety of recipes without having to hit the grocery store. When COVid hit I became a food storage person. We didn’t hoard or buy crazy amounts of anything but I did purchase in season produce that my garden didn’t supply and can/freeze it. I purchased flour in 50 lb bags, dried beans, rice and other staples and stored them in large buckets. I shopped sales to stock our freezer so if chicken was on sale I bought several packs. This helped to stock us up without killing the budget. We bought a chest freezer to be able to put up the large amount of produce our garden gave us.
Even though this is something that was brought on by the Pandemic, I have continued to maintain this storage. I find this to be a frugal task since I can buy items at their lowest price, cook from my
Pantry/freezer almost exclusively, and be able to store produce from my garden. The garden is a hobby of mine and 45 tomato plants produce a lot of tomatoes! It is nice to be able to eat fresh tomatoes all year long. I also find this is healthier. We eat in season produce about 90% of the time. This does require that I meal plan and make an effort to clean out the freezer to avoid waste but since I meal plan anyway I don’t find this to be a challenge.
I'm only buying for one now, but a lot of weeks I just don't feel like shopping, so yes, I have a stash of items I can always turn to. I usually grab things from the store when I am not quite empty, just in case there are supply issues. Laundry soap, for example. I like to keep cans of tuna and chicken on hand because they make for good lunches. I also buy value packs of chicken and tilapia to freeze, as well as multi packs of salmon filets that I freeze individually. I save the liners of cereal boxes for freezer bags in addition to using ziplocs and tupperware containers. I don't have a garden so I buy canned tomatoes. And a bag or two of frozen veggies lasts me a long time, but I keep several in there for variety's sake and again, in case I need a quick meal and don't feel like shopping. I do love my morning coffee so I'm going to look into buying bulk for that.
We do stock - but for convenience rather than emergency. We can cater for periods of bad weather or sickness (quarantaine) but not for long term issues in the infrastructure. In winter we have more supplies than in summer.
I find it convenient to shop from my shelves, and it is frugal too as you pointed out. For some supplies we move from special offer to special offer. We never pay full price.
You need to have some savings to start that situation, once you are on the roll the system pays for itself, so to speak.
By US standards we probably have a small house because we have neither pantry nor laundry room! And our kitchen is small. However a few shelves of basic products will go along way.
I have always done this, and I don’t really have food anxiety. My mother and grandma always kept a stock of groceries on hand. My grandmother did so because they gardened, so they always had tons of jarred food in their basement— we shared this with them, so my mom just went and stocked up on jars when she needed to. I never realized what a huge blessing that was!
My mother kept a stock because she shopped at Sam’s Club all of the time, and we bought in bulk. Both of them had freezers and fairly well stocked pantries. My mother did have a lot of food waste though because she never meal planned— both wasted refrigerated food and years-expired pantry food. This drives me nuts. I just grew up keeping a stock, so I naturally did it as an adult. I suppose it would make me anxious not to have that, not because I am food insecure, but because I would feel like I would need to go to the grocery store all the time. I think our family of four could eat on what’s in the pantry and freezer for about six months, although recipes certainly would start to get interesting toward the end.
It did prevent me from any panic buying or stocking up on crazy amounts of toilet paper or anything. In fact, the only thing I really ran low on during the shut down that I had trouble replacing were dishwasher tabs, and I did find those before I truly ran out.
I have always had a secondary freezer, but I have not always had a pantry, depending on the house we have lived in. I’ve just figured it out by storing it in different areas or closets or under couches, etc. It is harder to keep track of what you have and not over buy in that scenario though.
@Tara,
I forgot to add— we also buy a quarter of a cow yearly and never quite use it all in the year. Whenever chicken is super cheap, I stock up. I’ve been known to buy a box before (it comes in boxes, like maybe 40-50 lbs, and then my store packages it in smaller quantities). I put it in ziplocks myself and freeze. Because of this, I buy very little meat during weekly shopping trips— just a little bacon, sausage, seafood, or the odd rotisserie chicken (does anyone else wonder how those are cheaper than a raw whole chicken these days?!?). I do this to save money, but the benefit is a stocked freezer.
Also, your freezer challenge posts were inspiring— I’ve started doing the same thing where I inventory, then build my meal plan around using up the odd bits at the beginning of every year. I probably have another couple months of this for 2022. I have a backlog lol, but I also hate wasting food and will only throw it out if truly none of us will eat it. Luckily, my husband will eat *almost* anything.
@Tara,
My mother always stocked on food, soap and toilet paper. She was a teenager in WwII so I am not surprised and I also was brought up to think that stocking food gives peace of mind.
It is good to assess how your upbringing has influenced us and to bring forward only what is good for us. On a related note: my mother always pressed us to have seconds and I do not want to make that a standard in my eating habits. However during the war you would not say no to food. Plus they did not have freezer nor fridges of course so a plate not finished was food going to waste etc.
@Tara, " the odd rotisserie chicken (does anyone else wonder how those are cheaper than a raw whole chicken these days?!?)"
I did wonder which is why I now know. There are several factors:
- the most important may be that these are loss leaders: the store undercharges so we go there and buy the other stuff;
- they're small chickens, usually smaller than a raw one;
- they're low-end CAFO meat.
@WilliamB, thank you for that analysis. I didn't know that CAFO meat until I researched it just now was factory farm-raised and likely full of antibiotics or that rotisserie chickens were that kind of meat. Yikes. I don't buy them often (texture), and now I won't buy them at all. I find that I am eating less and less meat for reasons like this. I'm am buying more beans these days--even the fancy beans at Rancho Gordo are less expensive than meat.
@Glenna, unless specified otherwise, all the meat and meat products we buy are CAFO. The exceptions are organic (no antibiotics but can't be sure about living conditions), pastured, or free range.
@WilliamB,
I would bet hard- earned money that only the first point applies to Costco's rotisserie chicken. Those things are large and Costco's quality standards are quite well known.
And yeah, there's a reason they're all the way at the very back of the warehouse, lol.
@J NL, it's always good to have a perspective from outside the US. If your mother was a teenager in WWII in The Netherlands (your "NL" stands for The Netherlands, yes?), I can well understand her views on stocking up and eating seconds.
@A. Marie,
You are right!
We are shaped not just by our own experience but also by that of the people before us. And what a resilient generation my mother's was!
@Dicey, Good to know!
Well, since I have the equivalent of a small store in my house, you know I'm a proponent of it. 🙂 That, of course, is more a function of where I live, but it's also just my personality. I get twitchy if I run out of anything. Plus, we eat a lot, and will no doubt be eating more in the future as the children grow.
I have pretty much the world's smallest pantry--five small, shallow shelves--so the majority of my extras are in the big overhead cabinets in my kids' bathroom and on the floor in my husband's office/laundry area. Not ideal, but it's what I have. I also have two chest freezers, and I actually store my flour, oats, nuts, and other things that don't really need to be frozen in there. Mostly because then I don't have to worry about the occasional rats that appear getting that stuff.
