THANK YOU SO MUCH. Please do some more! Great post! I was ready to do a review of our shopping price points again since so much has changed. Our Kroger store really has stopped having meaningful sales…Albertsons still does though.

But I need to get the price book out again and start updating. Thank you for the winco open bin comment, I was bewildered why their bins were generally empty and unlabeled. I was stocking up in Jan and Feb so by the time the virus arrived our pantry was in decent shape.

Funny how you can overlook items. I always have a backup can of baking powder,,,not this time. I am concerned this late summer and fall might bring hardship again so am doing another inventory and top up this month.

Here in Arizona people are crazy, no masks, no social distancing well, that is an overstatement but many folks are ignoring it , our cases are up statewide, and so my husband and I continue to stay at home mostly.

Too risky given his health. I realize that we have to get to herd immunity and that could take a year ;.

So I stay stocked up and stay away from crowds. Thanks again for this post, it inspired me to do the inventory tomorrow and focus on the pantry gaps!

I always have plenty of flour, but this time, I had forgotten to buy but one bag in February, even though I had four on my list. I did buy toilet paper in February, so we were good until they finally got more in just last month.

I had plenty of yeast and baking powder, so we had lots of whole wheat bread. Hilogene, we are also in Arizona and experienced the same thing.

On a good day, half the people in a store are wearing masks. Fingers crossed that we get through this, as well as the 2nd wave, unscathed.

I am in the process of cleaning out my pantry and freezer and coming up with a less expensive meal plan. Brandy, you have said before that you use scentless products, what do you use for facial toner and facial lotion, shampoo and hair spray?

I used many unscented products for this reason before I got married, so that the only scent was my perfume. When I found out my husband was allergic, that was a problem! I have not found an unscented shampoo, and keeping the price down is an issue as well.

The children like Suave Green Apple which is discontinued at most stores and Suave Strawberry. That one still exists. My husband uses the Walmart brand of dandruff shampoo plus conditioner. Soap: I buy Zest bar soap for my husband; he and I have opposite needs in soap.

For myself I have very dry, sensitive skin and am allergic to most skin products—another reason I search for items without perfume or with mild scents I use Oil of Olay bar soap. I find he bar soaps are less expensive, last longer, and are not as perfumey. Deodorant: I use Secret unscented solid.

My mom and I both have had funny situations arising from using baby powder scented deodorant. That made me switch to unscented deodorant right there!

My husband like Right Guard unscented. I buy the same brands for my children who wear deodorant. Facial Toner: I buy Neutrogena Alchohol-Free Toner. For Facial lotion, I use Oil of Olay for Sensitive Skin spf Comparing recently, the price was lower at Walmart than Target. For my daughters, I recently tried the store brand, and they have no issues, but I am allergic to so many lotions that I have continued to use this.

and I would like to start using a daily face lotion with a stronger SPF. Those are significantly more expensive. I also work in the shade in the early mornings and in the late evenings.

I bought prescription sunglasses a few years back and I wear those and a hat much more now than before. but before that I bought the baby lotion after the lotion I used was discontinued. Hairspray: When my hairspray was discontinued, I had a time finding a new one! I had gotten so used to having things without a scent, and I found the ones with a strong scent left me with a headache!

Low-sodium: Cooking from scratch is a good thing! Unscented butter for baking, no additional salt added to things like homemade spaghetti sauce, salad dressings, steak sauce, etc.

I was just talking to my mom about this and an article about it had just come into my feed as well today! Good luck! Now I buy all my facial and skin products there.

I thought Marshals only sold clothes until a friend dragged me in there one day. I will definitely check into it! The higher SPF face lotion is really expensive! Marshalls and T. Maxx both carry good toiletry products with discounts and then they also have a discount section. Not sure what the criteria is as I have found their regular discounted products AND the marked down products with seemingly no difference!

Made me laugh, anyhow. With a can of no-salt-added crushed tomatoes and several spices, we had spaghetti sauce recently over a little ground beef and spaghetti squash. I have a recipe taped to the inside of my cabinet for taco seasoning, and just leave out the salt.

