Living the Pantry Lifestyle - Stock up week before the election

Our Internet finally came back on after being off for awhile.  I'm thinking the high winds may have something to do with it. (The new and improved Internet service has not made it to our gravel lane, yet.) So, just in case we lose Internet again... I am not going to put any links in today's blog post.  I will just type as fast as possible! 

There have been a couple red flags to indicate the need to be prepared more than usual on the prepper vlogs recently.  The first has to do with the shortage of diesel fuel needed to transport food and supplies.  

Is there really a shortage and if there is, what caused it? I'm past speculating about such things these days.  Instead, I decided to finish my stock up shopping this week instead of doing the Sam's and Walmart shopping next week.  I don't purchase very much at either place, which made it easy.

I also do not plan on being out and about after we vote on Tuesday.  We don't live in an area where there has been much political outrage taken to the streets.  There were some marches prior to and after the presidential election but mostly the battles were on social media and I avoided them as much as possible.

Having said that, it is still a good idea to listen to warnings from some people that we should be at least a little stocked up before the election.  Sometimes the speculation from those who study what is going on in the world around us is justified.  It wouldn't hurt to be prepared, especially if you live in a major city where there could be unrest.

I have been making an effort recently to plan our meals more than I have since the kids left home.  Especially to try inexpensive but tasty meals.  Last week I slow cooked deboned chicken thighs until they were almost falling apart.  I drained the liquid into a bowl and added a jar of Aldi's butter chicken sauce, then baked it another fifteen minutes.  I served it along with naan bread that I had toasted.

It was inexpensive and delicious but what shocked me was that my husband, who dislikes dark meat poultry and any Indian sauce on anything... really liked it.  I usually have the butter chicken sauce in the pantry but this was the first time I bought deboned chicken thighs.  They were a winner!  This made enough for two meals.

My second attempt at something new was a purchase of a pork shoulder roast (Boston Butt) at Sam's Club.  I am slow roasting it today to make pulled pork.  We will see how it turns out but it certainly smells good.  I made a simple rub of garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, smoked paprika, and salt.  For liquid, I added two tablespoons of tomato paste to a cup of warm water.  It has been slow roasting in the oven since this morning.

As far as shortages while shopping, I noticed a shortage of herbs and spices at some of the stores.  I wanted to purchase a small container of dill but the only dill I could find in three stores was one of the pricier brands.  Since I needed it for a recipe, I went ahead and bought the brand that was available.

It looks like the common spices used during the Holidays were available but I wouldn't wait until the last minute.  

We always purchase the Kroger brand of club soda and there was none to be found this past week.  There was also no room for it on the shelves, which had been moved to a new location.  That was odd.

Meijer had a lot of empty shelves when I shopped on Tuesday. It had the most shortages of all the stores.  The only sugar they had was powdered sugar when I was there.  They were out of a few nonfood items I needed so I will probably return on Monday to see if they are now in stock. 

Kroger was well stocked although a little low on some items such as flour and sugar.  They didn't have frozen organic fruit and were once again very limited on their brand of frozen organic vegetables.  They have been out of most of the organic vegetables for awhile but at least this week they had frozen organic spinach.  Their organic corn is only available in a large bag recently.  Instead, I have been buying the Birdseye brand.

Aldi has been out of half-and-half for a long time but they were finally in stock this week.  They now have most of their Holiday foods in stock, including their vintage looking foil wrapped chocolates.  I bought them on this shopping trip to make certain I had them for Oliver and Piper this Christmas.

Aldi is well known for their charcuterie board offerings at a good price.  Even with higher prices all around, I thought they were reasonable.  Although, I didn't buy any so I hope they haven't gone up in price by December.  

I have noticed that even the Aldi prices have gone up a lot.  Whoever says the rate of inflation is 8% has not shopped for food.  Some of the food items we purchase have gone up 50% to 100% in the various stores.

I only needed a few items at Sam's Club.  So, I stopped by when running errands near there last week.  They had the pecans and the cashews I needed but they didn't have my favorite Kerrygold Irish butter in stock. 

I had to purchase insulin pen needles at Walmart on Friday.  While there, I looked around to see how their stock looked.  They are putting out the Pioneer Woman Christmas plates and such and they are always cute.  Their food section seemed to be well stocked but the one thing I noticed that was odd is the very long rack of clearance clothing.

I had heard that Walmart had a lot of clothing come in that had been delayed in shipping.  The long rack, probably multiple racks put together, had so many clothes that I doubt there was room for any more.

So, most of my grocery shopping is complete for November.  I only have to go back for produce and dairy, as well as what they were out of last week.  Also, any last minute purchases for Thanksgiving recipes.

The wind is picking up again so I had better publish this before we lose Internet connection again.  Every time we have this kind of winds going through, I am very thankful to God that we could have those old (and very big) trees next to our house cut down.  We already had near misses with some huge branches.  

He does take care of His people and He will provide for you.