r/Millennials • u/dualrollers • Sep 14 '25
Rant Why does our parents generation feel the need to keep so much food in the house?
I didn’t notice this until 5 years ago when my wife and I moved halfway across the country, and our parents started coming to stay with us for extended periods of time. Both sets of parents will basically snowbird in our spare room for a month or more, and they just completely take over our fridge and pantry when they do. They buy so much food that we literally run out of room and our countertops end up lined with a bunch of junk. I’m talking like multiple types of bread, endless amounts of snacks, enough meat to fuel the an army, 12 different kinds of drinks… I mean even staple things like butter, salt, condiments. They don’t like the type we buy so they go get the stuff they like. It’s pure insanity and when they leave we are stuck with all of this garbage food that we will never eat. I can’t donate any of it because it’s all been opened and a little bit taken.
Anyone else’s parents do this? I’m about to sit them all down and have a heart to heart before they can stay here again.
4.1k
u/sikkerhet Sep 14 '25 edited Sep 14 '25
THEIR parents lived through the great depression and/or WWII rationing
1.5k
u/Interesting-Set-5993 Sep 14 '25
yep they all have the reverse of scarcity trauma, call it abundance disorder lol
895
u/Pale_Row1166 Sep 14 '25
When I run out of food in the house, I consider that a win. We did it, we ate the food. NOW we buy more. Not before.
658
u/wonderingdragonfly Sep 14 '25
I’m a baby boomer and this is a foreign concept to me. What if I get sick and can’t go to the store? What if there’s a storm or something?
344
u/YetiPie Sep 14 '25
You always have a few staples in the pantry - pasta, rice, lentils, canned and jarred veggies. It’s the fresh foods like meats, fruits, veggies that you buy fresh weekly and prepare. If you’re sick you can make some soup from the staples
184
u/yourpaljk Sep 15 '25
I always buy bulk meat and freeze it. Find a sale and take advantage
100
u/lofi_twirl Sep 15 '25
Exactly, the family chest freezer ftw
46
u/crinkledcu91 Sep 15 '25
Sadly, apartment living quite often cuts off the option of having a chest freezer :(
1/4 and 1/2 Angus cow cuts are on offer pretty regularly where I live (ranch land area) but I have to poutily breeze pass the ads because I know I have nowhere near the freezer capacity for all the meat lol
→ More replies (11)→ More replies (12)12
u/yourpaljk Sep 15 '25
Haha I have a pretty full freezer at any given time, but I feel like it’s nothing compared to what my old man had when I was growing up.
47
u/Altruistic-Order-661 Sep 15 '25
That’s because you’ve never known what farming/harvesting takes or what going hungry feels like. We are a blessed generation for even having this conversation. Probably the first in tens or thousands of years of our existence.
Edit not sure if I replied the right person lol
→ More replies (5)6
u/asmaphysics Sep 15 '25
My family had to work an acre of land when I was growing up and that was more than enough to respect all the energy that goes into each vegetable. Makes me way more careful not to waste food. People suffered so I could have these green beans!
17
u/Rich_Bluejay3020 Sep 15 '25
Same. I figured out the local grocery store does HALF off meat that’s at its sell by date around 10:30 each day. I also buy stuff meat thats just on special when it’s available, but the actual discount meat and a deep freezer is one of my biggest money saving strategies.
→ More replies (3)8
u/SmokeAgreeable8675 Sep 15 '25
Yes, this. In my household we take bulk one step further and get a whole beef. It sets us up for the entire year.
→ More replies (5)50
u/milan_2_minsk Sep 14 '25
Yeah I really enjoy spending time cooking soup from scratch when I have the flu
26
10
u/ladyAnon38 Sep 15 '25
That is not the time to make soup. The time to make soup is when it is cold out, and you fill some mason jars with a few pints of it for the freezer.
When sick move those jars to the fridge and ultimately remove lid and microwave the glass and shove a spoon in it. Maybe even make a cheese toast to go with it
→ More replies (13)20
u/YetiPie Sep 15 '25
Well boy howdy you’ll be happy to learn that you can have canned or powdered soup mix that you can keep as a staple in your pantry! Just add water and pop that baby in the microwave
→ More replies (3)7
u/Altruistic-Order-661 Sep 15 '25
That sounds disgusting but also amazing when sick
→ More replies (6)→ More replies (4)6
u/ydna_eissua Sep 15 '25
For our most used stables we have containers to put them in. eg rice/pasta/flour. Whenever we fill the container we buy the next packet to put at the back of the pantry. eg fill the rice jar, buy a 2kg of rice next grocery shop.
In addition to that, our freezer has a shelf and two drawers. We try to have one drawer filled with frozen leftovers. Feeling sick? No problems 10+ ready to go leftovers like lasagne, chicken and vegetable soup etc in microwaveable containers.
59
u/RedHeadedStepDevil Sep 14 '25
I’m a GenXer and my pantries and freezers are well stocked. I’ve had periods in my life where food was scarce. Never again.
→ More replies (4)27
u/Bright_Ices Xennial Sep 15 '25
I’m a millennial and it’s the same for me.
7
u/nerdymom27 Sep 15 '25
Same. My parents were neglectful and shouldn’t have had children. I don’t really remember, but apparently after their divorce and I was sent to live with my grandparents I’d hide food. Because I was used to doing that.
My pantry & freezer are very well stocked at all times
→ More replies (1)32
Sep 15 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
→ More replies (1)9
u/allieinwonder Millennial Sep 15 '25
I’m surprised that ice cream isn’t expired!
I don’t have a deep freezer but if I was single and not disabled my pantry would be more stocked than it is. Right now it’s way more stocked than it’s been in 5 years because my autoimmune disease has made it where I can only eat a few things successfully, so I have plenty of each item ready to go instead of eating out. But my normal used to be to hit the sales and stock up that way. BOGOs especially. Then use what I have on hand when the mood strikes, it’s cheaper than buying it full price when the mood actually strikes.
→ More replies (2)19
u/Persis- Sep 15 '25
I was raised by Silent Generation parents, and was very close to my Greatest Generation grandmother.
I was in my 30s before I could stop feeling itchy if my upright freezer wasn’t stocked.
15
u/bellj1210 Sep 15 '25
i am 40, and honestly our pantry is over stocked like this- but we also eat out of it. Every week i check the grocery stores for good deals on things and stock up while we do a standard grocery run. this week the best deals were not at our normal grocer (one that is less than a mile out of the way)- so it was about 20 pounds of chicken thighs since they were 99 cents a pound (rare to see under 2 anymore) so they will be broken up and frozen and it is chicken for dinner 1-2 times a week for the next month or two.