I buy everything in big quantities, mostly from Sysco (butter, flour, bacon) via our school or online. And, of course, the whole cow for the freezer we get every year or so. I must admit to occasionally dreaming about how easy it would be to buy a normal-sized package of something and not be hefting, say, 50 pounds of flour or giant boxes of meat on a regular basis. But that's not where I am right now.
@kristin @ going country, I get little pangs of anxiety when we’re running low on things too! It’s getting better now that I’ve recognized it.
@kristin @ going country,
I once heard that ground coffee also keeps better frozen? We use beans though and I never tried freezing those- J
@J NL, I freeze whole bean coffee all the time. I've noticed no difference in taste, if anything they are better than when I used to keep them in the pantry 🙂
@Donna Wilson,
Ah thanks! I may want to do that too!
I like to stock some extras, but our food storage is more for convenience and frugality, rather than preparing for an emergency of long duration. We have enough to go several weeks without shopping.
We buy large sacks of basmati rice from an Asian grocery, which is better quality and cheaper than the rice at the supermarket. Like Kristin said, King Arthur Flour is a much better price in the 50 lb sack. We live near there, so I just go in person, but even with the shipping it is cheaper. I also buy and freeze meats on sale.
Another thing I do is that if I am making something that freezes well, I purposefully make a double recipe and freeze it. For example, I always make two lasagnas at a time and freeze one. Same with pulled pork, always a double batch. It doesn't take really any more time to make double. It's nice to have meals ready to go for a busy night or if a friend needs support or whatever.
And I forgot to mention...
Amazon Subscribe and Save sometimes has good deals. Not everything is well priced, but I did find a favorite pasta sauce in a packages of 4 for $6.49. This brand of sauce is usually $3ish per bottle in the supermarket, so that's a good price and very convenient to just have it arrive every 6 weeks.
I buy pork and beef in bulk from farmers and it’s my favorite backstock. The butchers cut and package the way I like (3/4 lbs of hamburger versus a full pound or three pork chops instead of four) and it is seriously high quality.
I also like supporting a local farmer and small town butcher shops.
I can, but mostly it is food that makes a good accompaniment to a meal (tomatoes, salsa, pickles, jam). I don't have very much room for food storage, but we recently bought a small chest freezer to put on our back porch. I am looking forward to utilizing that more this summer, when I can freeze things instead of canning them. Canned food is more convenient, but frozen food is easier to store.
In 2020, when the shelves were bare, I went through all my food and wrote down what we had in the house, and got creative. Also, since things were out of stock at the store, I bought things I normally didn't buy because that was what was available.
Oddly, the produce section was always fully stocked during March/April 2020, but the last few months the produce has been unpredictable in what is available. Not sure what's going on there, since we did have a snowstorm (in South Carolina) and southerners tend to lose their minds when it comes to preparing for snow. LOL So I don't know if the produce being down has to do with winter weather or supply issues.
@Tammy, the main issue with produce is shipping: both ships and truckers are in short supply right now. Another factor is that farm workers are scarcer than they used to me. Without intending to touch the politics of the matter, I (carefully) point out that farming has long depended on low paid, migrant, usually immigrant (not always legal) for the field work. Between covid and the changes in immigration policies in the past 5 years or so, there's a lot less of that labor available. Companies are working on mechanizing more of the labor to replace the unavailable human work but it's going to be a bit chancy till then.
Our pantry has provided for us through hurricanes, tornadoes, ice storms, covid, and just being poor. And I've been doing this for over 45 years. I got so good at it that it was a key element when we decided to retire early.
My main tenets:
Build your pantry slowly.
Rotate.
Eat your leftovers.
Plan your menus around your pantry.
When covid first hit and we were in lock down, we shut our front gate for 4 months and did not miss a thing. I'm an avid gardener so fresh produce was abundant.
@Maria Zannini, this is us also. Not a huge fan of canned vegetables so we aim to eat seasonally and a hoophouse provides plenty in winter. I keep a well stocked kitchen pantry and freezer because I live prepared and really dislike grocery store shopping. I have a large family that depends on this in some ways. Now my kids have learned to garden too.
@Karen Diggs: My greatest joy is knowing I've taught the next generation how to feed themselves with their own two hands. I'm so glad to hear you do it too. We need to pass on our knowledge.
I keep a pantry and a small chest freezer. I keep an eye out for sales on staples: canned tomato products, canned fruit, coffee, pasta, for example, and stock up. When we start to get low on toilet paper and paper towels (the latter is a necessity when one has five indoor pets), I replenish the supply.
In part this is for the savings and in part for the convenience of not having to think about it very often. I don't have to buy two cans of diced tomatoes every week because I bought ten of them when they were on sale. We're somewhat buffered from current fresh meat prices because we buy what's marked down on manager's specials and pop it in the freezer for another day.
I grew up with food insecurity, so now that I am financially stable, I do keep a well-stocked pantry & chest freezer for lean times. If anyone is looking to stock a few meals in the pantry for "just-in-case", Budget Bytes has a really great meal plan & shopping list available (search 15 PANTRY STAPLE RECIPES on the Budget Bytes website). I've been using Budget Bytes recipes for about as long as I've been reading The Frugal Girl (probably 8-9 years now 🙂 )
I agree that some amount of food storage is a must for all the reasons given! Also at least some number of days of water storage in case of natural or human-made disaster. I live in a small apt in NYC so no excuses on not having the space!! If it’s a priority, the creativity will follow 🙂
I keep a supply of food, toiletries, detergent, etc because I find it's definitely cheaper this way. I buy multiples when I find good deals because I never like to pay full price for anything! I only have the freezer in my refrigerator, but it's amazing what I can stuff in there. I have great storage in my house for non-perishable so I take advantage of it. I've always done this (so did my mom).
Where do you buy your flour?
Since early 2020, I have been ordering it from https://www.webstaurantstore.com
The shipping cost is nothing to sneeze at, but it still worked out to be cheaper than small bags of King Arthur flour from my grocery store.
I agree with all the information and comments so far, with one caveat: know your needs/limits and don't overstock! It's not frugal and can be equally anxiety producing to not be able to access your stash easily and wind up trashing expired or freezer burned food.
@Bobi, Yes! I am fortunate to have adequate storage at my house. I try to be mindful to only buy what I plan on using. And if we end up with too much to fit in our space, then we need to use it up quickly and not buy as much (or anything) next time.
I keep things pretty well stocked...we could definitely survive a while if we had to! I buy lots of things in bulk at Sam's: flour, olive oil, cans of tomato sauce, meats, etc. We're fortunate that our 1950s house was remodeled and has an odd assortment of closets, including one very near the kitchen. A lot of "extras" go in there or in the hall linen closet. We also have a chest freezer that lives outside in a shaded and fairly cool storage shed attached to our garage. We've had it there for 5 or 6 years and never had a problem with it being out there!
Part of my reason for always being well stocked is that I don't often plan a weekly menu, so I like to have all sorts of options on hand...
I do a freezer inventory a few times a year and try to use up the oldest stuff.
