I'm a stocker-up regardless of weather. I buy the kitty litter at Costco, and it's in a 28kg box (50lb). It's heavy as heck lugging up 3 flights of stairs so we tend to get one every time we go. That's about the heaviest thing we buy.

Me too. I stock up if it's on sale...not weather related. Right now Safeway has a coupon in their flyer, $10 off $50 groceries. Then they have pot roast $2.99lb. I'll get the roast ground up, put it in 1 lb packages in freezer paper. It'll be SUPER lean...and get $10 off plus another.....$6 off with the Just for U e coupon! Deal!

I have had to live on limited means for so long that I am not a stocker upper. I will be. Nothing to do with weather, just want to have stuff on hand whenever I want, not run to the grocery all the time! I have room now, so why not? I don't have to plan for bad weather since it's never bad enough for long enough. Never more than three or four days, at most.

I am totally a stocker-upper, all year long, but especially for bad weather. In the good months, I can drive down to the porch and unload within a few feet of my door. When it's bad all those months from Nov through the next Apr or May, it's hard enough to bring the fresh things that are needed.

As long as the liquor store remains open, why buy more than I can drink in one week!

We are always stocked, with enough of everything we need to last us two months...

No to your question, for two reasons. First, we really have no bad weather. Second, many stores are nearby (including Costco) and it's easy to go get a needed item. We don't pay attention to sales or specials, I'm sure groceries cost us more as a result.

Also, by inclination, I prefer to avoid the clutter of stockpiled items. For things consumed on a regular basis, we might have on hand the next one - a bottle of olive oil, jar of peanut butter, or one package of paper towels, but not more than one.

I do not live in town and the grocery stores in the nearest town are over priced compared to the grocery stores I do shop at. I do not drive and my husband is limited as to where he can drive because of his stroke, doctor's orders. I go grocery shopping with one or other of my daughters, usually once a week. If we have heavy snow, we may not get out for a week, and yes, I am prepared for that and power outages which do happen here at times. There will be times too that I don't feel like getting out and lugging in anything bulky or heavy especially if I have to have it brought downstairs and I sure don't want my daughters to have to do that. I am sure a lot of us feel the same way. I am probably older than most of you on this forum.

Sue

I only 'stock up' if I see a good buy on something with a long shelf life. We like Melitta's Extra Dark European Roast ground coffee. It comes in 10.5 ounce vacuum sealed cans. Heinen's sometimes has a half-price special at $3/can. I'll buy ten -- about ten week's supply. I may even take some to Maui this winter! (Heresy, but it's $8/can there and I don't like 100% Kona coffee enough to go spendy on that for three months.)

My back hall closet holds Costco bulk in the form one large package each of paper plates, napkins, tissues, toilet paper and paper towels -- because it's cheaper and easier to buy bulk and forget about it for months. It also holds single 'back up's' of plastic wrap, baggies, and aluminum foil.

We're a small family. I've never wanted a separate freezer or extra refrigerator. Our attached garage is steps from the kitchen. There are three groceries five minutes away; Costco is 15 minutes. Roads and highways get cleaned quickly here, and we employ a man to plow our driveway. We've had only two electrical outages lasting more than two hours in 15 years.

We're seldom hit with severe weather, but when it happens, cleanup is rapid. DH claims that Lake Michigan 'protects' us. TV weather maps often show storms approaching from the west, then disintegrating as they near our area of the lake. (Rare NE winds are another story. That's when you see coverage of huge snowfalls stranding cars on our side of the lake -- but more often in Indiana.)

I try to have a good supply of essentials on hand all year round, but particularly in winter. We're not usually badly affected by the hurricane season, but 2012's Sandy was a dramatic exception. We were out of power for a week. I was glad we had everything we needed, including gasoline for the generator.

Our basement contains storage shelves that contain our stockpile, and our supplies are arranged similar to a grocery store's layout. Actually, it's more of a C-store of stuff we typically use. New items go to the back, as older items are used, keeping the 'older' stock up front. We never run out of anything: toilet paper, paper towels, canned goods, cat food/litter, trash bags, soap, shampoo, laundry stuff (I make my own detergent, so that includes borax, washing soda, and bar soap), etc. There's no "clutter" here. LOL

Yes, there are grocery stores nearby (walking distance, actually), but I'd rather have everything needed on-hand rather than having to rush to the store to "fight" for basics. I've seen enough videos on the news of the way people act when a snowstorm or hurricane is predicted. I've also seen the shelves of my local grocery stores the day before a predicted snow event. It's ridiculous.

The only things not stockpiled are bread, milk, and eggs - we buy those weekly. We also keep flour on-hand to make our own bread should our supply lines be disrupted.

We did finally buy a separate freezer because we've started purchasing half of a cow (raised by friends - grass-fed, no antibiotics) every winter and needed more freezer space than our combo fridge/freezer allowed. My husband also hunts, so we always have venison and ducks in there, as well.

In addition to food and household items, we have a generator and at least 20 gallons of gasoline on-hand; propane cylinders for heaters, grills, and camp stove; batteries/flashlights; several always-charged power blocks for cell phones; and each of us has a get-home bag in our vehicle.

