Stocking up the pantry Cheaply at this time

20 years ago

If you are trying to stock your pantry, this is a great time to do it. Each holiday, stores usually have great sales on staples and specialty items--so fill your freezer and pantry now and eat off it for months. At thanksgiving and christmas flours and sugars are very inexpensive. You can get food grade plastic buckets from bakeries to store the flour. Put a couple bay leaves in them to keep bugs at bay.

I buy pumpkins or are given pumpkins for free after halloween--I clean them, roast the seeds for snacks and cut the rind up in 3" square pieces. It's easy to whack off the outer rind from the squares. The squares are put in zip lock bags (about two cups each), frozen and used to make bread and muffins all year.

Make turkey once a week when turkeys are very low priced--and freeze/can the meat for many more months.

I'll post how to really stretch a turkey or whole chicken on another post.

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Comments (12)

janetwilson
20 years ago
Very interesting post. It is amazing how cheap turkey is this time of year.

Recently a local grocery store was closing and offering a discount on their inventory - we happened to hit them on the last day they were opened and we stocked our pantry and freezer with some great deals. Everything we purchased was 75% off and I filled 2 large grocery carts for about $80.
joyfulguy
20 years ago
janetwilson,

We'll all have to come pay you a visit ...

to help reduce your inventory of all of that bargain stuff.

Happy to gloat (sorry ... "be thankful") with you for such a great deal.

ole joyful

P.S. Sort of like the "Organizing" folks are going to visit one another's well-stocked digs to take charge of organizing the places.

Watching them should be fun, don't you think?

One trying to throw out - the other trying to hold on to "precious" stuff - sort of like two dogs pulling on either end of a bone.

(And growling??).

oj
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I have a large freezer & keep a large enough pantry to feed us for 6-8 months. During my 18+ months of not eating much I allowed the pantry/freezer to run down figuring it was good to rotate the entire thing every once in a while. I've been restocking for about a month now & will continue thru harvest season. We used to maintain a Morman-style one year storage program when the kids were home but not anymore. I do still keep dry milk, powdered cheese/eggs/peanut butter, lots of oats, tricale, cornmeal, sunflower seeds/pumpkin seeds, brown rice, WW dry pasta, half a dozen types of nuts, & many pounds of either dried or frozen fruits. We've always got beef jerky & I recently made about 20 lbs. of granola. I've got 40 lbs. of AP flour. Soon, we'll spend an afternoon shucking corn & cutting it off the cob for the freezer. I also always keep some canned tomato products in the pantry but rely mostly on dehydrated tomatoes for the storage program. Canned foods are just too heavy & bulky to fit in a food storage program easily, IMO. The freezer's full of at least 8 months meat. My kids say our pantry is better stocked than their local grocery store & they are, probably, correct. We don't have a basement in this house so I don't store grains anymore nor do we eat enough to justify the expense & rotation hassles. I also keep a commodity storage program. DH has to wear white dress shirts every day so I buy them on sale & keep about a dozen new ones in storage along with various kinds of socks, t-shirts, undies for me, a couple pairs of new jeans for each of us, & we've always got new never worn sneakers in storage. First-aid items, TP, paper towels, various soaps, cleaners, vinegar, that kind of stuff I still keep a year's supply. The worst that happens is that we use products that were purchased at last year's prices. And, it's easy when DH needs a new shirt...don't have to spend half a day running to Macy's or Nordstrums for a single shirt. I've done it for so long...it's habit. I wouldn't feel 'right' if we didn't have life's necessities in storage but it's waaayyy less than it was, say, five years ago. /tricia
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There isn't anything we need to stock up on except bug spray. I keep the garden organic and will probably die of DEET poisoning. Nothing else really works with Alaskan sized skeeters. We wear the same clothing, winter and summer. I pull some shorts out of the laundry room storage, but since I was raised in the Mid-West, I think we have about one day a year which warrents shorts. My kids think they are dying if it's above 75. I do take the time to wash and repair the winter gear before putting it away until next fall. I can never tell if something will fit in five months, so I do my gear cleanout in October. My biggest change for summer is rearranging our schedule. Each of the kids has Scout camp for a week and then there are several things they would like to do. DS 12 really wants to take the culinary boot camp offered at the local university and I was too late to get him signed up last summer. Gloria
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Depends. I do stock up on tissues, has to be kleenex and the triply ply kind. I have year around allergies and go through a couple boxes a week. Reg price at the stores are around 2.50 a box. This week, at one store it is 10 for 10. I buy 20 at a time. The sale lasts usually 2 weeks and when I buy, I will go maybe 2 or 3 times... that usually lasts me till the sale comes back around again. When I buy staples, usually when we are out, I look for a good price and stock up about 5 to 10, like canned tomatoes. We use a lot during the winter months. Broths, I buy several at a time too. Other than that, no, I don't stock up. I work in grocery stores and see the clearance items first before they even get marked down, so will pick up them then. Or I buy as needed. My DH now, he stocks up on 1/2 price meat. Our safeway marks down meat on the last day of sale... he watches for things to go on sale and will go back and buy them out. We have TONS of salmon in the freezer. Plus other meats. So we shop out of our freezer for dinner ideas.
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We've been known to lose power any time of year, so I always have flashlights, etc. Plus I heat mostly with wood, so that's in place. Two things I want to make sure I don't run out of are cat litter and cat food. I keep some of the cat litter in my vehicle, where it might come in handy. We had serious ice here last night. Wet ice is the worst; even studded tires don't help. You just slide off in any direction. Which is what happened to some people I know before the cinder truck came through last evening. I'd elected to stay home. Today it's raining hard, and the temperature is well above freezing, but the trees still have ice on the branches.
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intherain
20 years ago
Yes, I am taking advantage of the specials. My pantry is getting full!
kathy_
20 years ago
I found The Dollar Tree has canned Campbells ready to serve soup for $1 per can. The cheapest it is in the grocery store is $1.79. I bought 11 cans of minestrone today and my mother bought the last 2. There is chicken and rice there too but I usually make my own. There was lots of $1 Christmas stuff too but I resisted temptation. Kathy_PA
jamie_mt
20 years ago
Now Ed, you wouldn't be pokin' fun at us "organizing folks" behind our backs, would you? LOL (just kidding, of course...your comments are always amusing)

