Usually I try to limit my shopping trips to two per month for budget and common sense reasons. First of all I have better things to do than wander around a market, secondly anytime you go you will spend more than you planned and get more than you need, leading to wasted food, time and money.
I lived several years in the mountains of Montana, about 30 minutes drive from any sort of market, and an hour from a real market – and that was in the summer, winter trips were hazardous at best and at times impossible.
Winters were long and dark, and much of the regular work was also slowed or stopped so from October to March some years were cold, dark, and broke. The weather was unpredictable, and the power would go out sometimes for weeks, which meant wood or propane cooking, and moving freezer items outdoors where they wouldn’t thaw.
You learn to stock well, plan ahead, and not waste anything. In all though it did prepare me for times of low income and knowing how to stock up and use up on a budget.
During these times of social distancing the best we can do for the grocery workers and our fellow humans is to limit exposure, which includes limiting our trips to the market, and limiting our time in the market, and limiting what we touch when we are there. I have always said know your store, so you know where everything is …now more than ever.
Stocking up – not “hoarding” just buying what you will need for a month in one trip rather than several trips a week is just the responsible thing to do.
I had a rather strange situation that allows me to nearly double my non-exposure. I moved into a new apartment the first of February, but it was still in a horrible state of disrepair. I would have just walked away and found another place but they said it would be finished, then extended it and I was down to moving day and was told it was complete … no shower, no functioning range for several weeks and several return visits by the repair people. Meanwhile I have a long planned vacation coming up, and I still haven’t tested my freezer (you don’t do that?).
So I put a full freezer stash at one of my offices kitchens, dropped my things at the apartment, went on my vacation, and returned to my state shutting down …. Should have stayed in the Islands.
So that explains how I had a freezer full of food stashed away. I went on one shop blind, had a small shop after inventory and that is pretty much it for round one.
Round two will be retrieving that stash from a closed-down office, and doing one shop to fill in what is not in the freezer …. frankly I’m curious what is in there. I will fill in what what is needed to round out meals.
