Do You Over-buy?

[Juliebove]

When my daughter was diagnosed, I bought every kind of gluten-free flour there was, only to wind up throwing most of them away after they expired. I am doing better on the flour now, buying a four flour blend, sweet rice and brown or white rice (whatever my current recipe calls for) and only other flours if I know for sure I will be making a recipe that calls for something I don't have. But I am having trouble with some other stuff.

Like the beef jerky I can only get at the bread outlet. They sell regular bread which I do eat, but I don't eat much of it and I don't usually even buy the bread. I can also get some gluten-free mustard there, but not much else. So when I do buy the jerky, I feel like I need to buy a lot of it so I don't have to go back again.

Or the Orgran canned pasta that have to mail order. I feel like I need to order a case of it at a time to justify the postage I spend on it. And lots of other things that I mail order. Many places offer a case discount so I buy a case.

But what often happens is daughter decides she is sick of something and never wants to eat it again. Or it expires before we can eat it all. I'm thinking of the Ener-G bread here. When I order it online, I never know what expiration date witll be on it. Usually it is a year or so away. But sometimes it's just a week or two and that doesn't make me happy. That has happened twice.

I guess I am lucky in that I am finding more and more of these products locally so I can buy them as I need them. But for the other things, I find I am buying too much and having problems with finding places to store it all. I have no pantry and my kitchen is small. I bought shelves and bins to put in the dining room to store her food, but some of it (like the Ener-G bread) has to go out in the garage. Gah!

Do you find yourself having the same problem? If not, how do you do it?

[JennyC]

OH, YES I DO OVER-BUY! I can't help you because I can't help myself. I have cut down on it a little by making a list of what I do have at home before I go to the store...but my house is packed with food.

[Pyro]

I had a serious problem with that. Since it was only ME buying things it was worse. Instead of letting them expire or "degrade" in the freezer I almost always end up eating the whole thing. Definitely not good.

Definitely glad I'm cutting them out too.

[celiac-mommy]

When the Envirokids cereal and bars are on sale at Fred Meyer, I buy as much as I can. I refuse to spend 4-6$ on a box of cereal, so 2 for 5$ is a great deal over here! (I had 15 boxes in my pantry last week--you never know when they'll go on sale again )

[Juliebove]

OH, YES I DO OVER-BUY! I can't help you because I can't help myself. I have cut down on it a little by making a list of what I do have at home before I go to the store...but my house is packed with food.

Well, at least I know I'm not the only one!

[Juliebove]

When the Envirokids cereal and bars are on sale at Fred Meyer, I buy as much as I can. I refuse to spend 4-6$ on a box of cereal, so 2 for 5$ is a great deal over here! (I had 15 boxes in my pantry last week--you never know when they'll go on sale again )

I did that with the Envirokids bars when I couldn't find them in any stores. I ordered a ton online, only to discover they no longer had canola oil in them but canola or soybean oil. I had to give them all away.

[JNBunnie1]

We buy in BULK, but we eat so damn much food that we've almost never had anything go bad or unused. My boyfriend literally buys 24 big 2lb containers of plain yogurt at a time, but he eats 1 1/2 a day, so it makes sense to not drive up 25 min away twice a week. I thin you just have to learn to manage your over buying, and put your gluten-free flours in the freezer.

[Juliebove]

No room in the freezer for flour. I buy Ian's chicken nuggets, one case at a time. I get a 10% discount! I also keep a few boxes of fish sticks and a few kid's meals. Daughter loves Coconut Bliss so I have a few cartons of that. And I usually buy 3-4 boxes of frozen strawberry pops at a time. Husbandd will eat a box in a day. Add in a few packages of meat and a few bags of frozen vegetables and there's no more room!

[Phyllis28]

I have some staples that I like to always have around, so I buy more of these than I use in a week. I keep my gluten free flours and mixes in the freezer since I don't bake a lot. Otherwise, I only buy what I need for the week. It helps that WholeFoods is only 4 miles away if I need something in the middle of the week.

I do not order anything mail order. If I can not find something where I shop locally I live without it. I know this approach is not for everyone. I adpoted this approach when I went gluten free 30 years ago out of necessity. Very little specialty gluten free food was available and what was was not worth eating.

