Pandemic hoarding

[TomTX]

So just because companies are posting higher revenue and profits, if you adjust those for inflation, it wipes out most if not all of that increase.

Bullshit. US corporate profits were up 50% in 2021. Inflation was 6-7%.

"Supply chain" "costs" "pandemic" - all being used as cover to justify rapacious price increases.

What is the source for US corporate profits rising 50% in 2021? Is that 50% increase from 2020? If so, that's frankly a meaningless number due to the pandemic and lockdowns.

Corporate profits were only down a few percent in 2020. Effectively irrelevant to the point being made.

Would you prefer "Up 45+% compared to 2019"?

The point is the same. Inflation caused by rapacious corporate profiteering under the guise of "supply chain" etc. woes.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/13/profits-for-sp-500-companies-rose-22percent-in-the-fourth-quarter-and-nearly-50percent-in-2021-estimates-show.html

https://www.statista.com/statistics/222130/annual-corporate-profits-in-the-us/

[K_in_the_kitchen]

Well, I ordered 25# of organic popcorn from Azure but even though it was "in stock" when I placed the order, it didn't ship -- I guess quite a few other people had the same idea I did.  Since it isn't a major need I'm going to let it go and not try to source it elsewhere.

We didn't receive a single penny of stimulus money.  Everything is more expensive, but our income is the same.  I'm not complaining, just pointing out that not everyone got money.

I honestly don't care about the whys of inflation and price hikes -- companies are going to do what they do and I have no control over it.  Even my not buying certain categories of food from the big producers doesn't change anything for anyone else.  And now that I've been a grocery purchasing adult for 30+ years, I understand "shrink-flation" much better.  I feel like certain prices become etched into our brains as normal or acceptable, and as prices rise they don't make sense to us.  Consumers are very price driven.

[Roadrunner53]

I shop a lot on Walmart online. I have noticed more and more there are third party sellers selling things for outrageous prices! For example, I was looking up spray foam carpet cleaner and it was a well-known name brand. The can is 22 ounces and the seller, which is not Walmart, is selling it for $16.84 for one can. This really irks me! I ended up buying this from a grocery store for $6.59 for the same exact can. Why is Walmart allowing this? This is just one of many items I have shopped for and found grossly overpriced!

[Cranky]

I bought 20 lbs of flour this morning.

Every time I think “Oh, I can let the pantry thin out a little!” something else comes along…

[Michael in ABQ]

I shop a lot on Walmart online. I have noticed more and more there are third party sellers selling things for outrageous prices! For example, I was looking up spray foam carpet cleaner and it was a well-known name brand. The can is 22 ounces and the seller, which is not Walmart, is selling it for $16.84 for one can. This really irks me! I ended up buying this from a grocery store for $6.59 for the same exact can. Why is Walmart allowing this? This is just one of many items I have shopped for and found grossly overpriced!

Most of the people doing this are drop-shipping - often from Amazon. They go scrape thousands of products from Amazon and list them on Walmart at marked up prices. If they get an order, they just order it on Amazon (or some other source) and have it shipped to the customer. They aren't actually carrying any inventory so they can do this from their basement with an almost infinite number of products. It just takes one desperate or ignorant person for them to make a few bucks.


I sell some grocery products on Amazon and have an exclusive relationship with the manufacturer. I sell one product for about $11, and it was listed on Walmart for close to $20. They stole images from my Amazon listing, so I reported it to Walmart as copyright infringement and they took down the listing. The sellers doing this on multiple products had lots of terrible reviews about slow shipping or stale/damaged products, but Walmart doesn't have the same infrastructure in place that Amazon has spent years building out to identify and weed out bad sellers. Not that Amazon does a great job, they make a lot of mistakes but usually err on the side of guilty until proven innocent.

[K_in_the_kitchen]

I shop a lot on Walmart online. I have noticed more and more there are third party sellers selling things for outrageous prices! For example, I was looking up spray foam carpet cleaner and it was a well-known name brand. The can is 22 ounces and the seller, which is not Walmart, is selling it for $16.84 for one can. This really irks me! I ended up buying this from a grocery store for $6.59 for the same exact can. Why is Walmart allowing this? This is just one of many items I have shopped for and found grossly overpriced!

I think Walmart is running their business model this way because Amazon does.  Plenty of grocery, cleaning, and toiletry products on Amazon are also sold well over retail by third party sellers.  If Walmart were to limit themselves to what they sell as a company, any time something was out of stock the customer would jump over to Amazon and order there.  This way they keep a piece of the pie.

