Pandemic hoarding

[StarBright]

My Aldi has been bare of pasta - pretty much any pasta - for a couple of months. I stock up when it goes on sale elsewhere.

We have millions of grocery stores here, so it's just a mild inconvenience, but it's interesting to see how the supply chain is still in flux.

I talked about this recently in a food pantry thread - but the supply chain is definitely a mess right now. And apparently a bad year for avian flu has really messed up the egg/poultry supply in addition to the packaged goods weirdness.

The only thing we've personally stocked up on is toilet paper again. I hope we don't have a bad winter, but watching hospitalization numbers in the UK, Germany, and now NYC had me buying a pack of TP from Costco.

In addition to my regular food pantry, some friends and I always keep a little free pantry stocked, so I regularly buy soup, tuna, oatmeal, granola bars etc when they go on sale for around a dollar a unit.  If sh*t hits the fan I have a few weeks worth of those packaged good in my basement.

[Roadrunner53]

I buy a lot of stuff online to fill my pantry and I have found Walmart has totally changed. They have third party sellers that way over charge for products. Such as tomato paste: Product of Hunt's Tomato Paste Sauce 12 Pk. 6 oz. $25.89 That is $2.16 a can for something that normally sells for $0.69 to $0.89 per can.

In the past I rarely ordered stuff from Amazon but am finding more reasonable prices there. I try to order from Costco, but they don't have everything I want either.

I am still stocking up within reason. Will also do the TP/Paper Towel thing from Costco.

[Just Joe]

Well, the company that delivers my groceries just let me know they will stop delivering frozen food from Sept. 1 since apparantly you can't get dry ice anywhere. I had no idea but dry ice is basically a leftover product from making artificial fertilizer, and with the current gas prices many plants making artificial fertilizer have significantly scaled back production.

Yes, nitrogen fertilizer is produced from natural gas (methane) with CO2 for a substantial waste product.

I knew about how nitrogen fertilizer was made but I had no idea dry ice was a byproduct of nitrogen fertilizer. My grocery supplier is now figuring out how to deliver frozen food in the future, if at all. Dry ice was a sustainable choice because it's a byproduct that otherwise would have been thrown away. The other option is to build freezers in all of their vans and that's going to have a certain environmental impact. Their vans are all electric, so I assume a freezer would absolutely drain the battery.

I don't know, for $300 on Amazon you can get a small freezer that runs off the cigarette lighter. Not sure it would necessarily be a substantial draw vs. energy needed to move the van.

Typical electric car is somewhere around 300 watt-hours consumed per mile.  Typical home refrigerator uses 2 kWh per day, figure about the same for a smaller yet less efficient fridge with various loadings/unloadings.  So it would use about 7 miles of range to run a refrigerator.

I'm sure that's true for a small freezer that runs off the cigarette lighter, but obviously the costs are very different for a business. First of all, their freezer is going to have to be much bigger than a mini freezer off Amazon. Say half of their customers on a typical run (so maybe half of 25 customers?) order frozen food. Secondly they need to be built into all of their vans, or at least into all the vans that work from the same distribution center, at the same time, otherwise their warehouse people will go crazy. And then thirdly the freezer needs to somehow be built into their custom designed van that works with their warehousing system, so that probably requires a custom designed freezer as well. The costs associated with that all of that are gigantic, versus working with a waste product that's almost free and is integrated with the current warehouse system.

For a large company, a tiny little switch like that is absolutely massive, so I totally understand why they're just not delivering freezer products, while they are pricing out the different options. I would not be surprised if not delivering freezer products again would be the cheapest option. Most frozen food that people order probably has a low profit margin (stuff like ice cream, cheap frozen veggies and frozen pizza) and never delivering those again probably won't annoy people enough to permanently switch to the competitor. Their main competitor uses regular vans with a freezer compartment but is much more expensive.

A typical electric car consumes about 3500 watt-hours per mile (3.5 kwh).

[dandarc]

Well, the company that delivers my groceries just let me know they will stop delivering frozen food from Sept. 1 since apparantly you can't get dry ice anywhere. I had no idea but dry ice is basically a leftover product from making artificial fertilizer, and with the current gas prices many plants making artificial fertilizer have significantly scaled back production.

Yes, nitrogen fertilizer is produced from natural gas (methane) with CO2 for a substantial waste product.

I knew about how nitrogen fertilizer was made but I had no idea dry ice was a byproduct of nitrogen fertilizer. My grocery supplier is now figuring out how to deliver frozen food in the future, if at all. Dry ice was a sustainable choice because it's a byproduct that otherwise would have been thrown away. The other option is to build freezers in all of their vans and that's going to have a certain environmental impact. Their vans are all electric, so I assume a freezer would absolutely drain the battery.

I don't know, for $300 on Amazon you can get a small freezer that runs off the cigarette lighter. Not sure it would necessarily be a substantial draw vs. energy needed to move the van.

Typical electric car is somewhere around 300 watt-hours consumed per mile.  Typical home refrigerator uses 2 kWh per day, figure about the same for a smaller yet less efficient fridge with various loadings/unloadings.  So it would use about 7 miles of range to run a refrigerator.