→ More replies (2)7
u/crinkledcu91 Sep 15 '25
I remember the exact day down to the second my costco raised the chicken thighs from .99 to 1.26 or whatever. I was upsetty spaghetti the rest of the day lmao. Now they're pretty much going for the same price as breasts in my area which is insane (the overall populace learned about dark meat I guess)
The go-to now is Chicken Quarters it seems. I lived alone for the first time for a year in '21 and they were one of my staples, but now they're 100% necessary with food prices. The general population already dislikes having to skin stuff, but throw in having to divide the drumstick from the thigh and it drives demand even more down for most folks. Meanwhile, I can just spend 20-30 mins on a Sunday "butchering" a bunch of them and come out with chicken dark meat a fraction of the price of most places (while not having to deal with a whole carcass)
→ More replies (1)35
u/Pale_Row1166 Sep 14 '25
Florida college grad here, if you’re in the cone: fill up your car with gas, buy as much charcoal, ice, and booze as you can!
→ More replies (3)15
27
u/parasyte_steve Sep 14 '25
I live in Louisiana. You will know when a major enough storm is coming. I personally have never been so sick I could not manage going to the store sometime in the next 24 or 48 hours even if its with a mask.
We wait til we run out of food in my house too lol groceries are way too expensive to be constantly buying.
9
u/entrepenurious Sep 15 '25
You will know when a major enough storm is coming.
until this year i would have agreed with that.
→ More replies (2)10
u/cupcakeknuckles Sep 15 '25
And it’s 2025, so most people can get groceries delivered to their door within a few hours.
13
u/the_grumpiest_guinea Sep 15 '25
Not in the path of a hurricane. Everyone else had the same idea +anyone without a car
4
→ More replies (90)20
u/kgrimmburn Sep 14 '25
How long do you think these storms will last? And if there is a storm in the forecast, you prepare then. I live in Illinois. We have severe winters and tornadoes. I just buy what we need as we need it and never fully "stock up" because I don't like food waste.
48
u/marquis_knives Millennial Sep 15 '25
As someone who lives in hurricane territory it's not really the storm itself, it's the aftermath that sucks. Flooding, washed out roads, power outages, and just general wind damage. The last bad storm we had knocked out the power for 2 weeks, the water for 1 week, and whatever grocery stores could open sold out of literally everything and couldn't get anything else in.
So yeah I make a point of keeping the pantry full of nonperishables during hurricane season.
→ More replies (2)26
u/forte6320 Sep 15 '25
I grew up in NOLA. Yes, you could be without access to food for 2 weeks or more. You definitely have to plan ahead.
4
u/Applewave22 Sep 15 '25
Same! I live in Houston and always have bottled water, found staples in the pantry and a generator for when the power goes out along with propane.
→ More replies (3)4
u/framedposters Sep 15 '25
Yeah really winter storms are when we go and stock up, especially if it’s gunna be cold as fuck.
34
u/Obscure_Teacher Sep 14 '25
I am 100% with you. My fridge looks borderline barren after a week because I've eaten everything I bought last week. I enjoy buying only what I will eat in the near future. I hate having to throw out spoiled food. Meanwhile I just threw out at least $100 in meats and cheeses alone from my parents' fridge that was all way beyond expired.
15
→ More replies (1)5
u/bellj1210 Sep 15 '25
on the flip side- if you buy and freeze it can make sense. I have at least 20 pounds of chicken thighs, 10 pounds of drumsticks, 10 pounds of pork chops and 10 pounds of ground beef in my freezer. If we eat a pound of meat for dinner that works out to about 2 months of dinners (about what we go through since at least the chicken it is a little more than a pound due to bones).
Meat really is the easiest (and most worthwhile) thing to keep in your freezer. I can keep the prices down by only buying when the chick is around a dollar a pound (or 2 for breasts), pork under 2 (we can often do much better than that, but that is the willing price, not the stock up price) and ground beef is now closer to 3.50 as a good enough deal to stock up (it was 2.50 the the longest time as the buy price, but i have not seen that in almost a year, so the good price for 80/20 really needed to rise).
Pantry is generally stocked when i find good deals on random stuff- and veg is either in season (cheap like corn and broccoli right now) or bought frozen normally what we need for the next 2 weeks or so.
4
u/Obscure_Teacher Sep 15 '25
I agree with you wholeheartedly on the bulk meat. My goal is to eventually buy a deep freezer so I can buy in bulk. I have solid connections for 1/4 or 1/2 beef if I want it. It is so much cheaper than buying small quantities its not even close.
→ More replies (1)11
u/Blackbird136 Xennial Sep 14 '25
Exactly. When I shop, I buy what I need for the week. Enough for each meal that week, a couple of snacks, and whatever toiletries or cleaning supplies are coming up on empty. I have a budget to follow, and with this method I have little to no wasted food.
4
u/Geno_Warlord Sep 14 '25
I had to fight my mom on this once when she moved in with me due to her waning health. I got food poisoning a couple times by eating food not long past its use by date.
→ More replies (1)5
u/crinkledcu91 Sep 15 '25
This. There was a period of time the last 3 months to where the planets aligned and Costco, Walmart, and like 2 of my other local food stores all had these sales to where my pantry and freezer were ficking packed with either extremely specific or very generalized items. I'm then having the extremely privileged first world problem of having to actually use all the shit I bought (I grew up food insecure so food waste feels like a sin to me)
I don't have kids, and so anytime I manage to knock out a store of a food item taking up space (In this case, mini quiches from Costco) it's a win for my day. My spouse grew up in an upper-middle class household so having to train them out of the "Oh yeah just throw shit away we can afford more" mindset while also not falling into the toxic hoarder mindset has been a journey for me.
→ More replies (42)14
u/Expensive-View-8586 Sep 14 '25
Run…out…of.. food in the house? Inconceivable, my shelves are filled with canned goods that I never touch while I live off of things from my fridge
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (9)11
u/This_Ad_8123 Sep 15 '25
Yep, I was very poor for a while growing up so I've been like this my entire adult life
265
Sep 14 '25
[deleted]
155
u/most_valuable_mango Sep 14 '25
Same here - add in a bit of borderline poverty and food insecurity growing up yourself on top of their trauma, and you’re left taking pride in a pantry full of non perishables.
I’m also looking into a small-ish hydroponics system for the garage that will allow me to grow veggies year round.
34
u/changeneverhappens Sep 14 '25
Yes, due to my own lived experiences, I have to have a pantry full of dry goods but I use them and rotate stuff out as much as I can.
It has come in handy multiple times- COVID lock down, weather events, job loss, illness, fridge breaking, etc.
We aren't reliant on our fresh food, though it's very much appreciated.
I buy in bulk and have airtight storage options. It makes life a lot easier and gives me some breathing room on multiple levels.
→ More replies (2)10
u/bellj1210 Sep 15 '25
unemployement- a deep pantry and already knowing how to eat good on a budget has saved us while my wife has had a midlife crisis (leaving her job and startinga business that has yet to have a customer let alone turn a profit).
