What are you stocking up on right now?

[PinkTulip]

I started the gas prices thread this morning before the ban on Russian oil, and feeling glad I filled up last night. 
 

This board was so invaluable to me to stock up on supplies before the pandemic became widespread, so I’m wondering what people are looking ahead to, and loading up on: ie, I’m thinking wheat is going to get very expensive. Anything else?

[mommyoffive]

Everything?   I just think everything is going to get more expensive, so I buy things now.

[Faith-manor]

Well, we have a road trip coming up in early May, and will be taking all of our food with us. So since I think food prices are going to continue to go up, and typically supply gets a little fruity around here during high school and college graduation season due to local culture of feeding half the county to celebrate every single graduate (I am exaggerating although not hugely because it is a BIG deal here), I am buying some thing now and freezing like pork loin for pulled pork, chicken because it had been on and off and may get worse due to Asian Birdflu, cheesy brats, and such. Since we do a lot of cooking out in the summer, I am just putting extra away so we have it since there is room in the freezer. I also bought extra fuel for our camp stove just in case that gets more scarce. We don't do much with wheat since I am allergic.

[Terabith]

I wish we had a chest freezer.  We have a tiny freezer in a half of a slightly smaller than standard fridge, so we really don't have a way to stock up on meat.  We've talked about getting one, but it would require redoing the electrical system in our house, and that's just a lot.  So, I think a lot of things are going to get expensive:  meat, eggs, bread/ wheat, but I'm not really in a good position to do much about it.  I'm just grateful we have enough money to probably absorb rising costs.  

[Pawz4me]

I bought an extra 5 pound bag of bread flour yesterday and put it in the freezer. That's about it. I've stayed a little better stocked since the pandemic began, but there's a limit beyond which I'm not willing to go. It starts to affect my mental health, and nothing's worth that. (But caveat . . there are only three of us here. Neither DH nor I eat all that much, and DS gets a lot of his meals out. So I don't have to worry about feeding a lot of people.)

[prairiewindmomma]

Everything is going to get expensive (except maybe certain stock prices).  

We can only hope that we see inflation ease in the second half of the year. I'm concerned that we're going to see continued snarled supply chains which with added fuel costs will continue to drive higher prices.

Buy whatever you need to make your household happy. Our kids have allergies to a lot of personal toiletries and laundry products, so those are being stocked up on currently.  The freezer has a lot of meat in it, because some of us need heme iron from meat and can't get by otherwise. None of us are going to starve here---we're a net exporter of both food and petroleum--but we're at the mercy of a lot of companies that are going to make a lot of profit this year because they are decision making with eyes towards their investors and not towards their customers.

 

 

[ScoutTN]

Nothing. I normally buy a bit ahead and continue to do so, but we live in a very small house with almost no storage space.

[Elizabeth86]

6 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:

Nothing. I normally buy a bit ahead and continue to do so, but we live in a very small house with almost no storage space.

Same. No room at all. Family of 6 in a TINY house. No basement, no pantry, no deep freeze, no garage. I just have a regular fridge and freezer and a couple cabinets. We do have a couple huge buckets of rice dh bought once when he wanted to be a prepped, but no room. I wish. 

[Spryte]

We are stocked up to our regular pandemic level, but I just can’t do much more, I don’t have the bandwidth for more. We have a good supply of enough to get by for a while, but we don’t have a year of food or anything like that. We have an extra freezer, which is pretty well stocked, but not topped off. We have an extra pantry area, thanks to Covid, and keep it topped off when things get low.

I expect all prices to go up, and we may rethink some of our favorite items if they are super high. Our highest increases will come in the form of treats and convenience foods since those are so difficult for us to find and expensive already (multiple LTFAs). So DS might not have a stack of Daiya frozen pizzas in the freezer, but will have to make his own GF, DF, everything-else-free pizza).

I won’t be gardening large-scale. Our water bill goes sky high when we garden, and I’m not that good at it, so it always feels like a wash at best, possibly a losing proposition. I hate to just throw in the towel, but I feel like I’ve been fighting my own nature for years. 🤣 Instead, I’ll hit the farmers market for produce this year, and freeze as we go. We grow herbs in containers, and maybe I’ll try something like a few large pots of veggies or greens on the deck, too.

We are working on adjusting the thermostat, and we don’t do any unnecessary driving. 

We will probably pick up extra fuel for the grill, so we can avoid heating the house once it gets warmer.

