The day after Thanksgiving is a perfect time to start stocking up on some seasonal food items at majorly discounted rates.
Check out our tips on reloading your hidden stockpile!
RELATED: How To Build A Six Month Food Stockpile On A Budget
The Budget-Friendly Way to Reload Your Hidden Stockpile
Stocking Up On Seasonal Items
A typical grocery store only has enough food for 72 hours, if you are lucky enough to even get there in time before the shelves are picked bare. Don’t wait to start stocking up on storable food items!
The holidays are a time for cooking things that are otherwise not seen throughout the year. Stores tend to buy a major excess of the seasonal items that they are then stuck with unless they can offload them.
Luckily, what may be bad for the stores is a windfall for the practical prepper. Check out the shelf lives of popular seasonal items in the list below.
Shelf Life of Seasonal Items:
- Canned Pumpkin: 2-5 years
- Cranberry Sauce: 12-18 months
- Apple Pie Filling: Up to 3 years
- Pie Crusts: Up to a year (frozen)
- Canned Green Beans: 2-5 years
- Boxed Stuffing: Up to 18 months
- Shelled Pecans: Up to 2 years (frozen)
- Cream of Mushroom and Cream of Chicken Soup: Up to 5 years
- Canned Sweet Potatoes: Up to 5 years
RELATED: 18 Items To Stockpile For Emergencies
Holiday Sales
Taking advantage of a store’s excess holiday inventory doesn’t have to be limited to food. Many paper goods and disposable dishware come in a limited seasonal print that just doesn’t sell well outside a given holiday.
Also be sure to keep an eye on sales for heavy-duty foil roasting pans, pie pans, plastic forks, spoons, and knives. Odds are, the store will run into an excess inventory on these, and within a few weeks of the holidays will end up with some type of sale.
Watch this video from World of Appolonia to see their own version of an emergency food stockpile:
Check-in at your local dollar stores for great deals on these items, like the ones that don’t sell in the big chains will tend to be purchased by the smaller dollar stores and sold at a discount there.
Want to know more about reloading your hidden stockpile? Check out these related articles:
Up Next:
- 10 Items You Should Stockpile Every Month
- Build a 6-Month Food Stockpile on a Tight Budget
- Using the Holidays to Build your Preparedness Stockpile
Don’t forget to stay connected with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on November 16, 2016, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
