Not Stocking Up

Well, the day has arrived. We've even simulated an emergency event, in the form of a thunderstorm & freezing rain (just visualize a few degrees colder, and vast quantities of ice over everything) and we are now holed up with no opportunity to purchase more supplies... (Of course, the down side of imagining it as a weather event is that we're currently a two-household family, and much of our food stocks are holed up at the other house...so let's just pretend we have a teleporter booth to move from one house to the other...)

It took a lot of self-discipline (and several reminders to Greg) to avoid stocking up ahead of time. Each time I noticed something running low, I had an automatic better-get-it-now reaction, and I had to consciously evaluate each case and decide whether it was okay to replace it now, or whether I would normally wait for the next major shopping run. We generally observe Greenstar's "10% on the 10th" discount day, so most of our grocery store purchases happen on a monthly cycle. We skipped it in February, because we weren't aware of any shortages & it was an inconvenient day, so we're starting out a bit behind. But since missing it is not uncommon for us, I didn't feel right about going back and making it up.

Things I decided it was okay to go ahead and buy:

• Farmer's Market meat -- I knew they would be closed for the month of March, and I always stock up at the end of the season to hold me through until April.
• 365 Morning O's (imitation Cheerios) -- We used to buy the New Morning brand, until they were bought out last year by Attune Foods and discontinued. I'm peeved at the company for doing that, so we're phasing out Erewhon cereals too (another of their products.) So now we bulk buy boxed cereal from Whole Foods when we're on road trips. (I know the organic folks love to hate Whole Foods, but Sophia likes them better than the Heritage O's, which is our other wheat-free option.) We're trying to move more toward homemade breakfasts made with local/unprocessed ingredients, but it's hard to argue with the convenience of a cereal box.
• One bar of mint chocolate -- when Sophia heard we were doing this, her immediate response was, "But what if we run out of chocolate?" I told her we would just do without for a few days, but after thinking it over and assessing the supply, I decided we could justify replacing the mint flavor that we ran out of last week. We're still going to run out, unless we ration it, but it gives us a few more days. (We've been using a small daily dose of chocolate as a kinder & gentler home remedy for Sophia's ADHD.)
• One half-gallon jar of oat groats -- I'm getting ready to make a batch of granola, which uses a lot of oats. I decided we could justify it since the supply at my house was getting low, we weren't sure how much Greg had at his house, and he was going to Greenstar anyway to buy milk.
• Toilet paper -- we were running out, and I decided to buy two 12-packs instead of one (normally I would have bought one and waited until bulk day to stock up.) I basically decided that wiping with newsprint is beyond the scope of this particular experiment. I already know how it's done, and I'd prefer to save that experience for a genuine emergency...

Things I consciously did *not* stock up on:

• A couple months ago we accidentally opened three tubs of margarine at once, and all three of them are running low. One is now empty, and the other has about a tablespoon left; the third is still half full. I decided I wouldn't have noticed the low supply, and if I did I would have put it on the bulk list instead of buying it now.
• Fruits & veggies -- This is the time of year we usually get so tired of root veggies that we go out and start buying up tropical imports. I briefly considered getting something when I was at the store yesterday, but after looking over what was available I decided I wouldn't have found any of it tempting if I didn't know it was my last chance.
• Olives -- We use these off & on as a "vegetable" for Sophia's school lunches; I think there's some left at Greg's place but I'm pretty much all out.
• Snack foods -- We don't generally stock these, except for trail mix; we just buy them once in awhile as a treat. This is a conscious strategy to limit over-consumption (we deliberately allow the trail mix to run out, too, between bulk buys) so I didn't feel right about messing with it. They're so convenient, tho...
• Breads, bread mixes -- Because we're wheat-free, most of our "fresh" bread options come from the freezer. Recently we've started using a GF bread mix for sandwich bread, but I don't yet have a reliable home recipe (it's hard to get a texture that's palatable without being crumbly.) Normally I wait until bulk day to restock these, and use crackers or homemade quick breads to cover the gap if we run out.
• Toothpaste -- My tube is almost empty. I *think* Sophia's has plenty left, but she does the fist-grab thing instead of squeezing it from the bottom, so it's all crinkled, yecch. Oh well; I'll just have to brush in the downstairs bathroom if I run out, and put up with the aesthetic downgrade.
• Calcium supplements -- Both Sophia and I have started taking these, as a concession to our inability to consume milk. I'm not big on supplements: for the most part, I think food should be eaten in the form of food. But she's approaching adolescence and I'm approaching menopause --two critical periods in determining resistance to osteoporosis -- and it runs in my family so I'm concerned about it. I figured they're not that critical, and I wouldn't normally restock until I ran out.

Anyway, so far so good; we haven't run out of anything yet...