I'm sure that's true for a small freezer that runs off the cigarette lighter, but obviously the costs are very different for a business. First of all, their freezer is going to have to be much bigger than a mini freezer off Amazon. Say half of their customers on a typical run (so maybe half of 25 customers?) order frozen food. Secondly they need to be built into all of their vans, or at least into all the vans that work from the same distribution center, at the same time, otherwise their warehouse people will go crazy. And then thirdly the freezer needs to somehow be built into their custom designed van that works with their warehousing system, so that probably requires a custom designed freezer as well. The costs associated with that all of that are gigantic, versus working with a waste product that's almost free and is integrated with the current warehouse system.

For a large company, a tiny little switch like that is absolutely massive, so I totally understand why they're just not delivering freezer products, while they are pricing out the different options. I would not be surprised if not delivering freezer products again would be the cheapest option. Most frozen food that people order probably has a low profit margin (stuff like ice cream, cheap frozen veggies and frozen pizza) and never delivering those again probably won't annoy people enough to permanently switch to the competitor. Their main competitor uses regular vans with a freezer compartment but is much more expensive.

A typical electric car consumes about 3500 watt-hours per mile (3.5 kwh).

? Varies, but more like 350 watt-hours per mile. Typical electric cars are more in the 2 to 5 miles per kwh range (our Leaf reports 4.3 miles per kwh currently). The pictured vans upthread don't look nearly large enough to be blowing out the scale that much on efficiency - semi-truck can be there, but that's not close to what would be doing door to door grocery delivery.

[TomTX]

A typical electric car consumes about 3500 watt-hours per mile (3.5 kwh).

I believe you have flipped the labels. An average EV gets around 3.5 miles per kWh (not kWh per mile).

[Catbert]

Start hoarding sugar if you're in the US.  I read yesterday that the largest exporter of sugar from the Dominican Republic is now barred from exporting to the US due to egregious labor violations. 

[dandarc]

Start hoarding sugar if you're in the US.  I read yesterday that the largest exporter of sugar from the Dominican Republic is now barred from exporting to the US due to egregious labor violations.

Might finally actually start eating right . . .

[Dicey]

Start hoarding sugar if you're in the US.  I read yesterday that the largest exporter of sugar from the Dominican Republic is now barred from exporting to the US due to egregious labor violations.

Thanks for this. I think I have 10# of white and 4# of brown sugar in the outer pantry, so I'll wander off now to check...

ETA: suspicions confirmed. Quantities quoted do not include what's on the shelves in the kitchen pantry. I think we're set. Fingers crossed.

[K_in_the_kitchen]

Start hoarding sugar if you're in the US.  I read yesterday that the largest exporter of sugar from the Dominican Republic is now barred from exporting to the US due to egregious labor violations.

Thanks for the heads up!  I think I have 30# of granulated cane sugar and about 15-20# of unrefined Sucanat, but I'm out of regular brown sugar and low on confectioner's sugar (which I don't use that often).  I'm setting up a pick up grocery order so I can stock up now and be set for a couple of years.

[Josiecat22222]

@K_in_the_kitchen, if you have a high powered blender (like a Ninja) you can put granulated sugar in it and blend it down to confectioners.  It seems to work well for me because I use it so seldom it's one less thing I have to keep in stock.  Hope this helps!

[Roadrunner53]

I live in New England and they are talking about rolling blackouts this winter. Means when the power grid is overloaded when the temperatures drop to freezing, more people are using electricity. They have to keep Hospitals running and other municipal things open so they will turn power off for possibly 3 hours at a time.  Here is an article about it:
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2022/11/17/the-latest-winter-worry-rolling-blackouts/

A guy on Youtube suggested buying a wood stove or other types of heating sources. ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hsFvxaP9Ak

[SunnyDays]

If you run out of brown sugar, it can be made by blending molasses into white sugar.  It's actually much tastier than the store-bought.

[jrhampt]

I live in New England and they are talking about rolling blackouts this winter. Means when the power grid is overloaded when the temperatures drop to freezing, more people are using electricity. They have to keep Hospitals running and other municipal things open so they will turn power off for possibly 3 hours at a time.  Here is an article about it:
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2022/11/17/the-latest-winter-worry-rolling-blackouts/

A guy on Youtube suggested buying a wood stove or other types of heating sources. ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hsFvxaP9Ak

!!!!  This is the first I've heard about this, thanks.

[TomTX]

I live in New England and they are talking about rolling blackouts this winter. Means when the power grid is overloaded when the temperatures drop to freezing, more people are using electricity. They have to keep Hospitals running and other municipal things open so they will turn power off for possibly 3 hours at a time.  Here is an article about it:
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2022/11/17/the-latest-winter-worry-rolling-blackouts/

A guy on Youtube suggested buying a wood stove or other types of heating sources. ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hsFvxaP9Ak

If a 3 hour outage is a concern beyond "put on a sweater" - you seriously need better insulation.

[Roadrunner53]

The one bad thing for a lot of us in New England is that many people have hot water baseboard heat. Our boilers need electricity to run and wicked  freezing weather with winds can freeze up the pipes. Not sure if 3 hours would be a problem but 6-8 hours could be a problem in some cases. With no insulation it would take less time to freeze.

I knew a guy who went to Florida with his family around February and thought he would 'save money' by turning off his boiler while out of state. He came back home and his pipes froze and broke the pipes. He had water all over the entire house! He needed major renovations to fix floors, walls, ceilings, replace copper pipes. It had to be a disaster! No idea if the insurance paid because he was negligent in turning off the heat!

