Stocking up

[fairfarmhand]

With the rise in cases in my area, I’m slowly stocking up on things that were hard to find  in Covid round 1.

i have about 3 months of toilet paper, and did get extra paper towels. 
 

ive stocked up on meat gradually over the last 2 months. Good with hand soap, but probably should but down some extra cleaning products.

Also may need to get a couple bags of flour and yeast.

anyone else building a stockpile?

[historically accurate]

I've started buying some more every week as well. Some of it is going to my oldest who is heading off to college in a month, but I'm working on getting a bigger stockpile of pantry items and toiletries. Cases haven't risen here yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do as everyone seems to have loosened up since July rolled around. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

I have been keeping up my stockpile by replacing anything I take out of it. 

The unexpected things that have been hard to find are:

oats (for my bunnies)

canned pumpkin (for my dog)

chunky natural peanut butter in my favorite brand for me.  They have more expensive specialty brands but I'd rather go without chunky peanut butter than to pay those prices!

almond milk has been hit or miss. 

I got a box of meat from the butcher right before prices went up (he told me that his prices were going up the very next day) 

[cjzimmer1]

Absolutely.  I started stocking up as soon as things opened up because seeing how people behaved DURING lockdown I knew it was inevitable that cases would rises drastically once they started opening back up.  Also the limits on things were so low that is was difficult to get enough for my large family.  Costco still has limits on things so my stockups aren't going as well as I would like in some areas but overall we are in ok shape.  Especially for the short term because I have lots of fresh produce growing.  It will be harder come late fall/winter when I have to rely on stores more.

[73349]

In my region, we need to keep an eye on the tropics as well as the virus.

My pantry and freezer are about as full as I can stand just because they're not very big.

Edited October 2, 2020 by Carolina Wren

[Miss Tick]

24 minutes ago, whitehawk said:

My pantry and freezer are about as full as I can stand just because they're not very big.

Same here. I cleaned out another bin to store the ww flour in the brand I like. I haven't been sticking up with intent, but DH has commented that the pantry grows every time I do (once every 2 or 3 weeks).

One thing I struggle with is the cycle of feeling all set after I shop, to getting anxious in the 2-5 days before I shop again when we are low on everything.

If only I could find Chemex coffee filters...

[Shoeless]

We are also half-assed preppers.  Pre-covid, I tried to keep about a months worth of supplies on hand. Now I've got about 3 months worth. I still do weekly shopping to keep the supply up, and also because I can't guarantee I'll find everything I want at the store on every trip. If you have a decent enough stockpile, it's not a crisis if you can't find bleach for a month. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

20 minutes ago, MissLemon said:

We are also half-assed preppers.  Pre-covid, I tried to keep about a months worth of supplies on hand. Now I've got about 3 months worth. I still do weekly shopping to keep the supply up, and also because I can't guarantee I'll find everything I want at the store on every trip. If you have a decent enough stockpile, it's not a crisis if you can't find bleach for a month. 

I guess that I'm not a very good prepper then!  I have about a month's worth.  Probably more if I made weird combinations of foods for dinners.  We tend to eat mostly whole foods on a daily basis and most of those aren't able to be stored that long.  I do have some shelf stable things but those are more fill-in foods for us though in an emergency we certainly could live off of them. 

[mommyoffive]

3 hours ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

I've always been sort of a half-assed prepper, so I had a stockpile. However y'all talked me into buying yet another freezer back in March, so now I have four fridges and four freezers all together, so I have increased my stockpile. We also bought a whole house generator in all of this mess, so that I don't have to worry about losing all this food if the power goes out. 

One thing I didn't use to stock up much before but am now though is pet food and cat litter. For whatever reason, those got a bit hard to find at one point and my Auto-shipments got super delayed. I don't want to stock up on dog food too much, as it can go rancid, but I definitely now keep a second bag ready when I open the next bag. 

Wow 4 fridges and freezers.    Jealous.   Do you have  a big family?  I want another fridge or freezer.    

We are well stocked, but we just keep stocking up every time.   Times are so weird. 

[Junie]

We just this week got to the end of the toilet paper that I had in the house pre-shutdown.

I have been buying lots of staples, meat for the freezer, and cleaning supplies with the understanding that the supply chain is still not completely stable.

[mommyoffive]

I always felt more secure having a stock pile before this too.  It was more about saving money and not running out for something all the time. But now I like it even more.  Friends laughed at me when I was stocking up in February.   They would go grocery shopping every day and said it was crazy to stockpile.    I brought up the idea of a natural disaster as an example of not being able to get to the store.   These college educated people said that could just never happen.    Never say never. 

