Help me out, I'm 'hoarding food and it's ridiculous'.

reply to post by jazz10
being self reliant or hording ??? self reliant is the way to go , Food Banks do no always have food nor enough to last a month when times get tough , not saying thy will but you never know, a 72 grab and run supply is good to have as well never know what might happen, are you being a hoarder or silly , Now Not At All, just being wise, that is all.

You aren't hoarding food, you are being smart. A few days of food is very little. Emergencies come in all shapes and sizes. I think you are doing the right thing. They experts say you should have three months of salary set aside in case you ever lose your income but what if you have no income for longer then 3 months? If you have food set aside you would be able to feed your family. We were once snowed in for 5 days, that was a minor event but we lacked nothing.

Hoarding is usually buying things you don't need, that you know you will never use, and can't bear to part with.
I have been considering 'setting aside' some food for a while now. But its hard to know what food exactly to stash.
Personally, I wouldn't store or plan to rely too much on things like noodles, mainly because you don't know whether you're going to have access to somewhere to cook them, or whether you're going to need to ration the fuel for a small stove etc.
I also think storing some kind of supplements/vitamins would be a good idea. The 1 a day kind. Mainly because there are some vitamins and minerals you can only get through being outside or from certain foods, and well, you don't really know whether you'll be able to go outside if the SHTF in a nuclear radiation way or have access to fresh fruit etc

reply to post by snowgirl


storing enough food for a few days is not hoarding . where i come from its called a weekly shopping .

Originally posted by snowgirl
I've basically got a few things, not loads, maybe enough for the 2 of us and the 2 kids to last us a few days at the most

A few things? That is clearly not hoarding.

In my opinion, especially with kids, it is ridiculous not to have more on hand. Even if you set aside all the doom and gloom, prepping and such there are valid reasons. The economy is pretty well destroyed and they have looted all they can from us. The last number I heard was $189,000 debt for every man woman and child in the country, and that is just what they admit to who knows what the real number is. That said, predicting when the dollar goes tits up is anyone's guess but it seems fairly safe to assume massive inflation will be part of the scenario. It will be pretty comforting to know you will have food 2 weeks or a month later. While people are trying to figure out how to pay for that $12 jar of peanut butter or looting it, you and your kids will have a cushion and be able to respond rationally.

reply to post by ladyteeny


six odd people? How many regular people could you feed?

reply to post by snowgirl

I've basically got a few things, not loads, maybe enough for the 2 of us and the 2 kids to last us a few days at the most and my plan is to add to this every time I go food shopping.

This is dangerously opposite of hoarding! Enough to last a few days? That isn't even basic staples. I have enough food for my family for at least 6 months and I could probably stretch it to a year if times were hard.

Nobody should ever find themselves at home with less than a 2 week supply of food and water. Any small interruption like a major snowstorm, or a hurricane, or a tornado can put you out of touch with normal supplies for 2 weeks easy!

Even the Government recommends 7-14 days of supplies.

Show your significant other the sites like Ready.gov or NOAA's Be Prepared Site.

You are far from a hoarder, you are extremely unprepared, and you need to get busy fixing it!

Having a well stocked pantry and rotating the food in it isn't 'hoarding'. It's called being smart and prepared. It's a time honored American tradition that, unfortunately, is being lost in today's society. Do your pioneer ancestors proud ... stock that pantry and rotate the food stuffs ....

omfg, just typed a huge long reply and it logged me out as I posted it! Arghhhhh!!!

Anyway, thanks everyone!

Just to clarify a few points.

It's not JUST noodles I'm planning on stashing, have a load of tinned food too, beans, meat in sauce, spaghetti etc, basically anything calorie dense and cheap!

Vitamins: I had a load of these stashed away, they are now mostly gone due to my partner not quite grasping the point of it all and using them up!