Three hours without electricity in my house would not be that uncomfortable! However, some people keep their thermostats very low, in the high 50's. People in New England are paying high prices for heating oil. I locked in at $4.99 a gallon but some people are paying much, much higher per gallon. Many senior citizens are suffering. Heating oil has doubled since last heating season.

[jrhampt]

I live in New England and they are talking about rolling blackouts this winter. Means when the power grid is overloaded when the temperatures drop to freezing, more people are using electricity. They have to keep Hospitals running and other municipal things open so they will turn power off for possibly 3 hours at a time.  Here is an article about it:
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2022/11/17/the-latest-winter-worry-rolling-blackouts/

A guy on Youtube suggested buying a wood stove or other types of heating sources. ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hsFvxaP9Ak

If a 3 hour outage is a concern beyond "put on a sweater" - you seriously need better insulation.

Says the guy from Texas...lots of our housing up here is older than your newly built mcmansions.  We have lots of houses from the 1600s - 1800s and yeah, our pipes can freeze.  Not necessarily in a 3 hour outage, but then again our winters are also colder than yours, so depends on how cold it gets and how old the house is and the location of the pipes.

And we also keep our thermostat fairly low at night, in the upper 50s is not unusual.

[GuitarStv]

I live in New England and they are talking about rolling blackouts this winter. Means when the power grid is overloaded when the temperatures drop to freezing, more people are using electricity. They have to keep Hospitals running and other municipal things open so they will turn power off for possibly 3 hours at a time.  Here is an article about it:
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2022/11/17/the-latest-winter-worry-rolling-blackouts/

A guy on Youtube suggested buying a wood stove or other types of heating sources. ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hsFvxaP9Ak

If a 3 hour outage is a concern beyond "put on a sweater" - you seriously need better insulation.

How is the sweater going to power my guitar amp?

[TomTX]

Says the guy from Texas...lots of our housing up here is older than your newly built mcmansions.  We have lots of houses from the 1600s - 1800s and yeah, our pipes can freeze.  Not necessarily in a 3 hour outage, but then again our winters are also colder than yours, so depends on how cold it gets and how old the house is and the location of the pipes.

And we also keep our thermostat fairly low at night, in the upper 50s is not unusual.

You seem rather... stressed out today. What's going on?

Back on topic: It is quite possible to add insulation to houses from the 1600s-1800s. Might mean replacing the exterior cladding and wrapping with foam board before you reclad, or spray foam or pack cellulose into wall cavities or a variety of other options - but you are likely to need an ERV if you do it right since you will be making it a lot tighter. If you want some more professional insight: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/

I grew up much further North and East than I am now - someplace it snows regularly. At one point I lived in a house so old it was put together with pegs rather than nails (easily visible in the attic.) It had a dry stack stone foundation and the basement floor was dirt. I was told it was originally built in the 1700s, but didn't really dig into whether that was accurate. It's quite possible, as the town was chartered in the mid 1700s, and existed as a settlement well before that.

Anyway, the house was comfortable and relatively inexpensive to heat because someone had insulated it properly.

[TomTX]

I live in New England and they are talking about rolling blackouts this winter. Means when the power grid is overloaded when the temperatures drop to freezing, more people are using electricity. They have to keep Hospitals running and other municipal things open so they will turn power off for possibly 3 hours at a time.  Here is an article about it:
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2022/11/17/the-latest-winter-worry-rolling-blackouts/

A guy on Youtube suggested buying a wood stove or other types of heating sources. ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hsFvxaP9Ak

If a 3 hour outage is a concern beyond "put on a sweater" - you seriously need better insulation.

How is the sweater going to power my guitar amp?

How is a wood stove going to power your guitar amp?

[jeninco]

I live in New England and they are talking about rolling blackouts this winter. Means when the power grid is overloaded when the temperatures drop to freezing, more people are using electricity. They have to keep Hospitals running and other municipal things open so they will turn power off for possibly 3 hours at a time.  Here is an article about it:
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2022/11/17/the-latest-winter-worry-rolling-blackouts/

A guy on Youtube suggested buying a wood stove or other types of heating sources. ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hsFvxaP9Ak

If a 3 hour outage is a concern beyond "put on a sweater" - you seriously need better insulation.

I'm not in New England, but our power went out last late December when the temps never got above the high 20s (and they were in the single digits in the evening) Our house is much better insulated then those in our neighborhood, and it was still mid- to upper-40's by the time the power came back on, 2 1/2 days later. (The furnace is gas, but the electronics and the air handler need electricity...)

We're actually meeting with an architect now, partly to make some long-avoided improvements to the house design, but partly to see what we can do to make the structure more resilient. The power is going to go out again, obviously. It may flood again (in our case, the water percolated into the crawl spaces from below). We'd like the house to be both better designed for passive temperature regulation, and we're also going to install solar PV (at least -- I'd like to also put in solar hot water, but not sure anyone bothers to do that anymore...)

[couponvan]

I live in New England and they are talking about rolling blackouts this winter. Means when the power grid is overloaded when the temperatures drop to freezing, more people are using electricity. They have to keep Hospitals running and other municipal things open so they will turn power off for possibly 3 hours at a time.  Here is an article about it:
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2022/11/17/the-latest-winter-worry-rolling-blackouts/

A guy on Youtube suggested buying a wood stove or other types of heating sources. ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hsFvxaP9Ak

If a 3 hour outage is a concern beyond "put on a sweater" - you seriously need better insulation.