He usually really notices when the salt is missing, but has thought both dinners were delicious. especially with someone that LOVES bologna, hot dogs, summer sausage, salt-and-vinegar chips, tomato juice and all things super-high in sodium!

Lizajane, our taste buds do adapt, and after just a few weeks Just to add a word or two about soaps, etc: I have very dry sensitive skin—actually Oil of Olay makes me break out, as does Eucerin. My dermatologist lists Dove as a preferred one and we have found it good. He also recommends half the normal amount of detergent for laundry and for me that works for all but the most horribly soiled items.

He recommends others also but I have not tried them all. I sprayed the fruit trees twice and the hedges three times. Apparently I should have sprayed them more; there was a yellow jacket nest in the hedges and I got stung yesterday morning through my gloves by a yellow jacket that would not quit stinging me!

Today my hand is blown up like a balloon! Soapy water will destroy them; I sprayed the nest and the yellow jackets. The spider mites are particularly bad on the hedges this year, so I may go out real early and spray them soon if we can stop having 40 mph winds.

I have used the old LDS food storage amounts, but having lived on our food storage for over a year, I have a better idea now how much we used. We had five small children then and now we have seven at home, most of whom are a lot bigger and eat a lot more, so the amounts are larger than what we needed before.

Yellow Jackets are the worst and are very dangerous because they are so aggressive. I am terrified of them. I sure hope you feel better soon! Brandy, Sorry about the stings.

I always keep a bottle of Apis mellifica, a homeopathic remedy that helps with stings. Also Sting Stop gel is wonderful. I was, too! He said because it was spreading up my arm. Not sure it will make any difference but I am taking it. They did not talk to me about tetanus at all. When I pulled my hand up, the wasp was twisting its stinger into me constantly.

I was stung for a long time. I sprayed the next with dishsoap and water, which destroyed it. I have always been a cheap cook! I rely on store brands, grocery specials and stocking up when on sale even extra items add up. I only buy meat on special, and we eat much smaller portions than we did, say, 20 years ago.

I have price points for meat…really, for just about everything we buy. I do a lot of stocking up from about October through December. Last year, for some unknown reason, I felt compelled to can peaches, cherries, tomatoes and green beans and make a lot of freezer jam.

Now I know the reason! I also found a killer sale on store brand canned peaches and I bought 6 cases. I am down to 3 jars of peaches, 3 jars of cherries and about 12 cans of peaches. I buy Scott 1, Sheets TP at Target when there is a good sale, and I had 54 rolls after a sale in February.

As a result, we went into lockdown with a mostly full freezer and enough canned and dry food to last months. In mid-March, when things first started shutting down, I bought a few extra pounds of beans and rice.

last year. My raised bed of strawberries is loaded with fruit that only needs some sun to get ripe. I started shopping about every days, mostly for milk and produce. But it also enabled me to eat less from the pantry saving it for later and to take advantage of spotty availability.

I have not seen a good sale on anything we regularly eat in over 3 months. I live miles from Fred Meyer Kroger and Winco, plus Albertsons and Safeway where I almost never shop and a local chain called Super One.

I am 74 and never have spent much on personal care products. I am what you would call low maintenance. I wash with white bar soap and rarely use make-up, lotions or creams.

I stay out of the sun or use sunscreen. I wish I had taken better care of it, though. I have short hair and wash it about every third day. We have been retired for 14 years and have a fixed income fortunately, not a low one. Having the money come in every month has been a huge blessing. Debt-free, including the house.

I learned about that over 40 years ago from an LDS friend and it has blessed me many times over. I find the best bargains at the same time of year. Our kids start school after labor day mine are way past school age and the best deals seem to start then and go until about Christmas time.

Best coupons then too. I try to keep a certain level of the items I use year round. First there was my being so ill and not working. While we transitioned to a different financial plan, we ate more from the pantry and the expired free food table. fruits and veggies well past their prime as we now are finishing up those ftozen foods and have a bit of dehydrated veggies to use later.

Than, I had the opportunity to bulk shop a couple times in a city when I went for further treatment. Those February trips stocked up somewhat. Enough so that we were able to minimally shop for only fresh veggies and milk for a couple months. We did stock up on meats just before the meat packing slowdown.