Other food: We always have 'regular food' as in what we eat on a day to day basis that would probs last another few days, also a HUGE freezer full of stuff which would also last quite a while, although if it was a power outage then it would obviously defrost and become icky pretty quickly! A fact that I am constantly pointing out lol.

Fuel to cook: We're quite lucky to have 2 wood burners and a huge amount of wood and easy access to more, so we're all good on that front!

Storage: I have it put away so it's not like it's strewn around everywhere, although I would LOVE a shed orsomething in which to stash even more haha...not sure that would go down too well though lol.

What's it all for? I don't honestly know! Could be power outages, extreme winter, terror attack etc, who can say but no one can predict these things and they are all possible!

Once again, thanks for all the support! May start 'secret shopping' and bury it all haha!!

I used to live in a combined household, in laws lived with us after a turn of health for one of them. We had a regular bookshelf in the kitchen that held soups of each ones choice, canned veggies, makings for chili, casseroles, and sauces. We combined our shares of $ for an semi-annual replenishing stocking day. Yes it sometimes is daunting to see a stack of food cases as high as my hip, but once shelved taking note to rotate accordingly, it saved weekly trips to the grocery. When living paycheck to paycheck, this made sense. Hear me out. You tool yourself over to your local supermarket, or specialty market. or discount market, or big package store how many times a week? Once twice maybe if the weekend is coming up? Ok, lets say 2 x 12 weeks (3 months). Gas alone calulate $4.00 a trip. 4 x 12 is $48.00 added to your food budget, times that by 4 for the year = $192.00. Now, by our methods we now go only once every three months, just for the essentials, $4.00 x 4 times a year is $16.00, now general incidental trips are more manageable to the wallet. Generally it was still only once a month for those, so add only $48.00 for the year. You now spend $64.00 a year on gas, as opposed to $192.00, you saved $128.00 in gas alone. So who couldn't use a hundred or so more bucks? It's your money you earned it, save it where ever you can so you can have the things you still need in other areas of your life.

Not crazy at all. Take notice to some advice of the thread.

Non perishables are also easy to cook in situations of electrical outage and all you have is a wood stove or propane. Even ramen noodles if sitting long enough in room temp water become editable if nothing else is available.

I've donated food lately and found that the food banks(Western USA anyway) are suffering from lack of donations(people can't afford to donate) and the lines are growing from people who are financially in trouble. If in emergency you can't always rely on the once in need basis help provided by charity now days. Hell you can't rely on money to cover all food costs anymore...

Food prices are rising and will continue.
Last year: MSM on food shortages

reply to post by snowgirl


I think your grandparents would consider you both stupid and useless for not having a couple or several months of food to feed those babies.

6 months to a couple years, out of work on stampies and unenjoyment will give him the ass kicking he needs to shape up.

You just do what you feel is right and if its a problem then keep the stuff at a relatives place.

reply to post by SunflowerStar


Actually with gas running about $80 for a tank, you save a lot of money buying a month or two at a time.

Its those daily store trips that eat you alive in expenses.

Originally posted by snowgirl
This is starting to become a bone of contention between my partner and myself, and I'm not saying that one of us is 100% right and the other has got it all wrong BUT....is it seriously THAT crazy and ridiculous to have a good supply of food stashed away? I've basically got a few things, not loads, maybe enough for the 2 of us and the 2 kids to last us a few days at the most and my plan is to add to this every time I go food shopping.

One of the things I have quite a lot of are instant noodles, mainly because they are cheap and don't take up much space. My other half thinks I'm being over dramatic and that I'm becoming a 'hoarder' lol.....Just need a few opinions and maybe an example or two of what others are doing so I can then show them that I'm not going mad.



Would be much appreciated!!

Send some to me. I'm skint.

3 days! That's not very much.


Growing up Mormon I was used to having a years supply of food..... and there were 9 of us living at the house.

Most Mormons have something called a "Fruit Room" which is usually in the basement under the front porch. It is a room that is not insulated to the outside..... so it kept cool and kept the food well.