I'm not in New England, but our power went out last late December when the temps never got above the high 20s (and they were in the single digits in the evening) Our house is much better insulated then those in our neighborhood, and it was still mid- to upper-40's by the time the power came back on, 2 1/2 days later. (The furnace is gas, but the electronics and the air handler need electricity...)

We're actually meeting with an architect now, partly to make some long-avoided improvements to the house design, but partly to see what we can do to make the structure more resilient. The power is going to go out again, obviously. It may flood again (in our case, the water percolated into the crawl spaces from below). We'd like the house to be both better designed for passive temperature regulation, and we're also going to install solar PV (at least -- I'd like to also put in solar hot water, but not sure anyone bothers to do that anymore...)

There is a way to use a small battery backup to power the gas furnace and electronics that you can install fairly affordably.  Also, if you have a gas log system with blower, there's also a battery pack you can install into that to allow it to operate during outages.  We have instant hot water via gas and used our Tesla (also have a generator, but the Tesla was easier) to power the electric needed to start the water heater.

[K_in_the_kitchen]

I've been buying meat for the freezer this week.  The regional chain had pork butt for 99¢ per pound, which I haven't seen since years ago.  I bought one roast Saturday night, cooked it Sunday, and then made room in the freezer so I could buy more.  I bought 6 today and froze 5 of them -- I'll cook one Saturday.  I also bought 4 choice top round "London Broil" steaks (not sure I agree with that designation) at $3.99/# on Saturday, and today I bought 3 choice chuck cross rib roasts at $3.99/#.  One of the London Broil cuts is in the sous vide bath (Instant Pot) for tonight's supper, 3 are in the freezer (already salted to make sous vide easier).  I set aside one of the chuck roasts and froze the other two.

So far the ads for ribeye roasts this month have been for the Select grade.  They don't state that in the ad, but I know if they don't advertise it as Choice then when I get to the store I'll see Select on the label.  The regional chain does have the choice bone-in ribeye roasts for $9.99/# starting tomorrow, but that's a little steep compared to paying $4.99/# for the same roasts two years ago.  But I did see the pork butt will be 99¢/# for a second week, so if I can make room, I'll buy more.

Oops, checked the Aldi ad and they are charging $6.89/# for choice bone-in ribeye roasts, but the limit is 1.  Does anyone have experience with Aldi beef?  I know that the regional chain has great meat, and that the Albertson's affiliate is more hit-or-miss.  I'm not sure I'm willing to pay $6.89/#, and I would really hate to do it if they don't have good fresh meat.

[Cranky]

My Aldi has the rib roasts for $7.99, and they look nice. I might pop in tomorrow and see if there are any left.

[couponvan]

Puff pastry was out at three stores today. I also felt like there were noticeable gaps again. It felt weird. Oh, and NyQuil was only in the liquid combo pack or children’s version when I felt stuffy/headache yesterday. Bah humbug….

[Dicey]

Puff pastry was out at three stores today. I also felt like there were noticeable gaps again. It felt weird. Oh, and NyQuil was only in the liquid combo pack or children’s version when I felt stuffy/headache yesterday. Bah humbug….

Are you a Costco shopper? Last week, our Target was as you described, but a trip to Costco the same afternoon did the trick. They had plenty of Nyquill and Robitussin, at much lower prices than the [empty] Target shelf tags indicated.

[couponvan]

Puff pastry was out at three stores today. I also felt like there were noticeable gaps again. It felt weird. Oh, and NyQuil was only in the liquid combo pack or children’s version when I felt stuffy/headache yesterday. Bah humbug….

Are you a Costco shopper? Last week, our Target was as you described, but a trip to Costco the same afternoon did the trick. They had plenty of Nyquill and Robitussin, at much lower prices than the [empty] Target shelf tags indicated.

I am-but at that point I wasn’t feeling great, and was just grabbing my flu “insurance”. Costco does a good job of hiding what they are out of. All their medicine area was reorganized two days ago. I did find the collagen and ashwaganda my DH wanted. Plus a knockoff Kirkland Signature Bailey’s for $12 a 1.5L!

[Dicey]

Puff pastry was out at three stores today. I also felt like there were noticeable gaps again. It felt weird. Oh, and NyQuil was only in the liquid combo pack or children’s version when I felt stuffy/headache yesterday. Bah humbug….

Are you a Costco shopper? Last week, our Target was as you described, but a trip to Costco the same afternoon did the trick. They had plenty of Nyquill and Robitussin, at much lower prices than the [empty] Target shelf tags indicated.

I am-but at that point I wasn’t feeling great, and was just grabbing my flu “insurance”. Costco does a good job of hiding what they are out of. All their medicine area was reorganized two days ago. I did find the collagen and ashwaganda my DH wanted. Plus a knockoff Kirkland Signature Bailey’s for $12 a 1.5L!

Hmmm, KS Bailey's as a substitute for cough medicine sounds interesting...

[K_in_the_kitchen]

We went shopping yesterday.  Costco was completely out of eggs.  I've seen limits before, but never had them be out.  They had closed the gaps in the cold room with other items, so I suspect it didn't just happen yesterday.  Sam's was also out of eggs.  Aldi had eggs, but at $4.13 per dozen, which was still cheaper than the regional chain.  I bought 3 dozen, choking on the price, but everyone is home right now and they need to eat.

