I like to stock up on food when it's on sale. I guess I keep it for the day when I might need it. My (dad's side) grandparents always kept a full freezer and lots of canning jars of food in their cellar. They grew up during the Depression. My mom's parents were farmer's. They stocked food too. My parents stocked food. I guess I started out of habit, but now I see several benefits of it.

I stocked up on canned veggies and foods last fall/summer when the gas prices were so high. I was looking in the store last week. Those cans of veggies are now $.15-.20 higher.

When we were moving two years ago, we ate off of the foods in the freezer and pantry for nearly a month. I was only buying a little cheese or milk or whatever to finish off the meals. It came in handy because that was a time when we were having more expenses because we were fixing up the house to sell. Then dh had to wait three weeks for his last paycheck because his employer pulled him from the system and then didn't get the paperwork on time. We had some money in our bank accounts, but couldn't access it because we deposited a rather large check for moving expenses from dh's new employer. Since the check was more than the amount in our account, the bank decided not to allow us access to the money for 7-10 days. Having that little of food we could access without having to beg friends for money to get us through a couple of weeks until we could get to our money sure helped.

We live out in the country. The small grocery in the local town has very high prices. We drive 25 miles each way to a larger city to stock up every two weeks. We have a family of 6, my hubby & I, a son, a daughter and 2 teen aged granddaughters. We try to keep our 16 cu ft. freezer full as well as a full pantry. When the weather is bad, it can be 4-6 weeks before we can get to the city. It is just common sense to keep supplied.

Lordy, Lordy, you should see my fridge, I couldn't throw a meal together if I was starving unless you wanted breakfast. That is one meal you can count on at my house.. I do have a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese, 5 individual packages. LOL Ive never stocked up food for more than 2 weeks except for sale items. I eat my main meals out.

I've known other elderly people stock up on food to. I think it must be from going through the depression. It certainly made an impact on my grandmother.

But I like to have lots of food too. Not shelves in the basement full, just a full pantry and freezer. When chicken breasts go on sale I buy 25 pounds or so. When food is bogo, I get 4 four or more. That sort of thing. I can make nearly any meal without going to the store - except for fresh produce which we use a lot of, particularly bananas and spinach.
I like opening my baking center cabinets and looking at all my flours in their storage containers lined up and seeing all the sugars available.
So many possibilities to cook!

I've always wondered how people who didn't store food got along. Of course there's DS, who eats out all the time. I don't think he even has the ingredients for breakfast.

I'm not that elderly that I lived through the depression. I was born in the '40's and the depression was in the '30's. But we did live in northern Indiana for awhile and I remember being snowed in. Fortunately in those days I was buying fresh food from the U-Pick farms and I had a full pantry of home-canned goods and half a beef in the freezer. Since I knew how to bake bread and always kept a box of nonfat dry milk powder for cooking, we hardly noticed being snowed in, food-wise, although our neighbors were always frantically trying to find someone with a snowmobile so they could try to find a grocery store that still had bread and milk.

For me, it's just economics. I shop about once a month (because I hate to shop) and get the specials at three stores, plus other things I need that are not on sale at either Dollar General or Aldi -- and, though it annoys me to do so, I do have a few things I get at WMT. If there's a cut of beef that's on sale for $1.99 a pound, I buy several and tuck them away in my 23-cu.ft. freezer. Then, when beef is $3.00 or more a pound I can afford to leave it in the store. If I shopped every week for just what I would use that week, I would either have to pay more for food or I would have to carefully plan our meals around what I could get on sale. I can't imagine being creative enough to do that. It's still cheaper than eating out, I guess, but it's just so easy to think, "What sounds good tonight?" and then gather the ingredients out of my freezer and pantry. Last night I made two 18" pizzas. Made the dough from scratch, so that cost only pennies as I buy my yeast in bulk and freeze the extra and the flour was freshly-ground whole wheat. Other ingredients and their (on sale) prices: spaghetti sauce, $1; 2 6-oz cans mushroom ends and pieces, $1; 2 rolls sausage, $2; 1-12 oz can black olives, $1; 1 onion, .30; 2 cups chopped frozen red, green and yellow bell pepper from last summer's garden. Topped with shredded mozzerella, $3. Total: Less than $4.50 each. It was cold outside, the oven helped to warm the kitchen, the smell greeted DGS when he came in the door from school, we didn't have to go anywhere or wait an hour for delivery and provide a tip. And since DH and I are not big eaters, there's still one pizza to tuck into the freezer for when I don't have time to make something. And plus, I saved the sausage 'drippings' for frying eggs in or making gravy later on.