[Juliebove]

I have some staples that I like to always have around, so I buy more of these than I use in a week. I keep my gluten free flours and mixes in the freezer since I don't bake a lot. Otherwise, I only buy what I need for the week. It helps that WholeFoods is only 4 miles away if I need something in the middle of the week.

I do not order anything mail order. If I can not find something where I shop locally I live without it. I know this approach is not for everyone. I adpoted this approach when I went gluten free 30 years ago out of necessity. Very little specialty gluten free food was available and what was was not worth eating.

If I were the one eating gluten-free then I could probably do that. But daughter has to eat not only gluten-free but has additional food allergies. So it makes it tough for me to pack a lunch for her at school. She is the only one who eats gluten-free bread so I order the 2 slice packs from Ener-G. I know I could drive over there since I am sort of in the area. But with the price of gas, and my glaringly obvious lack of sense of direction and inability to read maps, that's not likely to happen. So we mail order a lot!

[TrillumHunter]

Just a tip--

If you have things that aren't a favorite or is close to going out of date, try to use it in a new way. Stale cookies make a good "graham cracker" type crust. Bread and crackers can be dried out turned into crumbs for meatloaf or coatings. Sometimes if we get things we don't really love I make a trail mix out it. Say you have a granola bar that isn't so yummy, break it up and mix it with some things you do like. It gets some mileage out of stuff and is a change from the usual.

[kbtoyssni]

I live alone so my freezer is my key to not having to throw out food that's gone bad. It takes me six months to go through a loaf of bread (yeah, I don't eat a lot of bread ) so it gets frozen. It probably doesn't taste quite as good, but I toast it so it doesn't matter much. Bread that gets crumbly or bread recipes gone wrong or stuff I don't like the taste of gets frozen and used for bread crumbs in stuffing.

For things like the tins of pasta you could probably open them and freeze in a big container. Or if your daughter doesn't like them anymore, try mixing them with cottage cheese, top with cheese, maybe add some veggies and pop in the oven for a spaghetti pie. And do tinned foods really go bad??? Or are the expiration dates just a suggestion? Cereal and cereal bars could probably be made into coating for chicken nuggets or rice krispie-type treats.

[Juliebove]

Just a tip--

If you have things that aren't a favorite or is close to going out of date, try to use it in a new way. Stale cookies make a good "graham cracker" type crust. Bread and crackers can be dried out turned into crumbs for meatloaf or coatings. Sometimes if we get things we don't really love I make a trail mix out it. Say you have a granola bar that isn't so yummy, break it up and mix it with some things you do like. It gets some mileage out of stuff and is a change from the usual.

Don't have any use for a pie crust since I don't really have any way of making a pie. We only ever have Enjoy Life cookies. I generally use oatmeal for meatloaf and I never use coakings for anything. As for granola bars, there are none we can eat. But thanks!!

[Juliebove]

Just a tip--

If you have things that aren't a favorite or is close to going out of date, try to use it in a new way. Stale cookies make a good "graham cracker" type crust. Bread and crackers can be dried out turned into crumbs for meatloaf or coatings. Sometimes if we get things we don't really love I make a trail mix out it. Say you have a granola bar that isn't so yummy, break it up and mix it with some things you do like. It gets some mileage out of stuff and is a change from the usual.

Can't eat cheese and yes, tinned things go bad. I once bought some tomatoes that were outdated. Didn't realize it when I bought them. I thought... How bad can it be? Well it was bad! I also had a fresh can. The outdated ones were badly deteriorated and had little flavor left.

[Amyleigh0007]

I overbuy but only because I live so far away from any stores that sell gluten free food. We have a natural food store that carries some flour and crackers and our Schnucks has gluten free pasta and cookies but that's it. It takes me 45 minutes to drive to the closest store that has a good gluten free selection so I stock up.

[Juliebove]

Can't eat cheese and yes, tinned things go bad. I once bought some tomatoes that were outdated. Didn't realize it when I bought them. I thought... How bad can it be? Well it was bad! I also had a fresh can. The outdated ones were badly deteriorated and had little flavor left.

That would be tough! My local health food store is just around the corner and they are good to order gluten free stuff for us. And I can get some stuff at another store a few cities away, but I never know what they'll have in stock. I have driven out there for chocolate chips only to find they don't have any. Luckily another couple of stores close to me started carrying those.

