I was wondering is your buying habits different in the winter then they are during Spring. Do you keep more on hands in the freezer and pantry. Or due you stay with the same shopping habits and hope you are not stranded at home by a winter storm with little food. The reason I am asking. I am trying to figure out if I should start buying an extra box of food from AF when they are good boxes or should I depend on sales (which is not usually good) and aldis. Or do a mix of both. I know I have been using a little extra lately from my stockpile. Share your ideas if you like.

 I do stock up a bit more for winter because we have snow storms and I don't want to have to try to get my car out of the driveway in the middle of one of them.  I like to have plenty of canned food, including tuna and beans in case I need to make a meal and we don't have any power.  I also stock up on paper products (tp, etc) and pet supplies.

 

I tend to stock up more in the winter on canned foods when the stores tend to have better sales on them. This way if the power goes out, that much won't get ruined. My freezer stays pretty full as well, but right now I am trying to eat out of it because I have no room for a turkey. Alot of my shopping depends on the sales. My dh isn't interested in Angel Food, and with what I have been hearing about quality lately, I can do better with my shopping habits at Harris Teeter, Food Lion, and at times, Walmart.

I tend to stock up on items year round depending on the sales. Our local grocery stores have a canned vegetable sale twice a year, in the fall and in the spring. I get them by the case of 12 for 29 cents per can and stock up (the price just went up from 25 cents per can). The cans are regularly 79-95cents each so since I stock up I never have to pay full price. I am the same way with things like Hamburger Helper or boxed potatoes. I stock up when they are $1 or less so we will always have some on hand. We are lucky to have a stand up freezer and storage pantry in our basement where I keep all my extra stuff. My husband laughs at me but we never have to run out and pay full price for anything that we would eat on a normal basis. I hate to run to the grocery store in the winter when the weather here in Michigan is terrible.

I only will stock up on certain things like canned goods, coffee,pb, lunch snack items just because they are on sale in the fall.    Also I don't cook as much in the summer so stock doesn't get used up as much.

I will get extra milk and bread etc if the weather is suppose to be bad for the next while.  We don't get really bad weather here plus we can always walk to the store.

Also I will make sure I have enough cat food and bird seed.  I can only get our bird seed brand at one store and our parrots wet food at one other store.  Cats eat science diet which doesn't really go on sale discounted enough to stock up on so make sure we have enough.   nothing worse to annoy you then unhappy cats!

 I keep aproximately double the canned goods in the pantry.  We don't get snowed in much but when we do the city pretty much shuts down.  I also keep some on hand in the event we get sick.  My schedule also increases in the winter so I want to have enough for quick suppers or crockpot meals.

I always have plenty of food on hand for any short snow or ice storm we might have here in Georgia. If a storm is predicted, I will make sure we have toilet tissue, pet food and soft drinks in case we can't get out for a few days.

I sometimes feel like I'm part squirrel wanting to store away food this time of year

 

 I stock up during the summer for the winter. A lot of this is home canned or frozen food from garden and Farmers Market. I also have more money to stock up in warm weather. Electric and heat bills are so much higher in winter and then add in Christmas. I stock up on meat on sale. Then fall can food sales......I get some canned soups, peanut butter, tea, sugar coffee. We can be snowed or iced in for days. Babs in Vermont

Don't forget to add cold meds to your list.  With the flu(s) going around, they're saying there might be some temporary shortages of cold and flu meds.  Be sure to add tissues, too, for those that use them, canned chicken soup (you will NOT feel like making homemade, I hear...), whatever you use for diahrrea and vomiting (white soda?) and check your Tylenol and misc. pain killers and analgesics. Good thread.  Liz.

I keep my pantry and freezer stocked year round, but I like to keep a  few extra things for the winter.  We can have some bad ice storms here in central NC.  We have been without power for over a week because of them.   I like to keep canned goods and things I can prepare on top of my gas stove which I can still use even if we don't have power.  We have our gas grill hooked to our house gas so we don't have to worry about propane tanks.  We have 2 coleman camp  stoves that use propane and we have 2 propane tanks we keep filled up all the time so we always have a way to cook if we need to.  I stock up on cold/flu meds and tissues.  I also make sure that I refill all our RX's regularly so we won't run a risk of running out and being unable to get them refilled. 

Shellia