Saturday, April 2, 2011

Stocking up!

I hate spending so much in one day when I hit big stock-up sales, but I love seeing my low grocery bills and infrequent shopping all the other months, thanks to food storage. Grocery prices are supposed to keep going up, thanks to the increase in gas prices plus a damaged wheat crop. I noticed the higher prices compared to the last time I stocked up, but at least I'm good to go for awhile while prices keep climbing.

I know canned goods contain nasty stuff leeching into the food, but it's one of those areas I haven't managed to change yet. I do try to can (bottle) a lot of things myself to cut down on it. I don't know of a good way to do food storage without using canned goods. I can't imagine doing only dehydrated fruits and veggies. I do use fresh produce but I have to keep my budget affordable too. I've realized I can't address every single thing that concerns me all at once, so I tackle one at a time.

My storage room is a mess right now. I just have no motivation to do anything. It's very unlike me. But here are my nice full shelves, buckets, and boxes of full jars stacked on top of buckets. Plus my freezer is still full of chicken and hopefully I'll fill it with meals and homemade bread again soon.


I also have a nice stash of good TP.



I keep a stash of the frequently used items upstairs. One cupboard mostly has things Nathan can fix for himself - popcorn, ramen, spaghetti-o's, mac n' cheese, tuna. It also has a few #10 cans of items I use.

I always have hard wheat, soft wheat, corn, white flour, brown sugar, and powdered milk under the table where the microwave sits (and sometimes a few other things). It's right next to my grain mill - very convenient.

I know it's not the best place, but I keep #10 cans above the stove with white beans, brown rice, and dried onions, plus oats and whatever other #10 cans happen to be open. I refill all of these from buckets downstairs. It works well for me to keep food storage easily accessible and therefore in constant rotation.


Anyway, today I bought:

200 lbs. hard white wheat
50 lbs. soft wheat
24 cans tomato sauce
96 packages ramen
40 lbs white sugar
96 cans spaghetti-o's
192 cans tuna (I've been waiting SO long for a good sale of the right brand)
48 cans mandarin oranges
24 cans green chiles

Is that really all? It seemed like so much more when I was unpacking all the cans onto my shelves.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

192 cans of tuna!!!!! whaaaaaaaatttt???????? You're amazing.

Danna said...

We just bought a couple 25 lb bags of rice and one of flour and we were all excited to have so much but once it was put away it seemed like so little. So I completly understand!!
But way to go! I wish I was better at "choosing" food priority. :) XO

Golda said...

I am so jealous of all those shelves! Nice!

Amy said...

That's a lot of food! Great job stocking up. And I love to see pictures of your food storage - it is so exciting to see picures of organized food storage. Are we crazy or what?