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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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#2 ·
Even tho' my "pantry" and refrigerator/freezer is apartment size, I think I could rather easily survive a couple of months except for the typical eggs, milk, bread, produce stuff. It wouldn't always be eating what I want, or as much as I want (that would not be a bad thing), but I wouldn't go hungry. Feeding the dog would be an issue. I have about a months supply of turkey/chicken for him and would have to get his other stuff - sweet potatoes, veggies.

The primary reason I've tried stocking up on as many canned goods and non-perishables as possible is because of the rising prices. Each and every time I walk into the grocery store, I'm seeing price increases on almost everything I purchase. Just the other day, I sat here and figured if you buy 50 items a week on average (and I don't think that is unreasonable for most families) with a $0.10 increase in each item...52 weeks a year...that's $260.00 increase per year. Factoring in increased prices for rents, utilities, insurance, gas and a million other things, everyone is probably taking a rather significant "cut in pay" just to maintain and in some cases, maintain an even lower standard of living.

The little bit that I've managed to save by stockpiling what I can won't be very significant in the end, but it somehow makes me feel a bit better
 
#3 ·
I stockpile mostly because we live in the boonies and getting to the store for just a few items is not practical. . . plus in the winter we have snow/ice storms that make travel impossible.

DD and I both have food allergies/intolerances - so if I find things we can have at a good price I'll stock up to keep from paying higher prices.

Plus I grew up and still live on a farm where stockpiling is the norm - you put up the harvest to last until the next harvest, plus some in case next year is lean.
 
#4 ·
I stockpile b/c I like being able to 'shop' at home in my jammies. The fact that there is a lack of annoying shoppers that abandon their cart in the middle of the aisle to walk three aisles over right in front of me is another huge reason too.

There is the obvious cost saving reasons too - sales/deals/promotions that you sometimes can't pass up. Shop once, cook thrice. No excess gas costs associated with having to pop back out to pick up one or two items. And convenience - who wants to go out at 11pm to pick up something?
 
#7 ·
The fact that there is a lack of annoying shoppers that abandon their cart in the middle of the aisle to walk three aisles over right in front of me is another huge reason too.?
Had to chuckle when I read this...........:laugh: thought you had moved to my town!!!

Or how about the ones that DON'T ABANDON their carts.....and stand there talking to another 'buddy' they have run into..............look at you, see you coming, but do they move over???...............H3!! no!!!!

So......why do I stock pile??? Other than what I can 'potentially' save in food costs and gas money..........I HATE SHOPPING!!!!! hate it!!!

The snow in the winter is a minor issue as I could probably get "out" if I wanted to..............just the thought of going shopping..........UNLESS......it is a thrift shop..........or rummage sale!!
 
#5 ·
Sunshine wrote my post. :) I didn't grow up on a farm, but I did spend my early childhood on one. And when we left, my grandmother used to come and can and help mom stock up to prepare for winter when we were growing up.

Also I have multiple food intolerances/allergies, so when I see sales, I grab them!

And we live in a place that gets very cold and snowy in winter, and the city doesn't plow sidewalks. It's not safe to walk on the street with the cars. I've spent 2 weeks indoors in winter just because of weather. So I stockpile at least that much in food stuff.

But honestly, right now, we probably have anywhere from a week's to a year's worth of certain things in the house. I need to fill my freezer with meat. :)
 
#8 ·
I stockpile because I was raised Mormon. I'm not Mormon anymore, and haven't been for years, but some of the conditioning is difficult to get rid of. I was raised to believe that the end of the world was coming any day, and that you needed a year supply of food on hand for when society collapsed. So to be completely honest, I stockpile out of fear. Not that I believe in the Mormon version of this as the "last days" anymore intellectually, but emotionally, the fear is ingrained pretty deeply.
 
#9 ·
I still stand by my reasons regarding prices. Just got back from the store. Bought a dozen eggs...up 10 cents from less than a week ago and when I had purchased them then, they were up 10 cents. Essentially, in less than two weeks, a dozen eggs went from $1.48 to $1.68. Bread was up a nickle from last week. Few other items I bought I don't recall prior prices since it's been a while since purchased.

So for those of you that don't like to shop, what do you do about fresh produce? For the life of me, I can't get produce to last longer than a few days and still taste decent.
 
#23 ·
So for those of you that don't like to shop, what do you do about fresh produce? For the life of me, I can't get produce to last longer than a few days and still taste decent.
We do weekly runs for perishables. If I'm the one doing the running, I'll usually pop into the store after I've dropped off DH at work or before I pick him up. If it's dad - he has his lil runs 2x-4x/wk.