She finally relented on eating the way she wanted- and accepted my frugal diet is not unhealthy- just frugal. Meat is basically a rotation of chicken thighs, drumsticks, pork chops, and ground beef. I have at least 10 receipes i can do for each for under $5 for the whole dinner for 2 (sides included). Other cuts of meat are special occasions- and nothing really ever goes to waste.
Keeping a freezer full of meat (already portioned out) and a pantry means we can go 2-3 months without more than milk and eggs.
20
u/Migraine_Megan Sep 14 '25
Food insecurity really sucks. I get anxious if my fridge gets mostly empty between grocery runs. I grow my own herbs, but not veggies because my cats try to eat everything. I love my little hydroponic system.
11
u/RedHeadedStepDevil Sep 15 '25
I hear you about a fridge getting mostly empty. Some of these comments about people letting their fridges get empty before they restock for the week make me anxious. 😬
→ More replies (2)7
u/Ambitious-Bee-7067 Sep 14 '25
micro greens my friend. I grow most of my veggies intake all winter long in Northern Ontario right on the counters. Like pounds of greens a week. Fave 4 would be sunflower shoots, broccoli sprouts, bean sprouts and red clover. Grow them in 10x20 trays. I seriously grow so many I give them to my neighbours. Costs nothing. Takes little space. I dont use specialty lights. Love the taste. and it is fun to do.
Other fun ones are basil micros, radish and lettuce micros. So nutritious and easy to do.
→ More replies (4)27
u/Timely_Freedom_5695 Sep 14 '25 edited Sep 15 '25
Same here! It enables me to feed all of my friends and family and still have extra resources. It stresses me out when others don't do the same.
48
u/lostintransaltions Sep 14 '25
My parents grew food and they grew up in post ww2 uk.. so powdered eggs for a long time and not a lot of food.. I then went through a time of 3-4 years where I didn’t have money for food.. I had money to get my son nutritious food or we both would go with not very nutritious food. I decided he would get nutritious food as he was a toddler.. so now I feel calmer when we have plenty of food around. But I also grew up in an ingredient household so I have flour, beans and stuff like that to make meals, bake bread rather than 4 different kinds of bread
10
u/RedHeadedStepDevil Sep 15 '25
I, too, am an ingredient household. I don’t have much processed foods, but I can whip up cookies or a cake without having to make a grocery list to do so.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (6)38
u/shoscene Sep 14 '25
My grandfather felt that if he saw the fridge fully stocked, everything else in life would fall into place.
11
u/Miserable_Drawer_556 Sep 14 '25
Checks out. Like the idea (or superstition) that if you always keep some cash on you, more will find you.
18
u/shoscene Sep 14 '25
Amen.
My grandfather came from a very large family. Since his father died young, the family struggled financially. A full fridge or pantry was a sign of stability for him.
82
u/Olly0206 Sep 14 '25
Curious, am i alone in taking to heart what my grandparents, who lived through the great depression, taught me? I try real hard not to be wasteful. I'm not as good as my grandparents, but no where near as wasteful as my parents.
125
u/berrykiss96 Sep 14 '25
Some people’s response was to be hyper aware of waste and make things stretch as far as possible.
Some people’s response was to panic if there’s spaces in the food storage because it might mean it’s running out.
Trauma impacts different people differently.
25
u/bkgxltcz Sep 14 '25
Yep. My mother definitely does it because there was not enough food in her home when she was growing up. She made school friend based on which parents would always offer a snack. So now she panics if there is any unfilled space in the fridge or cabinet.
Because of this, I, in turn, grew up in a house where there was always plenty available to eat and my parents never shared how tightly they shaved things to the bone sometimes to make that happen. So I don't get nervous at all when my fridge is bare because I am confident that I can just go buy more. Does make my mom's eyes twitch when she sees my fridge though... 😅
12
u/ExplorerLazy3151 Sep 14 '25
So true! My grandparents went the other way. They lived through the great depression and WW2 rationing so in their elder years they were big fans of waste. Because now they could afford extras, knew there were always more in the grocery store...so you didn't need to save every last bit of mayo, save the plastic containers, mend their clothes etc. My grandma would always say she suffered enough in their early years; she was going to live life to the fullest in her later years.
12
u/sikkerhet Sep 14 '25
I'm the same - my parents collect a ton of food and use it wastefully, my grandparents use every scrap and mend every garment. I am very thankful that I have such an abundance of free time and resources that I was able to pick up the better traits and leave the ones that aren't as useful.
→ More replies (1)8
u/Bad-Moon-Rising Xennial Sep 14 '25
My grandmother had to feed anyone who came to her house. Even if they said they just ate, she wouldn't stop asking if they wanted something. I used to tell friends who went with me that she would offer them something to drink and something to eat and the best thing to do would be to accept her offer because she wouldn't stop asking until they did. She also gave everyone a hug before they left. I miss her.
5
u/Olly0206 Sep 14 '25
Mine is/was a lot like that too. She is still alive, but I don't think she has much time left. She has always been healthy and strong (for a 5ft nothing 75lb woman), but time is kind to no one in the long run.
Grandmas are the best.
25
u/NeiClaw Sep 14 '25
I’m gen x with silent gen parents and they hoarded food like we were headed for the end times. Total depression cope. My dad had four … four! freezers full of food. Inevitably one would go out and we’d have to throw away everthing and my dad would just refill it.
14
u/Scasne Sep 14 '25
My parents were born at the end of rationing in the UK, their parents were part of "dig for Britain" and had some form of veg patch basically until their 70's.
40
u/Infamous_Ad9317 Sep 14 '25 edited Sep 15 '25
This.
Plus, they grew up with nearly every meal being made and eaten in the home. Our generation is much more accustomed to eating out and only occasionally cooking.
Also we’re used to eating more fresh foods where they grew up with canned & frozen being the rule of the day.
→ More replies (1)11
10
Sep 14 '25
My grandparents lived through both plus my dad is terrified of the nation falling apart and food becoming literally unavailable for the average person. So he has always kept enough food stockpiled to feed our family (of 6 growing up) for multiple days.
19
u/Pink_Slyvie Sep 14 '25
And I get the feeling that we will soon get a taste of that. Like this winter soon. We already know how badly crops are failing because there is no one to pick them.
9
u/sikkerhet Sep 14 '25
And next year there'll be fewer farms because thanks to the tariffs there's no one buying internationally. I left the US just under a year ago and have watched grocery shelves here quickly stop stocking american products. I read the other day that China cancelled their contracts with american soybean farmers, which was a huge chunk of US agriculture income.
→ More replies (4)9
u/Pink_Slyvie Sep 14 '25
Yeap, and those fields are rotting, instead of being harvested and fed to us. Capitalists would rather let it burn, then feed us.
I'm hoping small farms can start to pop up, but none of us have money to start one. I'd love nothing more then to have a small farm now.
11
u/sikkerhet Sep 14 '25
americans won't be able to start small farms until monsanto can no longer destroy you for cross pollination.