Weather isn't an issue here unless rain counts, but yes, I do stock up. This house has more storage space than I can imagine ever really needing. Small community without many store choices, so I'll shop an hour away for both price and selection. Costco for paper goods, laundry/bath/dishwasher soap, food items. Milk, butter. I buy Costco organic milk three 3-packs (half gallons) at a time or, even four depending on their use-by date. Extra refrigerator in the garage and a separate freezer in my mudroom.

I have things I'd rather be doing that wrangling a parking lot space, standing in line in our always crowded Safeway store every few days, and they don't always have what I want. I can almost count on them being out of one or two items from their weekly specials on the first day the ad comes out. Would you like a raincheck? No, I wanted it now and didn't want to make another trip for it ;0)

When I find a good price, I buy. I've been cleaning bathrooms, their drawers and closets this week and we seem to have enough shampoo, styling lotion, razor blades and dental floss, toothpaste for the next year ;)

I do stock up, especially, like Marilyn Sue, the heavy items, but since I have a large chest freezer I stock up on some foods also (plus I've learned to can so have stocked up canned items).

I do enjoy going to the store for fresh fruits/veggies, but since I have supplies and food if the weather is bad or I just don't feel like going out, it's no big deal.

I'm going to peppi's house in a storm! Sounds really quite Hobbit-like. Comfy, cozy, and ready to hunker down in the right way.

I keep us stocked up on most things. We shop at Costco, so things like TP, toothpaste, soap etc. are stocked. We have a full pantry with too much, really.

I also cook in bulk and we'd easily be good for a couple weeks, just pulling from the freezer.

Not really, but I buy the big package of bath tissue at Costco and I'll buy several pounds of butter if I find it on sale because I'll use it for holiday baking. Our refrigerator/freezer is tiny, so even freezing butter takes up a lot of the available space.

Robb, you are not the first to say that! You are welcome anytime. Annie from the CF is also another good choice.

But I think no one beats Readinglady. I miss her posts.

Peppi, do you mean Grainlady? If so, I miss her as well.

I have a smaller home but I do stock up on things on sale. I also have a chest freezer in the garage. I go grocery shopping weekly but I hate it. On the odd week I decide to skip it, we're totally okay!

I miss Grainlady too. If anyone knows how to get in touch with her, I'd like to know please.

I only stock up on pantry items when I know for some reason I will be short of funds. The weather in the part of Canada I live in is fairly moderate in the winter so there is really no reason not to be able to get to a store if I run short of anything.

The only time I stock up is when a snow/ice storm is coming my way.

We don't typically get any bad winter weather. It only snows here every few years and then it's maybe a couple of inches, which is gone by the next day. I'll buy a few things if I find a good sale. I don't like to run out of things and have to make a special stop by the store. I also like to limit my Costco trips, so if we still have an item but I anticipate that we'll be out prior to the next trip I go ahead and pick it up.

I do have a few things on hand right now in anticipation of Hurricane Matthew, but not much - peanut butter and a few cans of soup. We're only forecast to get tropical storm winds and we have underground power so it's unlikely it will go out.

I always try to have "back ups" ever since my husband and I were sick at the same time, neither of us could get to the store. Bad weather is another reason to have extra supplies. Besides various cold, flu meds, cough, etc. I also like to have back ups of general items, TP, body wash, paper towels, detergent, dog food, etc.

I go to town almost every day but I also have a large freezer and keep enough food on hand to last at least a couple of months. I like to do that because sometimes my husband might go s couple of months and not work in the winter. I also like to freeze shrimp when he is catching some nice sized ones.

Jasdip, you should invest in a little 2 wheeler (magna-cart is one brand but there's others) to help grunt that cat litter (and other things) up those steps. I've seen them as cheap as $15 or so but usually they're in the range of $20-$25. I used to keep one in the car for work. They're real handy and take up very little space when folded up and retracted. They carry a lot of weight too for their size. When I travel I usually use that for carrying luggage into the hotel.

I "winterize" every year so I don't have to deal with ice and snow. When I had a cat I'd get enough litter to last through the winter. Usually would buy in the spring and fall when the farm store had a great sale. Same with softener salt. I never understood the idea of waiting until you're out to buy a bag of salt or a roll of toilet paper! There's no expiration, it's less effort and multiple savings. And I'm not a "shopper". I have a LOT better things to do than running to the store to buy a tube of toothpaste or a Band-Aid. The softener salt served dual purpose too when I had the pickups. I'd carry about 200#-300# of salt in the back of the pickup and I could go pretty much anyone could in their 4wds. Use it out of there as I needed it and it would be emptied by spring or just bring in the excess. Added benefit, if I did get stuck or (the more likely case) someone else got stuck I had salt to throw under the tires to get out. Why buy sandbags? Just yesterday I stocked up (at sale price of course) on that dreaded and oft-vilified spring water that throws so many into fits of rage! :) Should last me through the winter. They were out of the distilled but I don't use all that much so it's not a big deal money-wise.

I've learned from living on a shoestring budget to buy when the price is right (and KNOW what's a good price) and thereby save trips to the store saving time and vehicle expense. To me, it's just how I grew up and how I lived for a long time and now it just is common sense to me. Even when I lived alone in the apartment I'd buy a case of paper towels and toilet paper when Target had their sales. In those days the sale price was a LOT better than "sales" are now though so it was significant enough to make it worth doing then too.

I also always have some food items around so if I get sick or there's inclement weather I don't have an issue.