This morning Sam's Club apparently has eggs again, so I'm doing a curbside. The limit will be 2x2 dozen, but at $3 per dozen.

[Dicey]

We went shopping yesterday.  Costco was completely out of eggs.  I've seen limits before, but never had them be out.  They had closed the gaps in the cold room with other items, so I suspect it didn't just happen yesterday.  Sam's was also out of eggs.  Aldi had eggs, but at $4.13 per dozen, which was still cheaper than the regional chain.  I bought 3 dozen, choking on the price, but everyone is home right now and they need to eat.

This morning Sam's Club apparently has eggs again, so I'm doing a curbside. The limit will be 2x2 dozen, but at $3 per dozen.

It was a problem at our Costco for several weeks before Thanksgiving. All they had was super expensive organic eggs, limit 2. Then they literally had no eggs. I was able to get some on my last trip, albeit at a somewhat higher price than usual.

[innkeeper77]

I live in New England and they are talking about rolling blackouts this winter. Means when the power grid is overloaded when the temperatures drop to freezing, more people are using electricity. They have to keep Hospitals running and other municipal things open so they will turn power off for possibly 3 hours at a time.  Here is an article about it:
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2022/11/17/the-latest-winter-worry-rolling-blackouts/

A guy on Youtube suggested buying a wood stove or other types of heating sources. ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hsFvxaP9Ak

If a 3 hour outage is a concern beyond "put on a sweater" - you seriously need better insulation.

How is the sweater going to power my guitar amp?

How is a wood stove going to power your guitar amp?

You jest, but I googled it- guitar amps range from 10 watts (super quiet practice ones) up to $100- and the first result I saw for “Woodstove thermoelectric generator” ranged from $300 ish for the 15-30 watt range, and $1200 for a whole water cooled 100 watt system.

Clearly the answer is thermoelectric generators or a bank of stirling engines powering a generator.

[Roadrunner53]

Went to Costco yesterday to cash in my Costco/Visa bonus check from earlier this year. I have not been to Costco for a long time and needed to get the money before years end. I order a lot of frozen stuff from them and regular stuff from them. Yesterday was a total madhouse in the store and in the parking lot. Our car almost was hit 3 times by totally careless drivers. The people pushing carts were oblivious to the traffic too and would just step out into the driving lane with their carts and not even look. I was only in the store for under 10 minutes and was so glad to get out of there! I was there about 45 minutes after the store opened and not a parking place to be found. Mr. Roadrunner dropped me off and circled till I got out of the store. I needed a few things, but no way was I going to shop there! I wore my mask and so glad I did with flu and Covid rates rising. I saw some people with masks and was surprised I wasn't the only one. My cousin in KY and her hub got Covid for the first time in October and it kicked their asses for a month (they never left the house) and even then, they were weak and could hardly do a few errands. They were on a Covid drug (Molnupiravir-8 pills a day for 5 days) and had taken all the Covid shots and boosters including flu shots. After hearing what she went thru, I choose to wear a mask doing Costco and other quick errands.

Next year I will make it a point to cash my check much earlier in the year! Not at the end of the year when stores are like hornet's nests!

[K_in_the_kitchen]

Went to Costco yesterday to cash in my Costco/Visa bonus check from earlier this year. I have not been to Costco for a long time and needed to get the money before years end. I order a lot of frozen stuff from them and regular stuff from them. Yesterday was a total madhouse in the store and in the parking lot. Our car almost was hit 3 times by totally careless drivers. The people pushing carts were oblivious to the traffic too and would just step out into the driving lane with their carts and not even look. I was only in the store for under 10 minutes and was so glad to get out of there! I was there about 45 minutes after the store opened and not a parking place to be found. Mr. Roadrunner dropped me off and circled till I got out of the store. I needed a few things, but no way was I going to shop there! I wore my mask and so glad I did with flu and Covid rates rising. I saw some people with masks and was surprised I wasn't the only one. My cousin in KY and her hub got Covid for the first time in October and it kicked their asses for a month (they never left the house) and even then, they were weak and could hardly do a few errands. They were on a Covid drug (Molnupiravir-8 pills a day for 5 days) and had taken all the Covid shots and boosters including flu shots. After hearing what she went thru, I choose to wear a mask doing Costco and other quick errands.

Next year I will make it a point to cash my check much earlier in the year! Not at the end of the year when stores are like hornet's nests!

When we went to Costco Wednesday it wasn't terrible.  If I want to go in the morning I've learned not to arrive after 10AM -- by 10:15 there won't be any parking places.  I was aiming for 9:45 but my kid wasn't ready.  I was able to park in the last aisle and even better, pulled through from the second to last aisle so I didn't have to reverse out of my spot when we left.  I almost always park in that area, since it is close to the exit and I avoid the careless drivers.  But I don't plan to go to Costco again before the end of the year.  Anything else we need we'll get from Sam's Club with curbside pickup.

We are masking indoors also, for the most part, especially at all stores.  We only don't mask inside church, but may change that because like you I'm hearing of completely vaccinated and boosted individuals getting Covid and having a hard time of it.  My youngest was lucky to not to have too severe a case (fully vaccinated and boosted), but then got the flu a week after Covid isolation ended and that was rougher.  We picked up my oldest at the airport Monday night and I was the only one inside waiting who was masked.  The weak link in my plan to not get ill is my DH, who doesn't mask at work.  I understand not likely to be in a mask all day.  But for decades now, most of our illnesses have come into the house from DH catching something at work that a coworker got from their kid who goes to school.