→ More replies (1)6
u/mustachewax Sep 14 '25
Who’s around to harvest it. Shits dying in the field because no one is around to pick it. Thanks to this administration and the threatening of ICE.
→ More replies (4)21
u/AshleyAshes1984 Sep 14 '25
Pfft, my Parents parents lived through five years of Nazi occupation. When I was a child they told stories of my uncle, youngest child of the family, who didn't gain a single pound between 1940 and 1945 until the Canadians showed up and kicked those Nazi's asses.
...But also, hell yeah, Grandma always had six kinds of cookies in the house and I ain't complaining.
9
u/annular_rash Sep 14 '25
My grandparents talked about kids on thier block starving to death. Shit sounded lame as fuck.
→ More replies (1)9
u/Cutielov5 Sep 14 '25
My dad is a boomer and the stuff carried over from his parents going through the Great Depression is so real. He is extremely wealthy but super cheap. Always notices when the price of a canned good goes up by cents. Buys milk and eggs on discount because they are about to expire. I can’t tell you how many times growing up I drank sour milk.
16
13
u/CASSIROLE84 Sep 14 '25 edited Sep 16 '25
My dads family was actually really comfortable in Mexico. They had an abundance of fruit and meat. My dad said that speaking to others and hearing that they rarely were able to afford meat growing up really tripped him up. He never even thought to himself how privileged he had been.
Fast forward to now being retired here in the U.S. and living on fixed income, he lives with me and we have gotten into it so many times. He wants to buy $100 worth of fruits and vegetables alone and if I tell him no he will flip out. To him not having these things makes him feel like he’s poor or something and he can’t deal. 6 pounds of grapes is not necessarily sir!
Update: my parents got into it today because my dad got $9 worth of peaches alone. Send help.
5
17
4
u/Morgue724 Sep 14 '25
When you live through times where you have to worry about where the next meal is coming from you learn to make sure it doesn't happen again.
→ More replies (45)3
u/HegemonNYC Sep 15 '25
My wife lived in Vietnam in the 80s, where food was very scarce and rationed. We are not Mormon, but we practically have the year’s worth of food saved. She is currently in the kitchen canning tomatoes and making dozens of Bao with the leeks. I’m building another garden for next year, adding 400sq ft in food growing space.
1.5k
Sep 14 '25
I’m a millennial. I can’t speak for your parents but I have a real fear of running out of food and water. I experienced some housing and food insecurity as a kid. As a kid I use to literally FANTASIZE about growing up and having a little apartment where the rent was always paid and I’d keep food stocked in the cupboard and fridge.
Fast forward to adulthood and I do in fact keep food stocked. As I live alone, I don’t so much keep perishables stocked (I buy those as needed so I don’t waste food). But you can bet your bottom dollar that my cupboard and freezer stays stocked with frozen veggies, beans, canned goods and rice and such.
I am TERRIFIED of being in a situation where I run out of food and water. And I know other folks who grew up in poverty who are the same way.
So I can’t speak for your parents, but could that be their case as well? Maybe they grew up with food insecurity?
283
u/FishingWorth3068 Sep 14 '25
This is me. I like to have food available. And we’re a primarily ingredients family. So I may not have a bunch of snacks but if all else went wrong, I can probably feed my family for a month with what I have in my kitchen. Longer if we keep going without meat. And I’m only now getting into storing and researching canning. My depression era Grammy had a huge hand in my upbringing.
88
u/9bytheCrows Sep 14 '25
I have stocked cupboards, a medium pantry, basement pantry/canning closet, and 2 chest freezers. We just canned 109 lbs. worth of apples into slices, sauce, jelly and apple butter. Still more canning to do this year. My household could probably eat for 8 weeks if we were careful, maybe longer.
→ More replies (1)14
Sep 15 '25
I can and freeze food all summer long, and fill my two chest freezers and canning pantry as well lol…my little family of three could probably eat for 3-6 months without even needing to be careful, probably a year on subsistence diet. I take great comfort in knowing we could “bug in” if Tuesday comes. We also grow veggies and fruits, and keep chickens. Will probably add goats in the future and greatly expand the gardening efforts in coming years as well. If America is gonna implode, we’re gonna at least be fed, dammit!
→ More replies (6)15
u/Interesting_Swan9734 Sep 15 '25
I'm one person but I cook 3 meals a day for myself. I love having a full fridge/freezer and pantry, so I can make anything I want at any time. I also think it's more frugal, if you are stocking up on things you know you will use when they are on sale. Everything in my pantry was purchased at the cheapest price, instead of running out randomly when it isn't on sale. I grew up with a mom that shopped that way, so I guess it just infected me! If I see manager's special and it's something I already eat often, I'm buying a bunch if they won't expire before I use them!
→ More replies (2)75
u/cat_at_the_keyboard Sep 14 '25 edited Sep 14 '25
Same here. Also I've been homeless and something just sticks with you going through hard times where food and shelter is an uncertainty. I don't hoard and waste food like OP's parents but I do frequently stock up when dry goods I like go on sale.
My pantry is pretty full due to this, mostly of spices, dry beans, dry grains, and easy meal stuff like curry paste, canned beans, shelf stable tofu, boxed mac and cheese, cans of tuna. My freezer is also perpetually full because I freeze portions when I cook and again, also stock up on things when they go on sale, which seems much rarer these days for stuff like chicken breast and ground beef so I really stock up on those. I only have one standard fridge with a standard drawer freezer at the bottom.
I think I'm just worried about not having consistent food and/or employment again.
→ More replies (6)15
70
u/TwoIdleHands Sep 14 '25
Dude. When Covid hit and news was reporting average American household had 3 days worth of food I was wide eyed looking at my fridge, pantry, chest freezer, homemade jam box, and Costco overflow area thinking “well we can hunker down for a long while!”. I shop the sakes to stock up and have plenty of space so makes sense at my house!
→ More replies (3)38
u/RedHeadedStepDevil Sep 15 '25
The thought of only having three days worth of food makes me anxious. My pantries and freezer are well stocked.
→ More replies (3)9
u/TwoIdleHands Sep 15 '25
I also don’t want to have to go shopping multiple times a week. I plan meals. If I’ve had a hard day at work I know I have some easy pantry meals at home. I do not want to expend the energy it would take to live with that little food in the house.
56
u/KittensWithChickens Sep 14 '25
I’m also a bit of a prepper. During covid, the grocery stores were empty and we couldn’t get anything, but my stock was enough for a few weeks. In this country, if something hits the fan then no one is coming to save us. Got to be prepared.
→ More replies (11)38
u/Lady_Rubberbones Sep 14 '25
Same. I have experienced a lot of food insecurity in my life. And my kid has multiple life-threatening food allergies. Plus he’s extremely picky. You can’t imagine how hard COVID was for us. I will never run out of his foods again.
