Overwhelmed, is anyone else stocking up toooo much food?

[MariaT]

I don't see the harm. As long as the food is not being wasted and you will be using it all, it's good to have such a safety net. You should feel secure not overwhelmed.

[GreatFun]

To fell less overwhelmed, organize your stockpile well and according to expiration dates so that you will first use the items that expire the soonest.

Once you have an inventory, start planning your meals according to what you have on hand and according to what is expiring first. Keep your inventory up to date. I can always easily see when I have too much of an item (i.e. I won't be able to use it before it expires) well before it is too late and then I donate to the food pantry. HOWEVER, I usually find that we eat almost everything before it expires because I plan my meals around what the stockpile contains and around expiration dates.

When my husband is tripping over items I remind him that since the cost of our house (property taxes, heating/cooling, etc) includes all this space why not use the space by filling it with free items that will save lots of $$ over the course of the year.

[jenrose]

Living in the land of only sometimes doubles (and not often enough I might add) I am having a hard time getting stocked up on most items. Plus working and having 2 little ones (and one big one who thinks I have all the time in the world DH) I can't get to the store for productive trips as often as I like.

My Freezer is actually almost empty. I need to find some good deals on meat since I have a family of carnavours(sp?). That is my biggest problem! You can send some of your overstock to me if you are really overwhelmed . But good for you getting yourself into the ideal position with all those good deals!

[434Teresa]

I have a bunch of food items also but with 6 mouths to feed plus my teen boys friends I need to keep adding to it. I need a bigger frezer but dont have any place to put it.. everytime I go shopping I have to hunt for somewhere to put stuff but by the end of the week it has worked ot way down some until I go back to the store then again I have no place to stuff everything..As a child we often did not have enough food and in some parts of my adult life I have had problems buying food so while I can I will keep stocking it up for we dont know what the next day may bring to us...
I give my mom things all the time and I give my extra insert coupons to others who say they dont see how I do it..get $334 of stuff for $100 or less

[mommyelf]

My kids were laughing the other day because I NEVER bought cereal before I started couponing- too expensive but now between the sales and coupons and cats I have around 50-60 boxes. It's so weird when we occasionally had a box they would eat it in 5 minutes and now that we have tons- they want pancakes. Kids?

Donate some or make gift baskets for holidays, birthdays, thank yous- a pasta basket, a breakfast basket with jams, jellies, pancake mix, coffee,; a chocolate lovers.

Sometimes if I have a lot of something I put it on the counter and ask what can I do with this?.....the answer will come.

[mommyto3angels]

can someone, please tell me about the tuna pouches. What is the coupon, what is the price, what store???
Thanx

[stitch1769]

I have been stockpilling for almost 3 months now and thanks to all the great coupons i get from HCW, i have at least a 4-6 month supply of what me, my 2 kids and 4 pets need for that time period. I have 2 deep freezers and a small fridge that is overfilled, and even though i initially had plenty of storage space i quickly became a little overwhelmed when i ran out of room, my solution was to go to lowes(with a coupon of course) and purchased 2 5 tiered 1000lb rubbermaid shelf units that i was able to assemble by myself w/o a problem! and now alot of my nonperishables are stocked on that. also several of my friend's have been affected by job losses so i pass alot of groceries on to them, many joke about their weekly grocery shopping trips to my home, 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.

[nanners55]

I feel stocked but not too much.My DH and I were both previously married and have 8 kids and 16 grandkids between us.There is always someone that needs something. I know I should be overdone on cereal but I only have about 20 boxes ahead right now. I all works out. Some of them have looked at this sight and find it overwhelming. And my DD with 4 kids tris but she is overwhelmed with games , homeowrk, housework and laundry. We just talked about maybe her printing for me and I will pick up the deals so she can pay me back what I paid.

My oldest grandchild is in a pecial ed room and they have a full kitchen. Baking is one of the rewards. I brought them 10 cake mixes and 10 brownie mixes. His teacher was so thankful, you had thought I had given him $1000!!!

[drusilla]

Hi

I am very new here and to the coupon world so i don't have any stock up piles at all. I live in quebec Canada so there is no doubleing or tripling and so far i have not found much for free when using coupons.

I wish i had a stockpile just so i wouldn't have to worry if we will have enough food or items. It is true that you really never know what is around the corner so keep stock up.

[atlgirljj]

Tomorrow morning our mail carriers are picking up food donations for local pantries - I left a bag hanging on my mailbox. I put things like Rice a Roni, Chef Boyardee, muffin mix.. we had to make use of that years ago and I remember being most thankful for food I didn't have to buy other things to go with it. Example, a can of pork and beans is good to eat on its own. Just canned kidney beans are great if you have other stuff to use with them, but when you 're down to just what you got from the food pantry you might not have other ingredients to go with them.
Anyway I digress... tomorrow is an easy day to donate food and you don't even have to leave your house!