[Faith-manor]

Yes everyone, if you grill out in the summers in order to keep the kitchen cooler, you may want to put some field and some charcoal away now. My guess is if the war causes people to stay closer to home for their vacations again and not cruise/disney/resorts far from home, coming out of two years of that from pandemic, stores may have a hard time stocking grilling fuel.

[Sharpie]

I haven't planted a garden in years, this year I will be.  Instead of buying two of an item to have a spare, I'm buying four.  I've stocked up on peanut butter & tuna fish because they're protein and keep in the cans/jars for a long time.  I'm putting at least 1/2 steer in my freezer and may end up doing another 1/4.  I'm also looking at getting a whole hog too.  Basically, I'm stocking up on everything I can. 

We likely won't be planting soybeans at all this year and corn will be considerably less.  The price of fertilizer is insane with no end in sight. 

[Melissa in Australia]

Veggie seeds. Lots of the veggie seeds in Australia are imported from England. I am thinking they might be needing them themselves this year.

[Ethel Mertz]

Cat food and litter. 

[Katy]

I'm trying to eat through our pantry & freezer because I don't want to move the stuff in a few months, but if I were going to stock up I'd get:

• food grade buckets from Home Depot,
• those screw lids that make buckets easy to open from Amazon,
• 50 lb bags of flour, sugar, rice, corn meal,
• smaller but still bulk packages of cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, chocolate chips, molasses, powdered milk or soymilk, salt, oil, and varieties of beans. 

Then I'd add in frozen fruits & veggies as space allows, and then some canned or shelf stable stuff my family likes. Everyone likes canned peaches and pears, for example.  And canned potatoes last forever & are an easy addition to soups.  It can be more work to cook from scratch that way, but it's cheap and shelf-stable.  You can always add in eggs, fresh meats and produce as you can afford, but no one will starve with a pantry like that.  If you have the freezer space consider buying only as many 50 lb bags at a time as you have space to freeze them for several days, that way you won't get moths.

[rutheart]

I can't garden (I have a black thumb), so I bought a CSA share for this year. Not only am I supporting a local farming family in my county, but my produce isn't crossing state lines, so less fuel is used to get the food to my house.

As wheat gets more expensive/less available, I think people will turn to alternate flours to get their carbs. I'm going to stock up on my other staple flours: oat, barley, rye, spelt, potato, and corn. I'll probably also buy a couple extra boxes of crackers.

Sometime last year, I got several cases of organic ramen, and that has been such a help for the times the grocer has been out of items. It has enough protein and carb by itself, so I just have to add some veg (and/or fruit on the side) to make it a balanced meal. We've learned a lot of domestic veg tastes really good with ramen.

[Hilltopmom]

I doubled my CSA veggie share from last year and just ordered another half cow and whole pig.

[Ann.without.an.e]

I’ve used the food grade buckets and gamma seal lids for years. Love them. We live in a farmhouse and as hard as we try, we can’t always keep mice out of our storage area attached to our house. So the buckets and lids are a must for us. 
 

I have in buckets:

rice, oats, gf flour, sugar, and grits 

It’s also good to keep extra baking supplies: cocoa, baking powder + soda, salt, yeast, etc

 

[itsheresomewhere]

Everything we use normally.  I grab extra every time I go to the store.  Especially,  pasta as those seem to be missing in a few stores around here. 

And I am so happy right now that our diesel truck was converted to run on used veggie oil years ago.   We should be able to take two great road trips still this year.   

[OH_Homeschooler]

2 hours ago, Terabith said:

I wish we had a chest freezer.  We have a tiny freezer in a half of a slightly smaller than standard fridge, so we really don't have a way to stock up on meat.  We've talked about getting one, but it would require redoing the electrical system in our house, and that's just a lot.  So, I think a lot of things are going to get expensive:  meat, eggs, bread/ wheat, but I'm not really in a good position to do much about it.  I'm just grateful we have enough money to probably absorb rising costs.  

Last week I bought a small standalone freezer like this one after signing up for a Costco Membership. I wish I had the space for a full chest freezer but I don't and this little thing has basically doubled my freezer size. Just wanted to share another option with you. 

[skimomma]

Since the pandemic started, I have kept enough extra in the house to weather a quarantine/isolation but nothing more and I don't plan to.  The running out, panicking, and buying up everything just makes the whole situation worse and is stressful.  Prices may go up but we will pivot to whatever we can afford as needed.  I may plant a bit more in the garden and made triple sure we were paid up for our double CSA share but I will not be hoarding TP or anything else. 