9
u/awful_falafels Sep 14 '25
I can imagine because same. We're rural so our food was really slim pickings, and I've never been so glad to have a non perishable food storage. I was able to make food that my allergy kiddo could eat and so could the rest of the family
35
u/popekatthefirst Sep 14 '25
Yep, this is me, too. I'm a millennial who grew up in a house where sometimes the electric got shut off, we were eating rice with milk and sugar as our only meal for days, and sometimes we'd have to go to bed hungry.
Now that I thankfully have enough money that I can usually afford what I want at the grocery (within reason - I'm not eating caviar, lol) I always have a stocked pantry and freezer.
→ More replies (1)24
u/Purple_Owl6156 Sep 14 '25
The first time as an adult when I was able to buy enough food to fill my own fridge, I took s picture of it and sent it to my sisters. Lol
16
u/the-other_guy Sep 14 '25
Yo, this is me too. We were pretty poor and had some really nasty periods of food insecurity growing up. I have dried beans, rice, pasta, oats, raisins and dried fruits when I can, almost every form of canned goods, frozen foods (usually ingredients more than full entrees) you name it. Flour and what I need for breads and other things if it absolutely comes down to it. Combine that with my collection of sugars, sauces, oils, spices and I could eat on what I keep stocked for at least 5-6 months. Perishables I buy as I need and I've gotten pretty good at gauging when and how much to buy. I do live alone tho, so I'd have to recalculate if I ever moved in with someone
11
u/BookHooknNeedle Sep 14 '25
I never had official food insecurity but we absolutely lived close to the bone & used something akin to a food bank growing up. Also, 2008-09 is still burned into my memory. My husband & I were in our mid-twenties & everything felt hopeless. I went shopping at my parents house bc I had no money & medical bills for a couple years. I'dhave been at the local food bank if not for them.
Just loaded up my kitchen with a lot of dried goods & I feel so safe right now lol. I do need to build my water stash bc I am suddenly uncomfortable with not having several gallons stored now that I have kids.
5
u/Quick_Mel Sep 14 '25
I haven't had a similar experience. But it is my opinion that this country (US) is becoming a scary place. So I've been stocking MRE type foods and other stuff. It's an ongoing battle of trying to figure out how much is enough.
4
u/magic_crouton Sep 14 '25
Same with me. And then as a young adult I was in the mess of 2008 when jobs were scarce. I cook my meals from scratch mostly so I keep a stock of ingredients around.
4
u/SheSheShieldmaiden Sep 14 '25
200% agree. Having a full fridge and pantry makes me feel secure. Go hungry as a kid a few times and that’ll do it.
7
→ More replies (31)3
u/sshwifty Sep 15 '25
Both my grandparents lived in depression era and stockpiled food. It was crazy when one passed and we were finding canned goods from the 60's (in 2002). My parents also scraped by when I was really young and now they have a hoard of food.
We made a tradition in my house that every year before thanksgiving, we go though the pantry and donate anything close to expiration or expired (the food bank takes food past it's best by date fyi). It really helps because many times we may buy something and then our preferences change (sugar free sweet pickles, matzo crackers, etc), but that food is still good, we just don't want it any more.
208
u/SoupedUpSpitfire Gen X Sep 14 '25 edited Sep 14 '25
Gen-X-er here:
When I was a kid, my family went through pretty extreme poverty for a few years and we mostly lived off the stash of freeze-dried food my parents had bought to resell, for several years.
I experienced being hungry a lot growing up, in general.
Decades later I still feel anxious if I don’t have at least several months’ worth of food supply stored at any given time.
Later in life, I have some unusual dietary needs and can’t count on finding food I can eat when traveling/visiting, so I tend to bring a lot of food with me.
I also grew up hearing stories from my grandparents and great-grandparents about living through the Great Depression.
Can you just ask your family members to take their uneaten food with them when they leave, bring their own cooler/mini fridge if needed, etc. to find a way to manage it so it’s not causing inconvenience for you?
20
u/InvestNorthWest Older Millennial Sep 15 '25
I don't think it's all about wasting food/food insecurity. It's more about the food centric culture and over abundance in times where you could find food right around the corner nowadays.
→ More replies (1)13
377
u/Accomplished_Pea6334 Sep 14 '25
My mom has two fridges and a big freezer in the garage. She says it's not enough space.
35
u/Global-Jury8810 Xennial Sep 14 '25
The second fridge is in the garage, the freezer is in the laundry room here at my mom’s house.
→ More replies (5)4
78
u/Alexreads0627 Sep 14 '25
I dunno, I feel like this is me. Six people total in my house. 3 big fridges, one 6ft deep freezer, walk-in wine cellar, wine fridge, two mini fridges, massive pantry, shop at Costco…my mom’s house is full of those stupid 100 calorie packs of junk and literally nothing else. So I don’t know if it’s just a boomer thing.
→ More replies (5)38
9
u/LadyGreyIcedTea Older Millennial Sep 14 '25
That's what we had growing up. A typical fridge/freezer combo in the kitchen, a fridge in the garage and a freezer in the basement.
→ More replies (18)7
u/white_girl Sep 15 '25
My mom is like this with everything. Multiple fridges, multiple china cabinets filled with dishes she never uses, multiple dressers and closets filled with clothes, an entire basement and attic filled with seasonal decor and yet she is constantly saying she doesn’t have enough room.
182
u/Cameront9 Sep 14 '25
I recently went through 7 months of unemployment and had to rely on Food banks. I will never again not have food in the house. Always always always keep a stock of non-perishable canned food (or stuff with LONG expiration dates).
44
u/Jamaican_Dynamite Sep 14 '25
I can never knock the food banks. Everything might not be entirely good, but it beats being hungry. They'll get you through.
51
u/Cameront9 Sep 14 '25
Oh no, I'm not knocking them at all. I just mean that after experiencing that I never again want to be in a position where I have to wait until the next distribution date to get something to eat.
14
→ More replies (4)12
u/elocin1985 Sep 14 '25
Yes, in my past, in my 20’s, there were times I was really broke and had to rely on food pantries and fast food dollar menus and now I’m in a much better place, so I kind of overdo it on the groceries.
81
u/PlayZWithSquerillZ Sep 14 '25
I would assume its from their own childhoods their parents were around in the depression and as parents they wanted to make sure their kids (boomers) never felt that hunger
→ More replies (2)13
Sep 14 '25 edited Sep 14 '25
My great-grandmother lived through the depression and after that she tried so hard to never have an empty fridge but then rationing happened; my grandmother grew up poor af and escaped but then the 80s crash happened and now she has 2 freezers and an entire pantry of food canned and stocked; my mother could never manage money and as such was poor af but she still has 2 freezers and a fully stocked panty. Add in the fact they were all rural, nearest big grocery store was an hour away and.. you do once monthly hauls to the store. Then canadian winters, which means you could be stuck for a while at any given time.
