Stock up as you can, @Yvonne, and buy extra of whatever you need/want, especially in the food arena. People are totally unaware of what is coming down the pike at them next winter.
I am doing that, @Don Alaska . At first, I was just buying what we needed and saving up food stamps as much as I could, in case we needed extra food. But now, I am concerned that if/when the economy collapses, any saved EBT will also disappear, so I am going to use it up and turn it into food as much as possible. We have one bedroom that I use as a pantry, so I have room to add more storable food in there. We seem to have Biden in one breath talking about having digital currency, and in the next breath warning us of a possible cyber attack or EMP. That is even more scary, because if they turn all of the money digital, then the accounts can be frozen even easier than they already can. After watching what happened in Canada with the Trucker’s caravan there, we should all be aware how easily the government can empty our bank accounts. Some people are advising that we should all take out the money from our bank account, but trying to find a safe place to hide it at home is not easily done either. But, even if money is not worth anything, food will always be valuable.
I just ran to Menards (ran? good trick on one leg and a cane. I will need a sack to do it, and another person) Anyway, if you get in early, they have good deals on trees and shrubs. I got a red bartlett pear tree for 30% more than they were last year.
Good for you, @Yvonne Smith. The cyber currency note is also a true statement. The people pushing the cyber stuff think it is incorruptible, but Bitcoin can be manipulated just like the fiat currencies, just in a more indirect way. China was doing just that earlier last year. Nobody knows what China and Russia would choose to cyber attack, but they could easily shut down federal payments, so federal and vert's pensions, Social Security payments, and even the IRS refunds. I wonder if they could stop Congress and the Executive branch from receiving paychecks?
Well I'm a Beans n Rice w/sausages man. I never spend a lot on groceries compared to large families or any family with school aged children. My hat goes off to them for staying the course and cope with all the bad things we see today. It will return to normal one day. My personal curse for now is drinking carbonated drinks instead of juice that I once drank like water. I have to say the carbonated drinks are the generic ones that have at least one half less carbonation. Three months ago the drinks were 35 cents a large bottle or a quart. Last month they were up to 79 cents, and last week they were 1.35. Still a good price for what you get if you like sodas. The little store I shop has a pretty decent deli and I usually get two sandwiches which are 2 dollars a sandwich, not bad for what you get. I have a weakness for the catfish and fries which aren't always in the lunch group. To tell the truth lately I spend more on 3 kittens and the neighbors cat. I buy the 12 can pack of Friskies cat food and a bag of good dry food. I bought box of dry for kittens and surprisingly they can eat it already. Tomorrow I will probably have hamburger I bought two weeks ago. Just too lazy to stand there and cook it, my knees and lower back are so bad, just bending my head down while cooking pulls up on my spine and down on my neck, the perfect storm to bring a person to their knees. Back to the cost, I refilled two meds this week and bought four small bottles of Tylenol arthritis 650mg, that alone was 20 bucks but without it I would probably jump off a bridge.
My handiman just told me that a discount (scratch and dent) food store just opened on the north side of town. I haven't been, as yet, but this might be in the future for many towns. We had one a long time ago in a town about 15 minutes SW. It was called railroad salvage. (?) Just make sure the dents are not along the seams and things should be OK. Expired food is fine. Maybe the vitamins are not all there but they won't poison you. Been eating them from my pantry for years.
There used to be a Hostess Bakery outlet near where I grew up. It sold seconds and nearly-expired goods. We'd go in there and stock up our freezer. I don't know what happened to it...most likely rising rents in a fast-growing area pushed it out. The only canned good I have had go bad was tomato products...tomato sauce, peeled tomatoes, crushed tomatoes. For some reason I ended up with a supply of those at the back of a cabinet, and some must not have gotten rotated to the front. There were likely there for over 20 years. One of them exploded in the middle of the night, and it set off a small chain reaction where 2 others also went. When I was cleaning up the mess, there were a few intact swollen cans that I probably should have called the bomb squad to remove.
Yup, I will eat expired food but swollen cans are pretty much removed here. Some might taste a bit tinny.