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*WHY* do you stockpile?

25K views 98 replies 56 participants last post by  bookwormpeg 
#1 ·
If I had to guess, I'm pretty sure that aside from milk, sandwich bread, and fresh fruit/veg, we could live out of our pantry right now out past New Years...
oh, and if the chickens stop laying for the winter, we might have to buy eggs...

For me, part of it is the rumors of prices going up, part of it is I found good deals, part of it was I was on convalescent leave and had nothing
better to do with my time than stalk the good deals...

Now here I am , back to work, looking to pay down debt and seriously considering just NOT buying groceries for a while... just because there's
not much more room for them (nice problem to have) and I could put that money to other use... but then I worry that there will be unrest surrounding the
elections/sequestration/tax changes/etc not necessarily an end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it situation... but some type of disruption of supplies in
some areas.

In the past, when things felt different, I used to stop shopping in November at the latest and run out all of our supplies before New Years. Anything that was
left from the old year went to the foodbank. It was sort of a spiritual thing--the old year had provided more blessings than we could use, so we passed
them on, making room for new blessings to enter our lives. It was also a chance to make sure nothing expired and to wipe the shelves really clean... :)

I don't feel so comfortable with that these days. So here's my question.... why do you stockpile, and how low would you let your supply go if you were
going to use the grocery money saved towards bills (and probably restock later, because it's just such a nice feeling to have it there, just in case)
 
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#93 ·
I agree with Chrissy. Before the crisis, we had 2 refrigerators and I had a card table that I would put items on. I would haphazardly buy items that were loss leaders as well as items we used routinely. When DH lost jobs and also landed in the hospital, any food in storage was used. My low wage job couldn't handle most bills and food is an expense with teens. So it was truly a life saver.

We have an extra freezer but all frozen items are getting used since we have not had rental income in months and I cut my job hours in half. So, I'm using whatever we have and buying stuff sparingly.
 
#94 ·
I do not usually participate in the stockpile threads since I am kind of a stock pile light. I do not have years worth of food or anything like that. It is mostly just buying extra of stuff when it is on sale. Also sometimes we get deals on things we can only get in bulk.

We could probably get by for month, maybe two depending in an emergency. It would depend on how picky we were. The stockpile is not really balanced since most of our fruits and veggies we get fresh or frozen. The exception is applesauce and tomato sauce.

For weather/natural disaster related things, the longest we have not been able to get to the store was 2 1/2 weeks. For financial rough times I have generally supplement the food on hand with some fresh fruit and veggies. But that was mostly because we had some money saved.

I will admit their is a psychological need as well. I just feel more secure having a little food saved up.
 
#95 ·
To avoid unnecessary runs to town, to have work lunches at the ready (stock pile high-end tinned tuna and salmon when it is on supersale), and perhaps as a reaction to times when I was so poor in college that I couldn't afford to or didn't know how to stock pile. I think with a 40$ a month food budget my senior year, I really couldn't stock pile much. Stole napkins for TP...perhaps that was early (and borderline unethical) stockpiling.

I also stock pileso I have food to share if someone seems to need some.
 
#96 ·
I stockpile when things are on sale. Why pay full price? As I've gotten older, I don't really like going to the store anymore. I get tired and sometimes it's just not safe out there. I've left a parking lot because something has felt off. But mostly to save money. It's nice to have a stockpile and someone asks if we can make XXXXXX and I just have to run down to the stockpile and get it. I know dh and I could live off our stockpile for quite a while if we had to. We don't have as much as we used to, since it just the two of us now and the variety is different. I only stockpile what we would eat.
 
#97 ·
Same as in my other posts early on in thread. Difference is now he hit SS 5 years ago now and I signed up in March...6 months early. I worked on adding to stockpile for several months previous cause plan was to get out of the business when I, myself, hit SS age. Business got bad again last year and come March we decided to go ahead and me sign up. My SS check is half what my income was the first part of last year but more for last several months. Business sucked. So I worked $Generals $5 off $25 and Publix and Dixies BOGO's to the best advantages I could. I figured anything I had stocked and not have to buy till next sale was to our advantage.
 
#98 ·
I stockpile because as a single income family money is always tight and the future is uncertain. I get very uncomfortable if we have less than 6 months worth of food in the house. I have learned a lot of tips to keep spending down and we take advantage of really good sales to build up our supply. Prices certainly aren't getting any cheaper.
 
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