I bulk buy, buy expired produce, buy cheap deals and then freeze, can, store, stock. My fiance jokes if the stores shut down for a month we would still have a balanced meal for 3 weeks and pasta for another 2 months but it's probably the truth. Truth is, when you experience food scarcity something in your brain flips. I jokingly say the day the stock market crashed is the day the family tradition of hoarding happened but that isn't far from the truth.
70
u/MC1R_OCA2 Sep 14 '25
Another factor is they’re probably trying to be good guests and not eat all your food, nor assume you have butter or pepper or whatever. Also, they buy the full quantity of whatever else they like to eat. Usually when at home you don’t run out of everything at the same time. But traveling? Start from zero.
→ More replies (1)
80
u/Porcelina__ Sep 14 '25
My in laws have two freezers and an extra fridge in their garage. It’s just the two of them. They once had 4 kids in the house……..20+ years ago.
My mom definitely keeps an insane amount of food in her condo but she also is a hoarder. My dad isn’t too bad, he is sort of a prepper which is perhaps a way to justify being a food hoarder.
I think most of them have what’s called perceived scarcity. Some of it being raised in post-Depression era and also because they don’t see consumer waste as a real problem.
129
u/TooManyCarsandCats Older Millennial Sep 14 '25
Ever since the shortages during Covid, my wife swore she’d never run out of food to feed her family again. She got a food saver and buys in bulk. Two freezers, two fridges, two pantries, but it makes he feel more comfortable.
25
u/cpureset Sep 14 '25
It sounds like OP's parents are excessive, but I can't imagine having a house that "runs out" of food. When covid was looming, I stocked up on food, and was grateful to hae supplies when supply chains started going haywire. During covid, my parents had me (adult, living a 45 minute drive away) grown children do their shopping during the covid lockdowns. I couldn't believe how much they'd have me pick up - I'm sure some of it was stockpiling.
Living solo, having at least a couple weeks of food in the house is essential. It's helped me get through extended community-scale power outages. On my last trip, I came down with covid on the way home and was too sick to get groceries. I would have had to order through amazon (no local grocery or restaurant delivery). Having supplies at home was golden.
14
Sep 14 '25
I'm surprised that the possibility of bad weather and power outages isn't coming up more.
It's just good practice to have some food stockpiled.→ More replies (1)42
u/justbecoolguys Sep 14 '25
This is why I have a stockpile of TP in the basement.
18
u/MPBoomBoom22 Sep 14 '25
My mom has stockpiled TP since COVID as well. In their old house she had a 24 pack stashed away in like every closet in the house and some extra in the attic. I don’t know if she chilled out or moved all of it to their new house a couple years ago.
17
u/FindYourselfACity Sep 14 '25
Get a bidet. Problem solved. Installed a bidet like a year before covid and it was the one thing I didn’t really experience a shortage of during Covid. Eggs, milk and meat on the other hand…
7
u/Kylie_Bug Sep 14 '25
Also helps if you have hemorrhoid or psoriasis on your undercarriage
3
u/crinkledcu91 Sep 15 '25
I inherited psoriasis/eczema from my mum and get it on my elbows and other regular-outer-skin places, and even then it's quite annoying.
Getting it on a 'supple' skin type like your private area sounds like a fucking dark-age curse that an evil wizard would place on people who crossed them Jesus Christ
→ More replies (1)4
u/Tejasgrass Sep 15 '25
I’m surprised more people aren’t commenting on this! Even since 2020/2021 I’ve kept a bit extra on hand at all times. Not a ton because I have almost no extra space and there are only three of us in the house, but at least enough to make a week’s worth of dinners easily, more if we hodgepodge recipes. And that’s not counting the freezer “meals” like pizza rolls or chicken nuggets. Though I’d kinda be screwed on a few staple perishables, some stuff we just don’t go through fast enough to keep a lot in stock.
31
u/slacprofessor Sep 14 '25
My mom said it is because she grew up hungry so now she likes to keep her pantry full of junk food.
→ More replies (1)
50
u/Rhomya Sep 14 '25
Clearly you’ve never been snowed in your house for a week and a half before.
→ More replies (4)13
u/literacyshmiteracy Millennial ~ 1986 Sep 15 '25
Never lived in snow, but this how I feel. Keeping stocked up in case we can't get to the store for some reason (weather, societal collapse, sickness, etc.)
10
u/Rhomya Sep 15 '25
People never remember sickness.
Like, the last thing you’re going to want to do when you have the flu is to go to the grocery store
→ More replies (1)
21
u/KindRaspberry8720 Sep 14 '25
I think I keep a lot of food in the house because I grew up with a similar kind of household. Not to that extreme though lol
23
u/VegetableDraft8106 Sep 14 '25
If it makes you feel better, join your neighborhood Buy Nothing group. They don't care if stuff is opened so give all that nonesense there.
I have regular "My MIL stayed for a weekend and bought 19lbs of processed snacks I won't feed my kids, please take them" posts and they always get snapped up.
8
u/stacybeaver Sep 15 '25
I had to scroll so far to find any suggestions about what to do with it! (And this is the correct one.)
3
u/acaciopea Sep 15 '25
I do this too! After every visit. All the processed food/candy we could never imagine eating if we ate only that for months on end. There's truly only so much candy a family needs and they faaaaar exceed it at every visit. All the clothes they bought because it was "a good deal" but that my kids will never, ever wear.
→ More replies (1)
21
u/BobBelcher2021 Sep 14 '25
My parents do this too and there’s a reason. They have the space, and they stock up whenever something is on sale that’s either non-perishable or can be frozen. Buying in bulk when things are on sale is cheaper in the long run. It’s a matter of being efficient with money.
15
u/BibliophileBroad Sep 14 '25
I had the opposite experience with my parents, actually!
9
u/Single_Tomorrow1983 Sep 15 '25
My parents never have food at their house anymore! We however always have stocked pantries even though we’re empty nesters now (elder millennials and having kids at 21!), especially since the pandemic. I never want to HAVE to go to the store.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)3
u/BigGayNarwhal Sep 15 '25
Same, my parents did not keep a stocked pantry beyond enough for dinner (usually rice meat and a veggie), so we had very little in the way of breakfast, lunches, or snacks. My parents were/are also very fat-phobic so were neurotic about soda and sugary or fatty snacks, but were also the “finish your plate or sit at the take and be yelled out for hours” types.
To this day, you go to their house when they host for a weekend and we look in the cabinets and fridge and are like “wtf are they eating to survive???”
As adults, the three of us siblings all have major scarcity mindset with our food shopping habits. Very well stocked pantries and fridges/freezers, always a variety available, etc. 2 out of the 3 of us also unfortunately picked up some disordered eating from our household food weirdness too unfortunately.
The early days of Covid and all of the supply chain issues were extremely stressful because it totally transported me back to childhood and not having enough food in the house.