That doesn't mean I don't hate it!  I especially detest having to change the retailer to Walmart with every single search.  And now Target has all sorts of afflicted sellers as well, so I have to filter those out too.

[K_in_the_kitchen]

I bought 20 lbs of flour this morning.

Every time I think “Oh, I can let the pantry thin out a little!” something else comes along…

I think we're past the point of not keeping full pantries in our homes.  I don't want to be a prepper, and I don't live where I can pretend any kind of local interdependence within my community, but I do think I need to be stocking enough pantry goods for at least a year.  It will always be imperfect because we mostly don't like canned food (as the first part of the pandemic clearly showed us).

I don't use white flour regularly, but I do have about 30# all-purpose and 10# bread flour.  Should we end up without electricity due to earthquake or rolling blackouts, I won't be able to grind wheat.  I will be able to cook with propane (for a couple of weeks anyway), so I either need white flour or a hand-cranked grinder, and I think in that situation I'll be glad to have flour ready to go.  Of course, if I were to lose electricity for a couple of weeks we'd have to start by cooking and eating everything in the freezer.

[GuitarStv]

I've got a 20 kg (44ish lbs) bag of flour, thirty packs of guitar strings, and spare tubes for my amps.  Ready to go!

[Roadrunner53]

Anyone here use barley? Seems to be a great grain to eat that contains protein and fiber. Would be a good item to stock up on. I just bought a very small bag of it and may cook it in my crockpot. Maybe a breakfast type meal with nuts, fruit, cinnamon, maple syrup or peanutbutter. I was also thinking of using it as a side dish using chicken broth to cook it in and adding things like green peppers, garlic, onions, cracked pepper and diced tomatoes.

Some people claim barley has many health benefits. The only thing I can remember eating it in is beef and barley soup. Was not brought up eating grains.

[PMG]

We eat barley as a grain base for a lot of things. Just cook and use similar to rice.  One of our favorites is barley with mushroom gravy over it. Just sauté a lot of mushrooms in butter and make a gravy with beef broth.  Of course you could actually add meat, but we usually don’t.  So delicious. Quick and easy. We also add it to soups and so forth and so on. Or just “pilaf it” and have it as a side like you describe. We don’t use as much barley as rice simply because rice is much easier to buy where we live but I do like to keep a couple pounds in the cupboard.

Sweet dishes with barley sound good as well, I just haven’t done it.

[OtherJen]

Anyone here use barley? Seems to be a great grain to eat that contains protein and fiber. Would be a good item to stock up on. I just bought a very small bag of it and may cook it in my crockpot. Maybe a breakfast type meal with nuts, fruit, cinnamon, maple syrup or peanutbutter. I was also thinking of using it as a side dish using chicken broth to cook it in and adding things like green peppers, garlic, onions, cracked pepper and diced tomatoes.

Some people claim barley has many health benefits. The only thing I can remember eating it in is beef and barley soup. Was not brought up eating grains.

I wish I could, but I can no longer eat it due to celiac disease (gluten-containing grain). I used to love barley in soup (and beer). It would be delicious in either of the dishes you've described.

I recently bought a bag of buckwheat groats and need to start playing with those. It's been ages since we've had them in the house. We mostly eat brown rice, quinoa, and oats from the whole grain category, so buckwheat should be a fun change. I also should track down a bag of millet. We used to like that, but again, I haven't bought it in ages.

Based on our pantry, it's time to buy another big sack of brown rice, split that into vacuum sealed bags, and toss them in the deep freeze for a few days to kill any bugs. I just stocked us up on certified gluten-free oats. I might also need to restock dried black beans—we eat a lot of those.

[Imma]

We love pearl barley but it's not easy to find here anymore. It used to be easy to find it in supermarkets but these days you need to go to a health food store.

One of our favourite low-budget recipes actually includes a lot of pantry staples and barley, so I'll just post it here.

Sautee a diced onion and a few cloves of garlic.
Add a bit of smoked paprika powder (or another spice if you're not a fan of smoked paprika, this will be one of the main flavours of the dish).
Add a 400 gram can of diced tomatoes and two cans of water.
Add two stock cubes (for one liter of stock).
Add a 400 gram can of chickpeas (drained).
Bring to the boil.
Add 150 grams of pearl barley, let boil until the pearl barley is done. Cooking time depends on the barley, we usually get fast cook pearl barley. Regular pearl barley takes longer.