I also have a few things I wouldn't stockpile again. If I want them I'll get them but not to stockpile.
Out of curiosity - what won't you buy to stockpile again? Are you will to share?

Simply put, it's foolish to pay retail for something tomorrow, when you can buy it on sale today.
Exactly!!

-------------

I just bought the remainder of this year and half of next year's coffee supply. My dad looked at me like I had 12 heads and each one of them was on fire. DH & I prefer a specific organic coffee. Its pricey. There's a sale going on which knocks $5 off the price. Even then, my dad still claimed it was too expensive. The sale price is still $3 cheaper/lb at this sale price then it is when buying directly from the brand itself. Its hard to find a sale on our coffee and when I do, this is what I do. Now I don't have to think about coffee for a year. And the expiry date is way out near the end of 2013 so its not going to 'spoil'.
 
#10 ·
I stockpile because I am cheap :lol:. With prices climbing I like to pay the lowest prices I can. So sometimes that means buying 10 jars of peanut butter one week and the next week it's 8 jars of pasta sauce. I like to keep a nicely stocked pantry so I am prepared.

Another main reason is I like to have staples on hand for dinner, snacks, kids lunches, etc. I hate to have to stop at the store because we have run out of something or going out to eat because I don' have the right items on hand for a meal or kids lunches.

How low would I go? That is tough to say. If it is at my "buy" price I would probably continue to stock up and maybe just set aside a certain $$ per week.

 
#12 ·
For produce I always try to keep apples or pears on hand since they keep longer it seems. I also keep some frozen fruit (berries), some canned fruit (pineapple, madarine oranges) and some frozen and canned veggies. It will keep us going in a pinch :)
 
#13 ·
Fruit isn't a problem for me since I only eat bananas for the most part and occasional applesauce. It's the lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers...that sort of stuff. I'm doing better with the celery and green onions after hearing everyone's ideas on another thread (and I'm currently growing some green onions!). Cucumber. Bought one a few days ago, went to make a salad last night and it was shriveled up already. 78 cents down the tube.
 
#14 · (Edited)
I'm seeing prices going down here, at least on ad items.

Flour was .30/lb. here yesterday, after more than a year of not going below .40/lb. Honeycrisp apples were $1.89/lb. A couple weeks ago I paid $2.19 and was happy to get them at that, since they had been $5/lb. Meat prices were lower, but I didn't buy any. Eggs were lower, too. I don't know if this is the glut predicted a few weeks ago due to producers selling off herds and flocks, or what. We'll see, I suppose.

I'll confess to doing some panic buying, which, when I think about it, is stupid. There's no way to avoid rising prices and I know that intellectually, but I still smile when I pull a .99 jar of peanut butter out of the freezer. Weird of me, I know.

I stock up when I can get killer deals on items we would buy anyway, or which can save us big in some way. Like the two cases of evaporated milk I got for .25 a can over summer, or the tens pounds of bacon we got earlier this year for $1.50/pound. The milk is providing cheap snacks since we make ice cream from it, which is also healthier than ready-made ice cream. We wouldn't be buying the equivalent amount of ice cream from the store, but we would be paying for some other kind of snack if we didn't make ice cream. It's saved us many times from buying DQ Blizzards! And it sure helped us cool down during our long, hot summer with a broken AC!
 
#43 ·
Like the two cases of evaporated milk I got for .25 a can over summer, or the tens pounds of bacon we got earlier this year for $1.50/pound.
I'm so happy you mentioned bacon! A while back I was able to find Oscar Mayer for under $2/lb with a coupon, and there were plenty of coupons available... so I bought about 10 lbs... my niece cracked up when she saw it in my freezer... I organized and did inventory on Friday and found we were down to the last two packages, between what we used ourselves and what I sent to my sister's house. (She's widowed raising 3 kids with a fourth adult-child living with her... bacons a pretty huge luxury for them) Right now the Gwaltney brand goes under $2/lb with coupon, but clearly I'm not the only one to notice that, as I had seven coupons and could only find 4 packages on the shelf when I was there... anyway, glad to hear I'm not the only bacon-hoarder out there! (Actually, the bacon-panic-false-alarm two weeks ago actually caught DH's attention enough that he ASKED me to buy a bunch of bacon, so he wouldn't have to go without)

I stockpile because I was raised Mormon. I'm not Mormon anymore, and haven't been for years, but some of the conditioning is difficult to get rid of. I was raised to believe that the end of the world was coming any day, and that you needed a year supply of food on hand for when society collapsed.
Ok, this is an honest question and not meant to offend anyone... I'm aware of the Mormon belief that there will be a great famine in the end times... but why would you *want* to survive that? Isn't it better to pass away quickly and then be brought back with the rest of the saints once all the trouble is over?

