I always like to keep a decent supply of food and frequently used items on hand but come fall I step up my efforts. Knowing that I have everything I need here at home is a comfort to me and means I don’t have to make emergency trips to town in potentially bad weather when I’d rather be holed up here in my cozy house. Yes, I have definite hermit tendencies – especially when it gets cold.
My daughter and I will be doing our big, monthly shopping trip to the city on Tuesday. That also happens to be the day my co-op order is due. I’ve spent the afternoon working on this week’s menu, shopping lists, and printing coupons. I don’t bother with newspaper coupons because they rarely have any for the products I buy but Lisa has been showing me where to find online coupons for organic foods. She’s got this whole monthly shopping thing down to a science and I’m learning. I still buy milk and fresh produce (and the occasional impulse buy) in between our trips and that probably won’t change but it is awfully nice to know I have a month’s worth of basics here at home.
I also like to have larger quantities of certain items, some of which I can purchase in bulk from the co-op. This includes such things as whole wheat which I then grind fresh for homemade bread, organic whole oats, organic sugar, brown sugar, organic unbleached white flour, beans, rice, pasta, spices, baking ingredients such as baking soda, baking powder, cocoa, vanilla (which I make myself), etc.
In addition to food items, I also like to have extras on hand of items such as toilet paper (I purchase toilet paper made from recycled paper by the case from Amazon), toothpaste, shampoo, cleaning and laundry supplies, other personal items.
I am fortunate to have plenty of storage space so it only make sense for me to keep a well-stocked supply here at home. I can then replenish my stock when I find things on sale and avoid unplanned trips to town, which is a 15 minute drive for me. Best of all, when bad weather threatens, I’m not one of those people standing in line at the grocery store with the rest of the town!
Do you try to stock up a bit before winter? Do you purchase some items in bulk? Where do you do your shopping? I’ll take pictures and share more details after our Tuesday trip but I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject.
For the longest time my dh and I had completely different perspectives about grocery shopping. My goal was to have as much on hand (purchased at the lowest possible price) as possible. His goal was to use what we had before shopping again because that is what he had always done. I don't think either of us realized how opposite our perspectives were until recently when we were talking about food and I mentioned that Mormons keep a year of food storage on hand. I could literally see the lights coming on. It was at that moment that I realized that we had never really understood the other's goals with grocery shopping. It's important to be on the same page with what your goals are.
That's really interesting. Does he now understand why you might want to keep more on hand? In our case, David leaves the running of the household to me. He has to make so many work-related decisions all day (and often after he gets home as well) that he honestly doesn't care how I do things as long as I'm happy and fix him nice meals. Ha! I will say, however, that in different circumstances I might do things differently. If I lived in French village with cute little produce stands, a fishmonger, etc. within walking distance, I might be inclined to shop daily. But with a 15 minute drive to the nearest store in a place where we get some winter ice storms, it just seems wise to keep things on hand at all times.
A very good thing to do, shopping for winter wisely is one of my priority right now. I'm currently saving money and I think I already have enough to shop plenty of foods and things for the coming months. I need to do this because the weather in our town is really not that good in winter season. Is it wise to buy some green tea or this tulsi tea from Dr. Mercola that I can save winter? I'm a bit confused if which one is better right now?