Having a pantry

My husband came from a well to do family that bought what wver they wanted when they wanted it. For us we were not as well to do when we got married and w also made the decision that I would be a house wife until we had kids and then we I would be a stay at home mom. It surprised him how little his checks really bought. At first when I was buying bulk at the store he was mad that I bought more then we actualy needed, now that we always have things on hand he loves it. I feel great knowing that most of what we eat was bought on a great sale and we are living with in our means. We were even able to cut or food budget further and now we have a little extra monay we are putting away in savings. Its a hard lesson to learn but when you get it it feels so great.

My family has always done this. Well my grandad is the main one. He says it's better to buy it when it's cheap and on sale than to wait and pay a higher price when you really need it.

I always stock up when I come across a really good sale on things that I use all the time anyway. It saves a lot of money over having to pay full price every time I need it. I so have a small pantry, but storage can be under the bed, in a closet, behind the couch... lots of places.

One side of my ex-wife's family was Mormon and I did not believe in a lot of what they believed in.. However, they strongly believed that every family should have a years supply of food on hand at all times. They all had pantries and most had two freezers. They also dated everything and rotated everything. Once they had what seemed to be a years supply, they just replaced what they used. They did this for many reasons. Mostly however, in case the breadwinner of the family lost his job or became sick and there was no money coming in. They had a years supply of things like sugar, flour, frozen food, meat, etc. and not just canned goods.

I wish I had the room to do this. It would definitely help when times are tough. I don't do it. I keep telling myself I will do it and then never do. Its days like today where I have nothing in my cabinets that I wished I stocked my pantry like my mom does.

I think this is all such a good idea. I try to stock up on canned and non-perishable items when I can find a good sale. I have been blessed with a fairly large kitchen pantry. I tend, though, to think I'm stocked up enough and then go until we have used the entire stock before starting the cycle all over again. I need to keep it continually stocked.

Recently we've started stock piling meats in our "frozen" pantry and that seems to be saving us some money. As far as necessities go, it's always good to have the basics around, like rice, flour, and cornbread mix.