We have enough food to last us for quite a while, including stuff that is supposed to last for twenty years, and we buy more every now and then, when it's on sale. I'm hoping we'll never need it because I don't really want to be in a position where we would, and because the stuff I've tried doesn't really taste so good, although it is edible and not too bad. Since we have a big house and there's only two of us, we buy regular foods in bulk if it's something that will keep for a while, since there is comfort in knowing that we won't starve if bad times come. I don't buy a lot of stuff in cans. I used to eat canned vegetables and pasta all the time when I was in my late teens, but I'd rather not do that anymore. They can keep their canned corn and Spaghettios. I do buy soups in cans sometimes, not because they are particularly good, but because my wife won't eat soup and I don't always want to make it from scratch for myself, although I often do. I don't buy the Campbell's soups or the generic stuff, though. Sometimes, I'll buy Bush's Baked Beans because I like them, as well as sardines and kipper snacks.
You remind me of the story that my husband told me when he came back from the US. He stayed in his uncle's house. He was surprised to see the 2 refrigerators in the garage, that's apart from the big refrigerator in the kitchen area. Those 3 refrigerators were full of frozen food in its freezers, mostly meat, and the lower portion have all kinds of drinks, from beer to soda. I remember my husband said in his letter that the house seemed to have a built-in grocery. But they have a problem there because it is often that the frozen meat would spoil maybe due to the length of time it was stored. My husband's uncle did not have a system of inventory so they do not know which meat is the oldest and which is the newest. That's conducive to spoilage.
We bought a large chest freezer not long after we moved to Millinocket, but we couldn't remember what was in there most of the time, a lot of it would go bad before we decided to use it, and all it would take was a prolonged power outage to lose everything. We gave it away to our neighbor who hunts, and could use it to store venison or moose meat.
Yes Corrie I understand, that happens to many people, but I'm careful to keep my food constantly used and updated...
We have a side by side ref/fzr in the kitchen, an upright freezer in the laundry room and a chest freezer in the garage. Most of our meat is kept I the kitchen, the others store the crops from our garden that isn't canned. Power outages can be a concern if you don't have a generator. A note about "survival" foods. Those dry packaged foods that last for years overlook one very important thing. They say just add water but in a catastrophe, whether natural or manmade, water is the scarcest item on the planet. Canned foods, home canned or store bought, will also last 20 or more years and no added water is needed. They taste good too.
We got to tour our house before buying it and the owner was still living there. As we walked through the lower level I noticed she had every corner filled with packaged or canned foods and a very old freezer stocked with frozen meals and veggies. I was afraid that she would leave all that behind and I would have to go through and check every thing but all of it was gone. My neighbor saves her plastic bottles and fills them with water then stores them in her basement. She said you never know.
We do have to be prepared for disasters, so we keep things stocked up. Luckily we got weekly sales from supermarkets and CVS & Walgreens. So we get to stock up on food a lot. We have hurricane season till about Nov. these days. We watch the news morning and evening most days to keep abreast of weather situations. We have to keep our cupboards stocked constantly to be prepared for everything!
I've always stocked up; so did my parents. One thing I've not been able to figure out, though: is there any way to safely thaw out rock-solid-frozen milk?