Comments on: Out With The Old, In With The New: Clean Out Your Pantry and Restock It http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/ Financial talk for the rest of us Sat, 16 Feb 2013 01:14:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Laurel http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933360 Laurel Wed, 22 Dec 2010 15:46:47 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933360 I see that those who have answered usually wash the sheets and put them back on the bed the same day, but I’m with deRuiter with the three sets. I have a grandson who visits and still occasionally pees or vomits in the bed. Therefore, I need one set on the bed, one set to change in the middle of the night, and one set as a spare. I hope the charitable organizations appreciate the 20-year-old sheet sets I’m giving them.

BTW, there’s another expense. If you tend to hoard, you are paying to warehouse all that stuff!

]]> By: Fawn http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933332 Fawn Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:37:42 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933332 Staples for our shopping list that last a reasonable amount of time:
Pasta
Spaghetti Sauce/Alfredo
Boxed pasta and rices
Canned veggies
Beef, chicken, sometimes pork. Bought in bulk, seperated into ziploc bags and frozen.
Soups
Potatoes

Then I have my usual spices and such that I buy in bulk, that last a while.
We do get more fresh stuff when we need it, but this is stuff we have on hand regularly.

Sheets, I have one set that I wash and put back on in the same day. I do have a couple other sets, but don’t use them, thinking of getting rid of most of them.
Storage containers, I have more than I need, I should go through that drawer. I would say, we use up 5 at one time, not including the ones we have in the freezer.

]]> By: Evita http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933272 Evita Mon, 20 Dec 2010 22:00:36 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933272 This list is a joke! who in middle America (or Canada) uses all this? do YOU, Trent?

Thanks for the chuckle!!
(and the rest of the article is good advice)

]]> By: Kaz http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933218 Kaz Mon, 20 Dec 2010 01:23:20 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933218 It’s certainly not a given for me to get sheets washed and dry within a day – I line dry all my laundry and have no dryer.

I agree with many others here that you are better to work out some meals and shop for those. I have to say I don’t take too much notice of expiry dates on most things. I certainly don’t throw things out just because a date has been reached – will always check the contents first.

]]> By: Monroe on a Budget http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933215 Monroe on a Budget Sun, 19 Dec 2010 22:32:27 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933215 Trent – a better list of what to restock in your pantry can be done this way:
What are the 10 to 15 menus your family actually eats and likes the best? Write down every ingredient for those dishes. That’s your pantry list.

]]> By: 8sml http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933211 8sml Sun, 19 Dec 2010 21:31:48 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933211 In my house we have one bottle of hair products between the two of us (shampoo w/ conditioner) and no lotions/moisturizers, but our tupperware fills two giant drawers and still has to be stacked and arranged just so, or the drawers won’t close. And we use all our tupperware regularly (I won’t let it hang around if it’s not used, because of the aforementioned space issues).

But I’m pretty sure those aren’t normal numbers.

]]> By: Kristen@TheFrugalGirl http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933194 Kristen@TheFrugalGirl Sun, 19 Dec 2010 11:24:05 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933194 I’m another one with very few sheets. I have one set of woven sheets and one set of flannel sheets for our bed. We use one set in the summer and one in the winter, and I just wash them and put them back on the bed.

Big upside? I only have to fold sheets twice a year!

]]> By: Janis http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933183 Janis Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:37:57 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933183 I always enjoy reading lists of “must have” pantry staples, but have to agree with the others who’ve said to stock what you will actually eat. I cook a lot and mostly “from scratch,” yet I’ve never in my life used canned artichokes hearts. We so rarely use ketchup, that I think our one and only bottle is from a cook-out a few summers ago. (Hmmm, guess I better chuck it!) I make my own salad dressings and don’t see the need to pay for commercial salad dressings. I make my own vegetable broth and bread crumbs, too.

On the other hand, my pantry is stocked with items that didn’t make the official list, but which are no less essential to my cooking: ume plum vinegar, toasted sesame oil, various seeds (pumpkin, flax, and both black and white sesame seeds), dried cranberries, oatmeal, nuts (almonds, walnuts, peanuts, and cashews), curry spices, blackstrap molasses, and good ol’ popcorn.

As for sheets, I’m with Lauren (#23): we wash our bedding and have the bed made up again before bed-time, so we only really need the one set per bed, plus emergency back-up sheets. We scored a deal on flannel sheet sets a few years ago, so we switch between smooth cotton and flannel depending on the season, with the other set serving as emergency reserve.