400 gram is a little bit over 14 oz and that's the standard size can here. If your cans are bigger, the recipe will still work as long as you just use twice as much water as tomatoes and adjust the amount of onions, peas and barley. This recipe is two portions if we're hungry and three on a regular day.

[Roadrunner53]

Imma, have you tried purchasing it online? I can get it at the grocery store but I can get it thru numerous other online stores. I don't usually shop on Amazon but there are a lot of barley choices there.

[MudPuppy]

I bought some more jars and canning lids. They were like hen’s teeth last year.

[deborah]

Barley can also be roasted slightly before being used to give it a more nutty flavour.

[SunnyDays]

Barley can also be roasted slightly before being used to give it a more nutty flavour.

I do that with buckwheat, when I make cabbage rolls.  I add brown rice, onions and ground beef also.  You can also just cook big batches of it and then shave and fry cabbage.  Easier than actually rolling it.

[GreenSheep]

This is my favorite buckwheat recipe. I just skip the bee pollen and use vanilla extract instead of an entire bean.

https://www.mynewroots.org/site/2014/07/raspberry-ripple-buckwheat-porridge/

[PMG]

This is my favorite buckwheat recipe. I just skip the bee pollen and use vanilla extract instead of an entire bean.

https://www.mynewroots.org/site/2014/07/raspberry-ripple-buckwheat-porridge/

Hmm. I think that recipe is for raw buckwheat? Not roasted? She doesn’t say. We enjoy both but I haven’t been able to find raw easily in the States.

Here’s an article on the difference:  https://www.mashed.com/382199/heres-how-buckwheat-groats-and-kasha-are-different/

[Roadrunner53]

nuts.com has raw buckwheat.

[Cranky]

I bought some more jars and canning lids. They were like hen’s teeth last year.

I am finally seeing some lids in stock, even the name brand ones!

[MudPuppy]

@Cranky i’m glad I was able to snag some for spouse before spring gets here and people remember that the produce they are planting needs something done with it!

[GreenSheep]

This is my favorite buckwheat recipe. I just skip the bee pollen and use vanilla extract instead of an entire bean.

https://www.mynewroots.org/site/2014/07/raspberry-ripple-buckwheat-porridge/

Hmm. I think that recipe is for raw buckwheat? Not roasted? She doesn’t say. We enjoy both but I haven’t been able to find raw easily in the States.

Here’s an article on the difference:  https://www.mashed.com/382199/heres-how-buckwheat-groats-and-kasha-are-different/

I always use raw, and I've been getting it on Amazon for years.

[PMG]

nuts.com has raw buckwheat.

Thanks @rockstache and @GreenSheep apparently I haven’t been looking very hard!  Back when we lived in Europe we bought raw by accident then ended up really enjoying them once we figured out how to eat them!  My spouse grew up on roasted buckwheat so that’s a staple but I may have to buy some raw again.

[PMG]

nuts.com has raw buckwheat.

Thanks @rockstache and @GreenSheep apparently I haven’t been looking very hard!  Back when we lived in Europe we bought raw by accident then ended up really enjoying them once we figured out how to eat them!  My spouse grew up on roasted buckwheat so that’s a staple but I may have to buy some raw again.

Oops, wrong tag. Sounds interesting though! I don't think I have ever had cooked buckwheat, never mind raw. XD

Oops! I meant to tag @Roadrunner53

[Imma]

Imma, have you tried purchasing it online? I can get it at the grocery store but I can get it thru numerous other online stores. I don't usually shop on Amazon but there are a lot of barley choices there.

I'm in Europe, so my online choices are different here. I can certainly find it online but with the costs of shipping it only makes sense if you're buying a huge amount. It's just the two of us in a small house with a tiny pantry, so I'm not stocking up to feed an orphanage for a year. In my case it makes more sense to give myself a little kick in the backside and ride my bike for 15 minutes to the nearest health food shop and buy a few bags.

[Roadrunner53]

I just bought some canned meats. Pork, beef chunks and chicken. The meat is very good and the only ingredient added is some sea salt. The broth is all natural. I have used the pork in my slow cooker with onions and sauerkraut. It is very good. Mostly all it needs is warming up because it is fully cooked in the can. The beef I plan to use for a beef stroganoff type meal. The chicken is used for my poor old dog as a treat on top of his food. He is 18 years old and at this point, at his age, he deserves to be treated like royalty! The good thing about these meats is that there is a 5 year shelf life. The size of the cans are 28 ounces. I think this is a very good product to have in stock. There is no end to recipes you can make with these meats.

