Dawn over at Frugal For Life discusses some of the ethical implications of stockpiling foods. She gets into a few rules of thumb for testing to see whether stockpiling has crossed into greed, or just plain inconsideration. Talking to the store to have them do a special large-quantity order is much more considerate than cleaning out the shelves, for example. We even scored a small bulk grocery discount when we took this route.
Done properly, stocking up on food (6 months' worth, or more) is wise, not only for you and your family, but also for your community. It's not being greedy at all. Some positive benefits of building up a decent pantry:
- Emergency preparedness. Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods — and worse — can disrupt supply lines, making things either very expensive, or just simply unavailable at any price. At this point, if you have it, you have it, and if you don't, you won't until the danger passes.
- Reduced demand in times of emergency. If you have what you need, you won't need to run out to buy necessities at the eleventh hour and compete with everyone else who's doing the same. This means more of your community can get what they need.
- More local business now, when they can replace their supply. If you're buying now, you don't have to buy later, and they can sell to you now rather than only wish that they could sell to you later.
- Self-sufficiency. Following this thought further results in a heightened level of long-term preparedness. Less reliance on conventional supply lines like grocery stores means less personal risk.
- Opportunities for outreach. Being able to feed people in an emergency allows chances to share beliefs like the Gospel message. Giving a meal and an eternal gift = good deal.
- Inflation hedging. If salaries don't keep up with inflation, everything will be relatively more expensive. Locking in items at today's prices hedges against this scenario.
Howard Ruff's How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years in the 21st Century runs through many of the big pitfalls in long-term food storage. He discusses how some foods lose their nutritional value far before they actually go bad, as well as how to ease into this kind of diet should it become necessary to rely on it.
So please, pounce (wisely) on those food deals and invest in some food.
I have sort of different take on piling up food. Hope you find it interesting at
http://www.mewithoutdebt.com/2009/09/using-what-you-got.html
For me it is about locking in a price – for instance milk is at a great price and I love milk – but I dread seeing it go back up another $2 or more – so I am freezing 6 gallons at a time.
Thanks for giving your opinion on this matter MBH
Dawn,
but did you calculate cost of energy to freeze it as well factor in potential loss?
For the milk -I only buy enough for two months – so no waste there.
As for the energy – we got the smallest stand up freezer that was an energy star rating — the only downside there is keeping it full enough, so I’m putting in water filled milk jugs to make sure it stays energy efficient
Right about keeping water jugs in the freezer. Water has a very high heat capacity so once it gets down to temperature, it takes a lot of heat to bring it up to 32 degrees.
I am going to have to agree on all counts. One thing that was not mentioned was gardening… keeping one will allow you to save even more and also control the growing/soil environment, which can be a health benefit as well.
I agree with your reasoning, MBH, and would like to point out another idea: The more food you have on hand the less often you need to shop, and the less often you shop the less often you’ll be tempted by impulse buys. Definite money-saver there.
My goal in the next six months (or however long it takes) is to eat everything in my cupboards. I wrote a piece for the MSN Smart Spending blog about my practice of “stealth stock-up,” i.e., getting lots of things at their absolute lowest price thanks to loss leaders, coupons and rebates. It will be interesting to see how long it takes me to empty out the place. Naturally I’ll keep shopping for fresh fruits and vegetables plus any other items that I need.
I also bought a small freezer and am absolutely loving it. When I see truly irresistible loss-leader prices on meat or plain frozen vegetables, I’ll buy a lot of things to store. I’ve also got a ton of free blackberries in there (picked them around the corner from my apartment) and some cut-up rhubarb that someone gave me. A nearby bakery outlet recently sent out a circular with a coupon for a free loaf of bread; some of my neighbors tossed these circulars in the lobby recycle bin, so I was able to obtain and freeze half a dozen loaves of whole-grain bread. I’ve got butter (as cheap as 50 cents a pound), bacon and flour frozen, too.
Here are the links to my blog posts about stealth stock-up and the purchase of the freezer:
http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/smartspending/archive/2008/04/16/fight-rising-food-prices-with-stealth-stock-up.aspx
http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/smartspending/archive/2008/09/23/i-share-my-bedroom-with-a-freezer.aspx
I try not to buy groceries with a long storage term. The longer the food can be kept, more conservants it has inside. Take care of your health.
I am typically a believer in the just-in-time(JIT) method of food storage. We live within walking distance to several grocery stores, so popping out for some milk is never an issue. Because we do live in the city, space is more of an issue, and freezing 6 gallons of milk in a chest freezer is simply not an option.
We do keep large quanities of some basics on hand like rice, pasta, flour. o I don’t think we will starve in times of emergency. BUT—I never considered keeping extra on hand to help neighbors and spread the Gospel. Thank you for this tip!
I agree with Dawn. I only stock-up if the item is on discounts and may buy up to 3 – 5 months of supplies. Generally I agree with most of the reasons stated here but the only constraint I have is the lack of space to store these stock up items.
There are certainly natural disasters, but one emergency that many people don’t think of is unemployment. That is a legitimate reason to break into your food storage as well. some friends of ours survived on their food storage for months until they could get a job. It actually worked out because it helped them cycle through the almost expired food.