]]> By: Interested Reader http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933181 Interested Reader Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:10:57 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933181 Spices and herbs do not have to be expensive. Check out natural foods stores or other places they have them in bulk.

At the local place I go to I can buy enough of 5 different herbs/spices to refill the glass jars I have for $2-3. Usually less.

The last time I went to refill a single jar I spent about $0.12.

]]> By: Lauren http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933176 Lauren Sat, 18 Dec 2010 23:32:34 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933176 We basically use one set of sheets per bed. We have some older ones in a closet for backups in case of emergency, but since when can’t you wash & dry a set of sheets during the day, and get them back on the bed by nightfall?

]]> By: deRuiter http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933172 deRuiter Sat, 18 Dec 2010 20:59:08 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933172 3 sets of sheets per bed would give you one set on the bed, one in laundry and a spare on the linen closet shelf.
Like the ‘use more if they’re a little old<# comment, it's true. Also like the suggestion to make 5 or six recipes and buy only ingredients for those favorite recipes which will give you stuff in pantry and freidge which you will eat.

]]> By: Amy P http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933168 Amy P Sat, 18 Dec 2010 20:28:46 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933168 “What I need now is a rational person who can tell me how many sets of sheets a NORMAL household has. How much Tupperware/plasticware a NORMAL kitchen needs. How many bottles of lotion, shampoo, and hair products a NORMAL woman has. If you know that person, let me know!”

I’m not sure if I qualify as a “rational person”, but I’ve had a good long run of washing the sheets on my bed and then putting them back on the same night. Somewhere in my sheet collection, I may have more that are the right size, but I don’t need them right now. The extras are handy for school costuming.

I believe the current count (at our household of four) is about five bottles of shampoo, two bottles of conditioner, one tub of Eucerin moisturizer, one bottle of Olay SPF15, one bottle of vitamin E oil, and one tube of Lansinoh (it’s lanolin for breastfeeding mothers, but we like it for overnight cold weather hand treatment). I’m trying to be a less adventurous shopper, so I don’t buy a lot of new (expensive!) skin products and cosmetics and then have them sit unused for a few years. I used to try a lot more products, but now these items are mostly on a one-in, one-out basis, which I think is generally a good idea.

With regard to Tupperware and that sort of thing, have you ever noticed how rarely you use that stuff or how few actually get used at one time? Or how often the lids stop fitting on the containers after going through the dishwasher? Or what a number tomato sauce does on plastic containers? I’ve whittled my storage containers down to mostly a single shelf (!) in my kitchen. I hand out containers to the kids for their personal storage as needed, to my husband for garage storage, and I just gave away some cookies in an old metal fruitcake tin. Also, I’m storing the containers with their lids on. That takes up a lot of space, but since there’s no hunting for lids, we get more use out of them.

]]> By: Laurel http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933164 Laurel Sat, 18 Dec 2010 18:54:33 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933164 I did this out of necessity. I had some little black bugs that infested everything that contained flour. I pulled out EVERYTHING, including the 10-year old lasagne (who knew lasagne turned orange after 10 years? COOL!), the 7 bags of infested spaghetti (I kept forgetting I already had some), the boxes of Hambuger Helper (cringe), the OLD cake mixes, etc. I noticed that the things that weren’t infested were the items in screw-top containers, so I went to the dollar store and bought at least 20 plastic screw-top containers/canisters. Now EVERYTHING is in a container. I took things like mac & cheese out of the box and put each in a separate ziploc bag and then in the container. Each time I make mac & cheese, that ziploc goes back in the container. Now I KNOW what I have in the pantry and have a ‘mini/max’ system so that I know how many of each item I have and how many I need. My pantry is organized, clean, and most importantly PEACEFUL!

I also realized that I don’t need to have things like lasagne on hand for the few times/year that I make lasagne. When I DO make it, there will be other ingredients that I need so I’ll just buy the lasagne noodles then.

I kept the pretty old Spice Islands bottles, threw out the contents, and filled them with the dollar store spices. Now when they lose their strength, I don’t feel so guilty about throwing them out….AND I put a label on the bottom of the bottle with the date I opened the new container of spices.

My goal for 2011 is to go through every drawer and closet and get rid of 75% of what I’ve accumulated over the past 20 years (and not buy more!) What I need now is a rational person who can tell me how many sets of sheets a NORMAL household has. How much Tupperware/plasticware a NORMAL kitchen needs. How many bottles of lotion, shampoo, and hair products a NORMAL woman has. If you know that person, let me know!

