covid pantry: winter 2021-2022 edition

[prairiewindmomma]

Is anyone stocking up? Inflation, anticipated winter weather, and a still raging epidemic have me contemplating what, if anything, we are going to do this winter.

I've been reviewing my hit and miss list from last winter:

hits:

large stash of pb & j

large stash of chicken breasts, diced and marinated

canned soup (dh's comfort food)

taco seasoning & broth powder---these were largely out for months on end by me

tuna

frozen pizza dough balls

misses:

overbought tomato products

overbought protein powder for shakes

overbought pasta (which we apparently never make)

overbought yeast

I essentially made the same 21 meals in a week, week in and week out last winter and it was great for a time, but now we are sick of it all. I'm contemplating this winter's lineup, realizing that I need to switch it up quite a bit.

 

[Kassia]

My freezer and refrigerator are stuffed to capacity so I can't buy anything extra.  Other than that, we seem pretty good on most things.  I noticed Walmart prices increased by quite a lot on some items.

 

DH went to the store the other day and said the toilet paper/paper towel aisle was empty and there were very few eggs.  I was surprised about that.  

[mommyoffive]

5 minutes ago, Kassia said:

My freezer and refrigerator are stuffed to capacity so I can't buy anything extra.  Other than that, we seem pretty good on most things.  I noticed Walmart prices increased by quite a lot on some items.

 

DH went to the store the other day and said the toilet paper/paper towel aisle was empty and there were very few eggs.  I was surprised about that.  

What did you notice was more expensive at Walmart?

[City Mouse]

I’m in the process of reorganizing our pantry. I usually knew where everything was, but other people could not follow my system, so that made thing harder for the others. I bought can organizers (the kind that allow cans to go in one spot and out another) so that DH and DS can quickly see what canned foods we do have.

I tend to keep larger volume in winter anyway so that I can wait out storms rather than go to the grocery right before or during at storm. I do most of the cooking, but don’t follow a strict meal plan. I’ve been stocking up on the basics.

[Faith-manor]

According to the local Amish farmers, they think it is going to be very, very cold and icy this winter. Something to do with animal dens. I have know idea if they are right. But I hate going out and driving on the ice, so I have been really stocking up, and even when we go to Alabama, we will have lots of supplies to take so we don't have to go into town if it is raining or if covid cases are high.

The big freezer has 30 quarts of broccoli, green beans, and Brussels sprouts, 2 gallons (divided into pints) of applesauce, a half beef, 20 roasting chickens. I also froze blueberries, raspberries, peaches slices, and some melon balls for fruit mix. I canned 21-28 each salsa and pasta sauce, 14 pints plain tomatoes for when I want to make chilli or barbecue sauce. I dehydrated about 100 grape tomatoes.

I have rice and gluten free pasta as well.

We have about three months of toilet paper, several rolls of paper towels just in case, a box of printer paper, three months of personal care items, and so stocked up on some over the counter meds. I got extra laundry detergent and I am using dryer balls now, have plenty of those.

I just need to get another bag of cat food and litter plus dog food, and then I think we are pretty well set.

My next prep is to replace Mark's winter coat. All the zippers are giving up, and it looks ragged as well. Also eldest son is wearing a coat that is all worn out and I also worry about the zipper finally dying when it is -10 out. The others are in good shape for winter wear.

[Ethel Mertz]

We’re stocking up, keeping in mind weather (we’re up a mountain, 10 miles from our small town), the pandemic, inflation, supply change disruptions, and the effect climate change is having on agriculture. I’m in the process of inventorying what we have and figuring out what we still need. Strange times these are….

[bensonduck]

We’re good on most stuff. I’m waiting for pasta to go on sale so I can buy 10-12 boxes. I also like that shelf stable almond milk because it doesn’t go bad so quickly and it can be used in coffee, for cereal, oatmeal, etc. Definitely need flour and yeast. We have a lot of paper products, rice, frozen fruits and veggies, frozen ground beef and chicken, broths, tuna, etc. 