I thought I heard it is bad to keep a fridge or freezer in your garage? That is really the only place we have space.  Is that not true?

[Tanaqui]

Your fridge wants a constant temperature outside to keep its temperature constant inside. If your garage is insulated, no big. If not - you really shouldn't put your fridge or freezer there unless you have NO other choice.

[Arcadia]

27 minutes ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

TP. Seriously? Hand soap? Did people seriously not wash their hands regularly before this? Or use Clorox wipes? Or surface cleaner? Its really been mind-boggling because honestly, nothing in my daily hygiene, or my family members' hygiene routines have changed a lick since the first bit of this hit the air waves. 

My husband started working from home in early March. He uses the most hand soap, Clorox wipes and whatever cleaner in our family but he was in office from 8:30am to past 6pm. So he had to buy for home use when he started working from home. He also used up more vacuum bags. 

[Ali in OR]

I was stocked all right before shelter-in-place, but I still always shopped once a week (our case count was pretty low throughout SIP). I still found it frustrating to just not be able to get our usual stuff. There are still stock-outs of different items--seems like every week I can't get something on my grocery list (Adams creamy peanut butter last week, low-sodium white beans this week for instance). So I'm keeping a well-stocked pantry in our garage of our usual items and I'm usually able to get the out of stock items in a week or two. I'm stocking up on fruit this summer which I freeze (blueberries and peaches especially), but I do that every year. But I'll probably make sure I have a bit more than last year.

[Jean in Newcastle]

1 hour ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

That being said, I never would have guessed, in a million years exactly what was going to be hard to get. TP. Seriously? Hand soap? Did people seriously not wash their hands regularly before this? Or use Clorox wipes? Or surface cleaner? Its really been mind-boggling because honestly, nothing in my daily hygiene, or my family members' hygiene routines have changed a lick since the first bit of this hit the air waves. Our rate of going through things did not change. So I obviously have no future as a stockpiling prognosticator! I never saw any of that type of hoarding coming. 

I don't think it's that people weren't using any of those things regularly.  But I saw people with Costco carts loaded up with 3 or 4 Costco size TP packages.  And I watched a woman go up to the liquid hand soap shelf at our local grocery store and literally take her arm and sweep the entire supply of hand soap into her cart.  It was only when grocery stores etc. started to ration things that people started to be a bit more reasonable in their buying. 

[ScoutTN]

A few things, but we live in a small house with no garage or basement. Not much storage space. No second fridge or freezer. Tiny pantry cupboard. 

I do try to keep my pantry and freezer full and an extra of many household items like trash bags, dish soap, toothpaste etc. No way to stay stocked up on fresh food - my teens empty the fridge about every 4 days! 

[Corraleno]

I have limited freezer space (just a side-by-side fridge, no chest freezer), so I can't stock up much on frozen fruit & veg. If things really go south, I do have a few lbs of broccoli & kale seeds for sprouts and micro greens, and a few lbs of freeze-dried veggies I can use for soups & stews. But even during the worst part of the shutdown I never had any trouble finding fresh produce, so hopefully it won't be an issue. I don't eat meat, but if it starts looking like DS will be home this fall, then I will probably stock up on jerky and start freezing some ground beef and chicken breasts for him. 

I do have 3 separate pantries, though, so I'm totally set for nonperishables. I've got ~10 lbs of quinoa, 8-10 lbs of various types of rice, 8-10 lbs of various dried beans & lentils, a few lbs each of barley and oats, a couple of cases of canned tomatoes, about a case each of almond milk, coconut milk, and vegetable stock, lots of different kinds of pasta and dried noodles (plus durum wheat so I could always make my own), ~10 lbs of organic sugar, and probably 2 dozen boxes of different teas. I also have ~60 lbs in total of various whole grains (wheat, spelt, durum, rye) plus a grain mill and a robust sourdough starter, so I'm probably set for bread and other baking needs for the next 6 months to a year (depending on where DS is living).

I've started buying extras of toilet paper & paper towels, and I should probably start stocking up on Clorox spray. I have bleach and isopropyl alcohol, and a few small bottles of sanitizer to keep in the car, but I don't like to use a lot of sanitizer. I prefer bar soap to liquid soap and I have plenty of that. I have plenty of OTC meds, but I should probably order additional bottles of stuff like D3, NAC, and quercetin.