The main things I have to mail order are the 2 slice packs of bread and the 2 cookie packs of cookies. I also went wild this summer on potato snacks and faux Rice Crispie treats. She liked those at first but then didn't like them too much.

I think the worst thing I ever did was buying the 4 cases of macrobiotic cashew butter bars. The owner of the health food store gave her one to sample. She loved it and was eating them most mornings for breakfast or a snack before dance class. They were VERY expensive at about $2 per bar. But I figured it was worth it because they were not bad for her at all. So I bought 4 cases of them because I got a greater discount. But something bad happened. Suddenly instead of them being a soft, chewy bar, they were rock hard and difficult to take a bite off of. They were far from being expired so that wasn't the problem. This was during the winter so I thought maybe the cold weather had affected them. I discovered that 10 seconds or so in the microwave made them soft and chewy again, but daughter just flat out refused to eat them ever again. I just threw out the last two cases.

[CeliacMom2008]

Oh my gosh!! I had to check out this post because I was just telling DH that I have a serious food buying "issue". I won't say problem, because I understand why I do what I do and it doesn't seem like a "problem," but I know I buy a lot of stuff - just in case... Well as I read the earlier posts I started thinking about all the cereal I buy by the case from Amazon (it's soooo much cheaper than from our local store). So then I thought, just for kicks I should go count how many boxes of cereal I have. Well now I'm going to have to say I have a PROBLEM! I'm a wee bit embarrassed to say...but....I have 47 boxes of gluten-free cereal! For one nine year old little boy!! FORTY-SEVEN!!!

I also have 13 boxes of spahetti...and since our weekend getaway that included a stop at Whole Foods Market and Trader Joes (and I must say a big - WOW to both of those stores!), I have tons of cookie, brownie, pizza crust (which I haven't wanted to try because I love my pizza recipe so much), cakes, and muffin mixes! Oh, and I received a case of Mrs. Leeper's stroganoff last week.

Again, it is soooo much cheaper than our local store! I was paying $5.30 for a box of Erewhon crispy rice cereal, plus tax, plus gas. I can get it from Amazon for $3.50 ish if I buy it 12 at a time - free shipping, no tax. Thus how I've ended up with 47 boxes of cereal (you've gotta have variety! ).

Anyway, I'm glad I'm not alone!! And if there's a natural disaster we're set!

[Juliebove]

That would be tough! My local health food store is just around the corner and they are good to order gluten free stuff for us. And I can get some stuff at another store a few cities away, but I never know what they'll have in stock. I have driven out there for chocolate chips only to find they don't have any. Luckily another couple of stores close to me started carrying those.

The main things I have to mail order are the 2 slice packs of bread and the 2 cookie packs of cookies. I also went wild this summer on potato snacks and faux Rice Crispie treats. She liked those at first but then didn't like them too much.

I think the worst thing I ever did was buying the 4 cases of macrobiotic cashew butter bars. The owner of the health food store gave her one to sample. She loved it and was eating them most mornings for breakfast or a snack before dance class. They were VERY expensive at about $2 per bar. But I figured it was worth it because they were not bad for her at all. So I bought 4 cases of them because I got a greater discount. But something bad happened. Suddenly instead of them being a soft, chewy bar, they were rock hard and difficult to take a bite off of. They were far from being expired so that wasn't the problem. This was during the winter so I thought maybe the cold weather had affected them. I discovered that 10 seconds or so in the microwave made them soft and chewy again, but daughter just flat out refused to eat them ever again. I just threw out the last two cases.

Eek! Replied to the wrong post again. That will teach me to reply in a hurry!

[purple]

Oh my gosh!! I had to check out this post because I was just telling DH that I have a serious food buying "issue". I won't say problem, because I understand why I do what I do and it doesn't seem like a "problem," but I know I buy a lot of stuff - just in case... Well as I read the earlier posts I started thinking about all the cereal I buy by the case from Amazon (it's soooo much cheaper than from our local store). So then I thought, just for kicks I should go count how many boxes of cereal I have. Well now I'm going to have to say I have a PROBLEM! I'm a wee bit embarrassed to say...but....I have 47 boxes of gluten-free cereal! For one nine year old little boy!! FORTY-SEVEN!!!