I can’t believe how much prices have gone up here (just outside DC). There’s a local taco/burrito shop we order from maybe once a month. It’s one of the few spots where each family member can find an item that we want to eat. My burrito salad thing that I like used to be $8.88 before the virus (I remember because I thought the number was cool).  We ordered from there last week and the exact same item was $12.79 😧

[Jaybee]

We don't have tons of room to stock up, but what we have is pretty full. We bought a quarter beef several months ago that mostly filled up our small chest freezer in the garage. Now we have it about half full of beef, plus some shorter term freezer items. As for stocking up, I went ahead and bought a turkey breast and a small ham for Thanksgiving, canned pumpkin, dried cranberries and other ingredients for a jello salad I always make, and several other seasonal items. So even if there are some of our usuals missing, I should be able to easily work around it with what I have already. We eat lasagna for Christmas, and I bought the noodles last week. I will try to keep canned tomatoes in stock, because I use them for quite a few things. Mostly, I'm trying to take advantage of when I see something well stocked, to go ahead and buy it. Next week, I will try to get a large package of chicken breasts--maybe two--because then I just boil them, shred them, and freeze them in ziplock bags of 2 cups of chicken and a little broth to keep it moist. Then they are ready for whatever recipe I want them for. I need to buy some dried beans, too.  I thought I still had black beans on hand last week, but we had eaten them all.

When I was in Walmart on Monday, there were so many gaps on the shelves. It's a bit worrisome.

[ScoutTN]

I’d love to be able to stock up, but I have a small house, tiny pantry, no second fridge or deep freeze, no garage, and no basement. I do generally keep a back-up of the things we use most. My fridge and freezer are generally full. We do source meat, eggs, milk, and lots of veggies locally, so not affected by factory farming covid issues. 
 

[bluemongoose]

I believe I live near your area Prairie. Where I live flooding is a yearly problem, plus ice, and the occasional snow. Roads are not treated where I am, so if it is snowy or icy, you are stuck. I always prep for the winter. I am prepping a little more than usual due to COVID #'s, teens eating more, and price increases/shortages. I have been canning a lot. With every order I get more TP and other things to make sure I will not run out any time soon. I need to get chicken feed! I have more chickens than usual, wont have to worry about eggs. I grind my own flour, so I have been stocking up on lots of grain. I also bought more rice and mixed beans and pintos too. The worst winter we got stuck in for a month. By the end we had rice and beans for one dinner and beans and rice for the next. Every lunch was PBJ. But we made it and we didnt run out of TP! LOL

[Arcadia]

Hits:

Spices (Chinese, Korean, Indian, Japanese)

Milo (chocolate malt drink)

Japanese noodles 

coconut milk 

tomato paste

mirin 

dark soy sauce 

cans of sardines and cans of salmon 

Miss:

overbought yeast

overbought mayonnaise

We have plenty of grocery stores near us but we buy in bulk on sale our often used items to hedge against prices going up. We are buying more Thai Kitchen coconut milk from Costco now to stockpile because their sale price is nice.

[Kassia]

13 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

What did you notice was more expensive at Walmart?

The Great Value diet 2 liters and 12 packs went up by a lot.  The Great Value cookies also increased.  He thinks the cheeses were the same (we buy a lot of cheese).  I can't remember what else - I'm sorry!  

ETA my Great Value microwave popcorn also increased.  I should go check on their website and see what else.  I remember seeing quite a few things.  

Edited October 7, 2021 by Kassia

[Carrie12345]

I didn’t have any major misses last year, at least not on things that won’t be fine for even longer. There’s probably a bag or two of stale tortilla chips stuck way up high that I haven’t unearthed, lol.

I’ve been trying to empty one of my freezers and am making decent progress. My gut is worried about power outage risks more than usual this year. I’ve been canning and freeze drying to make up for it, but discovered canning is much more of a storage nightmare in my limited space than I had anticipated!

 I’m used to “earning” a free turkey and cheap spiral ham from my supermarket every November and December, but I’m looking for backups just in case that doesn’t come through this year. Back up poultry scored, potential ham scheduled for weekend pick up if it isn’t out of stock by then.