We are reasonably well stocked (some times more than others). We have a pantry, a shelf in the garage, as well as the freezer (attached to our fridge) & a second fridge/freezer in the garage. We try to rotate through the food with some regularity. If it was a real crisis, we could get by for at least a month, but like you, it would most definitely not be the most well balanced diet. If it appeared to be a longer term problem, we would have good luck growing most of our food, as we live in a fantastic growing climate. We have a mature lemon tree, and our neighbors have lots of mature fruit trees. We have a moderately sized garden, but would expand significantly as needed. We do have quite a few seeds saved, and could grow our own vegetables (fruit is another story) for 8-9 months out of the year. Options would be limited, but we could make it work.
We also grow herbs, which would at least help spice up some of our more boring pantry options.
We do once a month shopping currently with an occasional misfits market box for fresh produce. We are on the tail end so are running out of things. I don’t prefer stocking up especially now because I think it contributes to the scarcity mindset.
We do buy our meat in bulk from a farmer and I shop at Costco (we have 6 people to feed!) so my packages are larger. We just don’t eat a lot of shelf stable food though. Maybe that’s why I’m not tempted to panic but!
About the only extra food we have is when we buy in bulk at Costco. We have no extra freezer to store extra frozen food and I'm a bit leery of stocking too much frozen food ever since we were without power for over a week after a hurricane. Nobody had power so a lot of people were throwing away a lot of food. I can't imagine why we would ever need a whole extra freezer full of food.
I live in New England where there's a culture of always having a larder or pantry of some kind for food storage. We never know when the next snowstorm is coming that could keep us home for a few days.
When I bought my house a decade ago we got a chest freezer because, well my family always had a chest freezer. It's definitely been handy for us as during the lockdowns and later supply chain issues we've never had issues with getting meat.
I've toyed with the idea of buying a side of beef or pork but have never gone through with it. There are some options near my grandmother so maybe this year I will look into it more.
Yes, I have always had a stocked pantry. Early on it was because I went to the PX and it was far away. When we lived in a wonderful neighborhood I was known as the "grocer" so other moms knew that they could always "borrow" from me when they were short on a needed ingredient. Naturally it is more frugal to buy things on sale. It saves me time and trips on busy weeks. Once our pastor challenged us to give up something we loved for lent and donate the money we would have spent to a special mission project that was near to our hearts. I gave up grocery shopping. My husband went for the fresh things we needed but I got creative and we ate mainly from the pantry and freezer. It was fun and a huge blessing. So having a stocked pantry can help during a lean time. And now I am doing it for food insucurity and to shop less during Covid. I find shopping depressing right now.
I also keep a small stash of canned goods and dry goods. It is for peace of mind.
When the kids were at home I kept a large chest freezer and 5 gallon buckets of flour and rice. I do not keep this amount anymore.
This question is so interestingly timed. Just this week I asked my husband if we should up our game regarding extra food in our pantry.
I think it was prompted because the Aldis where I shop has had some empty shelves the past several weeks.
But years ago I was into the double and sometimes triple coupon game. This produced a lot of food stuffed all over the house. And I always felt stressed to use everything up. So when I gave up coupons, I said never again. I would just buy what we need for the week.
So now with the occasional empty shelves and the news reporting supply chain issues will get worse I am rethinking how much groceries to have on hand.
I do a lot of what other folks are doing, and have been doing at least some of it since the Y2K scare at the turn of the millennium (hey, was anyone else inspired by that one?). On the other hand, I have to keep an eye on my own packrat tendencies, especially now that I'm adjusting to cooking for one instead of two. Some of my methods:
(1) Keeping enough canned goods and other staples on hand for winter use and emergencies--and using them up in the order of their dates.
(2) Storing tap water in gallon-plus-size vinegar bottles (these are food grade and sturdier than the gallon jugs that spring water is sold in). And, again, I label these with their fill dates and use them in date order. Given my city's antique water system, we have water main breaks often enough that storing water is useful.
(3) Buying a quarter of a steer every year from friends who raise the animals and charge me an unbelievably low price. (These friends are in their 70s, and I don't know how much longer they'll be doing this, but blessings on them for doing it all these years.) I pass along the meat I can't use, at the same price, to the Bestest Neighbors and other friends.
(4) Buying other meats and freezing them primarily when they're Reduced for Quick Sale (RFQS)--although with current shortages, I have to be more alert for these than ever.
(5) Growing my own herbs, onions, shallots, and garlic. (Back in the glory days before herds of deer roamed the neighborhood, I also used to freeze tomatoes and other veg.)
@A. Marie,
Yes, Y2K! We ran a bathtub of tal water just in case the water supplies would break down and we would have nothing to drink.
I now keep desinfection tablets for drinking water - they require less space.
I am lucky as I have a walk-in pantry next to the kitchen and with a huge built-in cupboard with shelves and drawers. And some more shelves on the Wall opposite of the door. Everything which does not need to be in the fridge is in there. And like you Kristen, I could go for several weeks without shopping and not starve.
For stocking up I do prefer to can my fruit and broths etc than freeze it. That way I do not depend on any kind of energy. And I think it is better for the environment too. Also - using canned items can be used right away. No waiting for them to defrost.
My freezer is small and actually consists of three drawers right under the fridge. I keep precooked meals there, some raw meat (bought when on sale) and so on.
Till now I haven't noticed any food shortages or empty shelves here in my part of Germany. But prices are going up!
I drink tap water. But for emergencies I keep like a 10 day supply on bottled water in the pantry as recommended by our government.
We do basically the same thing. We have a chest freezer and backups of staples in the basement. Plus we always have big 5 gallon buckets of flour, sugar, salt. It just makes meal planning easier to have a good stock of ingredients, it gives me peace of mind, and it means fewer trips to the store. And I agree it saves money to buy in bulk and to buy a lot of an item when it is on clearance.
I have never been food insecure and I stock up anyway, for 3 reasons. In order of importance:
1: emergency preparedness
2: frugality
3: convenience
1: Emergency Preparedness.
Every time I move, I determine what emergencies I'm likely to face (flood, fire, snow, etc.) and decide how I'll respond. Usually my decision is to shelter in place so I stock up on food, water, toiletries, and medicines for that. I take into consideration what cooking I'll be able to do (electric oven, gas stove, fireplace, no cooking at all). I never considered a pandemic to be one of the emergencies but I was well-prepared when it happened.
2: Frugality
If you can stock up when things are on sale, you'll spend less over the long run. This is as true for soap as it is for soup. (There was a period when the coupon was so good and the price so low that the store was paying me to buy dental floss.) To do this, you need to have some cash up front to get you going. Some people create a separate budget item to get this going, others squeeze a little out of their food budget - even $5 is a start. The Prudent Homemaker has a lot of info on how to build and manage a stash (https://theprudenthomemaker.com/living-on-our-food-storage/). (just so you know, she's a bit controversial but I consider her food stash info to be solid.) Of course, it's not frugal if you don't use it. I put my newly-bought food behind the older stuff to make first in/first out easy to implement, and I inventory my freezer every couple of months.
3: Convenience
I like not running out of things. I usually have one extra on my shelves, even if I can't buy it on sale.