We could probably survive for about that long, but it would not be fun. We use minimal personal hygiene and cleaning products since I keep us as chemical free as possible. This does keep the costs down for sure. I love that you have price points, no buys and a price book.

These things are essential to know to keep costs in hand. Having recipes for inexpensive yet tasty dishes on hand is so helpful. There have been some winners. I think better when I plan ahead. I did learn that having 3 months of most food and TP on hand is just not enough.

It went by more quickly than I expected. Always tweeking the systems here. I agree with all who are preparing for some possible turbulent times ahead.

Guess it would be wise to take advantage of this window of opportunity as best as we can. We also eat a lot of meatless dishes, lots of chicken, and low meat dishes.

Unfortunately beans are not cheap. Spam is somewhat affordable but I cannot eat preserved meats in any form. Most of the fruit and vegetables are locally grown which makes them very seasonal and in limited supply.

Canned and frozen foods are seen as unhealthy as well. I have to go to the fresh market every week to stock up. The good thing is I can see what is the cheapest.

Last week it was bananas and celery. Next week it might be tomatoes and watermelons. It makes meal planning a challenge sometimes but I try to keep recipes on hand with our favorites.

I wish I had a garden space but I live in a high rise and I have a black thumb. Piggykr, If you live where Azure Standard has a drop, beans and other bulk items are pretty good deals, I think.

I am the ONLY person I know personally who has a strict food budget or even knows exactly what we spend on groceries! Because I know prices well, when I see what my friends buy, I know they spend at least double what I do on food and grocery items, and the crazy thing is that I have 6 children, they mostly have only 2!

I also only see their groceries, but know they order in two or three times a week, which raises the cost even more! I now have very few items I am willing to pay full price for, and prepare meals using the staples we have on hand combined with whatever fresh food is selling cheaply or coming out the garden.

This is helped us get through harder times, and enjoy life with more to spend in other areas when work is good. The only thing that really has changed as a result of the pandemic is that I started keeping even more on hand than previously and simplified our meal rotation to make a range of meals from a basic set of easy-to-store, inexpensive ingredients.

I do a large shop once a month when I usually go to three different stores. I sit with the sales flyers online and paper and make a list of what is on sale. My children help me count up what we still have in the pantry to decide how many of each item we need, and what we simply will have to pay full price for.

I shop for fresh food every weeks at a nearby market that sells quality produce in bulk inexpensively, but stretch this out as long as possible in order to spend less time away from home and lower risk of exposure to the virus.

I last went well over a month ago, and have made do with potatoes, carrots, butternut, tomatoes and oranges that were on sale from the supermarket I was already at for other items.

I have learnt to be flexible. Once I looked at the cucumbers and they were expensive. I commented on it. My family know they benefit from my sometimes unusual additions to or omissions from recipes, so they never complain!

I struggle to find time to cook every day. I realized back in that I was relying on easier meal choices that were fast to prepare but cost more.

That began my journey with bulk cooking. Every month I work a few freezer-friendly meals into the rotation and always have a few meals in the freezer as a result. This helps a lot. In South Africa restaurants and fast food places were shut for almost 3 months. People practically went into depression over having to actually make their own food!

Nothing changed in my home! I am proud to see my children learning from me. My eldest is a bargain shopper like no other except may be your eldest, Brandy! I feel glad when they notice that others are wasteful and poor stewards of their resources but encourage them not to judge.

It gives me hope for their future in an uncertain world. Tracy, your comments really resonated with me. I have friends and even my mother-in-law who scold me for watching my pennies so closely. They go to the store and buy whatever catches their eye.

They spend amounts that seem amazing to me — and they waste a great deal of food because they have no plan to use what they buy. Thankfully, my husband appreciates my efforts and will brag that we eat very well, and very healthy.

And he was able to retire early because we saved and live modestly. We took inventory of the two freezers in the garage and had a good stock of beef, poultry, pork, and seafood along with some frozen fruits and vegetables and even walnuts and pecans.