 

 

 

[Corraleno]

4 hours ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

Yes with the eggs! I also learned about freezing eggs this time (and other things like rice, and flour and all sorts of stuff), so now I keep a ton of eggs frozen. I wish I had known about it when we had our flock at full bore on the egg laying. 

What's the best way to freeze eggs? Does the texture change when they're thawed? Can you still serve them as eggs (like scrambled) or just use them in baked goods? I've never tried freezing eggs, but it sounds like a great idea.

 

3 hours ago, Dreamergal said:

I never used to pre-COVID, but now I've frozen fruits, vegetables now including red onion which I had to scramble for.Just cut and freeze. I grind tomato, mince garlic and ginger and freeze. Meat and sea food too. I know those are whole foods for sure. Are grains whole foods ? I store rice, wheat, pulses, beans  all in food safety buckets or frozen in ziplock bags or in unopened bags.. More than 3 months supply each. Even herbs have been frozen. Nuts are in the fridge. I was all fresh precovid with shopping in multiple markets. I was only on top of spices and rice, wheat flour. Now I freeze pretty much everything and have a supply for 3 months. I cook even salads now, so I've frozen that too. Nutritional value probably reduced, but my mental health and anxiety level reduced significantly. I "shop" now from the freezer and pantry weekly, I replace milk, eggs and half and half every two weeks. Rest even fresh is replacing the pantry. 

How do you freeze your garlic & ginger paste and herbs? Do you freeze individual portions in ice cube trays or baggies or some other kind of container?

[Ellie]

A little bit. I don't want to start a run on the bank or anything...

[Shoeless]

5 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I guess that I'm not a very good prepper then!  I have about a month's worth.  Probably more if I made weird combinations of foods for dinners.  We tend to eat mostly whole foods on a daily basis and most of those aren't able to be stored that long.  I do have some shelf stable things but those are more fill-in foods for us though in an emergency we certainly could live off of them. 

 

There are only 3 people in my family, so it's pretty easy for me to get 3 months worth of supplies together. If I had 6 kids, that would be a whole other thing.  

I don't have family in the area that can help if we get sick.  Grocery delivery slots are spotty right now.  It makes me feel better knowing I have enough to carry me for awhile in case we were quarantined and could not leave the property for a few weeks.  It seems like a lot of people with "mild" Covid feel pretty wiped out for a long time after, so if I got sick, I may not feel up to shopping for a long while.

Edited July 10, 2020 by MissLemon

[Jean in Newcastle]

25 minutes ago, MissLemon said:

 

There are only 3 people in my family, so it's pretty easy for me to get 3 months worth of supplies together. If I had 6 kids, that would be a whole other thing.  

I don't have family in the area that can help if we get sick.  Grocery delivery slots are spotty right now.  It makes me feel better knowing I have enough to carry me for awhile in case we were quarantined and could not leave the property for a few weeks.  It seems like a lot of people with "mild" Covid feel pretty wiped out for a long time after, so if I got sick, I may not feel up to shopping for a long while.

Oh I get it!  With fibromyalgia I have been there many many times. And the six weeks in February/March when I had “something “ I was extremely fatigued. But between celiac, diabetes, and food allergies it’s hard to have prepared foods that fit our food needs. And I don’t have enough stamina even when I’m healthy to do bulk cooking ahead. 

[Laura Corin]

We are moving house next week, so have used our supplies down. Scotland's figures are very good though.

[crazyforlatin]

I bought a small freezer in May, and it’ll arrive this Saturday. In fact I was planning to cancel it due to not wanting any outside person coming into the garage. But I think I’ll just have them open up the box for inspection outride and push it inside myself. 

I would like to know about freezing eggs too. We eat a lot of eggs and Costco didn’t always have eggs back in March and April. 

[Pawz4me]

8 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

I thought I heard it is bad to keep a fridge or freezer in your garage? That is really the only place we have space.  Is that not true?

Some freezers are specifically made to be in garages with wide temperature ranges. Ours is a "garage ready" GE, with an operating temperature range of 0 to 110. We live in a milder climate, and our garage is fairly well insulated (including insulated doors), so I doubt it gets too close to the extreme of either end. Other freezers will list an operating temperature range more like 30-100. I don't think that necessarily means the freezer can't or won't operate outside that range, just that it won't be nearly as efficient. From the difference in ranges it seems that colder temps are a little more of an issue than warmer. You just need to compare the specs before buying. But that's for freezers. I've never had much of an interest in having a garage refrigerator, although I know many people who do have them and nobody has ever mentioned a problem.