[Arcadia]

My kids don’t like wheat bread and we don’t use much wheat flour. The prices for a bag of wheat flour at korean supermarkets are still low. We have enough staples to not need to stock up unless there are sales.

We just did a grocery run nearby for some of our kids favorite foodstuff. We bought Treetop honey crisp apple juice ($1.28, 64floz, grocery outlet), Traders Joe’s cranberry juice ($3.29, 32floz), Trader Joe’s canned sardines ($1.29, 84g)

[Hilltopmom]

9 minutes ago, itsheresomewhere said:

Everything we use normally.  I grab extra every time I go to the store.  Especially,  pasta as those seem to be missing in a few stores around here. 

And I am so happy right now that our diesel truck was converted to run on used veggie oil years ago.   We should be able to take two great road trips still this year.   

Btdt with an old VW Jetta but eventually all the local restaurants stopped letting individuals pick up grease. (Our vehicle had already bitten the dust by then though)

[Melissa in Australia]

I just thought, all the chocolate that I was eating comes from Europe. I had better get some more just in case I start eating it again

[itsheresomewhere]

Just now, Hilltopmom said:

Btdt with an old VW Jetta but eventually all the local restaurants stopped letting individuals pick up grease. (Our vehicle had already bitten the dust by then though)

The mom and pop ones still do around here.  They don’t use enough for the pay for oil places to take on as clients.  

[Faith-manor]

1 minute ago, Melissa in Australia said:

I just thought, all the chocolate that I was eating comes from Europe. I had better get some more just in case I start eating it again

No woman should live on a continent that has a vendetta to kill all its human WITHOUT chocolate! 😁

[Arcadia]

5 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

I just thought, all the chocolate that I was eating comes from Europe. I had better get some more just in case I start eating it again

There was a recent shortage of Made in Australia Milo. The made in Singapore Milo has a totally different taste. 

[Ausmumof3]

Not much here. I’m just not letting things get below one spare bag of everything. I will need to reduce the number of chickens we’re keeping if feed gets much more expensive 😞 but we do have a lot of excess roosters right now.

DH did fill up spare jerries with fuel.

Im not really trying to buffer price increases just not end up in a situation where we don’t have stuff at all.

[Ann.without.an.e]

3 hours ago, skimomma said:

Since the pandemic started, I have kept enough extra in the house to weather a quarantine/isolation but nothing more and I don't plan to.  The running out, panicking, and buying up everything just makes the whole situation worse and is stressful.  Prices may go up but we will pivot to whatever we can afford as needed.  I may plant a bit more in the garden and made triple sure we were paid up for our double CSA share but I will not be hoarding TP or anything else. 

For me it isn’t panic buying, it’s wisdom. Bear with me and I’ll tell you why. Even the government preparedness recommendation is at least 30-60 days of supplies. I’ve done this for years so I’m not clearing any shelves, but simply replacing what we use as we use it. This came in handy when the pandemic first hit and things were in short supply. I left the supplies to those who needed them most and we ate mostly from our stock. After things settled down, I slowly restocked as there was extra. I never took the last few of something that was in short supply. I only restocked when there was plenty. With transportation issues or shortages, you’re actually doing everyone a favor to have some extra when things are in good supply and there aren’t shortages. Because the store will have the ability to restock those shelves. Later when it’s a short supply situation you can leave what’s there to those who didn’t have the room or money to keep extra on hand. 
 

ETA: I think this would be different if there were truly food shortages. There isn’t a food shortage. What we’ve faced are transportation issues or logistics in getting food to shelves. As long as there is plenty at the store, you can be the extra shelf and it helps everyone. I don’t think it’s ok to stock up on things that are already in short supply. 

Edited March 9, 2022 by Ann.without.an.e

[TechWife]

I’m not stocking up currently. Supply chains will probably stay snarled for a while yet, but because we don’t have allergies or other significant issues, we can easily substitute or do without. It won’t be long before the local farm stands start to open and I’m not terribly far from the state farmers market, so our fruits & veggies will be well supplied, I think.

Now, for years I’ve bulk shopped for paper goods & cleaning supplies, but I’m down to my normal stock & normal shopping timing habits with those. However, we do have enough to last for about a month, except to, which I’ll probably buy next week.

 

[Melissa in Australia]

7 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Not much here. I’m just not letting things get below one spare bag of everything. I will need to reduce the number of chickens we’re keeping if feed gets much more expensive 😞 but we do have a lot of excess roosters right now.

DH did fill up spare jerries with fuel.

