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Any cook would consider a well stocked pantry to be a culinary arsenal.  A frugal cook would recognize that having a well stocked pantry opens up a variety of methods to save money while not sacrificing access to good food.

How to build a well stocked pantry
The first step to stocking your pantry is NOT to rush out and buy a ton of food.  You aren’t trying to stock a home made bomb shelter out of fear for the upcoming Apocalypse.

Begin by taking an inventory of what kinds of ingredients you use most often.  I’m not talking about an exhaustive itemized inventory of your entire kitchen.  The key words are “most often” which means that you can probably write all of them down on yellow post-it note using very large letters.  When making this list focus only on things that can be easily stored for long periods of time without refrigeration.  Depending on your available freezer space you may wish to make a separate list for freezer or refrigerator items such as meats and cheeses.

Now that you have your list, it’s time to assess your available cabinet space.  While it probably looks cluttered I guarantee that you’ll find lots of space with just a little effort.  Rummage through your old food and remove anything that’s expired.  While you’re at it consider reducing the number of dishes, glasses and other kitchen items you have around.  Do you need dinnerware for 12 people when there’s only 1 or 2 of you living in a small apartment?

Be prepared to think outside the cabinets.  Do you have room above your cabinets?  In drawers?  In a closet?  Any of those could be easily converted into extra pantry space.

Saving money by buying more
The whole save by buying more thing may sound like an oxymoron, but when it comes to pantries it’s true.

Now that you have space and a list it’s time to begin stocking up in a frugal fashion.  Again, don’t rush out and buy everything all at once.  Take your list with you to the grocery store and check the prices of each item on it.  Do this for a few weeks and you may notice a sale.  When the item goes on sale, stock up.  Buy enough to last at least 6 weeks.  The idea is to buy as many as you’ll need to last at least until the next sale.  Each time you go grocery shopping check on the prices of the items that you stocked up on, when they go back on sale buy a few to refill your pantry.

And always rotate your stock, making sure to put the newest items at the back.  This helps to ensure that everything stays fresh and doesn’t expire by the time you get around to using it.

If this sounds a bit like keeping a grocery price book, that’s because it is.  The only difference is that I’m focusing only on the most frequently used items.  And no, you don’t need to run around to 12 different stores to make this system work.  Every store has its own cycle of sales so your patience will be rewarded even if you are only a one store shopper.

Use common sense when bulk buying.  If you only use 8 oz of tomato sauce at a time, it doesn’t make sense to buy a 128 oz can.  It’s better to buy 16 smaller 8 oz cans.  If you are trying to squeeze every penny until it screams you could buy a 128 oz can and then open it up and partition it out into 8 oz servings which you would then store in your freezer.  In my opinion, this takes too much effort and consumes too much freezer space to be practical for most people.  Freezer space is precious and should be saved for more expensive items, like meat.

For other ingredients such as flour, sugar, pasta and rice bulk buying may be a great option.  However, I would recommend storing them in air tight containers in order to preserve freshness.

Now that you’ve got your most commonly used ingredients taken care of, consider those that are less commonly used.  Again, the idea is to always have some on hand, but since these items aren’t used very often you may only need one or two around.  You could use the price book approach and wait for sales or you could just buy them as you need them.

Eating better
A well stocked pantry combined with it’s culinary cousin, a well stocked spice rack, helps you eat better by allowing you on the fly flexibility when it comes to meals.

Did you have a long day at work and don’t feel like making a three course dinner?  No problem, scale it down.  Are you in the mood for three course dinner but were only planning a simple meal?  No problem, you’ve probably got enough food stored to easily scale it up.

Did you find a new recipe that you want to try out?  Chances are that your pantry will have all (or most) of the necessary ingredients.  Just discover that you have to bake a cake or cookies by 7am tomorrow morning?  No problem, because you’ve got all the necessary ingredients right there at home already.

Whether so bad that you don’t want to go shopping this weekend?  Again, just raid the pantry.

Discovered that you don’t have much money for groceries this month?  Chances are that by using the food you’ve already got stored up you can reduce this month’s grocery bill.