[K_in_the_kitchen]

Eggs have been acquired!  I just wish I didn't have to be so jubilant over getting eggs for $3 per dozen.  I got 4 dozen eggs in my pickup order, and went inside Sam's Club for a few other things, including another 4 dozen eggs.  My kids are thrilled that I won't be limiting them.

I finally decided to stock up on sugar, but not too much.  I got 25# of granulated cane sugar and 7# of brown sugar.  I've been working on my food bucket storage and have an extra bucket to put the granulated sugar in.

I did notice that Sam's Club was out of butter, except Kerrygold.  I bought 8# at Costco, so we are good there.

[Dicey]

Went to Costco yesterday to cash in my Costco/Visa bonus check from earlier this year. I have not been to Costco for a long time and needed to get the money before years end. I order a lot of frozen stuff from them and regular stuff from them. Yesterday was a total madhouse in the store and in the parking lot. Our car almost was hit 3 times by totally careless drivers. The people pushing carts were oblivious to the traffic too and would just step out into the driving lane with their carts and not even look. I was only in the store for under 10 minutes and was so glad to get out of there! I was there about 45 minutes after the store opened and not a parking place to be found. Mr. Roadrunner dropped me off and circled till I got out of the store. I needed a few things, but no way was I going to shop there! I wore my mask and so glad I did with flu and Covid rates rising. I saw some people with masks and was surprised I wasn't the only one. My cousin in KY and her hub got Covid for the first time in October and it kicked their asses for a month (they never left the house) and even then, they were weak and could hardly do a few errands. They were on a Covid drug (Molnupiravir-8 pills a day for 5 days) and had taken all the Covid shots and boosters including flu shots. After hearing what she went thru, I choose to wear a mask doing Costco and other quick errands.

Next year I will make it a point to cash my check much earlier in the year! Not at the end of the year when stores are like hornet's nests!

Lucky you. My Costco is a Top 10 warehouse and is always, always a madhouse. When we're traveling and go to other Costco warehouses, we revel in their quietude.

[Roadrunner53]

As stupid as it might sound, I feel like I have a form of PTSD from going to Costco yesterday. Mr. Roadrunner was ready for a shot of whiskey at 11 am yesterday! LOL!

I placed an order online today from Costco and it will be delivered tomorrow. A less painful shopping experience! UGH! I also placed an order with a local grocery store to be delivered tomorrow. We will be all stocked up and not have to endure the insanity of the holiday rush!

With these groceries, we will be all stocked up for at least a month or more. I still order produce from Misfits and get delivery every Wednesday.

Life is good being a hermit!

[PMG]

Y’all talked me into buying a pork butt. I did grocery pick up and the store sent a massive 8 pound one that is too big for my crockpot even cut in pieces, so I’ve got it in the oven roasting away. The plan is to shred it and freeze meal size portions for tacos and the like.

Question. Can I use the bone in it to make soup??

[K_in_the_kitchen]

Y’all talked me into buying a pork butt. I did grocery pick up and the store sent a massive 8 pound one that is too big for my crockpot even cut in pieces, so I’ve got it in the oven roasting away. The plan is to shred it and freeze meal size portions for tacos and the like.

Question. Can I use the bone in it to make soup??

I suppose that you can use the bone for soup, but for me, by the time the pork is tender and ready to pull, the bone is completely clean of any meat.  So I think maybe it would be good to save several of the bones and then make bone broth, or maybe add it to another pot of broth with mixed bones.  It does have the advantage of having already been roasted, which is good for pork and beef bones.

A 6# pork butt is about as big as I can get into my slow cooker (Instant Dutch Oven).  When I end up with one that is too big I'll cut it and grind a couple pounds of pork for the freezer and then cook the smaller roast in my dutch oven.

[Roadrunner53]

Well, today was over the top with food deliveries. I ordered a bunch of stuff from Stop & Shop and today was the first day for their rib roast sale. They were $5.99 a lb. so I bought two of them. We have extremely hard water so we got 12 gallons of water for the coffee maker. The rest was some dairy products, canned stuff, spaghetti sauce, refrigerated stuff, cold cuts, frozen fruit. Then a few hours later I had a Costco delivery which included grinder rolls, and 4 dozen large eggs, frozen lasagna, shredded cheese and a variety of other things. Plus, they included a container of raspberries I didn't order! It was a busy expensive day, but I won't be shopping for a long time. Between the two stores I spent over $400+ today!

Now I don't care what the weather does, I am all set and can hunker down. Mr. Roadrunner is about to tear his hair out trying to fit all the stuff in the freezers! LOL! He has organized them pretty well and we utilize every inch of space. He always finds a way to find space by taking stuff out for future meals.

I worked in food Research and Development, and I learned that shelf space in grocery stores is a real battle. There is only so much room in the grocery stores and big-name companies pay premium to be at eye level shelving. One of the products I worked on was refrigerated and somewhat seasonal so they would swap the product out depending on the time of the year. Sometimes a product would be a bomb and they wanted to discontinue it but no way they wanted to lose shelf space so they would keep the dud product on the shelf that wasn't selling well till they got a new product ready to replace it. If they were to prematurely pull product off the shelf, they could lose the space. They say if you are looking for bargains, look at the lower shelves or the higher up shelves in the stores.

