I'm not as good with my pantry as I ought to be. I have been at different times and places in my life, and I am still a 'value shopper'. If one of my staples is on a really serious sale, I'll stock up. Big stock up.

There was a time in my life when I had two freezers. One for meat and one for the rest. I'd blanche and freeze sweet corn and carrots. I had a great cellar and could make potatoes last way into the spring.

When I couldn't eat them anymore, the pigs could :) Yep. Raised my own beef and pork and chickens. At the time, I was doing it because of the taste and purity.

My grandparents raised 6 children through the depression. The last two came after the war. Grandpa ended up hauling hod on Grand Coulee Dam for a dollar a day. He told me there was a bar near their barracks where he could get two beers for 10 cents. That also allowed him to cruise the 'sandwich bar'. He'd build two monster sandwiches. Eat one and save one. He'd sell the second beer for 5 cents. That's what he paid to eat. Grandma got 95 cents every day. 6 days a week.

His parents were also out of work so they gardened and canned. They had around an acre of green beans every year that they sold and ate. Lived on the same property that my Grandfather had bought before the depression. They always talked about how hard it was, but also how much fun....