I now know what I need to be mindful of in that regard. We just happened to plant the garden the weekend before the lockdown, which was really helpful. We had just enough toiletries to see us through, but would have begun to run out of soap if the lockdown continued much longer. I ordered the poultry seasoning you posted to try — thank you.

I have been ordering groceries delivered here in NY since we shut down, but supply was challenging and prices have been high! Plus the inflexibility of not having a choice about substitutions LOL.

I tend to cook a lot of extra inexpensive chicken and sausage [as I find sales]to have on hand in the fridge. This and eggs round out salads and veggie stir fries for breakfast or lunch.

as I have several family members who avoid carbs for health reasons. My parents said that sometimes the substitutions were good and they found some new products that they really liked. They also had some not go so well; they ordered a box of cereal and the substitution was one they did not like at all.

They gave it to us and it was gone in one meal. We were pretty well stocked prior to the pandemic. For eg the coffee we like is regularly 18,99 per can but frequently goes on sale for 9.

We try not to waste food so if I have extra eggs and milk on hand I will make pancakes or muffins and freeze them. I also use sour milk in baking. I make lots of homemade soups as my Mum taught me to use veggie cooking water, bones etc.

DH bakes whole wheat bread and pizza dough. I do check the flyers every week and price match where I can. I love to travel and through a combination of home exchange and getting credit cards with bonus air miles we are able to keep costs down. Of course we do pay them off each month.

It is very interesting to read about food prices in various places and how you all keep prices down. Before COVID, I had gotten lax in keeping a stocked pantry, and also had gotten into the ungood habit of stopping at the supermarket that is about.

we are in way upstate NY. Nevermind getting a good price. One tip I have for saving some money — buy things in nontraditional places. For example, our local drug store chain has a large grocery section, and I was able to get some jam on sale at a much better price than the supermarket.

Since your mother goes to Costco, you might check out their store brand of bar soap. It is comparable to Olay or Dove I actually prefer the Costco brand , and quite a bit less expensive. We stay pretty stocked up, and fortunately in February and early March, saw the writing on the wall as others here have mentioned and made sure we were stocked up on things.

I try to watch the weekly ads and sales and if something is an exceptional buy, I will stock up. That was an amazing summary of your grocery shopping. Thank you! Even though I live in a large metro area Minneapolis , I feel that our grocery store options are somewhat limited for the size of the Twin Cities.

The lowest priced items for me are found at Trader Joe and Aldi. We also have a moderately priced chain, Cub, which I try to avoid and Whole Foods Whole Paycheck!

plus a couple more high end type stores. Of course, we have Target and Walmart. I never enter the latter! For me, the best store overall is Aldi.

Their prices are quite consistent. They also will add seasonal items, and I like that I can find authentic German food. You seem to have more of a selection in Las Vegas. Brandy, Thank you so much for covering this topic.

I think the best thing to come out of this time for our family has been sharing. I am fortunate that I live very close to my 2 adult children and my elderly parents.

During the last months, we have learned to share what we each had. This week my dad was wanting the small macaroni noodles which were not available in the only store in our small town. I had to go out of town for another reason and brought back 2 packages for him.

My son who lives alone recently bought a fresh pineapple and shared with us. This has eliminated food waste and has also provided us all with more variety than we would have had otherwise.

I am working on stocking up my pantry but food prices are very high where I live and jobs are being cut or hours reduced so I have to really hunt for food I can afford to purchase. I no longer see any sale prices in weekly ads here.

When I do find something I buy more of it than I normally would but also leave some on the shelves for others. My children are teaching me how to cook food that is cheap but also tasty. We all got together last weekend and made two huge batches sharing the ingredients we all had.

This was enough to feed all of us for several meals. My mom especially liked them and requested this to be a repeat. I am not sure what the future holds but I am happy that I have learned some new cooking skills and recipes and we have learned to work together as extended family taking care of each other.

Our sale ads all but stopped, but they have started again here. The ads literally got much smaller. They are now closer to regular size and the stores appear to be well stocked. I grew up in Minneapolis and now live in southern Minnesota.