Tonight I'm thinking fish, I'll make a pasta salad with some chopped onion and green pepper, a can of chopped tomatoes, and a little mayo.

Ilene as I said I didn't/don't store food over 2 weeks worth except for sale items, it's very simple how I got a long. I went to the store for groceries. I was born in 1937 and I don't remember anything about how poor we were, I don't remember being hungry or being without what we needed. After we grew up I learned how poor we were from my sisters. I didn't have to cook when I was to little. I do remember working in the vegetable garden as much as a kid works and I swore I would never have one. I cooked about the same as you did after I became an adult. I saved bacon grease, but not because of being thrifty, I did it because it flavored my food and because that is how my mother cooked. I quit saving it after I found out it was not safe to save it. I also quit "wiping" out my cast iron skillet and reusing it after my aunt figured out that was why she was always sick. Some of our parents old ways were not good for us, it was just the only way they knew. I guess I have been fortunate never having been hungry.

I too believe in having a stocked pantry and freezer. Not only is it convenient but it is like having a savings account. With the economy as it is, it scares me not to be prepared. I am on SS so no lay offs to fear although who knows what may happen these days. There are also those environmental issues that may strike at any time. There is so little that I can do to prepare for the "what ifs" but having food stock piled is one of those ways that I can help myself. It is simply smart to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

Save for a rainy day.....remember that can mean saving cash as well as saving food items. IMHO.

To the OP - wow that story really reminds me of how DH & I started out just married also in 95 including the same grocery budget - we ate liver and potatoes (fixed about 10 different ways) almost every day for a solid month. I could definately see why the compulsion to have lots of food in the house, especially when you've been through very hard times.

I live in a smaller house so I try to strike a balance and have at least 2 weeks worth of food in the house including alot of grains which have a long shelf life. I've toyed with the idea of having a freezer in the basement but I'm worried the cost of extra electricity would negate the savings. However, I think this year we will begin a regimen of canning, that's what my mother used to do and it doesn't cost any extra to store just the small upfront purchase of canning jars and lids.

We just found out today that our credit card interest rate will go up from 7.9 to around 18% due to "current economic state," not due to our mismanagment of the account. We are furious! We've been using it infrequently and paying large payments each month, but now we want to pay it off in the next 2 months to avoid the higher rate. We're trying to cut every corner for the next few months to put every penny on that card.

I thought I had food stocked up, thinking I could get by with little grocery money each week. I actually made a list of what we have. Unless we want to live on canned corn, green beans, and powdered and brown sugar, it's not a pretty sight! We'll be fine--we have good income (for now anyway), just want to pay that off asap! This "minor emergency" has alerted me to the fact that I need to be more organized in my stocking up.

I guess the lesson here is stock up in an organized way and be more conscious about what we stock up on!

gonativegal - now is the time to buy those jars for canning and the lids, as well as the canner (if you want to do a water bath canning method that is). Maybe you have a relative you can borrow the canner from...doesn't hurt to ask if you can use it for a few days when the time comes. I see the jars in the clearance shelves at my local Walmart right now.....the lids I use are not on special at the moment but I do look. Don't forget the cost of any vinegar or sugar....that should also be calculated as well as the electricity if you are canning on an electric stove....but it is cost effective for my family.

I just don't understand people who won't have at least a few days worth of food in the place. And I think it's funny when people run out of toilet paper! Geez people what's wrong with you? Buy a multipack on sale. It'll keep. And you'll use it. Right now I don't need it but Scott is on sale for 33¢ per roll. Of course I'm going to buy some and put on the shelf! That's 1/2 price, plus it's the equivalent of about 5 rolls of most any other kind. So there's multiple ways of not spending by making an investment.

What a country, huh? Where it pays better to invest in cheekwipe than investing in the stock market!