]]> By: GayleRN http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933157 GayleRN Sat, 18 Dec 2010 15:10:53 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933157 Dried morels? Do you have any idea what those cost? If you can find them. Most people around here have to hunt the little critters in the wild. God help you if you poach them. I am speaking of hunting on someone else’s property not cooking. Everybody I know just keeps a couple of cans of mushrooms in the cupboard or buys fresh for a recipe.

]]> By: Ashley http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933140 Ashley Sat, 18 Dec 2010 04:35:33 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933140 There is a huge variation in spice prices across the country. I currently live in the DC area, and here the price of a small jar of typical spices (nutmeg, chili powder, garlic salt, etc) can easily be $4-5. The same name brand jar is often just 50 or 75 cents and a large jar of off-brand spices are about $1 in Iowa where I am originally from. I try to have my family send me spices when I’m running low. The shipping costs are easily recovered, especially when sending them with stuff that is being sent anyway.

]]> By: nate http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933139 nate Sat, 18 Dec 2010 03:59:50 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933139 This list is fine and dandy if you live in North America. I don’t! I live in Asia where most of this stuff is impossible to find or so expensive that it would make frugality a laughing matter. Or my personal taste isn’t the same. Here’s what I mean:

* Anchovies: NOT AVAIL.
* Artichokes: NOT AVAIL.
* Beans: an assortment of canned-IF YOU CONSIDER KIDNEY BEANS AN “ASSORTMENT”……WELL OK…
or dry (more work but tastier) NOT AVAIL
* Capers: INSANELY EXPENSIVE & HARD TO FIND.
* Chutney: NOT AVAIL
* Clam juice: NOT AVAIL
* Corn meal: NOT AVAIL
* Coconut: either shredded in a can-NOT AVAIL
* Dried fruits-VERY EXPENSIVE
* Dried herbs: VERY FEW AVAIL
* Extracts: vanilla-ITS POWDER FLAVORING STUFF but try orange and almond-NOT AVAIL
* Mustard: Dried NOT AVAIL
* Olives: BLACK & GREEN CANNED AT US$5 PER CAN.
* Peanut butter: EIWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
* Peas: NOT AVAIL.
* Pesto, NOT AVAIL
* Rice:WHITE OR BROWN STICKY RICE ARE YOUR CHOICES
* Sauces: Tamari, NOT AVAIL
Teriyaki,NOT AVIL
and Worcestershire NOT AVAIL
* Tomatoes: sun-dried NOT AVAIL
* Vinegar: white wine, red wine,NOT AVAIL

And I agree with others that things are missing. Where’s the baking powder? baking soda? yeast? spaghetti sauce? I feel if everyone cleaned out their pantry and bought everything on this list they’d be throwing alot of stuff out in 12 months.

]]> By: wren http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933137 wren Sat, 18 Dec 2010 02:57:18 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933137 I do cook (quite well and often, if I do say so), and I can’t remember the last time I used chutney, anchovies, ketchup, etc. I agree with the others about arbitrary lists not being useful. I understand the idea is to stock with ingredients rather than prepared foods, but we don’t all have the same tastes in ingredients any more than we have the same tastes in prepared foods. Buy what you will eat.

I won’t get into the spice thing because I am a stickler for good spices and absolutely can and do taste the difference between good/low quality spices and fresher/old spices. The “good” spices don’t really cost much more than the colored dust on the grocery shelves because you don’t need to use as much of it.

]]> By: KC http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933135 KC Sat, 18 Dec 2010 02:37:33 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933135 Good advice about spice and their flavor fade. I’d never thought of just using more – good advice. I have lots of old spices in my cabinet – some of them a decade old. OK, maybe those need to go :)

]]> By: Des http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933132 Des Sat, 18 Dec 2010 00:55:39 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933132 Spices are only expensive if you buy them conveniently packaged in the little jars. If you get them from the bulk bins, most are hellacheap. That being said, I still agree that I can’t tell the difference between old spices and new in a recipe. If your palette is that refined, you should probably be drying your own spices anyway because who knows how long those things have been sitting on your grocers shelf/warehouse before they got to you.

]]> By: Gretchen http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2010/12/17/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-clean-out-your-pantry-and-restock-it/#comment-933130 Gretchen Fri, 17 Dec 2010 23:51:10 +0000 http://www.thesimpledollar.com/?p=6390#comment-933130 If you smell the open jar and it smells like spice, it’s good to go.

If it smells like nothing, it won’t taste like anything either.

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