Hoarding and Keeping a Stocked Pantry are Very Different Things...

[Murphy101]

11 hours ago, MissLemon said:

Interesting. Everyone around here has more than they know what to do with 😆

I suspect that’s because avian influenza hasn’t hit your area yet.  But since it spreads like wildfire if not immediately dealt with at first signs - odds are your area will have the same issues before long. 

[prairiewindmomma]

13 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

I did also learn that if you get eggs on sale or have a backyard flock and an excess of eggs that you can scramble the egg, fill ice cube trays, and freeze them, then transfer the eggs cubes to freezer bags. One cube is about a medium size egg so the suggestion was to use two cubes if you normally cook or bake with grade a large or extra large. So one large = two cubes. I have never tried it. However, if I were to get farm fresh eggs the next time I am at the farmer's market and the vendor didn't seem to be selling very well, I might buy two extra dozen and try it. Helps them get rid of stock, and I do like an experiment.

We could never get the frozen/thawed egg thing to work properly. It was this clumpy paste when thawed. I have no idea why, but I would definitely experiment with this before relying on it.

[Faith-manor]

6 minutes ago, Murphy101 said:

I suspect that’s because avian influenza hasn’t hit your area yet.  But since it spreads like wildfire if not immediately dealt with at first signs - odds are your area will have the same issues before long. 

We have it in our county. Nine backyard flocks, roughly 15-20 birds per flock, have been culled, and the 4H poultry show for the county fair has been canceled. I wish they would ban the bird feeders for now. The DNR asked people to voluntarily take them down to help deter the spread since eating in shared spaces is a major source of the issue, but people ignored it. They like their feeders and their bird watching so who cares about Avian Flu? Sigh. And of course they are all handling their bird feeders routinely filling them so unless they wear gloves, and wash wash wash, bleach the perches, etc. this is how it will eventually jump species to humans. It has already been found in foxes. The birds will find food in the wild. They aren't going to starve. There should be a statewide ban on penalty of MAJOR fine to make folks comply because eventually it will be a human virus if nothing is done. 

I am waiting for the inevitable egg crisis. We have three HUGE egg farms in this county. All of the eggs in the supermarkets here are produced locally. It is a ticking time bomb, and I would imagine in that next couple of weeks it will be announced that all of those chickens have to be culled. Cue the panic from the locals. But of course, when asked NOT to out out their bird feeders and bird baths this year, the answer was about the same as covid "No big deal, and I ain't gonna cooperate. I got rights!" (Quote from the guy who lives across the road from my mother in law.

[Murphy101]

For me the eggs crisis is here bc I do not think I have ever paid more than 99c but usually around 80c a dozen eggs and usually cheaper bc I buy the 6 dozen crate at a time or aldi would have a monthly sale at 59c a dozen.  Last time I bought some at winco that same crate that used to be no more than $6 was $17.  That’s when I didn’t buy any at all and mandated we use the egg substitute for all baking until the prices get reasonable of my Dh agrees we need backyard chickens. 

[Condessa]

This thread is taking me back to the days during the pandemic when I would regularly get hostile glares from strangers while buying a week’s worth of groceries in the store.  I considered wearing a sign on my back saying, “Not Hoarding!  Eight kids at home!”

[Murphy101]

1 hour ago, Condessa said:

This thread is taking me back to the days during the pandemic when I would regularly get hostile glares from strangers while buying a week’s worth of groceries in the store.  I considered wearing a sign on my back saying, “Not Hoarding!  Eight kids at home!”

Right?  I feed a lot of people both that live with me and don’t.

To be hoarding is for self.

Stocking up allows service to others.

I’m not worried that my household will go hungry. I’m worried we won’t be able to keep others from going hungry.  And if my household situation changes for the worse, god forbid, I am going to desperately need people in my community who have a similar outlook.

I’ve never understood doomsday prepping.  If it’s doomsday, what’s the point of prepping? Who am I prepping for if not to help anyone with else?

[Bootsie]

Truck carrying 30,000 pounds of eggs crashed in the DFW area, spiling eggs all over the highway:  Eggs spilled on I-30 in Dallas, Texas | wfaa.com

[lynn]

I had a system going from early married years and still use...  Open one buy one.  I always kept 2 of everything in a rotating basis.  They way things are I bumped some things up to 3/4 on rotation mostly to help my kids if need be.

I

[Grace Hopper]

I’m pretty sure if I managed to maintain a “fully stocked pantry” with four teens to feed, some people seeing it would think I was hoarding. 
 