Did my monthly shopping trip this weekend, and wow, got great deals on enough baking supplies for the next three holidays, plus cooking for company a few times this month. I even bought some premade things I'd usually just make myself (crusts, etc), because they were so cheap I could save myself some time & not be out a lot of $$ doing it.

Didn't find any frozen cranberries yet though - that was disappointing.
MoAtWork
20 years ago
LOL Ed! You just Try to take away my stock pile of bargains and I just might do more than growl! :)
janetwilson
20 years ago
Sorry Ed, didn't mean to sound like I was gloating - but merely pointing out that you should take advantage of great deals when you come across them - rare though they may be!
mid_tn_mama
Original Author
20 years ago
Apples and cabbages are in season now. You can freeze peeled sliced apples to bake with and also flash freeze chopped cabbage to cook with later. Also freezer slaw is great when you are having a quick meal and need a green fast--just pull from the freezer.
joyfulguy
20 years ago
janet

Didn't understand you to be *really* gloating nor mean to accuse you.

But when we get such good bargains, we usually are quite happy: big smile on the face, sparkle in the eye - walking on air, more or less. (Even if temporarily).
And thankful.

And may we be forgiven if we gloat - just a little?

I was feeling a touch of gloating with you, rather than being accusatory.

Hey - we're all in this together.

Good wishes to all for the rest of the week. Try to find something interesting, joy-inducing and helpful to do each day: it induces a happy heart within.

joyful guy
yellowhair
20 years ago
I purchased a turkey today. Didn't want to fight the turkey-last-minuters and it was too good of a deal to pass up. Man, there was a crowd at the grocery, on a Sunday!
joyfulguy
20 years ago
When are you guys in the U.S. going to get with it and celebrate Thanksgiving in early October, like we Canadians do?

Not so cold, with a sniff of snow in the air, then.

(Don't tell your retailers that they could start pushing Christmas right after Hallowe'en).

Have a great week.

ole Ed
User
20 years ago
Kathy posted about the soup at Dollar Tree - I had gotten some of that. But don't forget about Big Lots for food items for your pantry also. During this time of year, I have found great bargains there also - Campbells mushroom soup & canned fruit for $.79 or less. I agree that this is the time to stock a pantry.

Stocking up the pantry Cheaply at this time

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