What items (food and non-food) would you stock up on? - Page 2

[Staceyy]

Beans, cornmeal, oatmeal, powdered milk, powdered eggs.

[lmonter]

Things I'd add to your list... 

Medicines you routinely need/use (myself and other friends tend to order from across the border because it's a fraction of the cost here in the states, even with $20 shipping).

If you use homeopathic stuff, make sure you've got extra/enough of that (I don't think I could ever have too much arnica in my house, with four kids and a wood-cutting husband, we go through it!).  I make sure I've got the things we go through - arnica, my allergy stuff (sabadil and two other Boiron tubes), FCLO, xylitol, essential oils, whatever.  Working on making our own liquid vitamins/tinctures as well, but that's beside the point.
 

Ziploc bags, disposable foil pans (if you do freezer cooking for yourself/other folks - I have a stash of cheap Pyrex dishes for freezer meals).  Foil/parchment if you use them - and baking cups/muffin cups, I go through so many of those.  I also like having matches, candles and such around.  Bottled water (or canned - easy way to have potable water and fill up a canner while canning!). 

Food... 

Stock up on what you use/eat.  I stock up on sales/loss-leaders occasionally even with a coupon or twenty, do a bunch of canning/freezing, and even get a few big cans of dehydrated goodies here and there (carrot dices and onions are the most popular in my cooking, celery doesn't rehydrate well for me, and tomato powder or butter powder or sour cream powder isn't as highly used in our everyday cooking as I'd hoped when I bought them).  Ingredients for soups (stocks, vegetables, beans, spices), baking (flours, sugars, honey, maple syrup, oatmeal, peanut butter, oils, salt, yeast, baking powder, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, that kind of thing), condiments (mustard, mayo, ketchup, soy sauce, peanut butter, lime juice, bbq sauce and the like), noodle varieties.  Store bought soups (Campbell's Chicken Noodle is still a smidge better/cheaper than Wendy's drive-thru for a family of 4-6), cereals and a few crackers (I treat it as a snack, never a major meal, or use for making occasional treats like Puppy Chow).  Since a photo's worth a thousand words:

Use your home-canned fun and start planning now for your plan of attack next season.  Disposable canning lids tend to go on sale around June in my area, but in the last few years I've gotten Tattler lids to reuse.  Only can up stuff you're going to use.  Apricot goo/jam wasn't popular in these parts, nor was pearsauce, but other folks may adore those in their pantry.  For years I never used diced tomatoes.  One year during a pantry challenge here I got some great recipes, so now I have to make sure I can up enough diced tomatoes - pantries definitely change.  :D

(I know, the canned meat isn't as pretty on the shelf like jams and peaches, but it's shelf stable!)

So just look at your grocery receipts and extrapolate from that.  :)  That's all I've done over the years, the quantity's just gotten larger due to strawberries only being ripe in summer (need to do all the jam for the year in July!) and apples in Sept-Nov,

[LitMom]

I didn't see paper towels, zip locks, aluminum foil, light bulbs, and trash bags on your list. Even if you do reusable most of the time, some plastic bags and paper towels on hand will make things easier.

Bandaids, Sunscreen and bug repellant if you use them.

Vinegar and olive oil are good staples all around for kitchen and cleaning/body care (Olive oil helps my kids' eczema.) 

Herbs in planters are a nice thing to have. 

If you have pets, supplies and food for them.

I find it easier to avoid running out for stuff if we have basic art and school supplies, paint, crayons, paper, scissors, pencils, notebooks.

[LoveOurBabies]

Originally Posted by mamarhu 

This probably goes without saying, and forgive me if I sound like someone's negative mother, but it is all about packaging. I had about a year worth of food and supplies, stored in my pantry. Indoor, off the laundry room, not out in a barn or shed. And the mice got to it all! Anything packed in cardboard or plastic was chewed through, and cans and glass jars were covered with poo, pee, and too gross to consider. Powdered laundry soap. Bars of soap and tubes of toothpaste. Costco quantities of zip-lock bags. Cases of tomato sauce. Many, many pounds of oatmeal, rice, flours, sugar, and dry beans. And the list goes on. I ended up tossing it all.

Long story involving a weird roommate situation to explain why I didn't go into the pantry for 6 or 8 months. But if I were going to do this again, I would start with 10,000 really great containers. Glass, metal, heavy plastic tubs; something totally pest-proof. Then store it someplace not too remote, and check on it occasionally.
 

This.

We also had a mouse issue while we were renovating. Suffice to say, I tossed A LOT of stuff. Complete and utter waste. I use glass jars now and anything that is going to be stored, will be stored in an air tight mason jar or jar with glass jar with screw top. No more plastic bags/cardboard boxes, no matter how thick and durable they look from the outset.

[meandk0610]

How would you recommend storing rice and sugar? I was going to use food grade buckets but was hoping that I wouldn't need to use mylar bags as well (since sugar doesn't go bad). They would be stored in a bedroom that I use for storage. I also store the animal feed in there and I'll admit to putting poison down around the the edges of the room and in the duct in several rooms. However, I haven't had a mouse show up since I put poison in the crawl space. Anyhoo! I was hoping to use the buckets so that I can stack them.