Overwhelmed, is anyone else stocking up toooo much food?

[coupondink]

it is a good problem to have.

My suggestion to you is:
1. donate every single item you think you will not use before it expires, and half of every windfall trip. And yes, shampoo and other HBA items expire eventually, so be careful.

2. stockpiling is your friend. Do not feel overwhelmed. If you have excess...what I do is this: I store away stuff somewhere for stuff I will not use immediately, and put stuff I will readily accessible. For example: I once got over 500 cans of soup free. I donated half. I put enough for a month in my pantry, and the rest on the shelves in the garage. When I am low in the pantry, I go "shopping" in my garage. I do the same with frozen stuff - I have a deep freezer in the garage. For HBA, I store stuff I use regularly, enough for 6 months, in my linen closet. The rest gets boxed up and stored in a closet on the floor, or way in the back of the closet that is hard to get to, or on the tippy top shelf of every single closet in the house. When I am out, I go "shopping" in the boxes of the closets.

3. develop a system. Keep inventory.

4. maybe it is time for you to try my "Operation Use It" goal for 2009. I only go shopping for freebies. Period. The deals are screaming my name, but I don't go. Unless it is free, then I am all over that. I only buy milk, eggs, and occasionally ingredients necessary to use up my stockpile (like ricotta for the lasagna noodles sitting in my pantry). I have been known to turn down freebies, because I have a ton of them at home and didn't want to pay the tax!!!!I have been doing this for 5 months, and it is going great. I am still at $0 for groceries all year. Trust me, I am kept very busy freebie chasing. That satisfies my hunger for couponing. Remember, just because something is a good deal, you don't need to buy it.

[Cynthiabutterfly]

I wasn't going to say anything because, well with a hungry DH and 2 growing boys, there really is no such thing as too much food. But, I need someone to eat these frozen veggies so I can go and get my summer stockpile of hot dogs!!

[pilesoflaundry]

Food, yes on some things and nope, not enough of others. But let's not talk about bandaids ok? I have about 30 j&j travel kits and lots of other guaze.

I often give food away to dh's coworkers or I bring boxes to a friend every few months when we go visit. They don't live in an area with good coupons, no doubles and very little competition so she can't get the deals I do. I love helping them out.

[mommytaylor]

We go through cycles - we always have TONS of food on hand and after having to throw out a chunk of food that expired, I've found a solution that works for us.

If it's free (or such an insane deal you never get on that item) and we eat it normally, buy it. If I don't have freezer space I either give something we aren't as likely to eat to the neighbors/friends or take something large (like a whole turkey or chicken or ham) and put it in the fridge to defrost. That gives me 3 days until I have to cook it to get the meals I want to make from it ready

I will NOT stockpile food beyond a year's worth (and must check expiration dates). This is to avoid expiring foods as well as it overwhelming our available space.

Every shopping trip, I put 10% of what I saved into an envelope in the safe. It's for more storage shelving or possibly a second deep freezer - whichever I decide we need the most. Doesn't seem like much, but when you save $100+ per trip easily when spending $10-20 oop, it adds up fast.

And the biggest and easiest piece of advice I have: Organize. When you feel overwhelmed, organize. When you can't find something in the pantry/storage you KNOW you have, organize. Yes, it takes time - but often you'll find you have tons more room, and feel less overwhelmed because you *know* what you have!

[tessanoel74]

I started telling the neighbors about all the great deals i get. 2 of them have offered me freezer space! I love it! Oh course i do give them lots of free stuff.

[ladycat00]

I also found out that my dd teacher and the gym teacher was more than happy to be given alot of personal hygeine and shower items because they said it is amazing how many come to school w/o it and the travel/trial sizes are just perfectso i was able to pass them along also i have started to fill out rebate forms(like the gillette shamppoo) and just put some friends address on them instead of mine and everyone loves to get a free coupon or item in the mail. another solution would be, is there are many of our soldiers overseas that have limited family and would love a care box of items and it really isnt that expensive to ship to iraq in a special military flat rate box and i have my children write notes to include w/ the package.

Thanks for the info! I donate a lot but I never thought about the schools, and I didn't know about the military flat rate boxes. Where do you find those boxes, and is there an address where you can send them?

And the biggest and easiest piece of advice I have: Organize. When you feel overwhelmed, organize. When you can't find something in the pantry/storage you KNOW you have, organize. Yes, it takes time - but often you'll find you have tons more room, and feel less overwhelmed because you *know* what you have!

Yes, very important! Organize, organize, organize! You'll find that it takes less room, plus you can find things when you need them, before they expire!!

[OsweetchildrenO]

It seems the great thing about food - everyone needs it. I started getting overwhelmed and my little 'stock pile' is just starting.
I just decided to organize the heck out of everything and ya know what?...it works so well.
DH and I live in a 1 bdrm apartment. I went through everything and took boxes to the garage. I also got free boxes from ye ole dumpster diving and transfer many things from plastic totes into these box and I use the totes in my apartment for storage of certain things.
With the kraft deal that just went on I have lots of BBQ sauce and Dressing. a bunch of bottles expire in December. DH hates salads so I am just thinking about giving them to my mom or brother.
OR it really makes you stretch your mind with new recipes using these items!

[lburgess]

Just build more shelves, lol. If it is free there is never too much!!! I got 90 pouches of Starkist Tuna and 17 large bags of Mission Tortilla Chips all for under $12, got $16 in Catalinas back and am doing a $15 Coors Rebate with the receipt. It was a serious money maker, who can complain about that? I wouldn't have to shop for anything other than fresh fruits/vegetables and milk for over a year at this point but I am still getting free stuff. I wouldn't stress, look at it as a blessing.

[everprincess]

Sometimes it can be overwhelming but it all pays off. Eventually you run out of seasonal stuff. I have 15 bottles of BBQ sauce and my mother thinks I'm nuts but this will not be on sale or have q's for in the dead of winter. I rotate all my cereal. But with two boys eating it everyday I can't keep enough it seems. One thing that helps me is to plan meals around what we have on hand. I can write one for a month and rotate out things from the freezer. It really helps us not to eat out.