Groceries....Buy when needed or stock up?

[Sue J]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuckanut WOW! Hot dogs, beans and craft beer.

More like sardines in mustard sauce and many kinds of pickle relish.

He's also been experimenting with different kinds of hot sauces and hot types of salsa. I don't like spicy things at all and never used that stuff in cooking so this is his opportunity to go all out.

[Lcountz]

Hey Brewer I agree with the turkey, so I don't think the amount you have is crazy....

I only have a bottom freezer in my fridge, but since I really don't care for red meat, I eat a LOT of poultry..and I think turkey at 68-88 cents a pound ( this year) is a great buy..

I have three in my freezer. I buy the smallest ones I can find, and use them like an oven-stuffer roaster chicken, which runs about 8 pounds...

It cracks me up when turkeys are 68 cents a pound and across the aisle chicken is 1.25+ per pound!!!! After all when it's cooked you can hardly tell the difference.

May I ask what is "SHTF" supplies?

[brewer12345]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lcountz May I ask what is "SHTF" supplies?

SHTF = Excrement Hits The Fan. Disaster supplies: water, powdered milk, MREs, beans, rice, salt, etc.

[Ronstar]

Stock up at walmart weekly usually friday night or Saturday morning.

[Revlefty]

Back in the seventies (when we were newlyweds) the advertising jingle was "Campbell's in the cupbord is like money in the bank." My DW has taken that literally for forty years. She can't resist buying in bulk, a sale, a clearance or a BOGO. I've tried to encourage my family to "eat down" the inventory I've taken of the freezers(yes, plural freezers!) but itonly lasts a few days and they are ready to go shopping again. I thinkwe could go for months on what we've got stocked up.

[imoldernu]

56 years of marriage has filtered our taste to a somewhat limited selection of food. 2 minutes to Aldi's and five to Hy-Vee (Illinois Valley's version of Whole Foods) so keeping less on hand, especially on fresh stuff like veggies and fruit...
the rule of thumb is current container plus one... so a single backup.
We also have an "old stuff" section of the pantry for the once in a while things.

The exception is for the ultra specials... for instance, the Aldi German bread for Octoberfest... $2.79 but clearance @$.25 so we buy and freeze 8 pkg's. Same for seasonal stuff like pumpkin cheese... or peanut brittle... whenever we can buy for $.10 to $.15 on the dollar...

One of the advantages of buying in a generic store, is learning the prices. After we buy mushrooms for $.69/package at Aldi's, and see the same item, from the same farm at Walmart for $2.49... we're very aware. Things like $.99 pineapples taste just as sweet as the one for $2.49 from other stores. We go through bananas faster than monkeys at the zoo, and while $.39 to $.44 a pound isn't much of a savings from $.69 to $.79/lb it's a help, over the long run.

DW made a BIG mistake on Tuesday... Didn't realize she was buying the organic bananas, and was nearly apoplectic when she found out they had charged her $.79/lb. Now we're gonna watch and see if she gets any healthier..

As for other than food stuff... usually keep full "one unit" back up of paper products and OTC pharmacy and cleaning items.

The "one back up" plan has worked almost perfectly as we haven't had to make more than one or two trips because of "running out" in the past several years.

If we have to go to ground, we're safe, as a neighbor gave us two big cases of tomato paste that has an expiry date of 2015... We keep it in the garage, on a top shelf.

[haha]

My kitchen is small and lacks storage, while I live very easy walking distance to many stores. I tend to shop 5 times/week or so, sometimes as often as twice daily to Trader Joe.

Ha

[NanoSour]

I wouldn't say we stock up, but with our new membership to Costco, we're definitely buying in bulk more than we ever have. I think overall we're making out pretty good on the membership, but it is an adjustment to the 5 weekly trips to Wally World that we used to make prior to our ER journey.

With 3 kids still in the nest, we can still go through those paper products a pretty good clip.

[Marita40]

I live in a condo with minimal storage space so I don't stock up--much, that is. I'm also single with two cats, and the most important items to have are the cat food and supplies. I buy those on a schedule, every two weeks, to make sure not to run out. Otherwise I grocery shop once a week.

[Lcountz]

I love Aldi's!!!!!

I agree about fresh fruit/veggie prices....I was a Big Name store snob for years until I finally woke up....I am lucky I guess cause in my Aldi's the fruit and veggies are very fresh and I found their rye bread with seeds to be BETTER than the big name brands...

I love cranberry sauce with my turkey...Aldi's is very good, with a little orange zest on it....

Cheese.....my God...Brie, sliced cheese, gouda..SO MUCH LESS than the other stores.....and just as good!

Stollen....and Panettone cake..so good......

I vowed to try everything and return what I could not eat....so far I have returned nothing.


When I think how much I've wasted on food over the years that Aldi was right up the block it makes me sick!!!!!


For those who have not tried Aldi, please do...if you don't like what you get, they will refund you AND replace with another item....

I still buy too much!!!! Imoldernu...I like your idea of one extra....frees up space too.....(PS I enjoy ALL your posts!!!!!)

[foxfirev5]

Neither of us particularly likes grocery shopping so we wait as long as possible. We don't stock up but would have enough on hand to last at least a week. Our kids would not agree with the last statement. When they stop by they always comment on the empty shelves.