And if you only have boys in the house you will never fully grasp the TP needs of a house full of young women. 

[importswim]

I made a post in another section about balancing between hoarding, being stocked, and being wasteful. I may not have been who you were talking about conflating things but there's another element to the balance and that's anxiety and mental health. I have to watch closely to make sure that I don't move from stocking my pantry well to hoarding. I've had some issues in the past. 

[prairiewindmomma]

1 hour ago, Grace Hopper said:

I’m pretty sure if I managed to maintain a “fully stocked pantry” with four teens to feed, some people seeing it would think I was hoarding. 
 

And if you only have boys in the house you will never fully grasp the TP needs of a house full of young women. 

Amen. Our “normal” lactose free milk consumption is 8 half gallon boxes a week.(  If it’s in short supply we cut back in deference to others). My parents, who go through a pint a week, were aghast our garage fridge was so full of milk. She thought we had months worth. It was empty four days later.

I was like, “Mom, this is what three teens and a tween looks like.” 

[Clemsondana]

58 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Amen. Our “normal” lactose free milk consumption is 8 half gallon boxes a week.(  If it’s in short supply we cut back in deference to others). My parents, who go through a pint a week, were aghast our garage fridge was so full of milk. She thought we had months worth. It was empty four days later.

I was like, “Mom, this is what three teens and a tween looks like.” 

We are just a family of 4, but on days when both kids have practice/games, coupled with spouse being a big guy...we go through a lot of food.  I bought a 2 or 2.5 lb box of breaded fish at Sams one time and mom said that sometimes she'd put a few pieces in the oven for her lunch since dad doesn't like fish.  I said that this box was one meal for my family if everybody was hungry.  My teen athlete boy will eat anything but doesn't particularly love most carbs.  I remind kid to eat another roll or some more potatoes or rice to get full, but left to his own devices he'd eat a very paleo diet of a pound of meat and a quart of veggies and maybe some fruit.  🙂  I can't imagine what my cart would look like if I bought everything at the grocery store instead of the way that we get food.  Wednesday we pick up our cow portion, and I'll get both kids to help carry 200+ lbs of meat down to the freezer.  

Mom had a similar response when we stayed with them while cleaning up after a house fire - she had forgotten that families with kids and sports uniforms do laundry daily. 

[Carrie12345]

1 hour ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Amen. Our “normal” lactose free milk consumption is 8 half gallon boxes a week.(  If it’s in short supply we cut back in deference to others). My parents, who go through a pint a week, were aghast our garage fridge was so full of milk. She thought we had months worth. It was empty four days later.

I was like, “Mom, this is what three teens and a tween looks like.” 

Our milk consumption has dropped significantly, but they make up for it in other, ever-changing categories.
A week’s supply of string cheese has been ridiculous at points.  Fruit.  Ramen. Processed chicken patties for one particular kid.  Currently it’s granola bars. I had an entire plastic storage drawer full of granola bars that is emptying fast. Probably because I told them they can’t open yet another box of instant oatmeal until someone starts to work through the leftover banana flavored packets, lol.
When all 5 kids were home, it was crazy, but these last two seem to be trying to making up for the first two’s absence, and they’re coming pretty close!

[busymama7]

11 minutes ago, Carrie12345 said:

Our milk consumption has dropped significantly, but they make up for it in other, ever-changing categories.
A week’s supply of string cheese has been ridiculous at points.  Fruit.  Ramen. Processed chicken patties for one particular kid.  Currently it’s granola bars. I had an entire plastic storage drawer full of granola bars that is emptying fast. Probably because I told them they can’t open yet another box of instant oatmeal until someone starts to work through the leftover banana flavored packets, lol.
When all 5 kids were home, it was crazy, but these last two seem to be trying to making up for the first two’s absence, and they’re coming pretty close!

Some places sell instant oatmeal by the flavor instead of a variety pack. Unfortunately different favorite flavors are at different store so I stock up on them. But it does prevent one lonely flavor not getting eaten 

[PinkTulip]

The problems with eggs have definitely hit where I am - on Saturday, the cheapest eggs at my local grocery store were $2.79 / dozen, limit of 4. 

[BusyMom5]

7 hours ago, Grace Hopper said:

I’m pretty sure if I managed to maintain a “fully stocked pantry” with four teens to feed, some people seeing it would think I was hoarding. 
 

And if you only have boys in the house you will never fully grasp the TP needs of a house full of young women. 

