9 Reasons To Keep A Pantry

This post may contain affiliate links, my full disclosure can be read here. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Have you been thinking about keeping a pantry? Here are 9 reasons to keep a well-stocked pantry that can help you save money and be prepared for emergencies.

Keeping a pantry has been important to me for as long as I can remember.

I believe this comes from learning from my grandmother as a young child.

I can still remember seeing her going over grocery store flyers each week and planning out her shopping trip.

She always shopped in season and put up food for the winter when it would be more expensive to buy.

I learned through her example to always keep my pantry well-stocked and ready to care for my family.

My grandmother was a young girl when WW1 happened, a young woman when the depression hit, and a new mother when WW2 started. Through all of this, she learned to be very skilled at stretching things.

This was a skill she used all of her life and it served her well.

Today so many people have fallen into the practice of shopping weekly, or even daily for their groceries. You might be keeping just enough food on hand for a few days.

But time and time again I’ve found that that is not a good idea. It can leave you unprepared when problems start popping up.

If you take a little time to keep some staples stored it will be a huge help for your family during these times.

1. Time Savings

How many times did you start to make your favorite recipe only to realize you are missing an important ingredient?

Making last-minute trips to the store to pick up ingredients you’ve run out of is a real-time suck. Especially if you live in a rural area like I do as it means a long drive to the grocery store.

This takes time away from other jobs that you planned on doing that day making you frustrated.

You know what happens when you go grocery shopping when you feel frustrated right? You are much more likely to overspend on extra items.

That sweet treat is just so much more tempting when you are feeling down. It’s pretty much the same effect as when you shop hungry.

Try to avoid shopping when you are upset or hungry as it can cause you to blow your grocery budget really fast.

2. Saves You Money

Keeping a well-stocked pantry means you save money by not making last-minute trips but it also lets you take advantage of great deals when you find them.

Every week stores run loss leader sales and this is the perfect time to stock up on supplies that you use often.

Remember to be wise in your shopping though, if you never eat canned tuna then it’s a waste of money to stock up on it.

But if you bulk buy your favorite ingredients on sale and then store them properly you will have a lower cost per item then if you were buying them week to week.

3. Makes Meal Planning Easier

We all know that meal planning is a great way to save money on groceries. But it can feel really hard to do right?

Often this is simply because we don’t have a good stock of basic supplies on hand to make the food our family likes to eat.

A great way to get started in meal planning is to make a list of all the ingredients your favorite recipes use. Then build your master shopping list based on that.

When you have all the ingredients on hand, you are less likely to panic when the kids start asking what’s for dinner.

4. Better Food Quality

When you start keeping a well-stocked pantry you will be able to buy better quality food at a lower price because you can focus on shopping sales.

Once you have stocked your pantry with basics you only need to restock it as ingredients start to run low. But never wait until you are out of something before you restock it.

In our home when we open an item it goes on the shopping list to be replaced when I see it come on sale again.

Using the money you save by not having to buy your normal ingredients each week at full price you can start to buy higher quality meats and produce.

Try to find a local butcher and you just might be surprised that their meat is a higher quality and lower in price.

Years ago we started to buy sausage and ground beef from our local butcher. What amazed me the most was we were able to cut in half the amount of meat I used in most recipes.

Because their ground beef is 100% meat with no added fillers and lean, you get more real meat per pound. This leaves you feeling full instead of reaching for more.

Many recipes that I used to use 2 pounds of ground beef for our family of 8, I was able to cut back to 1 pound and no one noticed at all.

The result was I spend less per pound on ground beef, useless in our recipes, plus we eat less of it because it’s filling. That alone cut my meat budget in half or less.

5. Storms And Power Outages

Storms can cause so much damage that we naturally want to prepare when we hear a bad one is coming.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a snowstorm, bath thunderstorms, or a hurricane they can all cause a lot of damage that leads to power outages. Sometimes those can last for days or weeks.

But what happens when you hear a bad storm is coming? You decide to swing by the grocery store on your way home and pick up a few staples before it hits.

Then when you arrive at the store you find there are many empty shelves. Why?

Because many other people had the same idea as you and wanted to prepare just in case. This causes stores to empty out of bread, milk, bottled water, and canned food quickly.