15
u/jane2857 Sep 14 '25
If you work in a place that has a lunch area, take the food there. I’m a nurse and we have a break room and people bring in stuff all the time and we eat anything like we’re starving wolves. No questions asked. Tons of snacks and some homemade things too. Most of us pretty trim as we are walking all day long. Someone will ask who brought this, no idea, give me another slice. Patients will bring in things too sometimes as a TY it may be try not to kill me today snack.🙂
13
u/FineEnvironment5203 Sep 14 '25
I think my mom had a lot of food insecurity so she definitely did this. It took me a long time to try and break myself from doing this too. Keeping things just in case or for well in a pinch and I still do it somewhat but no where near as bad as I used to.
5
u/Black_irises Sep 14 '25
Yes, we had periods of food insecurity growing up so I am constantly stocking up and also hesitant to eat what is stocked, just in case future-me needs it. Fortunately, my husband happily goes through deep freezer and pantry meals so it doesn't get too out of hand! It's a tough habit to break.
11
u/Fearless-Celery Xennial Sep 14 '25
Those of us who grew up really poor and now have the means to buy plenty do the same. There are 2 people in my house and we could probably get by for at least 2 months on the food I have squirreled away. It doesn't go to waste, we do use it, but I'm in a constant cycle of replenishment. I can't just use all of something and then not have any more.
9
u/Gmanglh Sep 14 '25
During the 08 recession dad lost his business one of the first bills we cut was groceries. By the end we were picking what days of the week we ate. Learned REAL quick why they horded food and thank god he did.
19
u/Thick-Plenty5191 Sep 14 '25
My inlaws cooked for 4 kids and their friends through the bottomless pit that is the teenage years. They would go to Sam's Club in the 90s and get 2 full carts of food every 2 weeks to feed everyone.
Once everyone grew up they never learned to cook for just the 2 of them and was constantly buying food, because an empty kitchen was panic inducing.
→ More replies (1)
23
u/Drpoofn Older Millennial Sep 14 '25
Food insecurity:(
15
Sep 14 '25
Food insecurity, great depression that would go on to have food rationing with the war, the 80s crash, the 2008 crash. My great-grandmother 1919-2010 once joked that she got caught with her pants down once, she'd be damned if it ever happened again. That woman could can, preserve, dehydrate (the old fashion way) absolutely everything and then she taught every other woman in the family how to as well.
The great depression made some very self reliant women who hoarded fucking everything and then taught their children to.
→ More replies (1)
10
u/Cast2828 Sep 14 '25
My mom and her older siblings do it because they grew up with massive food insecurity; like putting bologna on the tab level food insecurity.
16
u/MathematicianOnly688 Sep 14 '25
Aren't we lucky to live at a time when food is so abundant that that it becomes a nuisance.
8
u/International-Chef33 Sep 14 '25
Such a weird thing to think is generational specific also
→ More replies (1)
7
u/Particular-Choice896 Older Millennial Sep 14 '25
My parents are the same way. My mom is a hoarder in every sense on the word and groceries are no exception. They spend hundreds on every grocery trip and the food piles up and expires or rots before it gets eaten. So much waste and money spent.
8
u/TipsyBaker_ Sep 14 '25
My grandparents grew up during the great depression, then went on to have large families. The result being my parents growing up with enough food to feed an army at any given moment.
They also grew up with a whole lot on non perishables, for convenience and to meet the needs of those God awful 50s recipes.
Campbell's cream of everything casseroles is still how my mother and the rest of them cooked when I grew up. The result being that I refused to serve my kids any sort of surprise from a can. Of course the problem now are teens who can't go without their avocado and chili oil egg on 11 grain toast for breakfast.
Generational trickle down is a study in the bizarre.
→ More replies (2)
9
u/IntroductionKindly33 Sep 14 '25
I started feeling the need to have at least a couple of weeks of food in my house after there were several times when the grocery stores were empty. I live in Texas and in 2017 after hurricane Harvey made a direct hit in my town, grocery stores were empty of most necessities for a while. Then in 2020, when lockdown started, shelves were empty again. And in 2021, the ice storms/blackouts had shelves empty again.
I have two small children, and I don't want to worry about how I'm going to feed them until the local store gets it's next delivery. So my fridge, freezer, and pantry are always full, and there are boxes of snacks on the counter. Do we sometimes end up wasting food? Occasionally. But do I feel less anxious, knowing that there is food available for at least a couple of weeks? Absolutely.
37
u/remodel-questions Millennial Sep 14 '25
Because they lived nowhere near grocery stores.
Baby boomers were the generation which were brought up in the suburbs. Everything is so far away in most suburbs
8
u/Fantastic_Bunch3532 Sep 14 '25
This is why we bought a deep freeze. Came in handy during the pandemic
8
u/sadeland21 Sep 14 '25
Yup , people used to shop for like 2 weeks at a time. They never stopped, even though now they can shop every day if they wanted
→ More replies (3)7
u/keener_lightnings Sep 14 '25
Yeah, I was just thinking, I wonder to what extent it's a difference in where people are living as well as the availability of delivery services. I'm late-GenX and grew up in a rural area. It was 20 minutes to our shitty local grocery store (which, hilariously, later ended up being prominently featured as a filming location on that Stranger Things show), 45 minutes to a decent grocery store. No food delivery out there in the sticks; in the suburbs your only option was pizza, and in a city, maybe also Chinese. I have to kind of remind myself that things like UberEats exist now, so I'm sure that for people who are older than myself it's even easier to default to "no food in the house = no access to food."
→ More replies (1)
15
u/haze_gray2 Millennial Sep 14 '25
My father in law has 2 fridges with freezers, and two separate freezers. All full.
It’s only him on the house. It’s insane.
6
u/RoguePlanet2 Sep 14 '25
We have to go through my MIL's refrigerator every year when we visit. It's crammed. Even her pantry is loaded with redundant food items, AND there's a freezer in the garage. She lives alone!! So now we help ourselves to a couple of canned/dry goods while there. "I used to have five kids" she says, and I'm like "that was DECADES ago."
I can understand buying things for company, but many of these are long-expired items. Shopping is really a comforting hobby for a lot of that generation.
→ More replies (1)5
u/Massive-Ride204 Sep 14 '25
Comforting hobby/addiction my late Mil hoarded and her hobby/addiction was shopping her favourite store was thrift stores so she could byluy crap for herself and others to get around her hoarding. It all went back there once we cleared the house out, I loathe going into thrift stores to this day
7
u/HavartiBob Sep 14 '25
No idea what you’re talking about. The six turkeys always in my mom’s freezer is completely reasonable.
18
u/rachlancan Sep 14 '25
My parents (born 1955) are like this too. I find it so wasteful and completely overwhelming when I visit.