As far as being stocked up--I'm not quite as well stocked as I was a couple of months ago. Our cases are increasing here, but the stores seem to be in much better shape. My plan was to not worry about it too much for another month or so, mostly just maintain my current level, and then start stocking up big time for fall/winter. Earlier this week I spent some time organizing and made a bit more room. For me it's a fine line between the peace of being well stocked and the amount of stuff and managing it driving me nuts. And with our heat/humidity here right now it's hard for me to stay stocked on things like potatoes and onions, which I keep a really good supply of during the winter. I guess I need to think about chopping up a bunch of onions and freezing them, but I hate doing stuff like that.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Pawz4me

[Carrie12345]

I already had a stockpile pre-COVID, but I expanded back in Feb/March.  I planned to sit down this week and consider what/how to continue adding, but I haven’t really had a chance.  I can’t find an additional freezer anywhere, which is really screwing me up. 

I know I do need to get ahold of more sugar(s) and double check my flour. I’ve been thinking about getting a pricy electric grinder for wheat berries. I have a basic manual one for emergencies, but I would not want to have to do that a whole lot!

I did notice that some long-term food storage supplies were coming back in stock, and I should probably focus on that. It’s just so much easier to store and manage than trying to increase “normal” stockpiles that are already on the big side.

[MEmama]

I did a huge grocery and household goods stock up back in February when I saw where this was headed. Since then, I’ve been trying to keep it topped off, which hasn’t always been successful due to shortages but hasn’t been dire. 
 

I've recently found a bottle of Clorox spray and and a container of Clorox wipes, so I bought those even though they aren’t in demand in my home. I won’t need any more this summer or winter, at any rate. I’d like to have several more packets of liquid soap refill on hand but it hasn’t been in stock the last few times I’ve been to Target. It seems very expensive on Amazon when I’ve looked, but I can wait it out awhile longer. We have a giant bottle of Dr Bronners but I can’t use it; it makes my skin feel like it’s been through a chemical bath, and DH won’t use it if it’s “just for him”.  I should pick up a couple more bottles of shampoo, toothpaste and so on so I don’t run low and feel that a trip out is necessary for just an item or two. Worst case I have a couple baskets full of travel sized toiletries that would last us a very long time.

I've been thinking through what kind of pantry items I should extra stockpile, but it’s hard to predict what shortages there might be again. I don’t bake and have no need for 50 lbs of flour or whatever; I still have an extra 5 lbs I accidentally bought in March. I keep lots of frozen veggies in our small chest freezer, but proteins are little harder for me to envision (DS eats things like chicken sausages and we all eat fish, but otherwise no meat). Some of our CSA shares are going into the freezer, as will any extra garden produce. For canned goods I’m continuing to buy extras to refresh and grow the stock. 

 

[Meriwether]

Expect pork to be shorter and more expensive about September. Dh days that that is about when the lots the farmers opted out of would have been ready for butcher.

[marbel]

Because of this thread I have a strong urge to go to Costco today LOL.  I have limited space for everything - we have a regular fridge/freezer and an upright freezer, but the house is small with little storage area. 

As it is we could probably go a month or two without going to the store, if we were not picky about food combinations and such.  

I have never tried freezing eggs but may look into that. I get itchy if we have fewer than 2 dozen in the fridge. Only 4 of us but we go through a lot. 

 

[Laura Corin]

On the bright side the new house has a nineteenth century larder, with lots of space for storing veg, sauces, dry goods, etc at a cool but not refrigerated temperature. It's set into a shaded north-facing stone wall, with a grille for ventilation and no window or heat. So I should be able to stock up soon

Edited July 10, 2020 by Laura Corin

[alisoncooks]

12 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

A few things, but we live in a small house with no garage or basement. Not much storage space. No second fridge or freezer. Tiny pantry cupboard. 

I do try to keep my pantry and freezer full and an extra of many household items like trash bags, dish soap, toothpaste etc. No way to stay stocked up on fresh food - my teens empty the fridge about every 4 days! 

Same here. Tiny house = not a lot of prepping options. 

I did buy a few plastic "under-bed" tubs, and stocked them with some canned foods. Once the stores got back to normal, we ate through it, but I'll likely start slowly restocking the harder-to-find things (bagged rice, yeast, etc). 