My shopping choices are limited of course living in a rural area 25 and 35 miles from larger grocery stores. I find Walmart prices very competitive and the items I have ordered online have been extremely well packed and promptly delivered.

And frankly I am proud of them for hiring workers that for various reasons would be likely for find employment in other stores.

Walmart stores come into many small towns and communities and undercut the local businesses with lower prices. The other stores fail and then the Walmart dominates. Many of those store owners have to work at the Walmart to make a living. Then, so often, the Walmart pulls out and leaves the town as a veritable food desert.

Additionally, I have never found Walmart to be a pleasant shopping experience, even if the prices are competitive as you say. Overall, I have found the employees rude and unhelpful, if you can even find one!

Fortunately, I have options where I live. What is the difference between shopping at Costco and Sams vs. They are all warehouse type stores. Am I missing something? If you need to save money to feed your family you shop where the prices are better. My small town experiences are so different than yours.

I certainly count my blessings to live where I do. One difference is that Costco has very affordable high-quality health insurance benefits even for PT employees.

All that said, the nearest Costco is 3 hrs. away from me. I agree, Isabella. We boycott Walmart as well. They treat employees badly and force their suppliers to to keep costs down, They then shipped jobs over to factories in China. Sometimes cheaper is more costly in other ways, unfortunately.

And no one is forced to work there. Corporate America changes all the time. I have worked at many places in my half century work life.

Nobody ever put the employee before the corporation. WalMart has been coming under attack for decades; dollar stores are now getting the heat. They have many grocery items, but not fresh produce or meat.

Their business model challenges local stores, in rural and urban areas. They are smaller stores but certainly much more common than WalMart, and growing, a thousand new stores a year.

So part of shopping for me is determining whether or not, and how often, I can support local independent merchants or smaller chains.

Locally owned and managed businesses provide different benefits to a community. Shopping locally even once or twice a month is important. I actually work at Walmart, to get insurance for my family.

My brother in law works at Target for almost 17 years, while my nephew works at Walmart. Nephew makes more than brother in law and all 3 of us are lowly employees, not even first level management.

Thank you for this series! I am really looking forward to it. I live approximately 45 minutes from shopping — we have a City Market Kroger , Safeway, Walmart, and a small Target limited groceries there. The town I live nearest 8 miles away does have a grocery store, but it is a tourist town and prices are two and three times what they are 45 minutes away.

are located, so we save up errands and tend to make one trip every couple of weeks. I like to stay stocked up and when quarantine first started was able to go almost a month without shopping.

Now I try to go three weeks, and mostly shop for dairy and produce and to fill in gaps in my pantry.

I made an inventory last month and have been stocking up on items we use the most. The closest Costco is 6 hours away, but three or four times a year we travel to that area for various reasons and will stock up.

On the way home from camping, we stopped at a Costco for the first time in 6 months and purchased many of the items we prefer there.

I have ordered online from them too, for things like dog food that are a better price than anywhere else. I also have several items on Subscribe and Save from Amazon: coffee, avocado oil, coconut oil, black tea and powdered whole milk. I am building up my stocks of these items and will not order as often when my supply is where I want it to be.

I have been focusing on eating meals with no meat or that stretch meat. We are revisiting old favorites and discovering new loves. I am also trying to grow even more in my garden, though the weather is making it hard.

I freeze and can as much as I am able of our garden produce. I always buy and can and freeze items, but my goal this year is to do enough to take us through to next season. I started hearing reports out of China in December about a mysterious flu that was killing people and I thought it was SARS starting up again — Toronto was particularly hard hit when it arrived here a few years ago — so I paid attention.

Instead of letting my winter pantry run down I kept restocking — a bit at a time over the next few months. I live in a bit of a valley and stores are located one subway stop to the west and two subway stops to the east but there is a stop right across the street which makes it easy and a quick trip.

Some of the amounts have been a bit shocking! And that is even with a well stocked pantry — those empty shelves were a bit of a shock so I had a tendency to grab something if it was available! I have spent time during lockdown to reorganize my pantry and to create a small — longterm pantry — items marked as BB past It is helping me to use up things in proper rotation.