Two things I buy in bulk because you need them and you'll always eventually use them are toilet paper and paper towels. I store them in the garage. Granted, they may get a little dusty or a leaf or a spider on the outside of the package, but I feel good knowing they are there.

I would like to hear about how others store cereal, flour, and other dry items. Mine seem to eventually get moths. When I have the freezer space, I do store extra flour and such in there, but my space it too limited to stock up when I'd like. I have purchased the sticky moth traps in the past & they've worked well, but then you have to figure in the cost of the traps as well. I have a small chest-type freezer that's not being used -- would the extra electricity cost eat up anything I save by buying in quantities ?

Telly, in my area, almost any purchased ground or milled grain seems to have larvae in it. Not very appetizing! ;) As soon as I bring it home, it goes in the freezer. If there's room, it stayes there till it's needed. If not, I take it out after a week or so. Gradually, I'm coming over to the "mill-it-yourself" side, except that whole grain is quite a bit harder to find and, unfortunately, I do not have garden space in which to grow it.

I've had a freezer in use for years and years. I use it to store meat bought on sale and garden produce, though I'm doing more canning every year. I think the freezer pays for itself but that's just me, I've never done a cost analysis on it. It's become a convenience I prefer not to live without. A lot depends on the age of your freezer, its physical location, how full it will be and how much you will be opening and closing the door.

The insect world is amazing. Truly, if civilization is ever wiped out the insects will survive. I dehydrated bananas the last time I caught them at a good price. Had enough banana chips to fill four gallon-sized zip-lock bags. The moths found them and actually made holes in the plastic to get at them. by the time I discovered where the activity was coming from, all the bags were ruined. So I don't recommend zip-lock bags for storage. Now, I keep my dehydrated fruit in the freezer as well. I do use gallon glass jars with screw-down lids (bought at yard sales) and plastic gallon-sized ice-cream tubs or plastic coffee tubs for storage, and I've had good results.

Mom and Dad were born in the '20's, married in the 40's, lived thru the Depression and WW2, had 4 kids. Dad lost his job in the aerospace industry in the 1960's, there were still 7 mouths to feed, Mom and Dad, 4 kids, and a dog (who liked Alpo). Mom got used to buying in bulk and storing. Our freezer was full, she canned plenty, and she always bought stuff for the basement pantry. Dad even built her a huge set of shelves down there. With Mom's economizing and home cooking, we all survived. The kids eventually moved out. Mom continued buying like there were four kids to feed. I once checked her pantry and found nineteen five-pound bags of sugar. Who needs 95 pounds of sugar? And that week she made Dad drive her to two stores that were selling peanut butter 2 jars for $5. She bought four jars for the pantry, even though she had several jars sitting there, there were only herself and Dad around, and neither of them even ate peanut butter! She was just accustomed to buying food on sale. She never altered her buying habits. Dad passed away in 1998, one son moved home after a nasty divorce. He still indulges her requests to go shopping. Brother cleaned out the freezer a while ago, he found chickens dated eight years ago! And he cleaned out the basement pantry- found rusted cans of Campbell Soup! Just a word to the wise-don't over-buy. Use what you have!

That is so true jannie. My mil has two huge chest freezers packed with garden produce from who knows how many years.
She has lived alone for the past 5 years and rarely cooks for more than herself. But she still must have rows and rows of squash and beans and peas to put up in her freezer each year!

Another thing, dh bought a foreclosed house to fix up and sell last fall and I helped him load thousands of canning jars to take to the dump. It was such a shame to see all that food and effort be thrown out. But some of the jars were over ten years old and I could have saved some of the jars, I suppose, but we were tired and had to get the stuff out of the house.

We went through half of our food this weekend and started pulling out things that need to be used up. I'll start stocking up again.

We have an under the stairs closet that I had been piling food in with the intention of making it into a pantry. I finally got the time I needed this week to build the shelves. I now have nine shelves in which to organize the food. Dh and I arranged the food we had. It's really not that much food when it's not sitting there in piles. Since it's organized, we saw what we had and what we need to fill in. I think we'll be able to rotate food with this system also.

I think I may get back into canning again this summer. It's a life skill. My mom taught me a few of the basics. I'd like to pass that on to my kids. I havent actually needed the ability so far, but it doesn't hurt to know how to do a few things. I miss the freshness of homegrown foods.

