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View Poll Results: what's your food strategy?
Millennialist: I have a year's supply if necessary 4 4.17%
Costco-holic: could survive a couple months 25 26.04%
"Normal" shopper; every week or two a 'big shop' 44 45.83%
Shop a couple times a week at different places for choice & freshness 22 22.92%
Shop every day or two.. or eat/take out a lot 6 6.25%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 96. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 01-24-2008, 08:39 AM   #41
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ladelfina View Post
For example, I am fascinated by Goonie's answer, because if I had that kind of stockpile I would never bother food shopping 5 days/week!
Of course many of those days, like yesterday, we pick up just a couple of items. Yesterday it was milk, a can of wax beans, and 1 onion........and a 40¢ cup of coffee. Other times it's just milk or a loaf of bread........and a 40¢ cup of coffee. If someone followed me shopping, they'd find that there is usually a coffee common denominator each trip.

This morning it's -7F outside.....I ain't going to the dang store! We're gonna whittle down our stockpile!
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Old 01-24-2008, 10:27 AM   #42
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I go once a week and then every once in a while I try to stretch it to 10-12 days just to use up stuff. But if I do that I usually will need to stop and pick up salad and bananas and turkey lunch meat since those things don't last.

My store prices their meat so high that I only buy if it's a featured sale item or marked down because it's getting close to the sell-by date. I've gotten some great bargains buying the dated meat and never had a problem. I have a Foodsaver vaccum machine, so I vacuum pack and freeze stuff.

I stock up on Bounty paper towels and toilet paper. Hubby knows that if he's out and sees Bounty on sale, just buy two 8 or 12 packs and we'll find a place to put it. We don't have a lot of cupboard space so I use our guest room closet as a kitchen annex for large stuff like paper products and unopened cereal boxes.

I go to PetSmart for canned cat food. I buy 8 dozen cans of assorted flavors (and a corresponding amount of cat litter) for our 2 cats and that lasts for quite a while unless my sisters cats are visiting when she travels.

I like to have a break from the weekly shopping so that I can see what's in the back of the cupboards and freezer. It's fun to try to use up what you find and be efficient about it. Ok, it's fun for me, I don't know how the rest of the family feels about it.
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Old 01-24-2008, 12:46 PM   #43
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I go about 2 times per week and rotate between costco, trader joe's and target. The rotation helps ensure I have the perishables and fresh fruit/veggies and the variety of stuff we like. So each trip i buy about 1-2 weeks worth of stuff they only have at that store.

I used to really hoard but I found it prompts my teen son and partner to EAT MORE! So I've started the opposite strategy - I only buy enough to enjoy for a day or two (which is a gallon of juice, milk, bags of snacks, etc) and then we starve for a couple of days so they "appreciate" what they get. Pleas to ration haven't worked. I just try to buy stuff for me I know they won't like and hide the food for the little kids.

I always have plenty of bread (which I freeze) and lunch meat around...
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Old 01-27-2008, 04:36 PM   #44
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Well, we live in a motorhome, and one would think that there wouldn't be much room to stock up food........but, last year when we decided to go to Europe for several months, we were going to leave our motorhome at a friend's house in Scottsdale, AZ. In early September it is still really hot there, so we started at the beginning of the summer to eat up our food supplies. We bought NOTHING except bare minimums of fresh veggies, etc., and when we left in September, we still had to pack FIVE boxes of staple foods to store in our friends' air conditioned house.

A vestige of our old hippie 'back to the land' life of the seventies and eighties, I guess, when we raised a big garden, kept chickens, and bought staples several times a year from an organic food co-op. Old habits die hard......

Who else on any normal day can find 25 pounds of whole wheat flour in their motorhome? I bake all our bread and baked goods from scratch, so it goes fast.......just can't face the prospect of not having enough whole wheat flour......

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Old 01-27-2008, 05:44 PM   #45
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I put "normal shopper", but during hurricane season (June 1st through November 30th) I shop every other day.

My old refrigerator/freezer was ruined due to food left in it when we evacuated for Katrina. Afterwards I bought a beautiful new black Kenmore refrigerator that I just love. It is the niftiest refrigerator I have ever had. No way am I going to risk ruining my beautiful new refrigerator, too! So during hurricane season, I don't keep any more in it than I can take with me in a cooler.

But when it is not hurricane season, I am a "normal shopper". I shop once every 1-2 weeks at one grocery store.

When I ER to Missouri, I am hoping my new home will have a large pantry or pantry closet. Then I can shop for large quantities of non-perishables. My present home is pretty low on pantry space (like, none). But after ER, I'd like to have a big stockpile of food that would last weeks, like Goonie has.
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Old 01-27-2008, 06:32 PM   #46
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Friends of ours just had a baby - and discovered PeaPod and the like. For a suprisingly nominal fee, you grocery shop online and they deliver to your countertop/kitchen table! For $4.95 (I am sure I would have spent this in grocery impulse buys) groceries will be here tomorrow! (missed the deadline for same day delivery - had been stalling to go out, and realized - hey, I can do this online too!) For even less of a fee or nothing, you can place your order and have them place the bags in your trunk at the store! I can spend HOURS in a grocery store, so this could be my new timesaver - and save the long dawdling trips for the foo foo stores!
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Old 01-27-2008, 07:29 PM   #47
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One of our local chains delivers orders over $xx for free. Based on my prior delivery experiences which involved hardware store deliveries of all the wood nobody would buy in the store, and appliances with giant dents in them...I'm not sure its that good of an idea for things not in cans.

Thick cans.
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Old 01-27-2008, 08:11 PM   #48
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The wife and I go grocery shopping every Sunday, and get the same stuff every week. Mainly for breakfasts and lunches. I'll stop a couple of nights and pick up something for dinner if we dont have what I want in the house.
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Old 03-18-2008, 09:14 PM   #49
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Peapod follow-up...just placed my third (almost dead on the money for "monthly" shopping trips) order...have been more than pleased with their delivery, online selection, manner of accepting substitutes or not, and with online coupon codes and sselecting the 7:30 am to 1:00 pm delivery time has been a true saver! Fewer impulse purchases, 15 min online to order vs. 1-3 hrs in store, and I do not lug the bags around at all (they place them on our kitchen table!)
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Old 03-19-2008, 06:53 AM   #50
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keep lots of canned and dry goods on hand, especially during winter. always have a case of bottled water on hand plus 2 gal jugs.
freezer is full of leftover meals - small portions of larger meals
keep a variety of meats/seafood on hand. buy in medium bulk and cook up meats in crockpot. then divvy up into bags for later grab and cook.
use dollar stores for paper goods, cleaners, soups, what not.
could easily eat for 1-2 months without meat if had to.
not a member of bulk stores. found i spent too much there, cuz it was such a deal. lot of food wasted due to freezer burn.
perishables and fresh stuff - shop approx 2x per week as needed, only if downtown anyway.
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Old 03-19-2008, 07:26 AM   #51
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In answer to the original question. We tend to keep a stock of items in the larder and freezer. That allows me to shop when things are on sale or if I have a coupon. For example corn beef is cheap and plentiful right now because of Saint Patty's day so I bought eight to keep in the freezer.

I tend to shop during the summer months now since I always hated having to do it in the winter when it is cold. Now that I'm FIRED I see no reason to go out in rotten weather if I don't have to, at least not for food. In the winter I don't shop if it is snowing or raining. Love that.
We are able to keep most food items over the winter except fresh eggs, milk and produce so we do go out for that if we want it. (usually if we are out for some other reason.) We can and do bake our own bread now that we have the time and if the weather really stinks I keep Egg Beaters in the freezer and have powdered milk to use for cooking.
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