I now go into the office about twice a week — just for a few hours — but it gives me the chance to hit a couple of others so that I can now get a bit more variety into the pantry. But at the moment I have more than enough meat for probably the next couple of months and I do want to eat it down quite a bit before starting to restock.

Beef was a bit scarce for a few weeks but things seem to be back to normal now. I have about a six month supply of non-food items like you Brandy I use non- scented and often hypoallergenic due to allergies and try never to pay full price for these sorts of things.

When there is a deal I stock up — but again, just being one person means that I can keep a six month supply on just two small shelves. My go to store is our local Aldi which is 5 minutes away and I try and get most things there.

One plus is being able to pick up cauliflower leaves people have broken off as I feed them to my chickens. My take home message from the last couple of months is working on making my garden more productive. I planted a dwarf lemon tree on the weekend and I will look our for more dwarf species of fruit trees.

I am still preparing my raised garden bed and hope to be ready in the next month or so to start off some spring crops. Great info! Another thing I do to cut costs is just use what will work. The blue Dawn is my favorite, and I use it on almost anything. So, buying fewer products saves us money.

Making a focused effort to avoid food waste really helps us stretch the pennies. I have really seen the value of a having a pantry these past two years. My pantry carried us, four adults and two small children. When every one moved, both households stocked their initial pantry stock up from my pantry and freezer.

And we restocked ours as we could. Then unemployment for one of the kids meant they were dependent upon us for groceries…Restock. This past December I was insistent that i buy enough paper and cleaning supplies for a year and went through a heavy period of restocking pantry.

Locally we have a dollar general and an IGA store. I tend to drive the 35 miles one way to go to Aldi which best suits our budget. My husband retired this past February by the way.

I continue to stock my pantry as I can. I do some online purchases rather than spend hours and miles running to too many stores.

It makes for a very long day and as you say going into stores more often means spending more. I am careful with online purchases. I would never do that-perhaps for a whole bag. Like many others have mentioned, we were paying attention to the news reports and shopped accordingly.

Our best shopping is over an hour away. We also order half a pig from our mechanic. His Father grows them every year. I do not eat meat so we usually share with our two sons. It sells for 3. which is better than the stores. I order from walmart for cereal, fiber, wipes, and several other items.

Before we were shut down, i had ordered two cases of toilet paper from ebay. I have been buying toilet paper whenever i see it. The shelves are still not back to pre-virus days. The ebay sellers are out, as well. A lot of price gauging, there! I see more gardening going on around here.

Beans, too. I canned carrots when i saw bags on sale. Hello Brandy and I so agree that you have to compare prices between stores to keep our grocery costs down as low as possible and particularly if you have a large family such as yours 🙂.

Prices in Australia have also risen dramatically mainly on meat and fresh vegetables but also on dairy and tinned goods. Fortunately we had been building up our stockpile before the pandemic and were up to 9 — 12 months ahead.

We did buy only a little meat and ate more tinned long life meat and vegetable meals along with inventing lots of new and different ways to use spam in meals.

We have also changed the way we shop in regards to a lot of price rises here and now look more for markdowns, weekly specials, buy bulk staples online from places like party and restaurant suppliers such as herbs and grains which are much cheaper in general.

With supermarkets we shop between many more and check prices online for the cheapest prices for everything. Also places like eBay we have found a lot of bulk cleaning staples we use often far cheaper too.

Hoping everyone is finding ways to save in this challenging time where prices are rising everywhere. I do agree Brandy if you look for the sales they are still out there and should be taken advantage of.

I would go to two different stores — one expensive store for meat and a bargain store for everything else. I cannot have a flu shot so during flu season a variety of friends would pick up a few things for me if they were going.

Now I diligently read the flyers every week and usually about twice a month, I ask my YYC, free grocery delivery volunteers for seniors and others at high risk for covid, to shop at the store of my choice.

In stocking up a pantry, I ask a combination of friends and volunteers to go. I try not to ask friends too often nor my volunteers. So I read the flyers for No Frills, Superstore, Safeway and Calgary Co-op. I try to eat servings of fruit and vegetables per day.

