The faceplate of a standard duplex US outlet has a small screw in the center to hold the plate onto the outlet body inside the wall.
A male plug can be made with a small extra tab with a hole that aligns with that screw. So remove the screw, plug in the plug, fhen install the same or a longer screw through the hole in the tab, the hole in the faceplate, and into the outlet body. The plug is now trapped in the outlet.
Somebody in search of a handy outlet to plug their whatever into won’t be unwittingly unplugging your freezer.
Considering the shortages I still see, I’ll stock up on staples when I can. I see canned tomatoes without calcium chloride? I’m buying half a dozen. Hidden Valley buttmilk (real) ranch dressing mix? I’m grabbing a handful.
Indeed. Pretty much all of my stockpile has been done via specials-just this week I have gotten not 1 but two $10 off coupons for toilet paper/paper towels. Fully 75%+ of the items I buy now are on sale, I am able to anticipate Meijer’s sale cycles and have enough staples on hand to hold out until the next cycle. They also have a points program which has allowed me to buy a full gallon of gas from their pumps for $1.10 off, which for me since I require premium has been a godsend. My fave points generators have been gift cards.
Looking at other shoppers tho very few of them appear to shop the way I do; they seem to choose things on short-term need without any sort of longer-term strategy. But I am a single living alone and they likely have families. Still I see people ignoring the sale items and grabbing the non-sale equivalents right next to them.
Some people have brand preferences, or even product-size preferences. “What fits conveniently in that spot in my kitchen door” is a real consideration.
Yeah, just recently I found an app called Flipp (it’s also a website), that compiles all the local supermarket circulars into one place. And it’s searchable! I’ve not really used it for stockpiling, but I’ve used it to find deals I would not normally have found on meats and fruits and that kind of stuff. I’m pretty much a daily supermarket shopper (I would say 5 days a week I’m at at least one supermarket–I enjoy grocery shopping, obviously), so I can make the rounds of the various supermarkets nearby. My general area of Chicago is luckily pretty much the opposite of a food desert.
In the grocery store I shop at regularly which keeps a running total of all the discounts I’ve gotten this year, the total “savings” is under 10% of my spend. The average is over 20% I’m sure and for some people it is over 30%, even 40%.
But I buy mostly organic products, which are much less likely to be on sale, I am fiercely loyal to some brands (King Arthur Baking!) and do not stock up on anything. I also shop for my meal plans for the next 2-3 days in fresh food (vegetables, meat, fish and dairy) so I buy what I need. I also buy seafood and dairy from local producers a lot. And in season fruits and vegetables from farm stands too.
Despite all the wailing and gnashing of teeth, my food costs are a lower percentage of my income now than they were 20 years ago. My income has not moved up the percentiles in those years, though I was pretty high then and am pretty high now (top 10% nationally, top 20% locally).
For people at the median income, I can see it being a different equation. For me, being more free when food shopping probably doesn’t amount to one nice restaurant meals a month, probably a LOT less. I’m just not going to buy Gala apples when I want Fuji because Gala is on sale this week for $1.99 vs $2.99. Or a five pound bag of carrots because on sale it’s almost the same as a two pound bag. I don’t want a month’s supply of carrots.
Publix used to sell $50 gas cards for $40 occasionally, with the purchase of fifty dollars worth of groceries. So we would tighten our belts until gas card week rolled around, and then buy All The Things, plus as many gas cards as we qualified for. I wish they’d offer those again!
You’ll see it on a display labeled “Sld. Dressings, Ass. Flvrs”
My wife is highly organized, and I do the grocery shopping. Between us, we’ve got a system where we’ll plan meals for the week, scour the pantry, and make exactly the shopping list we need, for pickup at the store. When I place the order, I watch for sales and bargains, and triple up on anything that I know we’ll use.
Our fridge is unwieldily packed right now, with the shopping just done. By next Saturday morning, it’ll be almost completely bare again.
The pantry is well-stocked with cans of tomatoes and beans and tuna, and glass jars full of beans and grains
Same, and probably similar income. Except that I’m annoyed if they don’t have the 5lb bag of carrots in stock, because my husband will eat that in a week. He snacks on carrots.
I do buy a lot of fresh fruit when it’s on sale, though, because that usually corresponds to when it’s in season, and it’s often best when it’s cheapest.
I used to buy more than I do now. I grew up with a mother who had a well stocked “bomb shelter” room in the basement. At least that’s what we used to call it. Long after the bomb scares of the 1960s it morphed into an overstock location for canned goods.
In the winter or during local road construction I might buy an extra item or two.