LOL, Jannie, I can see myself in that, after DGS moves out! Once you really get into it, it's hard to change.

DH complains that I cook too large an amount when I make a meal. Mostly that's because I WANT leftovers to pack away for another time. When I'm elbow-deep in the garden, I'm going to be glad I have something I can just thaw and heat. It doesn't matter to him one way or another as he isn't the one that has to drop everything in time to prepare a meal, and then clean up the mess.

There's a cold snap forecast -- a perfect day for cleaning out and defrosting the freezer.

Be sure to rotate the stored stuff: eat the oldest stuff first!

Only buy more than you can use in a reasonable length of time, especially if you're a senior living alone ... if you plan to bring in a few old farts like yourself for lunch occasionally.

Trouble is ... if they invite you back ... nothing gets eaten at your house, at that meal time.

No better if you eat pot-luck, either - same problem, only spread around more - is that what they call "middle-aged spread"?

ole joyful

I saved bacon grease, but not because of being thrifty, I did it because it flavored my food and because that is how my mother cooked. I quit saving it after I found out it was not safe to save it.

Why on earth would bacon grease not be "safe"?? You eat bacon and it has grease in it right? Not all the grease is cooked out when you fry it. I can understand the thoughts of those who feel bacon grease is not safe because of nitrites, but if you choose to eat bacon, you are not one of those people.

You do keep your bacon grease in the freezer right?

I buy as much as I can when things are on sale. This way if I don't have money for food that week, we will still eat. When I was growing up we never had much food. The only things in the fridge were ketchup, mustard, etc. When I was a single mom with one kid I didn't have room and we ate out a few times a week so I didn't buy much. When I got remarried a few years later and had his, mine and ours it was time to buy food. We have a walk in pantry in this house with a large upright freezer and it is usually full. I do once a year eat everything that we have before we buy more because I would find things that were to old to cook. I don't like to grocery shop much so going and buying all the things that are on sale that we like does help. I will buy 10lbs of chicken when on sale. When I see shrimp I will buy about 12 to 20 lbs. Everything like that and by the time I am running out someone has a sale. We do eat pretty good and it doesn't end up costing much if you break it down per week.

There are a lot of threads on different forums (do a Garden web search for Preparedness) where we've posted how to keep a well stocked panty etc and being prepared for anything.

The main thing to look out for I think is expiration dates.

I used to work with the elderly, run their errands, fix meals, light cleaning, etc... and there was this little lady in her 70's that I loved named Elsie. She would tell me stories about her mothers garden and all the food her mom would make and 'put up' like veggies, jams, sour kraut, fruitcake...she would go into great detail describing food that her mother made.
Anyway, I would go for three hours; visit, run to the grocery, cook dinner, eat with her, clean up.
She had this 'secret' room that visitors were not allowed to go in, her house was so tidy, I just assumed it was an extra bedroom that had junk in it...until I realized she would go in there and come out with canned goods that she wanted me to fix. Like she would bring out a can of cranberry sauce and say we could have this for dessert. I took one bite and it tasted like metal. I checked the experation date and it was YEARS outdated. Everytime she went into 'the room' and bring out something I would check the date and everything was wayyyy outdated. I would try to tell her it was unsafe to eat and she couldn't understand why...then I started paying attention to the lists she gave me. She would ask for a couple boxes of cup a soup when she had a whole cupboard full.
Finally she was admitted to the hospital for a few days and one of my coworkers entered 'the room', she said it was unbeliveable...floor to ceiling canned goods and panty items. She was by herself but continued to buy food like she had a houseful. I felt so bad, all that food had to be discarded.
I love to have pantry items to pick from but try never to buy things just because they are a bargain, I hate to throw stuff out because the item never sounded good enough to actually fix.

omg, I meant PANTRY items...

dilly dally - I have to respond to your reply to Stargazer:
"Why on earth would bacon grease not be "safe"?? You eat bacon and it has grease in it right? Not all the grease is cooked out when you fry it. I can understand the thoughts of those who feel bacon grease is not safe because of nitrites, but if you choose to eat bacon, you are not one of those people."
LOL, I'm one of those people!! Occasionally I'll buy bacon, but the no-nitrate kind...thick slab...I take shears and cut away the fat. The remaining strips and peices of meat are frozen, and the huge pile of fat is discarded. When I want a little bacon with an egg or on a potato, a few frozen peices cook up quickly. Yes the bacon costs a lot more, and it does take maybe 5 minutes to initially cut off all the fat, and yes of course I'm still getting some fat, and obviously the bacon is not as tender as full-fat bacon, but it's the only way I will eat it and I'm thankful to have that taste once in a while!! ---Penny G.