Instead of waiting until the last minute to prepare keep your pantry well-stocked so you never need to worry about running out of supplies in bad weather.

This is something I can say from experience. We live in the “snow belt” in Ontario. It’s very common here to get strong snow squalls that can leave your roads closed for days.

You might not live in an area that gets heavy snow, but every place on earth gets some form of bad weather. Thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, ice storms can all cause a lot of damage.

But both winter and summer storms can cause power outages, so it’s helpful to always have easy to make food on hand for your family and a way to cook without power.

Instead of going out to shop, you can start preparing in the comfort of your own home. Bake some homemade bread or dinner rolls, get some soup cooking, and hunker down.

6. Personal Emergencies

Have you ever been hit with an emergency that you never saw coming?

While we all tend to have an “it could never happen to me” way of thinking it simply isn’t true. Unexpected things happen to everyone and if you are prepared dealing with them is so much easier.

Have you ever lost your job suddenly? It can really hurt, right?

I can’t count how many times my husband has been laid off work due to downsizing when the global markets slowed.

When you suddenly lose your income you have so many thoughts raising through your mind.

• How will you pay the mortgage?
• How will you pay for your car?
• What about your family’s medical needs?
• Will your savings last until you can find another job?

I can’t tell you how much having a well-stocked pantry helps to reduce your stress at this time.

When you know you don’t have to go grocery shopping for weeks or months, you know your family won’t go hungry.

7. Protection Against Inflation

Inflation can really hurt your budget and it can happen quickly. Inflation is a natural part of life but unseen world events can cause unexpected spikes that can raise the cost of food fast.

Do you remember the big grain crisis of 2008? I do and I remember how hard it hit families and business.

Bad growing conditions caused a big shortage of grain around the world and this led to the price going through the roof.

8 kg bags of rice we normally bought for $6.00 jumped to $20.00 nearly overnight. That is a massive price increase in such a short time.

But it wasn’t just rice, wheat, and other grains were hit hard to and it was a terrible problem for restaurants and stores who had to raise their prices.

Then there was a massive drought that hit California and lasted for years.

Our local news was constantly reporting stories about cauliflower heads being sold for $8 each. Then a drought in Canada caused the price of potatoes to double in stores.

More recently health problems have cause meatpackers to have to close or slow production leading to a shortage of meat in many stores.

Farmers were forced to dump huge amounts of milk, plow under crops, and dispose of eggs all because the supply chain couldn’t adjust quickly enough.

This caused farmers to lose money and at the same time shortages in grocery stores.

Building your pantry can really help protect your family against sudden inflation. You can build a large food storage system and only restock it when you find a good deal.

Back when the grain crisis hit, I already had enough rice and wheat stored for a few years. I was able to save our family a lot of money by waiting for the prices to come back down before restocking my grain storage.

Learning how to preserve your own foods by canning, freezing, or dehydrating vegetables and fruit when they are in season is a wonderful way to build your pantry too.

Most grocery stores follow a cycle in how they run their sales. If you start watching closely you will notice how often flour, sugar, rice, and other basic staples come on sale.

Try to plan to only restock your pantry when something is on sale so you can stock up and save money at the same time.

8. Helping Others In Need

Keeping a good pantry isn’t always about just your needs. When you are well stocked it becomes so much easier to help others when they are in need.

We all know people who are struggling. It could be an elderly neighbor, a friend, or a family who is out of work or going through an illness.

When you have supplies on hand it makes it much easier to cook meals to help out that new mother, or your sick neighbor.

When you know someone needs help, you can put together a basket of groceries and tuck it on their doorstep to surprise them.

9. Peace Of Mind

A lesson I learned from my grandmother is that having a good pantry means having security.

Knowing it’s there helps to reduce your worry when things start to go wrong. As a mother, one of my top priorities is providing good food for my family.

When life gets crazy I know I can rely on my pantry and root cellar to keep my family fed well. It also lets you stop shopping for a while to free up money to go to other areas without causing stress.

Are you ready to get started? Use this master list of pantry essential items to start building your pantry storage.

Connect With Homestead Acres!

Be sure to follow me on social media, so you never miss a post!

Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

Visit my Amazon store to find all my favorite gardening, homesteading tools, and gadgets plus all of my printed garden books and journals!