I have the space and finances to stockpile but I do not feel that it fits my lifestyle at the moment.
I don’t cook much and don’t eat a lot these days.
Mostly it’s the physical portion of stockpiling that bothers me. It’s difficult for me to shop & then transport items into the house. I can still do it fine but with limited quantities.
I am also trying to live in the present a bit more plus actively trying to move. So it’s better for me to have less on hand.
This is why we have an upright. I’m 5’4" and have confirmed on freezer display models in stores that it would be quite difficult for me to reach things on the bottom without risking falling in. Also, uprights take up less footprint (important for someone who generally lives in fairly small apartments) and can still be used if the flat surface at the top ends up attracting stuff stored on it (again, space challenges). A chest model would attract enough stuff put on the top that it would become impractical to use it very quickly in my household.
Are those still from 2020?
Size considerations would be part of why I buy milk in half-gallons and do not buy 2-liter bottles of other beverages. Larger containers just don’t fit well in my current refrigerator. Of course, in a two-person household, it’s by no means certain that we’ll get through a gallon of milk in time (fluctuating food preferences make planning such things quite the challenge).
I’ve had or lived with a number of chest freezers over the years. I’ve never had any problem re-opening the lid.
– I have two chest freezers. They’re in an unheated back hall and in winter might take weeks to thaw even if unpowered. In the summer they’d thaw faster; but still not as fast as an upright would, and they’re easier to throw blankets over to keep them cold.
The item-stuck-in-the-bottom is an issue of management. I’m not super great at it, but even a bit of sorting now and then to keep a mix of stuff near the top and duplicate items that won’t be needed for some time down in the bottom helps. So do boxes to divide stuff up into. So does a freezer list, with items removed and added as they come in or out. – I doubt an upright would solve the problem of the occasional Thing Lost In The Back/Bottom. I don’t have any more problem with the freezers than with the refrigerator about that.
I think that must assume that you buy all your food at the grocery and that you get to the grocery at least every few days. If you’re putting a years’ worth of snap, snow, and shell peas in the freezer during about a four-week pea season and getting a dozen large chickens at a time when your neighbor slaughters a batch, you need a lot more space than that. Also if you don’t grocery shop often, even if you get everything at the store.
In addition to those reasons: occasionally, if you look, the non-sale item is still cheaper than the sale item.
When I was newly single and moved into this place I stockpiled a lot of food. A lot of it expired and was thrown out. During the lockdown I stockpiled a lot of food. A lot of it expired and was thrown out. I try not to stockpile too much food.
Not a stockpiler in OP’s economic sense — it seems there’s always a good buy on several things at the grocer but there aren’t many items that we’d want a 10 month supply of.
Maybe peanut butter.
I have become a bush league ‘prepper’, partly due to covid, partly in fear of floods/tornados, but mostly due to actual insanity at the highest levels of US government. Beyond the 7-10 days of normal food in the fridge and cabinets, the pantry has 3-6 weeks worth of abnormal basic nutrition items. Protein, fats, carbs, vitamins, calcium.
That stash is about 5 lbs of protein powder; maybe 15 lbs of rices, beans, lentils. A few cans of peach slices, a few jars of applesauce. Canned nuts. Canned fish. Canisters of oatmeal. There are ordinary amounts of butter and cooking oils in the kitchen, and I try to not let our supply run low — same with flour.
It’s all stuff we eat during the year, so it doesn’t go bad. Peanut butter is the King of Emergency Rations. Long-lasting ez-2-eat fats and protein. If my favorite goes on sale (Jif crunchy in the 40-oz jar) I might well buy 10-months worth.
If you’ve never been to Costco, you might imagine that you have to buy something like ketchup (or mayonnaise) in a gallon container but it’s actually not like that at Costco. Googling, they sell a three-pack of Heinz ketchup in 44-ounce squeeze top bottles. The supermarkets also sell the ketchup in that size bottle, though they also have it in smaller sizes. And even if three 44-ounce containers are too much for you, you could split the pack with two other households.
In short, Costco’s customer base is primarily households and that determines the package sizes. (Costco does have Business Center stores that do target restaurants, convenience stores and other businesses and those stores do have larger containers. Googling, Heinz ketchup at the Costco Business Center is available in a 114 ounce bottle.)
I’m a single person who shops at Costco (though I don’t pay for the membership; instead I use the second card from my parents’ membership). I buy things like produce, eggs, gasoline and a very few non-food items there. You might also buy things like paper towels or trash bags from there; yes, the package quantities are enormous but the items don’t spoil.