When the pandemic hit, I knew I needed to get a handle on my deep freezer. It's not a giant one, not the upright refrigerator style one, so you have to bend down to search through it. I took some of my sturdiest grocery shopping reusable bags and threw chicken in one, beef in one, etc, to keep it organized. Then I took a complete inventory, typed it and printed it and taped it to the refrigerator door. I have maintained this practice and it's so handy. As I use things, I mark it off the inventory list. I always know what I have without digging.
I was reflecting on this earlier this week because we are coming up on the two year anniversary of when I blew my food budget to stock up for the pandemic (aka, my massive buy of items on February 28, 2020--I even know the date right off-hand).
I have a history of anxiety relating to food--my childhood home was heavily damage in a hurricane in the 90's and my whole region was devastated by a hurricane in 2018. In both cases, while we had food and water (enough for a week or two), there were a lot of unknowns as to recovery, so I felt a loss of control. I developed very disordered thinking about food that was exacerbated by the 2018 hurricane. As a result, when I first heard about a potential pandemic, I wasn't afraid of illness (though that certainly scared me!) but about supply chain issues and stocked up on supplies. (Not hoarding level, but enough stuff for a month level). Prior to 2018, I didn't stock much except during hurricane season. Post-2018, I stocked two weeks with everything and stockpiles of nonperishables. I've never gone hungry in my life (and have always had access to food) so my anxiety is not commiserate with my experience, but a product of them.
Throughout the last two years, I have shopped in a "two week" window. Every two weeks, I bought enough to last for two more weeks (on top of the month supply we had--so I was always stocked for 4-6 weeks). Having those guidelines helped me manage the unknown. When our area had a case decline last spring (and again early in the past fall), I relaxed my buying and did smaller shops. However, I have always tried to keep enough goods to last three weeks with no change in diet.
We currently have three pantry cabinets, storage in the laundry room, two refrigerators, and one freezer. Nothing is overly full and I am working on reducing our stockpile to "normal" levels, but I still see anxiety creeping in.
We have stored food for many years not just during the pandemic. We do for many of the same reasons Kristen does but also for emergencies (in 2013 or area was hit with devastating floods in which whole towns were evacuated and we were stuck at home as the bridge west of us washed out and the road east of us was under several feet of water. We were home for 2 weeks, ran out of fresh milk and a few fresh fruits and veggies but still ate really well) plus for job loss (my husband works in oil and gas which used to be super dependable but over the last bit is getting not as lucrative and not as stable of field). But we've also been able to bless friends and family members from having a stash especially when things were/are not available on grocery store shelves.
It really helps my grocery budget stretch to only buy things on sale. But as someone who has made quite a few food storage mistakes buy things your family eats not just what you think they should eat, watch dates and rotate your supply so using up the oldest stuff first.
For storage under a queen sized bed we have food stashed, in the bottom of closets, in the garage, under the basement stairs plus in the kitchen. Anywhere really dark and somewhat temp controlled I will store food. Paper items we keep in the attic which is not temperature controlled but it doesn't really matter if it gets below freezing and then super warm in the summer. I do have keep a somewhat accurate running list of what I have where and amounts. We have many mouths to feed so for us this has been the best way to use precious dollars.
@Natasha, you can also store things under tables. I make it look nice by covering the table with a table cloth or - in one case - and old circular silk skirt of my mother's.
@WilliamB, Saw once how to make a table storage unit by taking a clean trash can and topping it with a round piece of wood and long table cloth. The can could anonymously hold a lot.
@Natasha, I really laughed at your comment about buying what your family eats and not what you think they should eat. That same issue arises for me not with food shopping but with gardening. I have planted more kale, beans, and head lettuce that ended up going to the chickens rather than our dinner plates because I wanted to plant a virtuous garden, an aspirational garden if you will. I am better now but it took a lot of years to let go of trying to reform our eating through gardening.
I love to bake and I have the ability to maintain a well-stocked baking drawer. If I want to bake cookies or bread for some random reason, no problem! I also like to keep shelf stable things we eat a lot of on hand. Especially if they are on sale. I don't have a ton of storage, but enough that I can keep things on hand. I don't have time during the week to run in and grab something we run out of, so if it is something we eat regularly, I always make sure we have a spare (English muffins, peanut butter, etc.).
Yes to everything that Kristen wrote! I don't buy huge bags of flour, but I do everything else she suggested, for similar reasons. While I always purchased the mega-pack of (good quality) toilet paper, I am even more conscious of keeping a supply of toilet paper on hand these days, but other than that, I don't think my purchasing/storage habits have substantially changed. One thing I have noticed is that since my son left for college in the fall, we don't go through nearly the amount of food that we used to--so I have needed to adjust my spending and storage habits accordingly. I knew he was a big eater (and stays annoyingly slim .... why can't I have that trait???) but I didn't realize just how much he ate until he wasn't living at home anymore.
I tend to stock up on some grocery items when I can. Last year, my husband had the idea to stock up on essential items in case of severe inflation. We have a dedicated shelf in our basement, so we bought a year's supply of things like deodorant, toothpaste, laundry soap - things we knew we'd use up. We did run the risk of not getting these items on a great sale, but we thought it was worth the risk to save from potential inflation. It has paid off, so far, as I'm sure everyone has noticed at the grocery store. And if some of those items go on a sale (for example, I scored high end toothpaste at a yard sale for $1 a tube), I still buy more, as we are constantly using them. I just pay attention to expiration dates! Also of note, it's handy to learn what you can use past it's expiration date when storing food/supplies. 🙂
Our space (small apartment) is so limited that we often have some of our paper products (baby wipes, toilet paper) in the car because there is literally nowhere to put the new box until the old box is gone, so we don't tend to buy more until we've finished a package of something. However, because we use a lot of dried foods like rice, oatmeal, and lentils, our space does have a lot of food in it because those things expand when cooked!
IMO, it's good to have enough supplies for 3-4 days, in case of emergency that prevents you from accessing a store or using your tap water. Think about the flooding on the east coast, forest fires on the west coast, major storms and power outages, etc. Most governments have recommendations for what should be in an emergency kit--things like water, first aid supplies, etc.
My kitchen and fridge/freezer seem packed but I don't stock up. I feel overwhelmed and depressed just thinking about it, to be honest with you. Reading all these comments, I feel like it's one more way I'm a failure at housekeeping.
Yesterday, around lunchtime, I got hungry and then got annoyed at myself for getting hungry, since it meant I had to stop working and find something to eat. I know that sounds weird, like I have an eating disorder, but I don't. I am just tired and overworked and eating/meal planning/stocking up seems like just one thing too many. Sigh.
In case anyone else out there is feeling the same way!
@Rose, I often felt this way during the 6 months or so before I placed DH in the nursing home. I learned that it was no disgrace to keep some easy frozen foods on hand for those times when I felt too stressed to cook. (Trader Joe's spanakopita and pot pies were DH's favorites.) I hope other folks here would agree that life's a matter of doing what you can do when you can do it. All the best to you.