I have a lot of food allergies which is limiting fish, shellfish, eggs! So when I read the flyers, I also search for the ingredients. I have spent more than usual as I restocked a pantry starting in January.

Now has been the time of year when canned soups go on sale — I try not to eat them a lot because I prefer low sodium foods but they are good for the pantry. I make soup from scratch so I have things like dried celery, dried onions, and dried carrots on hand, along with canned tomatoes, dried beans, rice, pasta, and barley.

Those will items will work for many soups and are less costly than buying canned soups. They would also keep your sodium low. Is there a trick to cooking them that would alleviate that problem? Toilet paper! Things like that.

I wanted to avoid the stores so I would go shopping once every two weeks or three. And now, I am pretty terrified that as things play out, food shortages and the economy is going to make the prices of food skyrocket. So, I am trying to stock up on things that may get expensive later.

We bought four piglets last month to butcher in the fall, we have a cow who is milking and chickens for eggs, so I guess I am as insulated as possible. The more you eat beans, the less of a problem it is, as your body gets used to them. Presoaking them can also alleviate the problem.

Make sure to drain the rinse water. We soak our beans for 48 hours, changing the water whenever it gets frothy. That helps digestibility as well. We pressure-cook them to break down lectins. We eat a lot of beans!

You can also cook them with herbs and spices that aid digestion — and make them more flavorful! When I was the same young age my mother had to go away somewhere for a few days to be with an elderly relative and taught me how to bottle can produce from the garden in her absence.

I still do this today and am currently taking advantage of good prices on summer fruits. I live in an agricultural region and last year I called a tomato pack-house and asked if they would sell to me at the back door. They did and I saved a fortune on supermarket grade tomatoes.

I will do this again this year. I keep a reasonable stockpile because you just never know when illness or weather issues will crop up. I was stockpiling for Brexit earlier this year as retailers never seem to miss an opportunity to raise prices so was well prepared for the pandemic lockdown and was able to avoid the stores for ages.

I think over the last year I have begun to source more things on line and in bulk — for example dried beans which I cook and freeze so they are always available. In terms of stockpiling and preserving, this is a great time to practice and to learn.

Teach children to cook and preserve — my learning as a teenager has been a wonderful investment. I have always cooked from scratch because that is how I was brought up. Funny story — I once made a rice pudding dessert from scratch for a roommate and she said it was nearly as good as tinned!

Also take a little time to sit and think deeply and set yourself some challenges: How would I cope if there was no …… fill in the gaps e. We did this and it led us to moving from the country to the outskirts of a small town where we can access everything on foot from food to medical services.

We are now positioned that we could manage without a car if we had to. I know everyone is not in a position to move or would even want to — but it is an example of getting the thinking clear so that you can plan ahead and stockpile accordingly.

Finally I do find this blog inspirational and enjoy the contributions. Although the US is different from the UK in a number of ways, I do find the blog and comments to be an excellent source of ideas. Many was the time basic items would be out of stock for months.

I learned to stock up carefully then and continue to do so today. When the lockdowns began I did not need to shop for anything for at least 2 weeks, and even then it was just for milk and fresh fruit. We had plenty of everything to get us through.

Like most of you, I also cook from scratch most of the time, use up leftovers, buy loss leaders, can, dehydrate, freeze, and garden. My family buys a cow once a year and share the packaged meats with our adult children.

There are a couple of orchards within a half hour drive from us so every fall we go apple picking at least twice, once for my favorite early apple variety, Liberty, and later for my favorite late variety, Arkansas Black.

I also get a few other varieties to make applesauce and to can. I check the store ads weekly and buy only what is on a good sale in order to replenish the pantry and what few items we need. I have access to several grocery store chains; Kroger, Food Lion, Walmart, Target, and assorted other chain stores like Dollar Tree, Dollar General, and chain pharmacies.

We have no member stores like Sams, Costco, BJs. One thing someone else mentioned was to check alternative stores. I buy my bread flour, spices, dried tvp, and other things from the Amish and Mennonite stores which are within a 30 minute drive.