[MEmama]

I'm less concerned this year over last, because it's just the two of us at home now. I think a major driver for my desire to stock up last winter stemmed from wanting to keep things as normal possible at home for DS, like a calm sanctuary despite any storm outside (ie the big unknown of covid).
 

While I recognize that there are different threats this year—mainly supply chain issues— DH and I are fine to make do. I'm sure I was being overprotective of DS; I suppose I just wanted to feel like I had a little bit of control over his mental health.

That said, I typically keep a decent stock of food, etc. I did buy one more package of tp, but I’m still stocked on all other household goods from last year. We don’t use much. 
 

 

Edited October 7, 2021 by MEmama

[historically accurate]

**sticks fingers in ears and sings "lalalalalalalala, I can't hear you"*

My grocery/stocking up budget is pretty slim right now as we have other places to put $$ right now. I did buy a big thing of toilet paper from Amazon subscribe & save that should come this weekend, and I try to have one unopened thing of vitamins/OTC meds, but stocking up on groceries really isn't happening right now.

I had been able to go to Sam's Club once a month for a few months (with whatever is left in the grocery budget on the last day of the month, I purchase a few items from Sam's), but I haven't had any extra in the budget since July, so no Sam's Club trip. I'm focusing on procuring cold meds right now (one thing a week) as our supply was used by DH and his man cold last month.

[prairiewindmomma]

15 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

What did you notice was more expensive at Walmart?

I am not the person you asked, but last week nearly everything was up by at least .10-.15. Some things were up way more than that: chicken thighs, produce,  and so on.

Notably, since the other poster mentioned soda, a 2L of diet Dr Pepper moved from $1.69 to $1.99. PepsiCo had announced some time ago prices were going up, but I think Stuffmart tacked on a bit extra.

 

 

[prairiewindmomma]

I think my goal for October is to use up part of my freezer to make room for a turkey breast. The most realistic problem I am going to have is sourcing stuff for holiday meals. I need to rotate out some stuff anyway. 
 

 

[dsmith]

We have been trying to buy extra sale meats because the prices have really gone up. Dh has been making soups and stock but I'd like to buy some veggie and chicken broth to have on hand. We have a lot of beef broth at the moment. We've recently discovered Aldi, so we've been stocking up on favorites there. If we don't have cookies in the house the elderly folks get very upset, so I'm very thankful they love Aldi's cookies. I need to increase my stock of almond milk. I used to have 8-10 on hand at any given moment but I'm down to 3!!😲 We plan on making some freezer meals for the winter to have on hand for busy days, but we always have enough food on hand for 3 - 6 months. The perishables are the problem - milk, half and half, eggs, etc, but unless they start restricting amounts again on those we'll be fine. We have a two supermarkets in town, literally down the street, so I'm not worried about not being able to get out over the winter. We need to replenish our butter, flour, sugar and other baking supplies, which we've been slowly doing every time we shop, but we will put in a few large online orders for flour soon. We have a few diet Coke drinkers in the house, and that's been difficult to get on sale lately. When it does go on sale we buy a lot. I don't know what it is about diet Coke, but heaven forbid we should run out!! You'd think civilization was coming to an end lol. 

[HomeAgain]

I've been grabbing an extra 1-2 items every time I go to the grocery store.  By now, I know our most used winter items are:

• rices
• potatoes
• oatmeal
• canned beans
• canned tomatoes
• tomato soup
• chicken, beef, and vegetable stock
• peanut butter
• coconut milk
• pastas
• grains

We buy butter four pounds at a time when it starts going on sale and have it fill the bottom of our fridge, but that's not pantry, really.  And, um, we stock the wine shelves with a dozen reds and a few whites, most of them for cooking. We do about one soup/stew meal a week from November through March, and I know the rest of our winter meals are pretty well received: lots of rice bases, lots of pasta on the side of meat and dark greens, or potatoes, squash, and sweet potatoes rotating through as hearty bases.

[Kassia]

3 minutes ago, dsmith said:

 I don't know what it is about diet Coke, but heaven forbid we should run out!! You'd think civilization was coming to an end lol. 