[YaelAldrich]

19 minutes ago, Laura Corin said:

On the bright side the new house has a nineteenth century larder, with lots of space for storing veg, sauces, dry goods, etc at a cool but not refrigerated temperature. It's set into a shaded north-facing stone wall, with a grill for ventilation and no window or heat. So I should be able to stock up soon

In most of my Japanese homes (even apartments), they had a pull up door in the floor of the kitchen that was for putting root and other vegetables and fruits in for storage since Japanese kitchens and refrigerators tend to be small.  I couldn't figure it out at first then I asked my neighbors why there was a box under a door in such an odd place!

[Laura Corin]

1 minute ago, YaelAldrich said:

In most of my Japanese homes (even apartments), they had a pull up door in the floor of the kitchen that was for putting root and other vegetables and fruits in for storage since Japanese kitchens and refrigerators tend to be small.  I couldn't figure it out at first then I asked my neighbors why there was a box under a door in such an odd place!

I grew up in a house with a traditional larder. It had a grille at the back that took ventilation from the cellar. I remember the chill when I opened the larder on a summer day.

[Tanaqui]

If you have your own hens, or live in a place where eggs aren't washed before sale, there are actual multiple ways to preserve eggs without refrigeration. The most common methods involve either burying the eggs in sawdust or salt and keeping in a cool, dry place or covering them with some sort of grease or, especially, beeswax and then keeping in a cool, dry place. If you use isinglass they'll apparently keep for up to two years - but I'm going off of youtube for that info!

[Laura Corin]

10 minutes ago, Tanaqui said:

If you have your own hens, or live in a place where eggs aren't washed before sale, there are actual multiple ways to preserve eggs without refrigeration. The most common methods involve either burying the eggs in sawdust or salt and keeping in a cool, dry place or covering them with some sort of grease or, especially, beeswax and then keeping in a cool, dry place. If you use isinglass they'll apparently keep for up to two years - but I'm going off of youtube for that info!

Interesting.  We get unwashed eggs here.  They last very well anyway - I'm sure I've eaten month-old eggs at least.  I don't pay any attention to the date, I don't refrigerate them, and I can't remember getting a bad egg in the decade we've lived in Scotland.

[math teacher]

I'm not as stocked as I want to be. I'm quarantined right now, but when it's over I want to start back stocking up. I don't have much space, so it will need to be unconventional storage. I have one side by side refrigerator and a small upright freezer. I could drive 5 hours round trip and be given a chest freezer, but Dh is still balking on that. 

Part of the problem of stocking up is that we prefer to eat mostly fresh food. However, if push came to shove, we would eat other things. 

[mumto2]

17 minutes ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

Here is the Jamerrill video on freezing various things if anyone is interested. (I watch her videos on a higher playback speed because she kind of meanders.) 

Is that how you are doing your eggs?  Do they pop right out........my mom saved baby food jars and we had one egg and two egg jars in the freezer growing up.  You had to plan and thaw.  

[Laura Corin]

6 minutes ago, Dotwithaperiod said:

Is this the house that’s “flipped”?  Once you move in, will you show us more pics, pretty please? I loved looking at your flower gardens and kitchen remodel at your current house.

Thanks. Yes.  We talked to a builder and an architect this week, and it seems as if we can carry out the flip, including putting in the big window to the back.  If we can afford it.  Watch this space. Apart from the new room upstairs, we would like to remodel the staircase to be safer, put in a new kitchen and alter the access to the sunroom.  We'll see what all of that gets done.  I have plans for the garden too.  Going from 3 acres to .1 of an acre will be a relief - I can set it up so that I don't feel that it is always getting away from me.  A wildlife pond is on the list to put in.

It will take at least six months, probably longer, before the work can be completed because it is a listed building (building of some local architectural interest - not nationally important) and there are permissions to be sought.  So it could be a while before we get photos. I might set up a garden blog again - not sure right now.  The old garden blog was actually a good sales tool when we sold the house - showing the transformation and reminding me of plant names.

[historically accurate]

13 minutes ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

Here's another helpful thing if you are buying in bulk and stocking up- bag holders. I saw these on a Jamerrill  video too and wish I'd found them years ago. I usually make some family member hold the bags- especially since I sous vide stuff all the time- while I load them up. These are so handy and adjustable. There are a million brands of them- I don't know which I bought, this was just the first one that popped up on Amazon. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Sandwich-Holder，Food-Storage-Plastic-Solutions/dp/B07F26B88J/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=bag+holders&qid=1594421082&sr=8-3

I use a blender to hold my bag. A gallon size Ziploc fits in really well. My blender has a detachable blade at the bottom, so I take that off, put the bag in, fold the edge over the top, and fill.

Those at your link look handy in that I could fill multiple bags instead of one at a time. I do a lot of freezer batch cooking, so I use Ziplocs like they're going out of style LOL.