I only go once or twice a year. Our area was out of dried beans and cornmeal for weeks. Then I passed a Mexican market on the way home one day and thought to stop in.

I found beans galore! and cornmeal. Their prices were quite reasonable. The one other place I shop whenever I am near to a military base is the commissary. I live exactly 4 hours from any base in all directions so I only go once or twice a year when I visit family near a base. As my husband is retired military we have this benefit.

Unfortunately, since the privatization of many military facilities such as base hotels, restaurants and the PX and commissary, the prices have really gone up. I can still find some items for excellent prices and that is when I buy A LOT of the item. Brandy,, I am wondering what your price book looks like.

How do you organize it? I once tried to do one but became so overwhelmed by it all I stopped the project. Any suggestions? I used a spreadsheet by store with the lowest prices you could use Google Sheets for free and then update it on your computer or your phone when you see a lower price.

Items listed on one side by department produce, dairy, baking, etc. and then stores across the top. Now I just keep things in my head—but there are free price book apps you can use on your phone as well.

Brandi, I stepped on a Yellow Jacket nest and was stung multiple times. They bite too. Benadryl helps a lot. We were starting to Prepare for lockdown in December. We had friends telling us about China then and said it is coming to the U. prepare now. I stockpiled food, tp. anything I thought we would need.

I had a freezer full of meat. Canned goods, sundries etc… We got extra propane and filled all our gas cans. I have shared things with family and neighbors that were caught off guard.

I will never forget going to the local market and seeing it stripped clean. I took pictures with my cell phone. We planted a pandemic garden. We have onions, tomatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers. Variety of peppers, mammoth Sunflowers.

Corn and tomatoes. Zucchini and Yellow squash. and potatoes. We have several farms in our town that sell produce, eggs, milk and meat.

Local honey, wine and olive oil it is very delicious but more expensive than big box stores. I believe the turmoil and unrest we see now will intensify up to the election in November. Our supply chain could become impacted by this. I wonder Brandi do you have Co ops in your area?

I know that used to be a good resource for staples. We have kept a stocked pantry since Y2K. Although that was a non-event, it raised my awareness about how dependent on others our country has become for basic survival. Through the years, I have learned as much as I could about becoming self-sufficient if the need should arise.

This past year, I let our pantry stock get low as all of our children have grown and we were eating differently. When we started to see the virus developing in January, I took inventory and stocked up.

Winter wheat was hard to find. We live a fair distance from large stores, so stocking up has always made financial sense. A lot of items are out of stock, but I put them in my cart and check fairly often to see if they are available.

Over the past two months, I have been able to get almost everything I needed. One thing this pandemic has made us realize is areas of life where we have been wasteful. Although we are more frugal and conservative than most who live around us, we have found many areas to improve.

I have always had a large garden, but the past few years we have been gone during the summer a great deal. A change in jobs led to more work for me during the summer, so I simply turned the garden under and mowed for the past few years.

This year we knew we would be home so a great big garden it is! I love to garden and have enjoyed doing it again. Our neighbors have expressed interest in learning, so I am thankful I can share the little bit of growing wisdom that I have with them.

We have a restaurant meat distributor near us and were able to fill our freezer before prices went crazy.

He was glad for the business when we went before processing plants closed because his sales had been so slow with closed restaurants. I have spent more on stocking up the past few months than usual; not just food, but also household items that may be in short supply at some point.

I think we will see many disruptions over the next several months. It is amazing how much we have taken for granted. We have been blessed to be able to fill our pantry and take care of some other purchases we had been delaying.

I also decided to finally spend the money on a nice dehydrator to help deal with some of the garden produce that will be coming in soon.

I have always been a goal setter, and have worked to build a life I think the Lord wants me to lead. This pandemic and all that goes with it has given me some introspective time to evaluate where I need to make changes.

I am thankful for this blog and look forward to reading input from around the world. Brandy, your blog is a ministry and I am so thankful for it. It is a high point of my week to sit and read your post and the comments.

Blessings to you all! And the ability to hang it up is just the cherry on the sundae! We also love the multiple, sturdy zippers found on each side of the case, plus one to fully enclose the separate middle area.

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