How's your quarantine stockpile holding up?

[DaveNV]

I tend to keep our cupboards mostly well-stocked, believing it's easier to resupply as things are used, than waiting till everything is depleted. During the quarantine I haven't found myself totally "out" of anything we'd normally use. I did not hoard or overbuy anything, but I have made it a point of buying something when I saw it, that I knew we'd be using. I've only needed to go to the grocery store a handful of times in the last couple of months, and that was only for things like a carton of milk and such.

How about you? How is your larder, pantry, food storage, cleaning supplies, and mountain of TP doing? Did you stock up on the right things, wrong things, or only needed things? What did you buy that you wish you hadn't, and what do you wish you'd bought more of when it was readily available? Have you been able to find the things you want? What lessons have you learned if this sort of thing should ever happen again?

Dave

 

[vacationhopeful]

Dave ... my far flung off sibling collection have been concerned that their oldest and still self-employed, full time working sister ... is being safe. They have installed a “locate my cell” widget and regularly call my maintenance employee to confirm that I am not being out & about. Staying at home is restricting... so yesterday, I ran away to my other house.... after I got everyone’s permission and packed up food to eat while there.
I woke up to SNOW here this morning. I think I got far enough away. And my siblings ... okay, are if I stay here ALONE!

 

[DaveNV]

Dave ... my far flung off sibling collection have been concerned that their oldest and still self-employed, full time working sister ... is being safe. They have installed a “locate my cell” widget and regularly call my maintenance employee to confirm that I am not being out & about. Staying at home is restricting... so yesterday, I ran away to my other house.... after I got everyone’s permission and packed up food to eat while there.
I woke up to SNOW here this morning. I think I got far enough away. And my siblings ... okay, are if I stay here ALONE!

Glad you're coping, Linda. And it's great that your sibs are keeping an eye on you. My older sister is staying with us, and I have to give her the Third Degree every time she wants to leave the house.

Dave

 

[GetawaysRus]

Covid-19 demonstrates one of the few advantages of living in earthquake country. My wife set up an earthquake kit some years ago and she likes to keep certain things well stocked (think TP). We haven't even gotten close to needing to get into our stock of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat).

Mea culpa. We did do a "meat run" about 10 days ago when we started reading about all the meat processing plant closures. I stored the meat with my vacuum sealer, so it should be good for a long time. The biggest issue we're having is fresh vegetables. We're forced out to shop when we can't stand going without a fresh green salad.

 

[Panina]

Pantry filled. The most loved products I order at least 6 when I find them and they will give them to me. Some of my gluten free favorites I have not been able to get. They are made by smaller companies and they probably cannot meet the demand or chose to close.

I love using Instacart. When our favorites become available I put a small order in right away. Same day or next day delivery is no longer a problem.

 

[Chrisky]

We have not stockpiled at all. Mostly do our regular grocery shopping every 10 days. We have purchased a few extra bags of frozen vegetables and fruit. We seem to be doing quite well, and have noticed in our grocery stores that there doesn’t seem to be much panic buying.

 

[bluehende]

I will preface this by saying our kids have joked that if things get bad they can head to the bunker.....our house......due to the supplies we routinely keep on hand. In general our pantry is going down but we have enough to go a long time. We have a couple of things that were obviously low. We have been eating a ton of salads so our dressing supply is becoming very limited in choices. I attribute this to not having my normal shopping pattern of meandering through stores. Since I have not gone by the salad dressings I have not seen a sale to reload. Also realized that a favorite spice has run out. This is certainly a first world problem.

 

[Monykalyn]

I'm like Dave-usually have well stocked pantry/freezer anyway. I ordered a TP supply way early march before the madness started - usual order-and still well supplied. Bathroom cleaning products OTOH are rather hard to come by right now? For awhile coffee creamer was none existent as well-weird. Impatiently waiting for the garden to start producing-should have lettuce and radishes within the next week.
And lately the milk we get from a local dairy runs out as soon as it is stocked-we found it in one of the smaller health stores-I've been buying the milk for years, has refundable glass bottle deposit. Not sure why there is such a run on the milk. It's about twice as expensive as the larger name milk-tastes much better to us.

