This is the last, the very last year I skip stocking up my house, pantry and freezer for the winter!

I did the buy when I began to take the forecasts seriously, but even by Wednesday the shelves were beginning to go bare and the crowds were getting horrible. This morning while I was out on another errand I tried to get a couple items I missed and had to stop at several stores before I could find what I was looking for and even then I felt lucky. The lines to the checkouts were the longest I’d ever seen.

That was what my stocking up every late October to mid November was meant to avoid, but that had been instilled into me at a very young age and it surprises me in retrospect that I let myself skip it this year. Mom grew up in the Pennsylvania mountains during the Great Depression and stocking up for the winter was just a routine thing I grew up with. But the winters lately have been so mild these past few years I thought I’d spare the big end of year expense and just buy as needed through the winter. I’m guessing now a lot of other people made that same calculation and that’s why the snow forecast dogpile was much worse than I’d ever seen.

It’s not really so expensive because it evens out over the winter if you plan it right. You’ve bought what you would have anyway, just all at once. So no wasted money or time because you will use it anyway and now you don’t have to go to the store to get it, and nothing goes to waste. You pay attention to the sell by or use by dates when you buy, feed on what expires first, and replace perishables you can’t freeze as needed until April. You can do that between snow forecast dog piles. Come spring and summer, the canned goods you bought that look like they’ll expire before you get around to eating them you can donate to a food bank. Things that don’t expire like paper towels, soap and detergent you don’t have to worry about. They’re cheaper when you buy in bulk anyway.

I’m good now. If we don’t get the large snowfall/sleet/ice amounts I’ve been hearing that’s okay. I know I’ll hear complaining if it doesn’t happen or it’s not as bad. Those people are idiots.