@Rose, actually I feel the same way, too. It's a pretty common reaction to being overwhelmed and IT IS LEGITIMATE. What you see here are the FG commenters who do this particular thing. You do not see the readers who don't, nor do you see the actions of the millions of people who don't read the FG at all. Don't mistake someone's highlights for their life reel and don't think that everyone who comments does everything discussed on this list.
I don't sew.
I don't grow food.
I don't can or preserve.
I don't thrift my clothes or just about anything else.
I eat out at least once a week.
I sell almost nothing online and hate doing it when I do.
I pay someone to mow my lawn and clean my gutters.
I pay someone to clean my house.
I don't really meal plan.
I don't make yogurt.
https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/in-case-you-were-wondering-you-dont-have-to-make-yogurt/
@Rose,
You are not a failure at housekeeping. You are reading and commenting on a frugal blog which shows you are putting effort in. Be gentle with yourself.
You are not alone. I feel overtired and overwhelmed too. I get annoyed when I have to stop working and feed myself. I feel inadequate when I compare myself to all the comments on here. What I try to do instead of comparing myself is to focus on the ways I am doing good, even if they don't look like what everyone else is doing.
@Rose, your kitchen and fridge/freezer have food in them so that's a success not a failure. Comparison is the thief of joy. I love reading what everyone else is doing AND I'm happy that I don't do things the same way. Having too much food (or anything) on hand makes me jittery.
@Rose, I am with William---I can list a ton of ways I do not do what other frugal people do. I feel like a bit of a failure when I read about people who keep their houses cold and wear seven pairs of socks and two sweaters to keep heating costs down. But I remind myself that I do what works for me and that can change depending on my health, my mental mindset at any particular time, how much actual time I have to do things like bake bread...And there are things I won't ever do anymore because I can afford to pay someone to shovel our snow, clear our roof of snow, and do the heavy cleaning once a week. Also, a lot of things I do, like gardening and keeping chickens, are frugal but I do then because I love doing them. I also like baking and it has little to do with frugality, although it is more frugal. I read this blog and one other to get ideas and to spend time around people who are not especially consumer oriented, not to feel guilty. Do what you can and give yourself some grace.
Oh man, you folks are just the best. Thanks so much. It's been a week around here and it's only Wednesday, ha!
My cleaning lady is coming on Saturday and I'm embarrassed. I think I probably need to divert the river Alphaeus to flow through this house. It's my only hope! (stupid Augean stable reference)
You've cheered me up so much. Kristen's readers are the best. Love to you all, and I will live to fight on another day.
Just popping in to say that I agree with everyone else; no one does it all! And not everyone is in the same type of life situation.
Hugs to you!
@Rose, I'm late to the party--but I wanted to chime in and say that if doing "frugal" things like keeping a stocked pantry is physically and mentally exhausting for you, then you shouldn't do it. There are seasons of life where you need to be realistic with your time and energy. These are also important resources and need to be "budgeted", too. Exhausting yourself to achieve some sort of frugal goal is a poor use of your energy and could lead to illness. Take care of yourself!
@All
Seconding the comments above!
Everyone has their own situation, needs and preferences.
@Kris, Oh, I have so many illnesses already, believe me. That's 80% of the problem. I always say if I were a horse they'd've shot me a long time ago.
@Rose, I commented above about how I have a stocked pantry because I have anxiety from various things. Despite that, I phone it in on dinner more nights than I can count because I really don't want to cook. I may be "frugal" in that I stock up on food at lower prices to get me through things, but I am not "frugal" on other things (that same anxiety leads me to get single-focused on things. I now have a handmade leather good problem. All bought second-hand and all in the budget of my fun money, but I don't really need that many things). I also buy convenience foods when needed--I have a kid who is half corn-dog at this point (and also thinks he is a dog. So that makes sense). We went from school lunches to lunches at home while both parents tried to work full-time and virtual school the kids--we learned to embrace corn dogs and taquitos. (When the supply chain made those inaccessible, they switched to rolls and rice (at their delight). Much more economical but they made me feel like I was treating them like Dickens characters. Nothing like a bowl of only white rice to make you question your parenting).
For the last 3.25 years, my life has been "get through to the next day" and I often remark that I have lost the plotline. I keep thinking I will get to the point where I no longer live in reactions, but as an active participant--but life keeps coming. I am getting better at participating, but it is hard. Do what you can to make it to the next day and ignore the rest.
@hp, Ahem. I had white rice (with salt and a bit of olive oil) for dinner last night and for lunch the day before.
I live in hurricane country, so I always have a stock of food and supplies around...it's really nice to be able to stay out of the grocery stores when everyone else is trying to do storm prep. Up until the pandemic, I used to buy the next container of most things when the previous one hit the half-way mark, other than a few supplies like shaving cream where it's really hard to tell how much you have left. Now I've expanded to "one open, one in the pantry" and will probably stick with that until the supply chain straightens out and I am more willing to go to the grocery store on a regular basis--although shortages aren't that bad here, I definitely can't expect that everything on my list will be there when it works out for me to go. I live in a tiny condo, so I did add a narrow shelf (I think it was intended as media storage) and I keep a couple of boxes in my closet...although that's mostly because I love Trader Joe's holiday coffee and I try to buy enough to hold me all year!
I am a single person living in a smallish 1923 apartment in a major city. I am also in a wheelchair and cannot get out on my own or shop on my own in local stores. (This was way before the pandemic and being older and health compromised, for sure I am not in stores.)
I have come to rely on deliveries from Fresh Direct; stop and shop; amazon fresh and whole foods. Now, that sounds like we have lots of options but between minimum orders, delivery fees and tips, I have to shop very carefully so that what I might save from sales isn't then spent on fees, tips, etc.
When first landed in the wheelchair 8 years ago, I started building a pantry in the foyer/entry hall of the apartment, which happens to be well suited to tall wire shelving (9 foot ceilings!). I have six series of shelves (different sizes) and have quite a stocked pantry at this point. It's not easy to ensure that items don't get used before expiration (Could someone PLEASE create a software program where you can scan the product code and input an expiration date (where you can find or read)? Please.)
I do a twice a month check to look for potentially expiring items in the next month.
My aide still shops three times a week for fresh fruit and veggies (and some deli stuff).
The freezer is small and always full (Trader Joe items and perishables purchased on sale, like bacon, which has gone up in price astronomically.) and I pull from it at least twice a week. In winter I stock up on frozen veggies.
I would kill for a chest freezer but even if I could carve out space, we have very very limited electrical capacity (microwave on, everything in bedroom shut off!).
I don't buy in bulk with a few exceptions because I k now I will not be able to use. Sometimes I share those items with my health aide (mom of two). I still save and I like sharing.
Prices are rising like crazy here from week to week. The "sale" prices for many items is now what the full/regular price was a few weeks ago. I am glad that having ordered some items in bulk (tuna, canned tomatoes, paper products) I am saving money by having the pantry.
There was a promo on instacart and I've used that for a few things (fresh) that I needed from a local store when my aide was out and I could not get fresh fruits and veggies because I did not meet minimums for food delivery.