[Imma]

I just bought some canned meats. Pork, beef chunks and chicken. The meat is very good and the only ingredient added is some sea salt. The broth is all natural. I have used the pork in my slow cooker with onions and sauerkraut. It is very good. Mostly all it needs is warming up because it is fully cooked in the can. The beef I plan to use for a beef stroganoff type meal. The chicken is used for my poor old dog as a treat on top of his food. He is 18 years old and at this point, at his age, he deserves to be treated like royalty! The good thing about these meats is that there is a 5 year shelf life. The size of the cans are 28 ounces. I think this is a very good product to have in stock. There is no end to recipes you can make with these meats.

That's a product I don't even know!! We have canned meatballs, canned sausages, spam, but canned meat that's not turned into "something" yet is not something I've ever seen before. The canned meat products we can buy here are all terrible. The worst meatballs you can imagine.

[FIRE Artist]

I just bought some canned meats. Pork, beef chunks and chicken. The meat is very good and the only ingredient added is some sea salt. The broth is all natural. I have used the pork in my slow cooker with onions and sauerkraut. It is very good. Mostly all it needs is warming up because it is fully cooked in the can. The beef I plan to use for a beef stroganoff type meal. The chicken is used for my poor old dog as a treat on top of his food. He is 18 years old and at this point, at his age, he deserves to be treated like royalty! The good thing about these meats is that there is a 5 year shelf life. The size of the cans are 28 ounces. I think this is a very good product to have in stock. There is no end to recipes you can make with these meats.

That's a product I don't even know!! We have canned meatballs, canned sausages, spam, but canned meat that's not turned into "something" yet is not something I've ever seen before. The canned meat products we can buy here are all terrible. The worst meatballs you can imagine.

I only know of canned chicken, and flakes of ham.  When I was a kid one of friend's family would always have the chicken in the cupboard.  It was all white meat, and compressed in a can like chunk tuna.  It was actually really decent for chicken salad sandwiches and it was great for making chicken fried rice which my friend and I would cook up along with some egg rolls.  My mother used to buy the canned ham, a couple of my brothers really liked it for sandwiches to take to school, I never ate it myself, i didn't like ham until well into adulthood. 

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

I just bought some canned meats. Pork, beef chunks and chicken. The meat is very good and the only ingredient added is some sea salt. The broth is all natural. I have used the pork in my slow cooker with onions and sauerkraut. It is very good. Mostly all it needs is warming up because it is fully cooked in the can. The beef I plan to use for a beef stroganoff type meal. The chicken is used for my poor old dog as a treat on top of his food. He is 18 years old and at this point, at his age, he deserves to be treated like royalty! The good thing about these meats is that there is a 5 year shelf life. The size of the cans are 28 ounces. I think this is a very good product to have in stock. There is no end to recipes you can make with these meats.

Where did you get them? Mail order? We're always on the lookout for such stuff because of living on the boat. I need to get some canning jars and can my own so I can control the salt amounts, but sometimes it's helpful to have fall back.

[Poundwise]

Trader Joe's sell canned chicken but it's kind of tasteless; would need a lot of sauce to make it palatable.

[Roadrunner53]

Walmart sells canned meat, but it looks out of stock right now. I would prefer to get it from Walmart because shipping is free if you buy $35 worth of product. The Keystone website has a video you can watch to see how they prepare the meat for canning. Very impressive. Shipping is pretty expensive thru this company though. Lehman's is another source. Lehman's is more expensive. I also see you can buy it at Meijer stores. None of those stores in my area. I see Amazon sells it, but I am not even posting a link because it is way overpriced. A big rip off!

You can also buy canned turkey and ground beef and there are smaller cans you can purchase. I think they are 14 or 15 oz cans.

With Walmart you can buy it by the can, thru Keystone, I believe you have to buy it by the case.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Keystone-All-Natural-Pork-28-oz-Can/10317620

https://www.keystonemeats.com/

https://www.keystonemeats.com/pages/about-us   This is the video

https://www.lehmans.com/search?w=canned+meat

https://www.meijer.com/shopping/product/keystone-all-natural-ground-beef--28-oz/79685310024.html?cmpid=SEM_LIA_All_Meijer_Products:General:all%5Cother:BING&msclkid=b47134b3d68811690eb056ac690e98c7

[SunnyDays]

Trader Joe's sell canned chicken but it's kind of tasteless; would need a lot of sauce to make it palatable.

The canned chicken at Costco (Kirkland) is pretty good, although a bit salty.  Good for chicken salad sandwiches, or to add to soups etc.

