Sometimes I think we remember only too well what it was like to dwell in caves, fearing what tomorrow might bring and having our survival depend on stockpiling resources.

For most of us, this is not our reality.  We don't need to spend September and October stockpiling food and fuel to last until April.  The supermarkets will be open all winter and food will remain accessible.  Even if there's snow, we are unlikely to be cut off from resources for more than a week.

So why do we stockpile months' worth of food?  Marketers convince us that we need to take advantage of stock up sales, buying more than we are likely to use in the next several months.  Warehouse stores take it to a whole new level.  Now, clearly larger families can take advantage of such sales because they can easily go through several boxes of cereal and huge bags of frozen vegetables every week.  For those in smaller living units, however, too much is too much.  A carton of oatmeal can last me almost a month since I don't eat it every day.  A pound of coffee lasts even longer.  Yet still, it's tempting to buy two cans of coffee or two cartons of oatmeal since they are on such a great sale.  That way, I'll have it when I need it and I'm shielded against a price increase.

In truth, it may not be that great a deal.  You have to take up space to store it. The longer it's stored, the higher the likelihood that it will go bad before you use it.  There will be another sale.  There always is.  The prices may not be quite as low, but food prices have been relatively stable for years.  If inflation were running 10%, it might be a different story, but that's not the case.

So, what do you do?

• Have a reasonable sense of what your household uses in a month.  As a rule, you don't need to keep more than that on hand.
• Rotate the foods you do have on hand so that you use the oldest food first.
• Before going shopping, take a quick inventory of what you have on hand and plan upcoming meals to use the oldest food.
• If you do buy a lot of something, within 24 hours of bringing it into your house, have a plan for using at least half of it.
• If you want to take advantage of two-for-one discounts but don't really need that much, consider shopping with a friend and splitting the cost.