Im not really trying to buffer price increases just not end up in a situation where we don’t have stuff at all.

We are going to cull all our pigeons this weekend. They eat wheat and we don’t get any benefit from them.

my dh is filling up the Jerries today as well

Edited March 9, 2022 by Melissa in Australia

[Acadie]

I heard cooking oil could be in short supply, so I stocked up on our favorite neutral cooking oil when it went on sale last week. (Extra Light Filippo Berio)

Camp stove fuel, TP, dog food and meds are on my list for this week.

I do love the extra pantry shelves I set up in the basement during the pandemic, so we have a backup of everything that's shelf stable. For the most part I'm not stocking up in large quantities, just making sure we have backup supplies. 

[Scarlett]

Toilet paper. 

[DawnM]

We just replaced our deep freeze that died.   UGH, it is MUCH smaller than our old one.   But we will make do.   

I won't do any extra stockpiling but I am trying to be more mindful of what we have and use it up.

[skimomma]

12 hours ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

For me it isn’t panic buying, it’s wisdom. Bear with me and I’ll tell you why. Even the government preparedness recommendation is at least 30-60 days of supplies. I’ve done this for years so I’m not clearing any shelves, but simply replacing what we use as we use it. This came in handy when the pandemic first hit and things were in short supply. I left the supplies to those who needed them most and we ate mostly from our stock. After things settled down, I slowly restocked as there was extra. I never took the last few of something that was in short supply. I only restocked when there was plenty. With transportation issues or shortages, you’re actually doing everyone a favor to have some extra when things are in good supply and there aren’t shortages. Because the store will have the ability to restock those shelves. Later when it’s a short supply situation you can leave what’s there to those who didn’t have the room or money to keep extra on hand. 
 

ETA: I think this would be different if there were truly food shortages. There isn’t a food shortage. What we’ve faced are transportation issues or logistics in getting food to shelves. As long as there is plenty at the store, you can be the extra shelf and it helps everyone. I don’t think it’s ok to stock up on things that are already in short supply. 

I don't see any issue with shopping as one normally does which might include always having extra stock of certain items.  It's the everyone-doing-it-at-one-time thing that throws fuel on the fire.  Truth be told, unless one is food insecure, most Americans have 30-60 days worth of food in their house at any given time.  It might not be balanced or even very tasty, but if I stopped leaving the house right now, my family would not starve within 60 days.  I too keep surplus supplies as habit because I have some extra space and like to be able to cook on the fly.  That is not what I take issue with.  Nor do I take issue with people grabbing extras for things that they *must* have like allergen-free foods, medications, etc.....  But no one *needs* TP.  You just don't.  There are other ways to handle that situation if the world does truly run out of TP.  If everyone starts hoarding it again, we just go back to panicking about something that actually does not really matter.  So, I won't.  

[Kassia]

Any recommendations on students living in dorms far away?  Dd lives 1200 miles away and definitely doesn't have much stocked up.  She doesn't have a car but I could have stuff shipped to her.  She doesn't have much room either.  

ETA - she's not on a meal plan - she shares an on campus apartment with three other girls.

Edited March 9, 2022 by Kassia

[Spryte]

56 minutes ago, skimomma said:

I don't see any issue with shopping as one normally does which might include always having extra stock of certain items.  It's the everyone-doing-it-at-one-time thing that throws fuel on the fire.  Truth be told, unless one is food insecure, most Americans have 30-60 days worth of food in their house at any given time.  It might not be balanced or even very tasty, but if I stopped leaving the house right now, my family would not starve within 60 days.  I too keep surplus supplies as habit because I have some extra space and like to be able to cook on the fly.  That is not what I take issue with.  Nor do I take issue with people grabbing extras for things that they *must* have like allergen-free foods, medications, etc.....  But no one *needs* TP.  You just don't.  There are other ways to handle that situation if the world does truly run out of TP.  If everyone starts hoarding it again, we just go back to panicking about something that actually does not really matter.  So, I won't.  

This is where I am, too. Mostly. 

The TP thing is making me laugh though. At the height of the TP shortage, we were running … not low, but not fully topped off to our normal levels and I felt some serious panic. I had salmonella, contracted from caring for an injured turtle. Running out of TP felt like an emergency! 🤣 We had a bidet, and alternate options, but I wanted my trusty Kirkland brand TP! 

[skimomma]

16 minutes ago, Spryte said:

I had salmonella, contracted from caring for an injured turtle. Running out of TP felt like an emergency! 🤣 We had a bidet, and alternate options, but I wanted my trusty Kirkland brand TP! 