[Greencheese]

The only thing I stock up on is Captain Morgan handles. Occasionally the liquor store around here has $20 off a purchase of 10 handles

[RunningBum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha My kitchen is small and lacks storage, while I live very easy walking distance to many stores. I tend to shop 5 times/week or so, sometimes as often as twice daily to Trader Joe. Ha

Here is the difference. I am a 5 minute drive to a convenience store named Black Rock Market, but known locally as The Black Market for their prices. 20 minutes away is an IGA that looks like it's from the 60s and hasn't been restocked since then. A real grocery store is about 30-35 minutes away, over a mountain pass, so I've got to do a certain amount of stocking up. Planning is a must, but a price I'm willing to pay. My schedule is ruled by bananas. I eat one for breakfast and another in the evening, but have a knack for finding green ones when I know I'm coming back down in a few days, and yellow-turning-brown ones when I'd like to not have to come down for a week.

As far as Campbell's soup, my son just opened and tossed a couple cans of chicken noodle that were well past their date last week.

I thought about an extra freezer, but between the cost of that (including energy cost) and threat of loss in an extended power outage (or high additional cost of a backup generator), I've passed on it. It would be different if it were a whole family up here, but we probably wouldn't be on a mountain top in that case either.

[braumeister]

This is subject I sometimes wonder about. It seems as if some people go a bit overboard on the "stocking up just in case" thing as they get older.

When I moved my mom from her apartment to an assisted living facility, I found dozens of packages of toilet paper, napkins, paper towels, and similar household items in her closets. Some of them had been stored in there so long they had dust on them.

I've never been that way, but I wonder if it's something I'll have to watch out for in the future!

[Katsmeow]

Depending on where you shop and what you shop for, you can save a lot of money by stocking up on items that you use that are on sales. Grocery stores generally (I'm sure there are exceptions but I'm talking about in general) cycle products in terms of when they are on sale. So there will usually be a time within a 12 week or cycle when something is at its lowest price. If it is non-perishable it makes sense to buy those things in bulk then (consistent with how much storage you have) rather than buying them, say, once a week when you pay an overall larger price.

For awhile I belonged to the grocery game website where you would be told how to maximize coupons and sales to save a lot of money. (I quit after awhile when we started going to a grocery store that does in store coupons so I could easily see the savings while at the store). If you stick with it, you can actually save a lot of money doing this.

[tmm99]

I definitely stock up - First is things I can freeze - mainly meat. For example, I just went and picked up a split half pig from a local farm. (It is much cheaper this way than buying pasture pork from markets.) I get chickens from a local farm too and I stock them up for winter. Another thing I stock up on are some canned goods that I'd like to have handy all the time like stewed tomatoes, tomato paste, beef broth and chicken broth - I get them when they are on sale. I used to stock up on pasta (Barilla Pasta price can be as low as $89 a box on sale), but I hardly eat any pasta now, so I don't buy them anymore.

I thought about power outage also, and I have a couple of friends in another town with a deep freezer who are willing to accommodate my meats for a few days if I am willing to share the meat with them :-) (I've had 1/4 cow, 30lbs of salmon, 1/2 pig at one point in my freezer..)

[Walt34]

We buy pretty much on an "as needed" basis, weekly. We live within ten-fifteen minutes of three grocery stores and a couple minutes more for two others. Although we get some 2+ foot snowfalls once in a great while we've never been unable to get out for more than a day or two. (I swear, that 4WD GMC will climb a telephone pole! Or close to it.)

I do almost all of the grocery shopping. It started when we were married and I was working shift work and more often than not had days off during the week so it was easier for me. And I'm better at sticking to a list. That and DW takes forever to go through a grocery store, having to stop and carefully consider each possible permutation, connotation or denotation of everything. I'm a "hunt it down, kill it, and move on" shopper.

We'll use coupons for something if it's for something we'd buy anyway but don't buy anything just because there's a coupon for it.

No freezer so that limits perishables that we can keep.

[HillCountry]

We don't like to stock up. Who can remember that stuff on the corner of freezer?

We don't even buy bulk snacks from Costo anymore. They are too big and kids will run out interest before they are finished.

And with several grocery stores including Whole Foods 5 minutes away, DW just grabs whatever is needed for the next couple of days.

[ShortInSeattle]

Since moving downtown into a smaller space we no longer stock up. Walking to the store 2-3 times a week doubles as exercise for us.

Since switching to more of a whole foods diet (veggies, meat, fruit) we don't buy much that is nonperishable anyways.

[ABQ2015]

I live alone and don't have a large kitchen or pantry. I buy household cleaners, paper goods, vitamins, frozen fish and seafood, beef and chicken, chicken broth, yogurt, frozen fruit, cereal, coffee, etc. at Costco. When the food items are getting very low, I'll make another trip to Costco - about once every 4-6 weeks. For perishables and items that I don't care to buy in bulk, I go to the grocery store about every ten days - when the fresh fruit and vegetables and milk are down to almost nothing. I'll keep some extra canned goods and non-perishables in my cabinets but try to use most of it before I buy new stuff. I don't like having the cabinets really full, throwing away food because it expired, etc. Also I would hate going to the grocery store more than once a week.