Avoiding regular prices where possible; stockpiling I items used almost daily; using amazon subscribe and save, selectively; taking advantage of promotions, etc. helps me save but food still takes up way more of my budget. And it's hard to judge how quickly you can eat all the fresh veggies but I need to have them as an option.
I think I probably have more storage in my hall/foyer setup than many homes.
It is very reassuring to me because I have been in situations where I had no way to get food and as someone who has been an independent contractor for over 30 years, income continues to vary markedly and can always end with little to no warning. Having enough to make a decent (albeit maybe not totally balanced or fresh) meal is important. I can remember my early years and literally living off beans and rice as that was all I could afford while waiting to get paid by a client.
It takes work to find sales; to monitor your pantry and to minimize food waste.
I joke that when I'm gone, they can invite folks in to "shop" from my pantry.
I also find that having some pantry items at hand (low sodium stocks, for example, and canned tomatoes in various types) allows me to create more meals that I can then freeze and save. It's hard to imagine that I never had much of anything stored in the apartment as I could just walk out to many stores. It was truly great to have during the pandemic because OMG, you couldn't even get deliveries, let alone get what you wanted to buy. I haven't forgotten that experience and it was awful.
@Irena, you've done an awesome job at stocking up in the best ways possible for your situation. You rock!
@Irena, I have taken a fat-tip permanent marker and written expiration dates down the sides of the products (cake/brownie mixes in my case), in numbers so large you can't miss them. Even with this I STILL have let stuff expire, but it's an idea. Your pantry sounds amazing!!
@Irena, you have done an amazing job with managing your food situation.
@Sarah C.,
I do that with the Sharpie too, even though I stack everything in order of expiration. Seeing that date so boldly really helps me to meal plan and use everything wisely before it expires.
I join everyone else in being amazed at how you've tackled this challenge!
I'm learning to balance having a food stock with feeling overwhelmed by too much stuff. Most of my friends have refrigerators that are bursting at the seams - for me, it translates to the stress of having to manage food that will go bad and then I'll feel guilt over throwing it away and being wasteful. So I tend to go to the market more often and stock up less.
I realize that this security that I can always go get food comes from a place of privilege - I've never been in a situation where I didn't have access to food...my mom had to stand in ration lines to get food for her family as a child so she manages her food stock differently. She always has a stock of grains, flour, sugar, dried beans, potatoes, onions, etc. I do want to be more like her. My husband is also more sensitive about expiration dates and food going bad so he looks at me like I'm disgusting if I use something past the best by date. This adds to my anxiety (using this term lightly) about using up food. I think it all just boils down to improving my skills when it comes to planning - knowing what I use, using up what I have, and making sure we're always covered. I admire so many of you who have this locked up!
Is there a particular kind of bucket or other container that anyone likes for storing flour? I'm still looking for a good way to store it.
@Danielle Zecher, just any food-grade storage buckets offer good protection. They keep things fresher and keep out pests! I've heard people say you can sometimes get buckets free from places like grocery store bakeries (icing buckets etc.) and you just wash them out and use. I bought a couple of 5-gallon food-grade buckets from Lowe's (I just checked and they still have some available for under $5) for storage. I splurged and also bought some gamma lids (which screw on and off) to make access easier. As mentioned by others - I store them under a table (with tablecloth) in a corner!
@Danielle Zecher, Firehouse Subs sells their giant pickle buckets for $3 and the money goes to their community charity that supports fire fighters and EMTs. You can buy just the gamma lids for those buckets from Lowes; here they cost $7 each. That comes to $10 per bucket, which is cheaper than I can buy them any other way.
I have always wondered...do these buckets smell like pickles?
@Danielle Zecher,
I'm super late to this party, but in case it's helpful, I store my flour in metal trash cans lined with big black contractor trash bags. Two 50 lb bags easily fit upright in each can and then I keep smaller bags of things on top, like baking soda, rice or brown sugar. I have three metal cans in my basement. I chose metal to exclude any potential rodents, but use the trash bags to make them water tight. When my basement flooded, none of my flour was lost! I also have a small dehydrator in each can-the kind you use on boats and then plug in to release the moisture as needed. I basically plug them in on my front porch whenever my husband complains about them-like twice a year, but probably they should be plugged in once a month or so. I'm not particularly good at upkeep tasks like that. Unlike Kristen, I do not bother to freeze my flour to kill buggies, mostly because I am lazy. We go through it pretty fast so it hasn't been a problem.
I grew up with food insecurities, and when the kids were little, we also had challenges with obtaining enough food. Although my finances have changed significantly since then, I still have a very well stocked pantry. My house was built int 1920, so I have a closet sized pantry in the kitchen for day to day stuff. I built a walk in pantry in the laundry room that holds overflow—like extra canned goods, bags of sugar and loud, dried beans, cooking oils, etc. I also have a smaller deep freeze and do canning of seasonal foods (which are stored on canned food shelves in the basement). I buy a lot of in season foods, and will buy items when on sale or marked down and make sure they’re properly stored and used. I eat 99.99% of my meals at home, and could probably live for several months on the foods in my pantries, freezer and canned items.
Living in an area where earthquake preparedness is a necessity, I've always had at least a basic emergency supply, even when I lived in small apartments. Now my "pantry" is a cabinet in my garage, but it's kept me well-fed when I've been sick, temporarily broke, or simply disinclined to go grocery shopping.
One lesson I've learned the hard way: even in the case of an emergency, your tastes are not going to change. So don't buy food you don't like just because it's a good deal! Make sure you're stocking your pantry/emergency supply with things you actually want to eat.
Years ago, when my children were still at home, I read an article suggesting everyone keep a two week food supply in case times became difficult. I started to do that.
I have always stocked up for hurricane season too. Then two years ago, I started stocking up more because of the shortages.
I budget five dollars a week to stocking up, and do so seasonably. For instance, next month, I will begin to stock up for hurricane season by buying lots of canned beans, tuna, some crackers, nuts, etc. When June rolls around, I will be all set, and can focus on securing my home. Also, it leaves food on the shelf for people who can’t buy until the last minute..
I like to keep a small inventory of items I use frequently in the house. We have a large storage area in the basement so I tuck the extras that I pick up from Costco on one of the shelves. We also buy a 1/4 cow each year and keep that in a small deep freeze in the basement. We participate in a CSA program each summer and I like to pre-chop and freeze the extra veggies we can't get through so I have them on hand as well.
In the winter the food inventory is a blessing. There have been times where the temps don't go over zero for days on end and when that happens I would prefer to not go outside. I also like getting creative and force myself to do a pantry/freezer inventory clean out a couple times a year to use up all the odds and ends. This was very helpful when the grocery stores were nuts at the start of the pandemic. Then when the riots started in Minneapolis, the surrounding cities set up curfews and grocery stores closed early so we couldn't go out to go shopping if we wanted to.
