Do You Pantry-Shop?

One of the best ways to save money is to buy things on sale, but buying on sale is maximized if you pantry-shop. Stocking a pantry from nothing requires diligence and some work, but ultimately, it is worth the effort in the long-run.

I organized my pantry today with the help of our 6 y/o son; the organization was beneficial to me because it showed me what we have and what I still need to stock up on before the winter months fully set in.

By this time, you might be thinking, "Must be nice... I don't have a pantry!" I encourage you to think outside the box and realize that if you have some space, you have a pantry, even if it's not a full cupboard. In our last house, I didn't have a pantry, but I had shelves in one half of our coat closet, and those shelves served as pantry shelves because the closet was close to the kitchen. A little weird to put coats in the space where grocery items were, but it accomplished my goal.

The Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) encourage pantry-stocking for their members and are pros at thinking outside the box for food storage. You don't have to be Mormon to use their ideas; if you have space under a bed, you've got space to stack boxes of canned vegetables. Pantries don't have to be enclosed cabinets or closets. If you've got the ability to build shelves, fantastic. If you can't build shelves but have a small bit of cash to put in to the project, IKEA has inexpensive, sturdy shelving units that are easy to put together. No space in your kitchen? Think basement, laundry room, or even garage. Canned goods (un-dented, of course) are designed to have an indefinite shelf life and don't care if they're stored next to the boots in the mudroom or next to TP in the bathroom cabinet. If the "under the bed idea" makes you realize that your beds are too low for this trick, fashion some bed-risers from small wood blocks, or buy a set at Bed, Bath, & Beyond (with a 20% off coupon, of course!) and maximize your space. Depending on how big your pantry is, it might be a shelf, a section of a shelf, or even stashed away under your sink.

So once you have a pantry idea in mind, how to go about stocking it? Think about the things you use regularly in your meal preparation and presentation. We use a lot of canned tomatoes, canned vegetables (beans, corn, & peas), and we eat a lot of beans in stews, soups, and chili. I buy these things when they're on sale in quantities of 6-12, depending on how well-stocked my pantry is at any given time. This provides what I need to make meals for my family and keeps me from having to buy it when I need it, invariably when it wouldn't be on sale and would be full-price.

I also have a section of the pantry for convenience foods that store well (boxed macaroni & cheese, for example) and another section for baking goods (cake mixes, powdered sugar, etc.). There's a section for spices (bought in bulk at Whole Foods or at Costco) and another for cleaning supplies. But you can see how this would vary by family and cooking habits. Make a list and watch for sales. Put a little extra grocery money towards the pantry-building or stocking, and then when you're stocked, you can save the money that you're not spending on full-priced items.

Once you have your pantry stocked, don't forget to rotate your stock. Put the things that were the first-purchased at the front, so you'll not forget about a can of spinach that was purchased 5 years prior, instead eating the cans of spinach that were purchased 5 weeks prior.

There's a part me that smiles when I think of my pantry -- what I have stashed away and don't have to buy when I start holiday baking & cooking. And as things go on sale during that timeframe, I'll stock the pantry for future needs as well. It's a cycle, but one that works well for frugally-minded people everywhere. :)

Happy stocking!

~Sue

Sticky Prices

Everything has gone up in price these days; as the fuel-price rises, so does the cost of getting the things we buy to market. And retailers aren't going to foot the bill for that all by themselves; they raise the prices on the things we buy so they don't feel the pinch as much.

But what happens when the price of fuel drops, as it's done recently? We rejoice a little bit each time we go and fill up our cars and it costs less, but how about the prices for the things around us?

I just read this morning that UPS is introducing a 5.4% surcharge to cover their fuel bills and residential-delivery differential, starting January 1, 2009. Wait a minute. The price of shipping via UPS already went up when diesel fuel jacked up to over $4.00 per gallon! And now the price is coming down, so why the surcharge?

That's a sticky price. Grocery stores are full of them, too. Groceries tend to see the slowest price-increase when fuel costs go up (so much of it sits in local warehouses and doesn't make a large difference in the profit margin of a store), but once the prices do climb, they're up there for a while. When fuel prices decrease, the increased prices at the grocery store are the slowest to drop, as well.

So how to combat this? Short of growing all your own produce, home-canning, and avoiding the grocery store, I can't come up with any significant way. But that's also why I shop sales WITH coupons. Something at a good price gets procured in large quantities and stored in my pantry, but "good price" to me means "on sale, purchased with a doubled-coupon." So I hang on to coupons and purchase when the price drops.

No one knows what the future holds in terms of fuel prices and the economy. Chances are good that it will be hard for some time to come. But if you can plan ahead and build a decent pantry for lean times, you'll make it through with a little more grace and aplomb than otherwise.

And you'll survive the "sticky prices" that are everywhere.

~Sue