That pork butt you all are talking about sounds so good!

[PMG]

@K in the kitchen. That makes sense. Thank you. This bone came clean easily.  I may just buy a ham hock. I’m hungry for split pea soup.

[TomTX]

Y’all talked me into buying a pork butt. I did grocery pick up and the store sent a massive 8 pound one that is too big for my crockpot even cut in pieces, so I’ve got it in the oven roasting away. The plan is to shred it and freeze meal size portions for tacos and the like.

Question. Can I use the bone in it to make soup??

Well... stock/bone broth? Yes. take that broth and use it as a basis for soup? Absolutely.

Or toss it into your next big batch of beans (from dried).

[eyesonthehorizon]

No bone should ever go unboiled. Collagen, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, don't waste that nutrition!

We finally used our Costco certificate, picked up some sugar for the first time in years (the bag was beginning to rattle instead of hiss) & bought flour again for what I think the first time this year. We've got probably a dozen pounds each of lentils & black beans right now, half that over again of chickpeas, plus an unopened 40lb bag of white basmati. Butter was even on comparative sale, so we picked up a dozen blocks & stacked them at the back of the fridge where everything freezes for long-term storage; we've just opened a new 2L bottle of olive oil. Squash & onions, potatoes & sweet potatoes set aside, bunches of carrots & celery. A gallon of milk frozen in case. As long as the power stays on this year & the water keeps running we'd be covered for some while. I'd like to find better ways to supplement leafy greens in the cold months, though. Frozen spinach is so sad.

It's funny, & sad, how many years can pass after you gain food security, how much your life can change for the better, & you'll still find yourself at least 20% calmer at the thought of a full larder....

[StarBright]

We went shopping yesterday.  Costco was completely out of eggs.  I've seen limits before, but never had them be out.  They had closed the gaps in the cold room with other items, so I suspect it didn't just happen yesterday.  Sam's was also out of eggs.  Aldi had eggs, but at $4.13 per dozen, which was still cheaper than the regional chain.  I bought 3 dozen, choking on the price, but everyone is home right now and they need to eat.

This morning Sam's Club apparently has eggs again, so I'm doing a curbside. The limit will be 2x2 dozen, but at $3 per dozen.

It was a problem at our Costco for several weeks before Thanksgiving. All they had was super expensive organic eggs, limit 2. Then they literally had no eggs. I was able to get some on my last trip, albeit at a somewhat higher price than usual.

We hit Costco this week for the first time in a while - the two dozen organic eggs were actually a deal compared to our Aldi's regular eggs! Costco organic was 7.99 for two dozen, Aldi regular was 4.29 a dozen. Whoo!  What a weird year for food prices. 

Other than eggs and salad mix we are keeping our grocery budget pretty flat. But we bought a portion of a cow and pig from local folks earlier this year, and while that used to be THE MOST expensive, they haven't raised their prices so with some adjustments to the rest of our grocery list, and paying more attention to what is on sale we keeping our spend about the same.

I used to allocate $10 a week to stock our church's little free pantry, and I have noticed that does not go as far. Thing I used to get for a dollar are now $1.25 when on sale.  Instead of $10 a week, I now pick those items up whenever I can get them at their best sale price. This week oatmeal, progresso soups, pasta sauce, pasta, and microwave rice were all on their best sales, so my donation shelf reached hoarder status.

[K_in_the_kitchen]

No bone should ever go unboiled. Collagen, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, don't waste that nutrition!

We finally used our Costco certificate, picked up some sugar for the first time in years (the bag was beginning to rattle instead of hiss) & bought flour again for what I think the first time this year. We've got probably a dozen pounds each of lentils & black beans right now, half that over again of chickpeas, plus an unopened 40lb bag of white basmati. Butter was even on comparative sale, so we picked up a dozen blocks & stacked them at the back of the fridge where everything freezes for long-term storage; we've just opened a new 2L bottle of olive oil. Squash & onions, potatoes & sweet potatoes set aside, bunches of carrots & celery. A gallon of milk frozen in case. As long as the power stays on this year & the water keeps running we'd be covered for some while. I'd like to find better ways to supplement leafy greens in the cold months, though. Frozen spinach is so sad.

It's funny, & sad, how many years can pass after you gain food security, how much your life can change for the better, & you'll still find yourself at least 20% calmer at the thought of a full larder....

We shop a lot alike!  Mostly just unprocessed and minimally processed foods.  Although my oldest is home on break and the last Trader Joe's trip was a sugar fest of holiday items for him.

My body doesn't love leafy greens (I have a systemic nickel allergy).  But I do know people who steam and freeze kale in "pucks" to eat throughout the winter, and say it is much better than frozen spinach.  I can eat cabbage and broccoli, so we eat a lot of those two green vegetables in winter.  And we choose roots and winter squashes as our complex carbs for the most part, along with some whole grains.  Although we usually eat white rice because of arsenic levels, I reduce the frequency of white rice as a side dish during the cooler months to make sure we are taking in enough micronutrients.  In summer we can do a big stir fry of fresh, in-season vegetables and eat that with rice.

[K_in_the_kitchen]

We hit Costco this week for the first time in a while - the two dozen organic eggs were actually a deal compared to our Aldi's regular eggs! Costco organic was 7.99 for two dozen, Aldi regular was 4.29 a dozen. Whoo!  What a weird year for food prices. 