Several years ago, a family medical emergency threw us for a loop, with the added stress of no food in the house because both my husband and I had been home sick the previous week (an eternal cosmic "thank you" to the friend you brought us groceries!!!). Ever since, we've been VERY careful to always have a larder. We even have a small pantry section labeled "lazy food" that requires heating at the most for days when the effort and/or time just aren't there. We cook 95% of our meals from scratch, so that section is where the Junk of Convenience and Salvation lies. 🙂
Like many here, I make a point of stocking up on staples when they're on a good sale. I also multi-task a store if possible. If I go in to Target for one specific thing (yes, I have this superpower! :P), I'll also check the cat food isle to see if they have any of our boys' favorites in stock. Target and PetSmart carry different flavors, at least in paté and flaked (one of our boys is minus most of his teeth), so it pays to look while I'm already there. Most Target receipts are for that one specific thing + 6-8 cans of cat food!
That said, I long for the days of stocking up just because of a sale vs. wondering whether something will be available next time, even when I already have a decent stash at home. I find it useful to keep a list on my phone; I can scroll through our inventory quickly, be soothed, and not overbuy in the moment because the empty shelves are stressing me out. I do have a "one opened, one new" policy and immediately add items to the grocery list when I've taken their last backup from the cupboards.
Pantry-wise, we've an upright freezer (1/2 a full chest freezer in dimensions), four cupboards, and a small rolling cart that we added in 2020. 1/2 of the cupboards are for the cat supplies and for bottled water in case of emergencies, with the rest containing spices, canned goods, flour, etc. Minus fresh produce, we could conservatively go for 1-2 months without buying ANYTHING for any of us, kitties included.
We keep a chest freezer and pantry for many of the same reasons as Kristen. I love the convenience of having things on hand especially when we are sick or facing a winter snow storm. We also keep some convenience meals when I don't feel like cooking, like frozen pizza, tortillas to make tacos or quesadillas, canned soup, etc. I also keep a small stash of frozen fruits and vegetables. They are convenient, and nice to have when fresh vegetables are limited or expensive when out of season.
We keep a couple weeks (pantry) to a couple months' worth of food (freezer) in the house. We go in cycles of eating down the stash for a couple weeks, then a bigger trip to the grocery store to stock up. This helps manage food waste.
I do stock up on household goods as well. I buy a large package of toilet paper that lasts a couple months. When I take the last rolls to stock up the bathrooms, I buy another large package. Or I buy 4-6 bottles of contact solution at a time and I don't need to buy for another few months. It helps with the mental load of keeping track of inventory.
I have always kept my shelves stocked mainly because we lived in the country and couldn't always get out because of weather. Never have I ever done it because of insecurity. We have recenty moved into a small town to be closer to our children and are enjoying small town living and I still continue to stock my shelves in the basement. My great grandchildren love going down there to see what we have. 🙂
I coupon and stockpile as a way to be frugal and save on our household budget, but it's also a fun hobby I enjoy. My grocery shopping cart probably confuses most people - I might be buying 5 jars of pasta sauce and 8 boxes of cereal, but not milk or pasta because I got that on sale last week.
The horrified look on the face of the teenage male checker last year when I bought all 30 boxes of clearance Kotex Security tampons my store had was priceless - but I should be good from now until menopause, for $1.50 a box.
To keep things from getting lost/old/going bad, twice a year I try to work thru the pantry and freezer to whittle down the stockpile and be sure things get used, along with random toiletries I picked up free and never really liked. After stocking up on all the loss leaders in November and December, I limit my January shopping to only perishables and a few missing ingredients to create meals from what I already have, and see how long we can go. This year I'm still working on it a week into February and have barely made a dent!
I like to be 'a good scout' - be prepared.
Buy the essentials BEFORE they are needed! That way one doesn't run out.
Also, the manna program is a good one, give us this day our daily bread.
And today's own troubles are enough for today, don't borrow trouble from tomorrow.
I don't think these thoughts are contradictory.
Maybe I'm wrong.
When driveway ice prevents me from going 'out', happiness is being prepared.
Love this topic. My walk-in kitchen pantry is to die for. That doesn't stop me from having two more in the garage. When my family teases me, I reply I have what my LDS friends might call, "a good start".
I learned to know my prices and stock up when the price is right from the beloved Amy D. of Tightwad Gazette fame.
Since the pandemic, I have gotten even more serious about food storage. I have plenty to get us through a shortage of any kind or if I need to skip a week at the grocery. The meat I bought a few months ago was way cheaper than the meat I buy today. I have stocked up on all dry goods as well..every closet and pantry area is packed. We also bought a 25 pound bag of dried garbanzo beans at winco.They are a source of good protein, very filling, and have a lot of calories..and they keep a long time,just in case meat/seafood does get scarce. I think these times are still uncertain. I want to do what I can to be prepared. Spending a bit extra weekly is not a big deal, since we no longer travel or go out to eat or to a movie,since Covid!!
I forgot to add: We also keep a stock of other goods,especially now: Batteries, chlorine tabs for our pool (they got scare and very pricey last year!!) shampoo, hand soap, vinegar for cleaning, various things my husband knows about for house repairs.
We live on a small island where offer fluctuate all the time. We have had, the year of no fruit juice, the trimester of no milk, the month of no pasta… you get the drift.
We keep a large and extensive pantry, because of the climate( very hot) and the too common black out and brown out most food is shelves stable.
I buy rice , flour and maize in 50 kg bags, use ghee, long conservation milk and milk powder. We salt meat and fish, make chutney and conserves. Dry fruit and vegetables in a solar oven.I put wax on my cans so then don’t rust, keep most useful stuff in 3 months to a year supply.
We I visited the States, they called me prepper…
@Bella Lewin, I tend to store quite a bit of food- almost all staples on sale, or great deals on things we use frequently. Several years ago a relative looked at my cabinets and called me a prepper, which had to be explained to me at the time! It isn’t complimentary. But I DO plan and prepare for food and household and hygiene stuff needs. It seems strange not to! The joke was on them, though, because in talking more, it turned out that for exactly the same size family, we spend HALF of what they spend! Example- canned veg (tomatoes and beans) were 10 for $4. My grocery has this sale twice a year, so I stock up. Forty cents versus 99 cents or more for them. Aldi butter was 1.99 so put lots in the freezer. They pay $3.99 or more per pound. You get the idea. And living on an island must be a huge challenge, which you have figured out how to manage.
Ideas for future posts: 1. the actual frugal and scientific best way to store coffee
2. Do any canned fruits actually provide nutrition
3. Beans side-effects- how to manage
Thanks so much for everyone’s thoughts!
@Jenny, green coffee beans keep wel when vacuum pack. Roast what you need every 2 weeks . We get our coffee in huge bags straight from a Jamaican farmer.
Alaska is at the end of the supply line and we have little in-state agriculture, so we have about six months of food in canned, frozen or dehydrated form. As some people may recall, in February of 2020, I accidently ordered 20 cases, rather than two cases of toilet paper, so weeks before Covid shutdown I ended up with $400 worth of toilet paper that we are still living with (and that December we gave cases of toilet paper as Christmas gifts!) My husband ended up building a platform for our bed, raising it up so that we could store cases of toilet paper under it!