I drink a lot of diet soda and DH is so sweet but buys a TON of it every time it goes on sale.  At the time I think he's crazy but it is definitely more expensive now and goes on sale less often so now I'm grateful that he buys so much at once.  We literally had a wall of diet soda 12 packs in our basement at one time!  

[historically accurate]

12 minutes ago, Kassia said:

I drink a lot of diet soda and DH is so sweet but buys a TON of it every time it goes on sale.  At the time I think he's crazy but it is definitely more expensive now and goes on sale less often so now I'm grateful that he buys so much at once.  We literally had a wall of diet soda 12 packs in our basement at one time!  

My mom loved coca-cola when I was growing up. When new coke came out, she hated it. We lived in a single wide mobile home at the time, so we didn't have a lot of space, but my dad stocked up on classic coke for her. He bought so much that it was under all the beds, in all of the closets and there was some stacked up in the kitchen as well. She made it to the relaunch of classic coke without ever missing her daily coke though lol!

[prairiewindmomma]

The caramel syrup in sodas calms my tummy with my nausea-inducing meds. I am cutting WAY back on my caffeine (including coffee) but I still need a bit on hand. 
 

Our household falls apart when we run out of bagels, currently. It used to be over a certain type of granola bar. Whatever. Just let me know what the item is this month, kid, so I can have it on hand.

Edited October 7, 2021 by prairiewindmomma

[Kassia]

@historically accuratewhat a great story.  that is exactly what my DH would do (and does) with the foods I especially like.

[marbel]

I'm planning some largeish costco and aldi trips soon to stock up on canned beans and tomato products, and whatever meat is affordable. I also like to keep both red and green salsa around, more for simmering meat than snacking on chips.  I need to get a lot of canned refried beans - I'd like to make them myself, but no matter what recipe I use or method I follow, they turn out gray and not very tasty. I do have to make them vegetarian for one of my kids/main bean eater.

One of my people eats a lot of chickpeas and is very fussy, but not in the way you'd expect. She likes Aldi the best because they are small. So, that's fine, they are cheap, but I have to be sure to stay stocked.  

We did a lot of breadbaking last year (like everyone else, I know) and we will not run out of flour or yeast again. We slow down on it during the summer but amp it up again when it gets cool. 

I was in Sam's Club today and it looked like they were going out of business. The meat area was particularly sad looking. 

ETA: my big worry is eggs. I get twitchy if we are down to a dozen and when a store is out, it sends me into an irrational little panic. So I try to keep 2 18-unit cartons in the house at all time. 

Edited October 7, 2021 by marbel

[dsmith]

1 hour ago, Kassia said:

I drink a lot of diet soda and DH is so sweet but buys a TON of it every time it goes on sale.  At the time I think he's crazy but it is definitely more expensive now and goes on sale less often so now I'm grateful that he buys so much at once.  We literally had a wall of diet soda 12 packs in our basement at one time!  

In the early days of the pandemic it was very hard to get a spot for grocery delivery, and the cart was often wonky. Diet coke was out of stock for weeks and suddenly it was in stock, so I ordered about 8 12-packs. Dh had a saved cart and added that to our order and didn't realize I had diet coke on the order already, so when the delivery came I think we had about 20 12-packs. I wonder what they must have thought of us! 

[Murphy101]

I’m trying to. Dadblum the price of meat is getting insane. The same $ precovid for stock my commercial upright freezer is only about 1/3 full now. Ouch.

I always keep 1-2 months of staples. 50# thing of rice and 25# containers of flour, sugar, macaroni, spaghetti, and egg noodles. 10# for corn bread mix, and brown sugar.  We buy vinegar (white and AcV) in batches of 2 gallons each. Large containers of spices bc a wide range of spices can make the same chicken a million ways. In holiday prep I bought some premade graham cracker pie shells, a case of canned pumpkin, some canned apple pie filling, some cake mixes were on sale so I grabbed those (we make a lot of stuff that isn’t cake with cake mixes LOL) and some frostings bc we have some birthdays coming up.  I bought marichino cherries for cherry bread (a holiday must here). I have a 3lb bag of yeast in the freezer. Stocked up on cooking oils (veg and Olive ) and shortening. Chocolate chips and cinnamon sticks. Thinking winter baking.  Peanutbutter. Jelly. Butter and unsalted butter. I have a whole shelf in the freezer just for that. 