I kept bringing up stocking up when there's a sale with my husband who does the shopping and cooking. Think I've figured out why he is so resistant. We live in a smallish town and going to the market and grocery store every day is kind of a social thing he actually enjoys - going on 20 years now. He just buys what's on sale that day for dinner. He's pretty smart, so I don't think we are overspending - much anyway. Butcher and baker give him deals, and almost free meat for our dog. We rarely waste any food anyways and the cupboards are not too cluttered. Friends who drive to the big box stores to stock up/save some money seem to find it quite a chore.

Shopping on the weekends or at busy times is a major chore. I do most of my shopping during the week when the two oldest kids are in school and dh is at work. The stores are rarely crowded. Customers are usually civil and even pleasant to each other. If I go the first couple of days after the sale papers come out, I find the sale items on the shelves and I can park in the aisle and shop as needed without being in the way. If I go to the any other time, I'm usually frazzled when I get out.

My parents were the type who stocked up on food and everything else that was on sale. They would always end up finding food they didn't know they had in the freezer, many times it was bad and they had to throw it out. They had a bad habit of not checking what they had before they went shopping and always bought what was on sale. I recently helped them move and found 16 cans of Comet cleanser. So obviously I'm agianst stocking up on food.

Everyone has a limited amout of space in their house. Last I check houses cost $150 - $200 / sqft. My point is that space has value (and refrigerated/frozen space is the most valuable of all). Even if I took the time to create an appropriate inventory system to make sure nothing got wasted, I don't think I would want to dedicate the space to store a case of TP. I'd rather just have my house less cluttered. Occassionally I will buy larger packs of things that don't take up much space like razor blades. I can get a good discount if I buy 20 of them. I know I will use them and they only take up a few inches of space.

Once/week my wife and I review a list of things we tyipcally need at the store to see if we need anything this week. Then we write down every day of the week and figure out what we are going to eat each night. Then we go out and buy the ingredients we need to make those dinners. Most of the stuff we buy is fresh, I bet we spend less than $5/wk on canned stuff.

When I want keep something aside for a rainy day, I save money! I can keep it in a bank and it doesn't take up any space, plus it gives me a slight interest payment occasionally.

I have a great 9 cf freezer. It was really handy to stock up on things when there were good deals and for a long time I did the convenience foods mostly. But after a while I started to factor in the cost of running the freezer. Even my little one is probably about $4/mo in electricity. Large freezers are 2-3 times that. So I decided if I couldn't get by with the freezer on the frig, then something is wrong anyway. There is a problem though when the turkey breasts would be on sale because of the size and I used to buy 3-4 when they were 70¢ a pound and I'd have good eats for a long time. Cook one up every couple months for a great meal. But then some of the other problems happened. The bogo roasts. I got lazy and wouldn't rewrap them before freezing so they didn't last long in the freezer. And so much would be freezer burned that it was just a waste. Finally decided it was pretty stupid to pay to run a freezer to overbuy food, then have it go bad and have to throw it out.

I have friends that grocery shop daily. Now that's the other extreme. To me, grocery shopping, well all shopping for that matter is more wasted time than productive time. Do I need to spend time and gas going to the store more often when I can buy several cans of corn at one time? And since I still have to do things at home, like wash clothes, shopping time takes away from other things like naptime, TV time, internet time, or doing household chores. The trick is to find the happy medium.

I've gone overboard in either direction. But I do have food in the house so I don't HAVE to run to the store. OK, maybe I don't have a specialty item for a special recipe, but I still have something here that I can make a casserole, soup, or something if weather and roads are bad. Or if there's a ton of people in the stores. I always try to avoid stores whenever there's crowds. Waiting in line is MORE non-productive time, and it is often frustrating time too.