[madteaparty]

I won't store cans because we don't eat cans.  I still have beans and quinoa and pasta from the last round. We've had an insane amounts of berries so I am making jam and freezing them. My canning process is iffy though (my tomato sauce only lasted about 3 months last year..) and the garden is coming along. What i need is hoop covers so I can extend the  greens season. We have chickens (if the fox stops visiting, i've chased it away three times now), so lots of eggs. 

[SereneHome]

I just love this thread!!

[Mbelle]

I don't like to grocery shop so we have 1 upright freezer and 1 side by side in the garage, plus inside fridge.  

I would say we regularly have 1 month of food.  I did not stock up on TP, but I do now.   What happened in our area is hoarding rather than limited supply.

A lady in my parents neigborhood bought a garage full of TP then resold it for a profit.  Another lady in their neighborhood bought so much TP and papertowels than she rented a storage unit for her warehouse and resold. This is a gated golf club community. I don't know why they felt the need to do this, but anyway.

So now, yes I most certainly stock up so I don't need to pay double for my TP.  Last time I had to buy from the lady with her garage stocked with cheap sandpaper TP for $1 a roll.  I have 3 costco size TP packages in the garage.  1 very large Charmin package for kids to take to college.

Right now I'm stocking up on all purpose surface cleaning spray and disinfectant wipes for my college kids.  It is very hard to find these right now.

[madteaparty]

1 hour ago, mms said:

So we have never had a major major critter problem until this year. A raccoon wiped out our whole flock except for a single cock/hen pair and we had to buy a lot of chicks. Since then we have had foxes and more raccoons getting them. DH cannot shoot them fast enough. So, no eggs. Thankfully, Aldi opened up near by (finally!) and they have plenty.

We are going to be experimenting with hoops this year too. Not because of covid but all the recalls. Enough is enough.

They have been safe in their coops thus far this year (fingers crossed) but the whole point of chickens for me is the free range. We have three coops and let them out a third at a time. Have not tried to shoot the fox (not sure how i could even do that, it moves fast, my yard is huge), but I've been able to yell and chase it away three times now (My desk overlooks the yard). It's a matter of time before I have some major trauma in my hands. 

[KungFuPanda]

3 hours ago, mms said:

So we have never had a major major critter problem until this year. A raccoon wiped out our whole flock except for a single cock/hen pair and we had to buy a lot of chicks. Since then we have had foxes and more raccoons getting them. DH cannot shoot them fast enough. So, no eggs. Thankfully, Aldi opened up near by (finally!) and they have plenty.

We are going to be experimenting with hoops this year too. Not because of covid but all the recalls. Enough is enough.

I love Aldi. It may be wishful thinking, but I’m convinced that if I shop exclusively at Aldis for a month, and stay out of Wegmans that entire time, I can pay for my new freezer with the savings. My freezer was about $180. I’ll own up to buying different things at Wegmans, but avoiding definitely saves me money. 

[SereneHome]

3 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

I love Aldi. It may be wishful thinking, but I’m convinced that if I shop exclusively at Aldis for a month, and stay out of Wegmans that entire time, I can pay for my new freezer with the savings. My freezer was about $180. I’ll own up to buying different things at Wegmans, but avoiding definitely saves me money. 

The day I moved 40 min away from Wegmans was the best and worst day of my grocery shopping life!!!!

[Ali in OR]

1 minute ago, Dreamergal said:

Well, I don't know if it is common in other grocery stores, but yesterday my weekly grocery delivery whole food order via amazon did not have fresh ginger. Never seen it happen before ever except right in the beginning in March. We were fine stock wise, but since I diligently replace it, I put a note to get extra next week. 

Today we get a call from our local Indian grocery lady saying she had 5lb bags of peeled garlic finally available. Since DH is the one peeling and freezing ours, he decided he will brave the pandemic for it. I asked him to get ginger. He sent me pictures of the ginger available and the bin that is usually full was less than quarter and what was left was dry and nasty. DH said if I wanted he would get it. I said no. So fresh ginger not being available is strange to me both in whole foods and Indian store at the same time. 

I remember that right at the beginning in March. No fresh ginger and no bottled minced ginger either. I found some a couple of weeks later.

[Corraleno]

Sounds like I should start freezing ginger! I just ordered some ice cube trays from Amazon that have tight-fitting lids, and I think I'll start freezing cubes of fresh garlic & ginger paste with a little olive oil. 

Edited July 11, 2020 by Corraleno