We stay stocked on TP and don’t buy hardly any paper products besides that.

I try to stay stocked up on vitamins and cold meds and such.  When we’re sick is not when we want to go to the store to get cold meds! And for our size family, it’s easy to max out on how much they will let me buy of something like Sudafed if 4 of us are sick.

Coffee. My house is the house to be at for at least a couple months if there’s a coffee shortage. LOL

Firewood!  I can’t find anyone to get seasoned firewood from! Last year I bought 2 ricks and we ran out and then when the pier went out and everyone and their dog was buying anything that would burn.  So this year I want to buy 3 ricks but I can’t find anyone who has seasoned firewood for pick up or delivery.  I’m starting to wonder if last winter wiped out everyone’s stores of seasoned wood?  🤷‍♀️ 

 

[Selkie]

I always stock up for winter because we live far out in the country, and this year I am doing a bit extra because of Covid.

I just bought two cases of our favorite muesli because it was on sale, and I also got a couple cases of vegetable broth. I've been buying frozen berries like crazy, because we eat a lot of them and they have been sometimes hard to find.

Our pantry is stocked with several varieties of whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts, and seeds, and plenty of canned tomatoes, spices, coffee, tea. We use a lot of garlic, so I bought 15 lbs. from a farm, and we also have several kinds of squash and a case of purple sweet potatoes. Also random miscellaneous things we like, like artichoke hearts, olives, mustards, etc.

Our freezers are stuffed with smoothie ingredients (bananas and other fruit, greens) and all kinds of frozen veggies.

As long as we continue getting our weekly fruit and veg deliveries, we should be all set. We also grow our own microgreens and mushrooms.

 

[Melissa in Australia]

We always keep a month of food anyway just because of our location 

However

DH has stocked up on 3 months worth of coffee 

[Elizabeth86]

22 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Is anyone stocking up? Inflation, anticipated winter weather, and a still raging epidemic have me contemplating what, if anything, we are going to do this winter.

I've been reviewing my hit and miss list from last winter:

hits:

large stash of pb & j

large stash of chicken breasts, diced and marinated

canned soup (dh's comfort food)

taco seasoning & broth powder---these were largely out for months on end by me

tuna

frozen pizza dough balls

misses:

overbought tomato products

overbought protein powder for shakes

overbought pasta (which we apparently never make)

overbought yeast

I essentially made the same 21 meals in a week, week in and week out last winter and it was great for a time, but now we are sick of it all. I'm contemplating this winter's lineup, realizing that I need to switch it up quite a bit.

 

I would love to hear your same 21 meals. I’ve been doing the same meals over and over and it works well for all of us for many reasons. I just like to see other people’s rotation.

[Faith-manor]

10 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

We always keep a month of food anyway just because of our location 

However

DH has stocked up on 3 months worth of coffee 

SMART MAN!!!

[Clarita]

Neutral:

• We have a stash of Clorox wipes. I was trying not to hoard them but we have 2 Costco packs now because they were gone for a year. 

Hit:

• We also bought a half a cow last spring. We are still going through that. It is a great buy for us, we are about half way through it.
• I've made way too much jam in the pandemic. It's under hit because the family does love it. 
• I ended up also making a lot of pickles. My friends got into gardening and I ended up with a lot of cucumbers  

Miss:

• Husband bought rice and beans during the height of lockdowns. We do not eat that much beans. 
• Frozen fruit. I never feel the need to use it with all the fresh fruit around. I like mangos more than pears but I'd rather have a fresh pear than a frozen mango.

[bluemongoose]

Clarita-I make my jam from frozen fruit. Easy way to use up extra...especially since you know they like jam! Also, smoothies of course!