Want to "build" a pantry

[2lilsweetfoxes]

We buy food week-to-week, so that by Friday, our cupboards are looking pretty bare. I am convinced that for the best savings, we should have a stocked pantry at all times. After all, what happens if both DH and I are laid up with the flu on grocery day or something? DC are too young to go to the store by themselves. I was thinking about every week, finding the best deal we can on one thing and buying about $10 worth of that item. Ex. Oscar Mayer hot dogs on sale 2 for $.68 (yes, I have seen them that cheap): buy 14 packages; turkey goes on sale day after Thanksgiving for $5 a bird--may buy 3 or 4 birds. (I'd love to do all-natural, organic, etc, but that isn't in the budget. I don't pay more than $1.99 a pound for meat, if I can avoid it. And we keep gluten-free in my household.)

We may have a source of free wild salmon . If it does turn out, we'll have to clean it ourselves, then I'll package them in single-serving or single-meal amounts.

[ChristyMarie]

The $10 a week thing was how I started. Only stuff on a really good sale. A year later, I have quite a pantry and it is so nice to only buy staples on sale. I'm currently out of pasta sauce as I've been waiting for a sale and now I'm going to have to pay full price and I'm not happy about it. But I believe I currently have about a year's worth of diet coke.

Eventually it did get to more than $10 sometimes - times when I'd shop at Costco and buy meat it would definitely be more - but then I have weeks where I don't buy any meat or hardly go to the store so it evens out. But those initial big purchases can be a bit more than expected.

[skybluepink02]

I do that. I recently found the bags of chicken thighs for 37 cents a lb. I got 40 lbs, separated them into gallon bags and froze. I also boiled one bag for shredded meat and broth, which also got divvied up and put in the freezer.

[mamadelbosque]

Yup start small and build it slowly. Once you have a stock just replace as you go... I still mostly shop week-week, but I always have a base level of 'stuff' in my pantry - condiments, pasta, rice, beans, canned beans, canned tomatoes/fruit/etc. I despise going to make something and realizing I don't have X... worst thing *EVER*!!!

[ChristyMarie]

Originally Posted by mamadelbosque

I despise going to make something and realizing I don't have X... worst thing *EVER*!!!

Oh my gosh, yes! This weekend I ran out of sugar. How do you run out of sugar?!?!??! I buy the huge bag at Costco. I had to run to Jewel and buy a regular bag.

[2lilsweetfoxes]

Originally Posted by mamadelbosque

Yup start small and build it slowly. Once you have a stock just replace as you go... I still mostly shop week-week, but I always have a base level of 'stuff' in my pantry - condiments, pasta, rice, beans, canned beans, canned tomatoes/fruit/etc. I despise going to make something and realizing I don't have X... worst thing *EVER*!!!

Oh, tell me about it. That is when I tend to get "creative". But, somehow it all works out.

[surrogate]

I just ran out of sugar too! Lol! But yeah, I tend to spend an extra $20 per week on stock up stuff...rice, etc

[GuildJenn]

Originally Posted by ChristyMarie

The $10 a week thing was how I started. Only stuff on a really good sale. A year later, I have quite a pantry and it is so nice to only buy staples on sale. I'm currently out of pasta sauce as I've been waiting for a sale and now I'm going to have to pay full price and I'm not happy about it. But I believe I currently have about a year's worth of diet coke.

Eventually it did get to more than $10 sometimes - times when I'd shop at Costco and buy meat it would definitely be more - but then I have weeks where I don't buy any meat or hardly go to the store so it evens out. But those initial big purchases can be a bit more than expected.

Yup this is how we started ours too. $10 a week for the best sale items. And now I do rarely buy staples full-price although it does happen.

[lmonter]

Sounds about right.
One baby step at a time (and then before you know it you're buying 7 cases of pears from the produce manager or have enough sugar for 3 years...).


ETA: Just to make sure I don't sound smug, I have to fully admit I ran out of chocolate chips last week - despite grabbing like 50+ bags last year (hey, I give food to friends when they have a need for it or could use a pick-me-up of cookie dough). I'm impatiently waiting on Albertson's...

[Paxjourney]

That is the way we started to several years ago. We haven't done any real grocery shopping in 4mo. as we prepare to move several hours away and have our house on the market. We have just ben eating out of the pantry and buying milk, bread, cheese etc. Every 2 weeks or so.

We also write with a sharpie when we purchased the item and I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH the importance of keeping an inventory.

[provocativa]

we don't have costco here, and i refuse to do sam's, so my strategies are different. check the loss leader ads, write a price book, and then start building out of only sale items. also learn when the stores you frequent mark down stuff- kroger marks down produce on sunday afternoon. dairy gets marked down between 2-3 pm at most stores. many of the butchers mark down stuff right before they leave at night. it's worth an ingratiating convo with workers to find out when they do markdowns. you can find markdowns more at the elite stores where no one wants to be seen with an orange sticker in your cart, but i find more markdowns on organic stuff at stores near the low income areas- i believe it's because the lowest income folks often don't even look at organic clearance items, believing they are out of their price range. the middle class and working class areas- the markdowns disappear immediately at those stores. for our gluten free items, i find cheapest stuff at southeast asian markets- and joining a unfi group is essential for bob's red mill cases! HTH!