I’ve never seen canned pork or beef in Canada either.

[MudPuppy]

@Roadrunner we keep cases of waterpacked tuna for our foster dogs. The protein and healthy fats help them recover wonderfully.  For the humans of the household, we keep some canned corned beef for reuben casserole a few times a year, though. Also spam for making spam fried rice.

[OtherJen]

Walmart sells canned meat, but it looks out of stock right now. I would prefer to get it from Walmart because shipping is free if you buy $35 worth of product. The Keystone website has a video you can watch to see how they prepare the meat for canning. Very impressive. Shipping is pretty expensive thru this company though. Lehman's is another source. Lehman's is more expensive. I also see you can buy it at Meijer stores. None of those stores in my area. I see Amazon sells it, but I am not even posting a link because it is way overpriced. A big rip off!

You can also buy canned turkey and ground beef and there are smaller cans you can purchase. I think they are 14 or 15 oz cans.

With Walmart you can buy it by the can, thru Keystone, I believe you have to buy it by the case.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Keystone-All-Natural-Pork-28-oz-Can/10317620

https://www.keystonemeats.com/

https://www.keystonemeats.com/pages/about-us   This is the video

https://www.lehmans.com/search?w=canned+meat

https://www.meijer.com/shopping/product/keystone-all-natural-ground-beef--28-oz/79685310024.html?cmpid=SEM_LIA_All_Meijer_Products:General:all%5Cother:BING&msclkid=b47134b3d68811690eb056ac690e98c7

FYI Meijer is imposing 4-can limits on many products right now.

[Roadrunner53]

MudPuppy, Interesting feeding dogs tuna! I am sure my dog would eat it too.

I buy the canned chicken from Costco too. It is really a nice product!

[Roadrunner53]

So, a while back I was reading about sardines and how they are really good for you and low in mercury. I decided I was going to go gung ho on sardines and bought a ton of tins of them. Shortly after eating a few cans, I kind of got tired of them! Now, I have about 30 cans of sardines! Anyone have any good ideas to prepare these things!

I do like them but eating them out of the can got old quick. Seems most people eat them with mustard. I might mix them with mayo and make a dip.

But how much dip can anyone eat! I think one time I made a grill cheese sandwich with sardines on it once.

[DaMa]

So, a while back I was reading about sardines and how they are really good for you and low in mercury. I decided I was going to go gung ho on sardines and bought a ton of tins of them. Shortly after eating a few cans, I kind of got tired of them! Now, I have about 30 cans of sardines! Anyone have any good ideas to prepare these things!

I do like them but eating them our of the can got old quick. Seems most people eat them with mustard. I might mix them with mayo and make a dip.

But how much dip can anyone eat! I think one time I made a grill cheese sandwich with sardines on it once.

I like them on sandwiches with toasted bread and sliced boiled eggs.  Really good with horseradish mayo for a change from mustard.  I also make a sandwich spread like tuna salad with mayo, sweet relish, and a little diced celery and onion.

[FIRE Artist]

So, a while back I was reading about sardines and how they are really good for you and low in mercury. I decided I was going to go gung ho on sardines and bought a ton of tins of them. Shortly after eating a few cans, I kind of got tired of them! Now, I have about 30 cans of sardines! Anyone have any good ideas to prepare these things!

I do like them but eating them out of the can got old quick. Seems most people eat them with mustard. I might mix them with mayo and make a dip.

But how much dip can anyone eat! I think one time I made a grill cheese sandwich with sardines on it once.

I bet they would be great on avocado toast.

[FIRE Artist]

I buy the canned chicken from Costco too. It is really a nice product!

That’s good to know, I might pick some up next time I am in.  See how canned chicken tastes to my adult palate.

So I am missing the plot a bit here, are people hoarding food again, and why?  I haven’t noticed any issues at my regular stores.  I am actively trying to do the opposite, eat down all the protein in my freezer and clear out the pantry. 

[SquashingDebt]

@Roadrunner53 , I make a delicious pasta dish using sardines.  Basically, you sauté onions, then add sardines (kind of mash them up), lemon zest, and capers.  Add cooked pasta and top with seasoned bread crumbs toasted in olive oil.


https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1013094-pasta-with-sardines-bread-crumbs-and-capers

[Cranky]

I buy the canned chicken from Costco too. It is really a nice product!

That’s good to know, I might pick some up next time I am in.  See how canned chicken tastes to my adult palate.