I also have 13 boxes of spahetti...and since our weekend getaway that included a stop at Whole Foods Market and Trader Joes (and I must say a big - WOW to both of those stores!), I have tons of cookie, brownie, pizza crust (which I haven't wanted to try because I love my pizza recipe so much), cakes, and muffin mixes! Oh, and I received a case of Mrs. Leeper's stroganoff last week.

Again, it is soooo much cheaper than our local store! I was paying $5.30 for a box of Erewhon crispy rice cereal, plus tax, plus gas. I can get it from Amazon for $3.50 ish if I buy it 12 at a time - free shipping, no tax. Thus how I've ended up with 47 boxes of cereal (you've gotta have variety! ).

Anyway, I'm glad I'm not alone!! And if there's a natural disaster we're set!

47???

[JennyC]

I'm more of a variety shopper. (Although I'll receive my first amazon shipment next week, so we'll see.) I buy a wide variety of packaged specialty foods.

Right now I have:

2 kinds of chicken nuggets (not to mention the pre-cooked chicken breast strips and chicken pieces. )

3+ kinds of frozen potatoes

2 different flavors Kinnikinnick doughnuts

gluten-free corndogs

gluten-free fish sticks

various frozen Chebe breads

gluten-free bagels

4 kinds of waffles

rice tortillas

various kinds of cookies (K-Toos are a staple. )

Every kind of Tinkyada pasta ever created

MANY kinds of crackers

a few different kinds of chips

A variety of cereals (many of which go stale after I open them. )

gluten-free flours: sorghum, cocnut, white rice, sweet rice, brown rice, tapioca, corn starch and flour, potato starch and flour, fava bean, almond meal, whey powder, xanthan and guar gum.

I won't even get started on the variety of vinegars, oils and rices I have.

This is kind of embarassing.

[JNBunnie1]

Hey, don't feel bad, our local health food store is moving locations, so they put everything 40% off so they wouldn't have to move so much stuff, and by the time I got to checkout my cart was so full I startled the guy. They had to box our stuff instead of bagging it! I bought six packages of Against the Grain bread, I'm such a nut. But hey, I saved a hundred bucks. I'm gonna have to buy this stuff someday, might as well do it now on sale!

[CeliacMom2008]

Well I'm only going to get worse! We just tried Whole Foods 365 Days chocolate chip cookie mix tonight - oh my gosh! Those were great cookies (yes, I'm going to get a reputation as the gluten-free junk food junkie! - and yes, it is my son who is the Celiac!). Anyway, the cookies were out of this world and Whole Foods is 3 hours away. I bought them out of the frozen molasses (is that spelled anywhere near right?!?!) when we were there a few weeks ago. My mom told me tonight I'm going to have to get a deep freeze if I'm going to keep buying like this! We're going to a gluten free cooking class in a couple weeks - yep, there's a Whole Foods and Trader Joes in driving distance from the seminar. We're going back!! My son already told me to buy all they had of both kinds of cookies. I think I'll call ahead and have them have extras for me...

[celiac-mommy]

I also have 13 boxes of spahetti...

I just counted 15 boxes of Nutrition Kitchen soy pasta (bought a case and had some already) and 6 of the giant bags of Pamela's--I panicked because I thought I was out, so I had my subscrition at amazon send me a case ASAP because I was down to my last bag, thought I had gotten a case fairly recently but had been baking a lot--I didn't realize that my dh had unpacked the other case and put it in the wrong cupboard of the pantry

[Juliebove]

I just counted 15 boxes of Nutrition Kitchen soy pasta (bought a case and had some already) and 6 of the giant bags of Pamela's--I panicked because I thought I was out, so I had my subscrition at amazon send me a case ASAP because I was down to my last bag, thought I had gotten a case fairly recently but had been baking a lot--I didn't realize that my dh had unpacked the other case and put it in the wrong cupboard of the pantry

Ha! I don't feel so bad now. I just hate it when I think I am out of something, forgetting that I have ordered it online. I've done that a few times.

[Juliebove]

Hey, don't feel bad, our local health food store is moving locations, so they put everything 40% off so they wouldn't have to move so much stuff, and by the time I got to checkout my cart was so full I startled the guy. They had to box our stuff instead of bagging it! I bought six packages of Against the Grain bread, I'm such a nut. But hey, I saved a hundred bucks. I'm gonna have to buy this stuff someday, might as well do it now on sale!

Wow! My health food store is moving soon but I doubt they will be marking stuff down. They are not moving far.