I buy chicken breasts when they are 99c a pound. And before the price of peanut butter skyrocketed I stocked up on 99c jars.

I covet your sale prices. We *NEVER* see prices like that around here. I have commissary priveleges and our "normal" price is $1.84/lb for chicken breasts... of base $1.99 is a sale price!

I just bought the remainder of this year and half of next year's coffee supply. My dad looked at me like I had 12 heads and each one of them was on fire. .
My husband was adopted, I wonder if he and your DH coudl be long-lost brothers? Mine has that same "woman are you MAD???" look

Same here. I have 3 grocery stores and a rite aid within a mile of my house. Makes it easy to hit the loss leaders.
I watch the off-base grocery ads a lot, and I don't see as many loss-leaders as I used to. So sad...

I have just begun to stockpile recently myself. I usually hit the BOGO at the grocery store especially pasta,pasta sauces and Hba's. I also have a bunch of canned soups and a some snacks put up. I am just not sure exactly how much to stockpile?
It depends on how much room you have and what your "reason" is...which is what I was curious about, which is why I started the thread. Obviously the "doomsday" types want as much as possible of everything possible... then there are the folks who have their religious reasons, those who just want to hedge against higher prices or job uncertainty... so depending on your motivation is what your "how much" answer will be. I think for most of us (those not planning to live underground for decades after a blast) the answer is "as much as you can comfortably store without going over your budget now and that you can use before safety becomes an issue"-- as many folks have mentioned already, sell-bys or use-bys are sometimes not a big issue, sometimes they are. I have about six cans of pears I bought for $.50/can a couple weeks ago... they expire this month, and we will probably not use them up before next month... but we will use them, and I'm pretty sure they won't turn toxic overnight...
 
#15 ·
Because of prices going up and uncertain job future. I was unemployed for almost 2 years.

I want 6 months worth even if toward the end of that 6 months is a mish mash. Some stuff I have 6 months in and others I don't. Right now working on using up some of the stuff I already have so that I can replenish with newer dates. After the move I've found some of the things I have WAY out of date even for me and I'm not scary of dates. Like pasta sauce...the color wasn't right.

I also have a few things I wouldn't stockpile again. If I want them I'll get them but not to stockpile.

Every time I go to the store groceries and taxables have went up. Eventually we have to pay the jacked up prices even if it's only to stockpile against prices higher than that still. Still we're saving money in the meantime.
 
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#16 ·
I try to stock up a bit, too, when I see really good deals. I posted something yesterday for people in this area that shop at Market Street. Whole chickens 68 cents/lb, red potatoes I think were 47 cents per pound. I plan to go buy this week and get some of each. At walmart today, I looked - red potatoes were 87 cents/pound. I can usually find good sale items on certain things, but it's more the everyday bread and butter types of stuff that are rarely on sale and increasing in price. Honestly, for me, it's not that huge of an issue and if I really worked at it, I could feed myself for probably $15-20/week. But I really don't see how families with 3-4 growing kids are doing it.
 
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#17 ·
Never mind the rumors, prices ARE going up. I stock up when stuff we eat is on sale so I don't have to pay the higher 'normal' retail price. I buy chicken breasts when they are 99c a pound, often 10 or 12 pounds at a time. That's a $20-25 savings off retail right there. When english muffins are 2/$3 I buy as many packs as I can stuff in the freezer. It's roughly a 60% savings. I do the same with butter. And before the price of peanut butter skyrocketed I stocked up on 99c jars.

Simply put, it's foolish to pay retail for something tomorrow, when you can buy it on sale today.
 
#18 ·
Other than getting more for less I also stockpile out of necessity. Am on a very limited budget. So I need to make every penny count. It also helps to free up money so I can go to the thriftstore, get my hair done, or save for something. There is a great deal of security knowing there is food and hba in the house. Also do not have a car so getting to the different stores is more difficult. Luckily I get a ride once a week to the grocery store and the plaza also has a dollar tree and a few other stores. But it does not have a pet store so I always make sure I have a pet stockpile ready for the winter. Big heavy packages are not fun to move in ice and snow. The ride to the grocery store does not come when it is a holiday so I always need to plan ahead.

When buying produce I always make sure to purchase produce that is still firm or I need to let ripen in a brown bag. This seems to help make the produce I purchase last longer. During the winter I tend to eat more frozen and canned produce. Apples, oranges, pinneapple and anise seem to last longer if I keep them in the refrigerator.