So I am missing the plot a bit here, are people hoarding food again, and why?  I haven’t noticed any issues at my regular stores.  I am actively trying to do the opposite, eat down all the protein in my freezer and clear out the pantry.

Inflation and a war that will potentially screw up the supply chain again.

The stores are still out of weird things. Aldi finally had whole chickens again, after weeks and weeks without them, so I bought a couple for the freezer. But nobody seems to have the cream cheese spread dh likes with bagels, and I’ve looked at several stores.

[FIRE Artist]

I buy the canned chicken from Costco too. It is really a nice product!

That’s good to know, I might pick some up next time I am in.  See how canned chicken tastes to my adult palate.

So I am missing the plot a bit here, are people hoarding food again, and why?  I haven’t noticed any issues at my regular stores.  I am actively trying to do the opposite, eat down all the protein in my freezer and clear out the pantry.

Inflation and a war that will potentially screw up the supply chain again.

The stores are still out of weird things. Aldi finally had whole chickens again, after weeks and weeks without them, so I bought a couple for the freezer. But nobody seems to have the cream cheese spread dh likes with bagels, and I’ve looked at several stores.

Weird.  I am not seeing any of this where I am in Canada. Inflation, yes, but shortages, no.

[PMG]

I’m in rural “kind of south” US and not noticing shortages really. A few weeks ago one store was out of the big cheap bags of potatoes. A usually large display was empty. It looked shocking to my potato loving spouse! But it was the weekend of a big snowstorm and the store had been hit pretty hard. A second store had plenty of potatoes.  One store had asparagus on sale but was sold out when they filled our order. Being an off season sale item I didn’t find that unusual. We aren’t very brand loyal either so perhaps we’re just substituting without noticing something isn’t in stock? But is that really a shortage in that case?

Interesting stuff.

[Roadrunner53]

In USA there are some empty shelves in stores. Sometimes friends have told me they have to go to two or three stores to get everything they want.

I don't consider what I do hoarding. I have a giant variety of frozen and shelf stable foods. I call it stocking up and being prepared. I grew a lot of tomatoes last summer and I froze them for future use. I buy the ingredients for egg McMuffins, make up the sandwich's and freeze them. I do not go to fast food restaurants, save money and know what I am eating.

There is a woman I admire on YouTube. She grows tons of vegetables and freezes a lot. She also dehydrates many things. She has a fairly fancy dehydrator to do that. She has chickens and always has eggs and finds ways to use them up. She will do batch cooking and makes casseroles for the freezer. She does huge grocery hauls from Azure Standard and other grocery sources. She has videos on how she does different things. One that was interesting is that she made sour cream and it was very easy. She makes homemade pies, pizza. She is a real inspiration to me! On top of all she does, she works full time!

When I have full refrigerators, cupboards, freezers and cabinets, it makes me happy!

[GreenSheep]

I agree that there's a difference between hoarding and having enough in your home that you wouldn't go hungry if you had to stay home for a couple of weeks or if the supply chain failed for a while, etc. To me, hoarding is having a bunch of stuff you wouldn't eat unless you were starving, or having so much of something that you can't finish it before it goes bad.

I think it's just easier to have a good supply of all the staples, so i don't have to buy rice, beans, pasta, flour, etc. every week at the grocery store. It's also cheaper to get a lot of those things in bulk if you have the space to store them. Making my grocery list is much easier when I don't have to consider whether I have enough of the pantry staples, and even though I do meal plan for each week, if I happen to spontaneously decide to make something, I often already have the ingredients to do so.

I haven't had trouble getting what I want/need all at one grocery store, although like someone said above, I'm not particularly brand-loyal, and most of what I buy comes from the produce section, which no one seems to be hoarding! It also helps to have enough cooking experience to know what you can substitute -- if they don't have zucchini, I'll get yellow squash, etc.

[Imma]

This weekend, I'm planning to do a thorough inventory of our pantry. With a war going on in our continent, we are aiming to have at least enough emergency supplies as recommend by the government for ourselves and (depending on how much space we have left) maybe one or two additional people.