Other than eggs and salad mix we are keeping our grocery budget pretty flat. But we bought a portion of a cow and pig from local folks earlier this year, and while that used to be THE MOST expensive, they haven't raised their prices so with some adjustments to the rest of our grocery list, and paying more attention to what is on sale we keeping our spend about the same.

I used to allocate $10 a week to stock our church's little free pantry, and I have noticed that does not go as far. Thing I used to get for a dollar are now $1.25 when on sale.  Instead of $10 a week, I now pick those items up whenever I can get them at their best sale price. This week oatmeal, progresso soups, pasta sauce, pasta, and microwave rice were all on their best sales, so my donation shelf reached hoarder status.

I was buying organic eggs when it was just DH and I at home, but now with the young adults home again (one of them home full time, the other home on breaks and back full time next May) I'm buying regular cage-free eggs.  Between the two of them there are some weeks when they go through 3-4 dozen eggs by themselves.  And organic eggs have been incredibly hard to find.

We've been able to keep our grocery spending flat, but we did that by going from ButcherBox to supermarket meat and also from organic eggs and grass fed dairy to conventional eggs and dairy.  I wish we could get local meat, but this isn't an area that has the land available or the climate for pasture.  I can get meat from central California, but it's just as expensive as ButcherBox.  I'd love to have room for it in the budget, but cash flowing two university educations takes a big bite our of our available funds.

[Cranky]

My Aldi looked like a bomb had gone off yesterday. Between the approaching holiday and the approaching blizzard, the stores are just nuts. Aldi has been really, really spotty on dairy products lately but I suppose that's just not having enough people to get stuff onto the shelves.

Anyway, between that and a trip to the nearby HyVee, I got everything on my list except shredded frozen hash browns (for a casserole) and frozen lima beans, and I suppose those can both wait. I'm glad my pantry is full, though.

Every time I look at the price of eggs at Aldi, I think of JenniferW!

[coppertop]

I went to Aldi on Monday, and I'm so glad I did!  I can just imagine the chaos that exists there today.  Their inventory has been spotty anyway, but they did have the basics.

[StarBright]

No bone should ever go unboiled. Collagen, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, don't waste that nutrition!

I don't usually mess with stock other than after I roast a chicken, and occasionally from the Christmas prime rib - but this post inspired me to make a stock with my ham bone.

Will use it for cooking my new years day Hoppin' John recipe.

[TomTX]

No bone should ever go unboiled. Collagen, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, don't waste that nutrition!

I don't usually mess with stock other than after I roast a chicken, and occasionally from the Christmas prime rib - but this post inspired me to make a stock with my ham bone.

Will use it for cooking my new years day Hoppin' John recipe.

Prime rib bones are awesome for stock.

[eyesonthehorizon]

I do know people who steam and freeze kale in "pucks" to eat throughout the winter, and say it is much better than frozen spinach.

This is a great idea, I'll try it next time I pick up a round of kale! I find it's substantially cheaper for me to order it in a food box than buy locally, so I wait until I can do a single big order of lightweight bulky leaves from them at a time - being able to preserve those greens would go a long way. I actually wonder if it even needs to be cooked first since ice crystals from freezing break leaves down a lot but it'd certainly be easier to pack densely.

I don't usually mess with stock other than after I roast a chicken, and occasionally from the Christmas prime rib - but this post inspired me to make a stock with my ham bone.

Will use it for cooking my new years day Hoppin' John recipe.

I'm glad it moved you to try it! Aside from nutrients it also provides a lot of flavor & a textural richness hard to replace. I used to get up early to drop a bone in the pot then return to bed with the pot on low (on a glasstop range, I'd not risk it on gas), then get around to placing a cut of meat in the broth at lunch, to pull out at dinnertime - the broth being already full of collagen & flavor, it doesn't reduce the meat to sad gray blandness, it just braises it. Tendon becomes gelatine, cartilage dissolves, even the bones break down given enough time. Very little goes to waste. It always amazes me the prices people will pay for collagen products that don't even taste like good soup!

[Roadrunner53]

So, I mentioned around 3 weeks ago I ordered food from Costco. That included eggs that were two dozen for around $5.50. I just looked and now the same eggs (two dozen) are $7.10 and limit of two (4 dozen). Out of curiosity, I checked my local Stop & Shop, and their eggs are thru the roof! One dozen $4.79 to $8.49 depend on brand. The cheaper eggs are out of stock of course.

I had a spiral ham over the holidays and made a pea soup with the bone. After the soup was made, I saved the bone, rinsed it off and froze it. I am going to make a white bean soup in the future and going to reuse the bone to make the soup. I have no idea if the bone is going to give me any flavor but will see what happens! Never reused a ham bone before!

Something I have been doing is buying sweet potatoes, washing them, throwing them in my crockpot with skins on. I add no water. Cook them on high or low until a knife goes in easily into potatoes. Let cool and remove skins. Then mash, adding a dollop of butter. I have been freezing the mashed sweet potatoes in small ziplocks to pull out for a quick side dish for dinner. They taste very good; the skins pull off easy and mashing is a breeze!

I bought these beautiful long rainbow peppers from Costco. Yesterday, I cut them vertically, removed the seeds and roasted them in the oven. I covered them with olive oil to roast. They came out so good. I also froze them for a later date when we have burgers or sandwiches.