It is also dangerous walking in the street when there is snow and ice on the ground. Being short becomes more scary when you notice that the front grill on a lot of automobiles especially trucks come up to you head. Am really NOT looking forward to this coming winter. Right now I can look out the window and see blue sky and the tree is still green. I can pretend it is still summer. lol
 
#25 ·
I've stocked piled things we haven't liked or just haven't used up fast enough. Now I try to go with items I know we will use or pantry staples (pasta, veggies, etc...)

I bought a huge bag of rice at Costco that I'm not all that crazy about (who new rice could have different tastes). Still have 2 gallon sized ziploc bags we have to work thru :lol:
 
#26 ·
Exactly. Haven't used fast enough. That's another. I had so much pasta sauce I've had to throw some, not a lot, away. I'm not an expiration date person but the color changed and I didn't trust it. I should have used more often or not had so much. As I restock/replenish this time I'll do so smarter.
Also will work on more taxable items and the more expensive stuff like Splenda, coffee, coffee creamer etc
 
#27 ·
I started stockpiling because I chose to stay home with kids and my dh has a seasonal job. And a great way to save lots and lots of money is to shop the loss leaders. We have 3 different chain stores withing 1/4 mile of each other. I also love having ingredients on hand for almost anything I want to make w/o having to go to the store. in summer I can enjoy my backyard and my pool and when the weather is freezing I can stay home in the warm house.
 
#29 ·
I started stockpiling because I chose to stay home with kids and my dh has a seasonal job. And a great way to save lots and lots of money is to shop the loss leaders. We have 3 different chain stores withing 1/4 mile of each other.
Same here. I have 3 grocery stores and a rite aid within a mile of my house. Makes it easy to hit the loss leaders.
 
#31 ·
Things are expensive here, so I stockpile to save money. Example: Canned tomatoes are about $1/for a small can, last December they went on sale for about $.50. I use a lot of canned tomatoes, so I bought several cases and I still have not seen them for that price, and I still have not run out.

I also stockpile because some items are difficult to find here... certain varieties of dried beans, short grain brown rice, tempeh, tofu, veggie burgers, vital wheat gluten, etc. So when I see those things, I buy as much as I can store/use before they go out of date.
 
#32 ·
frugalfranny, the green onions are no longer an issue, thank goodness! I've frozen a bunch annndddd.......the green onions I'm growing in a cup of water have zoomed! I'm going to have more green onions than I know what to do with. I'm doing better with lettuce since using the salad spinner. And celery. I'm going to grow some celery next time I buy a fresh stalk. That helps. But the things like cucumbers, bell peppers, squashes, tomatoes don't last more than just a few days. Some of that can be frozen, I know, but some things I want fresh for salads.

Example. Just a few days ago I bought 2 Roma tomatoes. About 2 days later, I went to get one out of the bag and one of them had "popped" or something and was a rotten mess. I managed to save part of one. I had left them out on the counter because they don't taste good if refrigerated.

Anyway, back to stockpiling...it's more of a cost savings thing for me. That, and I'm seriously concerned we might find availability of certain food items in short supply. Now if I had my little freezer...but we've already had that discussion. :(
 
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#37 ·
But the things like cucumbers, bell peppers, squashes, tomatoes don't last more than just a few days. Some of that can be frozen, I know, but some things I want fresh for salads.

Example. Just a few days ago I bought 2 Roma tomatoes. About 2 days later, I went to get one out of the bag and one of them had "popped" or something and was a rotten mess. . :(
Again...........the heat factor is there with your stuff...possibly.....but......do you have some sort of 'inside wall' or a 'cooler shelf' or closet to keep some of the produce? I leave very little produce in the plastic bags once I get them home. I put green onions back in the bag with a P. towel around them. And I do refrig. my cukes.............they keep longer......but it isn't rec. I never refrig. my tomatoes..........or my squash. No answer for the cukes.... that really is a help........they are 'short termers'....and I only buy one at a time. ALSO.........even on your counter......KEEP THEM OUT OF THE SUN!!! Put them in a dark corner somewhere..............the peppers will keep much longer than the cukes! :laugh: Might I suggest radish in your next salad instead of cukes???

As for worrying about the 'world to end'.............not really.......I read a lot and try to stay on top of the news----especially the world economy and Iran--right now............but I can't get an ulcer about it. I am not going to fill my house with food based on the "what might happen"..............it might NOT happen too...........then I am stuck with a bunch of OLD FOOD!
 
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