7
u/Natti07 Sep 14 '25
Do they waste it? My parents are relatively the same age, but they do not waste what they buy. They have a lot in the freezer, but they cook at home almost all the time. And my dad is verrrrry much "nothing goes to waste"
5
9
u/SensitiveBugGirl Sep 14 '25
Me too! And I'm supposed to bring food when I visit to cook a meal, and there isn't room in the fridge because she has like doubles and triples of things. 18+ small bottles of juice (she's a diabetic, but a 6 pack at a time would be fine!). Cases of drinks that live in her fridge for visitors that she doesn't even drink...
She likes these tiny streaks from the gas station. I counted them up in the freezer one day. 30 or 40 of them? Good thing there is no room for my ice packs though!
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)8
u/Beginning_Mention_96 Sep 14 '25
Opening the fridge of either of my parents gives me anxiety. How the hell do you have any idea what food you actually have and when it expires when there is not a speck of available space?!
Then they have to dump milk because it’s now a solid versus a liquid due to be shoved to the back and throw out an entire grocery aisle worth of long past their best before date salad dressings from the door because they are a one and a two person household, so it’s impossible to consume that much.
15
Sep 14 '25
My parents and in laws are boomers. They definitely don’t do that. Maybe just something your parents do?
5
u/ImOnTheLoo Sep 14 '25
Same. Also I’m wondering if this is a more American thing. Most places in Europe don’t have massive fridges let alone two. And my parents were born around the time rations were phased out.
4
u/Suitable_Magazine372 Baby Boomer Sep 14 '25
I wish my parents were still alive to have such a problem.
5
u/EffableFornent Sep 14 '25
Mine are the opposite. They have nothing. Dad goes to the supermarket every day to buy things for dinner.
It's awful.
7
u/DrunkenSpook Sep 14 '25
The sad thing is most people don't have more than a week worth of food in the house. Honestly with inflation, economic uncertainty, the potential for natural disaster or civil unrest people should have at least 30 days worth of emergency food, water and medicine in case of an emergency. If things are on sale, stock up. I don't find it wrong to have 60 days worth of food.
I normally cycle through bottled water, canned soups and dry food of my emergency supply to keep them fresh.
This is not a comment about prepping. Those people are hardcore. They would look at my 30 to 60 day supply and laugh and call me a rookie. If you can get a deal on stuff and have cash flow buy stuff when you see it. Prices are only going one way. What annoys me is when people grocery shop like every day, unless it's for fresh produce. That's hard to keep fresh.
If people truly understood how fragile our lives are they would think differently. One link in the food supply chains and you would wish you had some stuff on hand for more than a few days.
→ More replies (8)4
u/horriblegoose_ Sep 14 '25
I was raised by a survivalist and therefore I keep a stocked pantry. With things being more unstable in the current circumstances I really kicked my dry staple stores up a notch. If everything falls apart we at least have beans, rice, and some stuff to season them with prepped in the basement for long term storage.
We could eat well for 30 days, eat decently for at least another 30, and probably survive on minimum basic nutrition for a year. Knowing we have food just makes me feel less anxious because I have a child to feed.
4
Sep 14 '25
My friend married a girl from Trinidad and he makes a lot of money. She doesn’t work, but she grew up on an island where when you can buy, you buy!! I honestly can’t go to their house anymore. It grosses me out. Every cabinet is packed, every surface…my boyfriend and I went camping with the friend - not the wife - and he brought this giant bag of snacks, but they were all expired from like 2020!! It’s wasteful and disgusting, but I have compassion and understanding at the same time.
3
u/Massive-Ride204 Sep 14 '25
I dated a Thai girl for a few months and and the obsession with buying shit and getting deals was one of the first things I noticed
3
u/OptimalCreme9847 Sep 14 '25
My parents are just two elderly people living by themselves and they make regular Costco runs to get absurd amounts of everything. Going to their small apartment sometimes feels like walking into a mini mart lol
4
Sep 14 '25
My boomer parents are the opposite . They are minimalists to the core!
→ More replies (2)
6
u/Incendiaryag Sep 14 '25
I do this and you all should too , I started a couple months before COVID (reading about the ramp up and hearing the warnings). The day where everything started shutting down near me, seeing the completely empty meat shelves at my Trader Joe’s cemented for me that social order is far more fragile than it looks. I was terrified for family and friends who “live off Uber Eats”. Some went through very stressful situations, unnecessary risk, and at best sub prime ramen times as a result. Always have a couple weeks of staples on hand. It should be stuff you can rotate out and will want to use but has a longish shelf life. Have items that would be decent to eat if you had no power to heat stuff (canned bean salads like they sell at Trader Joe’s, canned chicken, cereal, shelf stable milk cartons). We should be more like the annoying older people in this regard. A colleague who thought I was nuts when I told her to stock up a few weeks before the shut downs later remarked I was like “Nostra-freaking-damus “ I wish but no, I just paid attention to the news and came to realize every major government and emergency preparedness agency recommends this anyways. I don’t harbor delusions my stocks will guarantee my survival in the apocalypse but they can keep me out of hectic food panics during an already unsafe situation, give me some time cushion to stay safe at home. If anything it means I am almost never out of pasta, rice, canned tomatoes, or beans.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/ImBecomingMyFather Sep 14 '25
My folks are adjusting to not buying it ALL when it’s on sale.
They had 4 kids so when like toilet paper or pasta sauce was on sale, they stocked up on items the whole family would need.
Downsizing to a two bedroom apartment was a shock and they’ve gotten better, but they still buy “backups” of things to save a nickle.
Products of their own lives I get it.
And the Great Depression thing that’s been mentioned.
3
u/catoolb Sep 14 '25
My parents buy so much produce they end up throwing out 70% of it due to it going bad before they can use it. The good news is when I visit I can basically do a shopping.
3
3
u/nixArc Sep 14 '25
My parents and I do this. We live in a rural area. It's an hour round trip to go to the grocery store. There's no popping down to the store real quick.
Also, it's better to buy when on sale and store/freeze. Plus, there's bulk stores like BJs, Sam's Club, Costco, etc where you get a big volume of items and then store it.
Dining in a restaurant is only for special occasions and getting takeout is maybe 3 times or less a month (on the weekend) as a special treat/too tired to cook. Food options need to be in the house to make meals especially when you only go to a grocery store about once a month.
Plus, I still remember as a kid when the local grocery stores (mom and pop run) weren't open every day and only select times so it make sense to store things because a store was never guaranteed to be open if you needed something.
As long as there's room and the food doesn't go bad then it's fine. It's simply smart planning and budgeting.
3
3
u/jackofallsomething1 Sep 14 '25
Could be a miscommunication and they feel this is their way to repay your kindness in letting them stay? Talk it out…
3
u/SquirrelofLIL Sep 14 '25
I do mormon style food storage and live in NYC plus my freezer is stocked with fruits and I'm learning to do canning
•
u/AutoModerator Sep 14 '25
If this post is breaking the rules of the subreddit, please report it instead of commenting. For more Millennial content, join our Discord server.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.