Teresa Griesse
When people ask me why I stockpile so much food, I
always tell them that because we are self-employed
we never know when we will need it. Our income varies
practically from week to week, and it can be very
reassuring to know that no matter what we can at least
eat. To me this is no different than someone canning
or freezing a summer harvest from their garden. You
know that it will be a year before that same harvest
comes again, so you plan on it. You try to grow and
harvest all of something that you will need for a
year, or until the next harvest. There has always
been a lot of controversy over the years about whether
a person should stockpile or not. Most people can not
understand why some people stockpile more than they
can use right away. It is thought to be very greedy.
My view is that it is not greedy and in most cases it
is a very smart thing to do. Speaking for my family,
it has always been a matter of basic survival to
stockpile any and every thing that comes our way. I
am always thankful for my extras. You just never know
when you or someone else is going to need them. You
just never know what needs the next week might bring.
This point was especially true last week for me. My
oldest son has been working part time at an auction
house located at the end of our country road. Well,
on Tuesday afternoon, my son came home and announced
that the auction concession people had quit and that
he had told the auction owner that I would take over
the concessions. The next sale was Thursday, a day
and a half to get everything ready. I was told that I
could have whatever I wanted to fix, but I had to have
a barbecue beef or pork dinner, consisting of a
sandwich,potato salad, and baked beans. I also would
be selling pop,chips,candy bars,homemade cookies, and
homemade pie. The worst of it was that no one knew
for certain how many people would show up hungry, so I
would have to have plenty of everything. Well, after
I got over my initial panic, I started taking
inventory of what I had stockpiled. We have a
discount grocery store near us that we go to every
week. One of things that I always pick up is any can
of pie filling. My family loves homemade pie, and my
youngest especially loves cherry pie. I had cans of
cherry pie filling and apple pie filling, so that took
care of the pie. I always buy flour in 50 pound bags,
so I had lots of it to cook with. We raise our own
pork and a neighbor always works up the lard for me.
I usually get enough of it to last a year, and it
keeps well in the freezer. My neighbor is even kind
enough to store a lot of it in her own freezer for me,
I just go over and get it when I run out. So, the
pies were basically no problem except for all the work
involved. I was able to make a quick batch of peanut
butter cookies with all the Skippy I have stockpiled.
They are a great cookie, and do not take any extras.
Since we also raise our own beef, I had a freezer full
of meat, so I just hurried and threw two large roasts
in the oven. The next day, I shredded them and
covered them in the crockpot with some of the Hunts
barbecue sauce that I had stockpiled on when a nearby
store was tripling coupons. They triple up to 6 of
the same coupon every week for a month, so I have a
very big stockpile of barbecue sauce. That took care
of the sandwiches, except for the buns. I had just
given away a big pile of winetags for $l off buns that
were expiring. I just thought that I would have no
use for so many buns. That is how it always goes, you
can not always predict your family's needs. A
perfect point to prove the importance of stockpiling.
I was lucky that I had just traded for 20 of the 40
cents off Van Camps beans coupons that had just come
out. I was going to use them on small cans of pork
and beans,making them free. Instead I just used them
on the big cans of beans that were on sale for 99
cents,making them 19 cents a piece. I put two cans of
them in another crockpot with some brown sugar and I
was done with them. I do have a large garden, but my
potatoes are not ready to dig up, so I did have to buy
a bag of potatoes, celery, and an onion for the potato
salad. Luckily, my family likes potato salad, so I
knew that if I did not sell any, my family could eat
it for the rest of the week. My biggest expense was
the pop to sell. I do stockpile it anyway if I have
good coupons or if there is a good sale. My problem
is that my sons can drink it at an incredible rate,
especially if they see that you have lots. So, I try
to keep the supply down to keep the demand down. So,
without coupons or sales, I went to Walmart and bought
3-24 packs there. I was in such a time crunch, that I
just had to pick up the items in my local small town.
I was lucky that I had a $75 card from a test drive
and was able to use that to buy the needed supplies at
Walmart. Since then I have been lucky enough to find
pop on sale, and I even was able to get in on the $5
refund for buying Coke in cans. My family does not
drink Coke, so this should be safe enough for awhile.
There has since been coupons on Dr. Pepper, so I have
been able to stock up on it when it is on sale. My
husband is sure that we have enough stockpiled, but I
always disagree. I do not want to be forced to pay
full price for it again. I had just sold all of my
paper plates from Kmart at my yard sale in April. I
had probably bought 100 packages of the red and green
paper plates at Kmart that were scanning 23 cents a
package after Christmas. My family never uses them,
so I just bought them for the yard sale. I had no
problems selling them all. The first day of the sale,
a man told me that he would be back the next day to
buy all the paper plates that were left, because he
was sure that I would not be able to sell so many. He
wanted me to lower the price for the ones that were
left. I just said that I would see what was left. I
was afraid that I was going to get stuck with so many
of them. The next afternoon when he came back they
had all sold. He could not believe it. Neither could
I. Anyway, I was slightly begrudging all those sales
when I was having to shop for paper plates for the
auction. I did luck out and find two hidden packages
of Christmas plates, that were marked down to 50
cents. So, after the whirlwind trip to the store and
the marathon of cooking I was ready for the sale. And
it turned out alright. At the sale, the wife of the
auctioneer came by and told me that they never sold
more than 15 sandwiches. This was a little late,
since I had bought 4 bags of buns, but I could always
put them in the freezer. Everyone seemed to like my
cooking. I only sold 7 dinners, but everyone
complimented me on the taste. I sold all of the
cherry pie and part of the apple pie. Just a few of
the cookies and candy bars sold. I did, however sell
40 cans of pop. At least, I had planned on the right
amount of that. I did not make a lot of money, but
all of my stockpiling helped me keep the cost down, so
there was still some profit made. It was one time
stockpiling paid off big time for me. After the sale,
I was able to have a better idea of what I would need
every week on hand to make for the auction. It was a
lot of work and worrying, but it would have been a lot
more if I had not had so much on hand. Of course,
this would now be once a week and but it would
bring in a little extra money. It totally wore me out
and I had to rest all the next day. Then I got a call
from the auctioneer to see if I had started work on
the food that would be needed the very next day for
the special benefit auction that was going to happen
that everyone had forgotten to tell me about. So, it
was a mad dash once again to the stockpiles!!!!!!!!
You just really never know.