 

[bnoble]

We have not done much in the way of stockpiling. We have a bit more beans and rice than we would normally keep on hand, a couple of packages of gorund beef in the freezer that get cycled in and out, and I have done a few larger preps. For example, recently I bought a whole brisket. I trimmed it and brined the flat cut for homemade corned beef. We ate half of that and froze the other half. The smaller point cut will be brined and put on an idirect grill for pastrami. Another was a batch of Cuban(-ish) black beans, featuring a smoked ham hock.

That turns out to be connected to a lesson: using less expensive cuts (ham hocks, brisket) has been fun to experiment with, they are easier to find, and while they take more time to prep turn out to be fantastically delicious. I don't think I will ever buy commercial corned beef again.

We are lucky in that a local hotel/banquet facility is repackaging and selling some of the stuff they can get through commercial suppliers, so things that are hard to find elsewhere (flour, TP, yeast, better beef cuts, etc.) are available through them. This helps them keep some of their staff on the payroll, is a great service to the community, and supports a local business. Ann Arbor is not a particularly large city, so there is a good chance someone near you is doing something similar.

 

[GetawaysRus]

The most loved products I order at least 6 when I find them and they will give them to me.

There's a small truth buried here, though most often it applies to toiletries. My wife has found that if there's a product she really likes (usually this means a body soap, hair shampoo, or cosmetics product), there is a high probability that it will either be reformulated (and then she hates the new version) or discontinued outright. So she stocks up.

 

[bbodb1]

Folks, we are missing Dave's real point here...
He wants to know how your Liquor cabinet stash is holding out as he plans his next trip!!!!

 

[pedro47]

The Liquor and wine cabinet is lock and stock.
Plus, I have a 14 days supplies of water, snacks, meats and canned goods

 

[DaveNV]

Folks, we are missing Dave's real point here...
He wants to know how your Liquor cabinet stash is holding out as he plans his next trip!!!!

Well, now that you mention it...

Dave

 

[Luanne]

Folks, we are missing Dave's real point here...
He wants to know how your Liquor cabinet stash is holding out as he plans his next trip!!!!

We had plenty of wine when this started and are still in good shape. If we run low our neighbor, who has something like 700 CASES of wine in his wine cellar can come to the rescue.

 

[DaveNV]

We had plenty of wine when this started and are still in good shape. If we run low our neighbor, who has something like 700 CASES of wine in his wine cellar can come to the rescue.

Holy crap! I'm coming to your house. LOL!

Dave

 

[geekette]

I am not a stockpiler, and have been running down to near empty most every time before I shop, but still not buying much. I have been getting creative, but, luckily, I don't require "meals", just periodic sustenance. Don't have to impress anyone, just keep my body running.

this morning I dumped some of the canned tomatoes and chilis into an omelet, having opened the can yesterday to dress up some frozen burrito things. The rest of the tomato/chili combo will go into the pinto beans boiling away. I am not completely sure what the bean dish will evolve into but will probably make a coffee cake to go with. I am out of cinnamon but plenty of brown sugar. Very low on milk, have to make bread if I want any. Scary low on "good" peanut butter, but plenty of off brand if I want cookies ( I have a quick n easy recipe that doesn't need flour or butter). Last stick of butter, making it stretch. Most of 18 pk of eggs still.
I don't consider myself to be quarantined, just on restricted travel. It will probably be mid to late next week that I next cruise for groceries, and I'll spend about $50 and see if I can make that last into June.

 

[clifffaith]

Our pantry is more full than it has ever been, as is our second fridge. In fact I was getting cranberry juice out of the casita fridge, and discovered I had a tub of plain yogurt out there so needed to take it off the grocery list because usually the second fridge only has water and juice in it.