I was raised with stories of what my parents and grandparents endured under the Soviets and then, after making a massive mistake and moving to Germany to escape, living under the Nazi takeover. Their trauma was baked into my bones so my husband married someone who always had tons of toilet paper, bought real wood furniture so that there would be plenty of fuel to burn if utilities were shut off or became scarce, and whose father gave her gold coins or jewelry for gifts so that I would have something to sew into my seams if we had to run. For me, talking about stocking up in case of things like civil war or supply chain issues goes well beyond food storage.
@Lindsey, these are awesome stories about your parents and grands. You've mentioned the circumstances briefly before, but, boy, do I ever get it now. (And because I happened to stock up on TP just before the pandemic hit, I too became the TP Queen of my social circle.)
@Lindsey,
I hope you can still feel secure in your daily life. It seems horrible, to always be ready for the worst.
I also have a mother who grew up with wartime food insecurity, but until the pandemic I didn't worry about stockpiling. I live in a small apartment in Switzerland, with an under-counter refrigerator, no separate freezer compartment and no pantry (or extra cupboard). Before the pandemic I also travelled a lot for work. The extent of my food storage was few extra cans of tuna and boxes of pasta, although I had a reasonable supply of cleaning products. During the pandemic I had to quarantine a few times when grocery delivery services were overwhelmed, and I also learned that the Swiss generally advise keeping two weeks worth of food and supplies in the home. I figured out some additional storage options in various nooks around the apartment, bought a small freezer which now sits in the hallway, and built up my supplies over a few months in 2020. I had to learn a few lessons -- don't buy in bulk without knowing how much you use of an item, don't buy things you have no interest in eating or patience to prepare, etc. For awhile I put out a free box in my building almost every weekend, but now that I've learned I will not eat 12 large packages of peanuts in a year, or go through ten bottles of olive oil, I have been able to avoid wasteful purchases and keep the supply steadier. In general, when there is a good sale I buy only two of an item. I check dates once a month and put everything that needs to be used within the month in a visible spot on my kitchen counter. I still buy fresh fruits and vegetables several times per week. This feels like a permanent change that will take little effort to continue now that I have started.
I like have a few extras of things I regularly use. I try to buy an extra package of meat or chicken when it’s on sale. My general rule is if something I buy is on sale, my rock bottom price, I get few extras. Also I only buy certain things at specific times of the year. An example would be, baking items at the holidays, or soda now around the Super Bowl. I shop mark downs and buy a lot at Costco or Sam’s.
We have winter to deal with and snow and ice removal at my housing complex hasn't been exactly great lately. I'm disabled and our transportation options are dwindling as well. My limited income means it just makes sense to put in extra. I'm in a small 1 bedroom apartment so stashing canned goods under the bed, and on a plastic shelving unit I bought on sale in a closet have made a big difference. It's paid off in terms of when shelves went bare during the toilet paper and hoarding panic during early covid and also now when supply chain issues affect my most often reached for items.
We can do everything but freezer stuff. We have a smallish freezer on our fridge, and I was really wanting a second freezer UNTIL Northern California Wildfire Season became a year round phenomenon. We are lucky that we only lost electricity for 2 days (PG&E turns off the power pre-emptively so that high winds won't down live lines and start fires) while many people in our county went a week or more. And in some cases, they were evacuated when the electricity was off, so not only did they come home to a mess of rotting food, but in some cases their fridges and freezers were unsalvageable. So I just cant see risking losing hundreds of dollars of food in a separate freezer.
My husband and I still disagree (after 33 years of marriage!) on stocking the pantry. He thinks more than 2 cans of anything is a waste, where I'd buy a dozen of something we use all the time. Particularly since we don't eat a lot of processed foods, it's hard to know what to stock (cans of tomatoes, pumpkin, beans, nut butters, nuts and seeds, flours, olive and avocado oil, vinegar are in there). I'd like to learn how to can, and we ferment some foods and dehydrate some things. Our meals are usually a protein main dish (fish, meat, chicken, or eggs) and several servings of fresh veggies--but we can certainly do more work on planning for the apocalypse.
I would love to buy flour in bulk. We get weevils every time I buy flour. any tips? I froze the last (5 lb) bag overnight, but not sure if that affects baking with it. We don't use anything fancy.
@michelle grover, flour should be frozen for 48 hours and stored in an airtight container. We used to use gallon zip locks, which hold about 5 pounds of flour, but now have switched to a reusable containers. We like pantry sized containers for the 25 pounds we buy at a time, but other folks store it in food grade buckets.
This article has more flour storage info: https://www.thespruceeats.com/how-to-store-flour-1389337
@S, thanks!
You can do this even in a small city apartment like mine. Many years ago we cleared out everything in the kitchen we didn't truly need. It made more room for extra food storage so we can buy on sale and then use as needed. We don't have much freezer space so we rely on non-perishables like beans, rice, and pasta that can stay in cabinets for a while. Certain items we keep one extra on hand like you do. While we don't have as much as some, it's enough for the two of us and we almost always eat all our leftovers as well.
As for other goods, I keep some spares in the bedroom and linen closet as we don't have tons of clothes or linens. One thing I do keep on hand there is some bottled water for drinking since if the power goes out so does the water that's pumped up in our tall building.
I have always kept a lot of food (shelf stable and frozen) on hand, as my mum does and so did my grandmother (British WWII housewife). I was brought up to cook from scratch, bake, make jam and chutney’s etc, so I was used to having cupboards full of ingredients. “Shop bought” was something my grandmother said with some disapproval! I grew up in a rural area, and in the winter our village would regularly lose power and get cut off (fallen trees or snow), so it always seemed just sensible to have a stock of food to hand (regular stuff you normally eat). I just stocked up when I saw a good offer (sadly very few and far between now in the UK).
I remember the first time going into my Portuguese MIL kitchen cupboards and being absolutely shocked that there wasn’t lots of food in them just olive oil and a little rice. She was equally shocked when she saw mine! She just buys what she intends to eat that week.
I had prepared for increased prices and shortages because of the Brexit here in the UK by increasing my stocks of imported good (by sheer chance just before the pandemic started). However despite my full cupboards, when we had to self isolate in the first lockdown (we had covid symptoms back in March 2020) we ran out of fresh produce and milk in about 5 days, so I realised I wasn’t quite as prepared as I thought I was. We had frozen vegetables but my kids weren’t very impressed by them.
I have my stockpile of food. Who wants to go to the store all the time? I buy flour in 25-lb bags, and I have a bucket of white sugar (in 4- and 5-lb bags) and another of brown sugar (in 1-lb bags). I have canned items by the case. My husband says I can "make nothing taste good!" LOL! He SAYS he means I can take what we have in the house and make something he likes at a short notice.
I have enjoyed reading all of these comments! Such a diverse group of readers and reasons/ways to stock & store. I always get new ideas and perspectives from all of you. Thanks!
I keep some extras on hand especially now with the continuously rising prices. If an item is on sale at an excellent savings, I will buy more than one. I do have a large pantry which helps. Definitely a good idea to stock up if you are able to do it.