I'm not scared, and I don't want to hoard, but I do want to follow the government's recommendations especially now my country could potentially get involved with soon. I think the main thing we'll need is water. I know we have a 6-pack of 1,5 liter bottles right now (it's recommended to have enough water for 3 days, so technically that would be enough) but I want to get a bit more. We don't have juice or soda in our pantry so if there would be issues with the water supply, it's all we'd have to drink. I think there are a few shelf-stable liters of milk somewhere, too, but I want to get organized so I know exactly what we have and where it is.  We have canned beans and veggies in the pantry, that's food that can be consumed without cooking. I'm looking to add canned fish too. We'd need enough to get us through a week (but that wouldn't be so difficult, since we have crackers, granola bars and fresh produce we can eat as well)

On top of that, we are cooking on natural gas. Most of our natural gas comes from Russia. I'm thinking of getting something that would allow us to cook electrically in case price or availability of natural gas became an issue, like a portable electric stove or a slowcooker. And with this uncertainty, I'm getting my garden in soon too! So far it's a lovely warm spring here.

[Roadrunner53]

Imma, I would not cut it close with the water! I would stock up on that. Find places in your home to store the water. Under your bed, under your sofa, chairs. You can put them on some slide out trays if you have smaller bottles. If you have empty suitcases, you could fill them up with jugs of water. You can live without food for a while, but water is most necessary! If your water supply is shut down for a week or two, you are going to need a lot of water.

I have extremely hard water and I always have at least 12 gallons of water on hand and mostly for my coffeemaker. I have gone thru many, many coffeemakers until one day a light went off in my head that we needed to buy bottled water for the coffeemaker. Since then, we have had no problems.

[OtherJen]

This weekend, I'm planning to do a thorough inventory of our pantry. With a war going on in our continent, we are aiming to have at least enough emergency supplies as recommend by the government for ourselves and (depending on how much space we have left) maybe one or two additional people.

I'm not scared, and I don't want to hoard, but I do want to follow the government's recommendations especially now my country could potentially get involved with soon. I think the main thing we'll need is water. I know we have a 6-pack of 1,5 liter bottles right now (it's recommended to have enough water for 3 days, so technically that would be enough) but I want to get a bit more. We don't have juice or soda in our pantry so if there would be issues with the water supply, it's all we'd have to drink. I think there are a few shelf-stable liters of milk somewhere, too, but I want to get organized so I know exactly what we have and where it is.  We have canned beans and veggies in the pantry, that's food that can be consumed without cooking. I'm looking to add canned fish too. We'd need enough to get us through a week (but that wouldn't be so difficult, since we have crackers, granola bars and fresh produce we can eat as well)

On top of that, we are cooking on natural gas. Most of our natural gas comes from Russia. I'm thinking of getting something that would allow us to cook electrically in case price or availability of natural gas became an issue, like a portable electric stove or a slowcooker. And with this uncertainty, I'm getting my garden in soon too! So far it's a lovely warm spring here.

My electric pressure cooker doubles as a slowcooker and rice cooker, and it has a sauté function. That plus an electric stove would take care of many of your cooking needs.

I sincerely hope that it won't come to full European war, but I understand why you want to prepare. Prices are likely to go up just due to the refugee crisis and supply chain issues.

[Imma]

This weekend, I'm planning to do a thorough inventory of our pantry. With a war going on in our continent, we are aiming to have at least enough emergency supplies as recommend by the government for ourselves and (depending on how much space we have left) maybe one or two additional people.

I'm not scared, and I don't want to hoard, but I do want to follow the government's recommendations especially now my country could potentially get involved with soon. I think the main thing we'll need is water. I know we have a 6-pack of 1,5 liter bottles right now (it's recommended to have enough water for 3 days, so technically that would be enough) but I want to get a bit more. We don't have juice or soda in our pantry so if there would be issues with the water supply, it's all we'd have to drink. I think there are a few shelf-stable liters of milk somewhere, too, but I want to get organized so I know exactly what we have and where it is.  We have canned beans and veggies in the pantry, that's food that can be consumed without cooking. I'm looking to add canned fish too. We'd need enough to get us through a week (but that wouldn't be so difficult, since we have crackers, granola bars and fresh produce we can eat as well)

On top of that, we are cooking on natural gas. Most of our natural gas comes from Russia. I'm thinking of getting something that would allow us to cook electrically in case price or availability of natural gas became an issue, like a portable electric stove or a slowcooker. And with this uncertainty, I'm getting my garden in soon too! So far it's a lovely warm spring here.

My electric pressure cooker doubles as a slowcooker and rice cooker, and it has a sauté function. That plus an electric stove would take care of many of your cooking needs.

I sincerely hope that it won't come to full European war, but I understand why you want to prepare. Prices are likely to go up just due to the refugee crisis and supply chain issues.