If you have teen boys,  the amount of food needed each week definitely looks like hoarding!  I try to buy ahead and keep a stocked house, but we still run out occasionally.   I upped my storage during Covid bc so much was low stock and hard to find- now it seems I need that space just for weekly groceries 🙃  So many products have less per package,  it drives me nuts! Family of 8, and we eat at home all 3 meals plus snacks.   

[Ann.without.an.e]

9 hours ago, Murphy101 said:

I’ve never understood doomsday prepping.  If it’s doomsday, what’s the point of prepping? Who am I prepping for if not to help anyone with else?

Exactly 

[Carrie12345]

16 hours ago, Murphy101 said:

I’ve never understood doomsday prepping.  If it’s doomsday, what’s the point of prepping? Who am I prepping for if not to help anyone with else?

You do know that’s a pretty fringe sect of emergency prepping, right?  It exists, for sure, just like hoarders to the extent of the television show do. But there are much more hoarders who haven’t rotted their entire home from roof to foundation and preppers who are not aiming to be the last man standing.
We use the word apocalypse, sometimes zombie apocalypse, in my house and among friends, but not literally. I don’t actually anticipate zombies.

[Melissa in Australia]

this is a very good example why it is a very good idea to have some stocked food on hand

https://au.news.yahoo.com/woolworths-shortages-to-hit-at-hundreds-of-stores-unforeseen-051344372.htm

chilled and frozen goods to 260 Queensland and Northern New South Wales stores are affected 

[Murphy101]

2 hours ago, Melissa in Australia said:

this is a very good example why it is a very good idea to have some stocked food on hand

https://au.news.yahoo.com/woolworths-shortages-to-hit-at-hundreds-of-stores-unforeseen-051344372.htm

chilled and frozen goods to 260 Queensland and Northern New South Wales stores are affected 

Link doesn’t work. Well it does. But it just takes to the general yahoo news page. 

Edited May 17, 2022 by Murphy101

[Arcadia]

1 hour ago, Murphy101 said:

Link doesn’t work. Well it does. But it just takes to the general yahoo news page. 

“Produce shortages expected until late June

As Queensland and Northern New South Wales copped their second lashing of heavy rainfall and flooding, Woolworths has warned that some key produce items may be temporarily scarce.

In a recent email, Woolworths’ General Manager of Fruit and Veg, Paul Turner, explained that many items, including lettuce, have been affected by the weather.

“After consistent rainfall and low sunlight across northern NSW and south-east, central and northern Queensland in recent months, the supply of fruit and veg has been impacted,” Mr Turner said.

… Spinach, strawberry and raspberry quantities are also predicted to be affected by the weather.”

 

[dsmith]

We have been serious about keeping a very stocked pantry since Sandy. Not just the pantry though - we also keep a lot of extra batteries, long storing kerosene in case we need to break out the kerosene heaters (which we have had to do twice since) and multiple ways to cook food and make coffee. We have always shopped sales and bought extra sale items. During the pandemic dh really focused on making things homemade, so now we have increased our stocks on essentials like flour, sugar, salt, etc. We prefer to find good prices online and do pickups when possible, and Walmart has been great for this, as well as BJ's. We also rediscovered Aldi this year. We weren't impressed the few times we went years ago, but they have really helped us save some money, even after the recent increases. We joke about the zombie apocalypse but having extra on hand has been so helpful when finances are tight. At the moment we don't have a car and are waiting for our mechanic to receive the parts he ordered for the repair. We've been able to feed everyone with only going out when brother-in-law has his car available to us. Those trips have been for one or two perishable items. These are all stocks we have built slowly, using sales, shopping around for the best price and doing pickups, using Subscribe and Save on Amazon, etc., so nobody would accuse us of hoarding if they saw us shop, but if they saw our food stores they may wonder about us, lol. Now there are a few items for ds that have been hard to find, and I will buy an extra one or two if I find them even if it wipes out the stock. He's on the spectrum and is difficult with food although better than he was. He's also trying to lose weight (50 lbs. down so far!!). When I see the Tyson air-fried chicken breasts or nuggets I'm buying at least 2, possibly 3! 

[Melissa in Australia]

8 hours ago, Murphy101 said:

Link doesn’t work. Well it does. But it just takes to the general yahoo news page. 

I can’t get it to work either. The news report was saying that there is a problem at the distribution centre and around 260 supermarkets won’t be receiving frozen veggies until It is fixed.

those same areas won’t be receiving much fresh fruit and veggies because floods have once again destroyed crops in those regions