We over bought rice. Couldn't find it all for weeks. Took a trip to an Asian market and the bags were way too large. Picked up a box or two of seasoned side rice as we shopped during March and early April. Then we found Uncle Ben's parboiled rice, so bought 3 boxes. The following week, before we had a chance to try the Uncle Ben's, we found a 5 pound bag of white rice. That is at least twice as much as we'd usually buy -- had to press an old coffee can into service to store it. Just checked the UB box date and it says it's good for two more years.

Maybe I'll put a box of UB rice into my "pandemic box" along with other things that have been hard to find. So far I've put aside a 6-pack of TP, a 4-pack of PT, a small bottle of bleach, a box of Kleenex (which we may need now because we can't find Kleenex except occasionally as a limit one purchase), and a container of disinfecting wipes. Will add gloves and masks if we can ever stop using those items when we go out.

 

[Luanne]

I can't think of any food products we've actually run out of. As with most other people the hardest things to find are disinfecting cleaning products. Dh bought hand sanitizer at a local distillery that has gone to the production of hand sanitizer.

Dh does the grocery shopping and he said the foods that have been the hardest to find at times are beans, flour, sometime meats.

 

[Brett]

Folks, we are missing Dave's real point here...
He wants to know how your Liquor cabinet stash is holding out as he plans his next trip!!!!

OK, I'm good to go

 

[bluehende]

Folks, we are missing Dave's real point here...
He wants to know how your Liquor cabinet stash is holding out as he plans his next trip!!!!

No liquor here but I do have a beer cellar. Since I have been trying to lose weight my 300 bottle cellar has only dropped by 4 even with zero buying. 2 zoom happy hours took care of those. I really need to join in or more of those happy hours. Calories be damned.

 

[SteveDavis]

We had plenty of wine when this started and are still in good shape. If we run low our neighbor, who has something like 700 CASES of wine in his wine cellar can come to the rescue.

Wow, I wish I was that prepared hah.

 

[bnoble]

My wife has found that if there's a product she really likes (usually this means a body soap, hair shampoo, or cosmetics product), there is a high probability that it will either be reformulated (and then she hates the new version) or discontinued outright. So she stocks up.

I've had that problem with running shoes, of all things. ASICS has a line called the Gel Kayano that they update each year. For a year or two in the middle, they inexplicably were made with a narrower toe box, and I never did manage to find another model I liked as much. Luckily, they went back in a recent iteration.

We had plenty of wine when this started and are still in good shape. If we run low our neighbor, who has something like 700 CASES of wine in his wine cellar can come to the rescue.

Another local company does a monthly curated wine delivery service. This month, they offered a one-time product with: a bottle or two of wine, a bag of gourmet popcorn, and a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle sourced by a local toy shop. I thought that was very clever.

 

[Luanne]

Another local company does a monthly curated wine delivery service. This month, they offered a one-time product with: a bottle or two of wine, a bag of gourmet popcorn, and a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle sourced by a local toy shop. I thought that was very clever.

I'm actually not worried about running out. Dd has had two deliveries from a winery she likes in Napa. At least one of the local wineries here is doing curbside pickup.

 

[geekette]

Another local company does a monthly curated wine delivery service. This month, they offered a one-time product with: a bottle or two of wine, a bag of gourmet popcorn, and a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle sourced by a local toy shop. I thought that was very clever.

but no roll of TP??

teasing, sounds like a great promo!

 

[theo]

I have a specific question regarding "stockpiling", to which I am hoping someone here might know the answer.

I am not a baker (and I don't play one on TV). I have no need or use for yeast and wouldn't know what to do with it if I had some.

That said, I have heard a continuous and steady stream of complaint from a fair number of unrelated people for some weeks now that (supposedly) no one can find any yeast anywhere in any quantity --- not in any store, not anywhere online, not nowhere no how.

So, whassup with yeast?