We had all the dried/dehydrated/canned foods you could think of. Looking back on it, I admire my parents for being prepared (even though it appears as paranoid)

I have 2 kids now, and I definitely want to have at least a months supply of food.

So I think you should keep that argument going and push for more food supply for any emergency.

On a side note....here's something funny.

For the past 2 Christmas's my parents have given me a box of food supply. lol

Everyone should be hoarding at least 6 months of food!

Only buy stuff on sale. like toilet paper. buy it for $5.00 for a huge pack rather than $10.00 as an example. I buy enough for 6 months. use as needed, and when next sale happens I make sure I have 6 months worth. Same thing for everything else. This way you go to the store less.....saving traveling money and time. Time and money to be spent elsewhere.....like hiking and vacationing and such.

Then make sure to have seeds. This way you can grow food if you are really faced with problems. Seeds fit in a safe and take up very little room. great for trading when tshtf! no ones gonna want silver or gold in the scenario of needing seeds to grow food. They will want shovels and hoes.

2 days of food is like having me trade you a single meal for you and your family, for ANYTHING I want from you! Think about it! If your starving, I own you! or anyone else can own you.

We are sale shoppers.
When things that we use go on sale, we buy a case.

It saves a lot of money once you get into it. We only need to buy fresh fruit and veggies weekly.

Try that approach and see if your partner can realize that over the course of a year, you'll be saving big time on your food bills.

Well my wife and I both believe stocking up items with long self-lives is one of the smartest things anyone can do. I personally believe it promotes good cooking habits and those good cooking habits promotes good health, and who knows, there is always a chance for rough patches here and there, but why sacrifice a required staple of life…. FOOD.

I'm presuming your main reason for stocking up items is in preparation for SHTF scenarios and that you told your significant other of this... ~shakes head~ …if this is the case most likely all you did was subconsciously frighten them a bit, and fear inhibits denial. You should always start and end positive if you want something... like how I stated it above about promoting good healthy eating habits and instead of using SHTF scenarios, use something not so scary like "we have a little extra money now, what if unexpected bills should come about. Preparing like this could help us out through financial hard times".

When I open my cupboard Its full of metal-fasten containers with all sorts of extended shelf life items. Just to name a few… We have
4 2-quart containers filled with different rice (wilds, brown, jasmine 15 to 25 minutes in boiling/simmering water to make a great healthy filler in any meal)
5 2-quart containers filled with dried beans (kidney, black, white, pinto which is a great source of protein and can be used in all sorts of recipes once softened up in boiling water… chili, stews, etc)
a 2-quart container each of dried split peas, lentils (great for soups), corn kernels (for lightweight popcorn snack), whole oats, steel cut multigrain and wheat germ (for hot breakfast cereals and for baking),
boxes and boxes of pasta (egg, multigrain, rice, clear great for filler),
1-quart containers of non-Sulfur Dioxide dried meats, fruits and vegetables (great as a snack or just soak in water to bring to life for recipes).
Then we have a variety of organic canned beans, vegetables, fruits and soups.
I also bulk up on salt and olive oil, because just these two items alone can make any food taste awesome.

All in all we end up only having to buy fresh perishable items and one or two non-perishables to rotate out our older things, and if we did experience hard times could easily sustain a healthy eating habit for a couple/few months and in essence saving $200 to $300 dollars per month in food alone.


Oh... and I like to rant and rave here all the time and experienced plenty of lost 1 to 2 page blabbers. Now I write everything in a word doc and copy/paste to here

reply to post by snowgirl
My wife an I have at least 3 months of food. Mostly protein sources like beans, flour, sugar, canned goods. We have water bottles, powdered flavours for it, powdered milk, etc.

We are always rotating our stock.

Are we nuts?
(don't answer that! )

reply to post by beezzer


You better watch out...anything more than 3 days and that makes you a crazy right wing home grown...whatever.