I that case, I fully support full-on panic buying!

[Carrie12345]

On small spaces…

I’ve been big on emergency preparedness for years.  My second biggest challenge, after money, was space. 1100sf, no garage, no basement or attic, no pantry, not even a coat closet.  For many years, 5 kids, 2 cats, and 2 giant dogs. Not a lot of “spare” room.  For me, a lot came down to getting rid of stuff that didn’t matter to make room for stuff that did.  And then, eventually, I just de-prioritized aesthetics.

To be fair, my house has been a disaster for close to a year now, due to spending every month thinking we were going to move in +/- 6 months. So we’re living amongst boxes and piles, regardless. I realize that’s not everyone’s case, lol.  But it made me much more open to keeping a stack of wheat buckets in front of the bookshelf, a few totes of other goods in a corner, etc., etc.

I do not know how crazy things may or may not get.  All I know is that, if I have to use things I’ve randomly stashed around our small space, I’m going to be glad that I didn’t worry about how my living room was going to look.

I have no desire to fuel panic and, again, don’t really have a clear idea of how things may go.  BUT, if things do get nuts (if, if, if), I’m very leery of the idea that it would be a short term thing.  IMO, it’s worth sacrificing floor space.

Just some thoughts on that particular obstacle.

[prairiewindmomma]

52 minutes ago, Kassia said:

Any recommendations on students living in dorms far away?  Dd lives 1200 miles away and definitely doesn't have much stocked up.  She doesn't have a car but I could have stuff shipped to her.  She doesn't have much room either.  

ETA - she's not on a meal plan - she shares an on campus apartment with three other girls.

I think the current situation is a longer term issue, so stocking up to ride through it isn’t feasible when you are a student living in snug accommodations. That said, I think every person should have a robust first aid kit and a 72 hour kit as just part of general preparedness. Here the state recommend keeping 2-3 weeks of supplies on hand because if we ever have a Cascadia earthquake our major highways and bridges are likely to be damaged to a degree that it would stop the shipment of food and supplies for a time and we’d lose power. For other regions, different kinds of preparedness make sense.

[Faith-manor]

12 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

I think the current situation is a longer term issue, so stocking up to ride through it isn’t feasible when you are a student living in snug accommodations. That said, I think every person should have a robust first aid kit and a 72 hour kit as just part of general preparedness. Here the state recommend keeping 2-3 weeks of supplies on hand because if we ever have a Cascadia earthquake our major highways and bridges are likely to be damaged to a degree that it would stop the shipment of food and supplies for a time and we’d lose power. For other regions, different kinds of preparedness make sense.

We prep for a minimum of 14 days because that is pretty much the worst case scenario for DTE getting powder back up, and prefer 60. And that means keeping gas cans full for our generator which we use to power the well pump, and keep the freezer going. The solar panel and batt, takes care of the electronics and thermostat for the boiler so we keep heat.

But I also try to prep 30-60 days of food no matter what. That came in very handy when C and I were in the car accident, and I was injured. Mark's boss at that time thought nothing of healing work on him and demanding it all be done in an unhumanly short period of time. So he was working 90 hours a week, and our other two teens were trying to help take care of us and man the fort. By the time 45 days was up, I was driving and could take P to the grocery store, drop him with a list and money, and pick him back up. C was in bad shape for a lot longer. There was a lot to juggle. I sure was happy for that stocked pantry. Having been through that, and then again another nightmare 60 days with both parents in hospital or rehab, plus their legal and financial disasters, that stock on hand was much appreciated once more. It has left me with the emotional need to always have that much here. Those two events were less than 18 months apart. Kinda makes an impression!

Edited March 9, 2022 by Faith-manor

[Arcadia]

1 hour ago, Kassia said:

Any recommendations on students living in dorms far away?  Dd lives 1200 miles away and definitely doesn't have much stocked up.  She doesn't have a car but I could have stuff shipped to her.  She doesn't have much room either.  

ETA - she's not on a meal plan - she shares an on campus apartment with three other girls.

What does your daughter like to eat? Jerky was my go to emergency supply since no cooking required and I could put some in my school backpack. However prices of meat are expected to go up if there is a wheat shortage due to cost of animal feed. I used to buy when there is a sale, now they are rarely on sale. Instant noodles was comfort food but I did have an electric kettle in my dorm room.

[lmrich]

Would it be weird to say - work? 

I am taking on more kids to tutor and offering summer classes.  And doing almost home improvement projects ourselves or just not doing them.