I have also read some news articles claiming that because a lot of food that's produced in Europe is now not sold on the Russian market (this article specifically mentioned meat, dairy and poultry) there might be an excess of that available on the European markets and prices could crash. But who knows. Right now prices are only going up. We also import a lot of food (grain and vegetable oils) from the Ukraine and I don't expect many farmers to be able to farm in Ukraine this year. Those who do manage to grow a bit won't export it. So that could lead to higher prices for flour and bread.


@Roadrunner53 I'm not sure what the right amount of water is, but two weeks seems like quite a lot. The kind of disaster that would cause us to be without water for two weeks would probably be the type of emergency that we wouldn't really be able to survive anyway. My city was heavily bombed in WWII and even then the water supply was never a serious issue - the occupying nazi's of course also wanted clean drinking water for themselves and the water supply buildings are located in remote areas so they wouldn't get bombed accidentally by allied bombings. If the water supply was disrupted it was usually in a few streets at the same time and even in the middle of WWII emergency water supplies were arranged quickly. My grandparents didn't remember ever being worried about lack of drinking water during those days, even though they went without nearly everything else.

I also sincerely hope it doesn't come to a full European war, but I also know I'm near the NATO supply lines - close to two military airports frequently used by NATO, close to some large factories that make stuff that could be used in the war effort, and not too far from the harbours of Rotterdam and Antwerp. I'm not sure how likely a full war would be, but if I were in the Russian military, those locations would be on my radar. There's a reason my city was bombed heavily in WWII too (by both nazi's and allies).

[Imma]

This weekend, I'm planning to do a thorough inventory of our pantry. With a war going on in our continent, we are aiming to have at least enough emergency supplies as recommend by the government for ourselves and (depending on how much space we have left) maybe one or two additional people.

I'm not scared, and I don't want to hoard, but I do want to follow the government's recommendations especially now my country could potentially get involved with soon. I think the main thing we'll need is water. I know we have a 6-pack of 1,5 liter bottles right now (it's recommended to have enough water for 3 days, so technically that would be enough) but I want to get a bit more. We don't have juice or soda in our pantry so if there would be issues with the water supply, it's all we'd have to drink. I think there are a few shelf-stable liters of milk somewhere, too, but I want to get organized so I know exactly what we have and where it is.  We have canned beans and veggies in the pantry, that's food that can be consumed without cooking. I'm looking to add canned fish too. We'd need enough to get us through a week (but that wouldn't be so difficult, since we have crackers, granola bars and fresh produce we can eat as well)

On top of that, we are cooking on natural gas. Most of our natural gas comes from Russia. I'm thinking of getting something that would allow us to cook electrically in case price or availability of natural gas became an issue, like a portable electric stove or a slowcooker. And with this uncertainty, I'm getting my garden in soon too! So far it's a lovely warm spring here.

My electric pressure cooker doubles as a slowcooker and rice cooker, and it has a sauté function. That plus an electric stove would take care of many of your cooking needs.

I sincerely hope that it won't come to full European war, but I understand why you want to prepare. Prices are likely to go up just due to the refugee crisis and supply chain issues.

I have also read some news articles claiming that because a lot of food that's produced in Europe is now not sold on the Russian market (this article specifically mentioned meat, dairy and poultry) there might be an excess of that available on the European markets and prices could crash. But who knows. Right now prices are only going up. We also import a lot of food (grain and vegetable oils) from the Ukraine and I don't expect many farmers to be able to farm in Ukraine this year. Those who do manage to grow a bit won't export it. So that could lead to higher prices for flour and bread.


@Roadrunner53 I'm not sure what the right amount of water is, but two weeks seems like quite a lot. The kind of disaster that would cause us to be without water for two weeks would probably be the type of emergency that we wouldn't really be able to survive anyway. My city was heavily bombed in WWII and even then the water supply was never a serious issue - the occupying nazi's of course also wanted clean drinking water for themselves and the water supply buildings are located in remote areas so they wouldn't get bombed accidentally by allied bombings. If the water supply was disrupted it was usually in a few streets at the same time and even in the middle of WWII emergency water supplies were arranged quickly. My grandparents didn't remember ever being worried about lack of drinking water during those days, even though they went without nearly everything else.

I also sincerely hope it doesn't come to a full European war, but I also know I'm near the NATO supply lines - close to two military airports frequently used by NATO, close to some large factories that make stuff that could be used in the war effort, and not too far from the harbours of Rotterdam and Antwerp. I'm not sure how likely a full war would be, but if I were in the Russian military, those locations would be on my radar. There's a reason my city was bombed heavily in WWII too (by both nazi's and allies).