Oats: Can You Have Too Much of a Good Thing?
Updated March 10, 2021
I am a sucker for those scary ads that tell you a particular item is being discontinued and you have to buyitnoworitwilbegoneFOREVER!
It is a completely visceral reflex to BUYITRIGHTNOW, right? That’s why these ads exist. And that also explains why I own a number of items that I don’t use and never needed before I was told they were being discontinued.
Moving onto an email I received shortly before Christmas a year ago or so. It was from Libre Naturals, my source of nutfree oats, instant oatmeal cups, granola, and more. I’d found them about a year earlier when I was in the throes of an oat craving so profound that my life would not be right until I started making overnight oats and muesli for breakfast. For which you need old-fashioned oats and they are hard to find in stores, especially when you need the nutfree variety. Libre Naturals sells in bulk, which was why I usually had a 5 pound bag of oats in my freezer.
But now, Libre Naturals was discontinuing not just my old-fashioned oats, but also their nutfree sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Now, I do have an alternate source for the seeds — No Nuts About Us stocks them, as well as all sorts of other delicious nutfree products. But, I mean… bulk is always cheaper. And I had to act fact — these products were much like Cinderella at the ball at about 10 minutes before midnight.
Which just added fuel to the fire of what happened next.
I decided to stock up. Clicked to add one bag of sunflower seeds and one bag of pumpkin seeds to my order. And then looked at the oats, intending to stock up a bit.
Which sounds like a perfectly reasonable decision, but in that moment became more like an “I have to do this in the next two minutes before someone else buys it all” moment of madness.
And this is when things get a bit hazy.
I attempted to do some mental math about how long it’d take me to go through one bag of oats, then added the element of freezing said oats to prevent bugs and extend their life, plus a buffer zone of several months to identify alternate source of nutfree oats while still having enough to prevent rationing, divided by the space in my freezer…
I was never good at math.
Then added a number of bags to my cart. Because now, it had become bags, not pounds.
It was only a couple of days later when I told my mother about this that the realization of the true extent of imminent oats hit me. I’d purchased six bags of oats. Which had seemed reasonable and quite restrained at the time, given that my first impulse was to buy every flake of oat Libre Naturals had stashed in every corner of their warehouse.
At 5 pounds in each bag, that would be 30 pounds of oats heading my way.
I had to check it a couple of times, even using the calculator on my phone to verify the result obtained by my mental math because it seemed somewhat excessive.
But yes. Six times five is indeed 30. Plus five pounds each of sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
30 pounds of oats. Ten pounds of seeds.
My only explanation is that I panicked.
Between the discontinuing aspect and the fact that this is the only place I have found to buy nutfree oats and the tight deadline… Well. Some part of me was convinced that I would never eat again! unless I bought this right away and really, what with it only being six bags of oats, it wasn’t much at all.
Right?
Did I mention I panicked?
I managed to find someone who could vacuum seal the seeds in 1 pound packages, which was fairly easy to store in my not-too-large freezer, but the oats? They are rather more bulky. Right now, about 1/3 are in my freezer, the rest are in four original cardboard boxes containing one large ziploc bag of oats each, stacked near the wall of my kitchen.
Looking at them makes me feel safe.
Also occasionally somewhat ridiculous.
Tag: ads, muesli, nutfree, oats, pumpkin, seeds, sunflower
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I’m a sucker for a bargain, so if I see something worth buying, I can’t just buy one! So I know your problem!
LOL! At least I’m not alone.
Oh i love Oats, but darn they do not like me. More accurate, they hate my blood sugar. So Lene, you can have mine. But I am jealous.
I am sorry to hear that. But I will happily take yours, too. 🙂
Thanks for the chuckle. That sounds exactly like something I would do…
In retrospect, I wasn’t surprised. Because it’s totally something I’d do… 🙂
Years ago my mother confiscated my fathers COSTCO card (Not sure if you have COSTCO by you but it’s a warehouse club where everything is sold in bulk) because he would come him with extremely large amounts of one product. I can still hear my mom saying “How much pancake syrup do we need”. It was on sale my father would say. Kind of reminds me of you and your oats. I panic too when something is being discontinued. I’ve been known to stock up as well! The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree I guess.
We do have COSTCO, but I’m not a member. Because I know what would happen and I don’t have the room. 🙂
I commented on your post a few days ago, but I had to come back because today I made a discovery. I found about 12 packets of biscuits in my cupboard. I’ve got coeliac disease and a few weeks ago, we were shopping in Aldi’s and discovered some gluten-free biscuits. I bought a packet, took them home and tasted them and they were so nice. Aldi’s stock changes so often, so you never know if you’d get them again. But my husband stopped in at Aldi’s the next day and I think came home with every packet on their shelf! When I opened the cupboard today, I thought of you!!
LOL! That’s awesome. And you sure have a lovely husband.
Haha oh no, this sounds like it could have been a total disaster! Well rescued though. Quick thinking.
I thought so! And I’m thoroughly enjoying that I won’t run out for ages.
Hahahah! A bargain is a bargain, at the end end of the day! If my favorite foods were discontinuing (Duke’s Beef Sticks or UTZ BBQ Pork Rinds, for example), yeah, I’d be ordering a small metric ton of them and not be the least big shaky about my decision, even as huge boxes are delivered to my apartment, blocking my only exit and confusing my wife. I’d do it in a heartbeat.
LOLOL! There are definitely times when hoarding makes sense. Erm… stocking up. I mean stocking up. 🙂
Haha I love this post! It reminded me of a similar story my family shares.
Years ago my mother came home from the store with 6 cases of China Lily soya sauce. We asked why and in a complete panic she said, ” THEY’RE GOING OUT OF STOCK. CHINA LILY IS GOING OUT OF BUSINESS. I NEEDED TO STOCK UP!!”
I’m pretty sure it was just hearsay because Im almost positive I’ve seen China Lily soya sauce in the grocery store to this day.
I wouldn’t know for sure however because I steer clear of soya sauce due to the copious amounts we endured as chidlren trying to use up our moms seemingly never-ending supply. Ha!
what a great story! Maybe a case of China Lily soy sauce would be a fun Christmas present for her. 🙂
Yes we all do it sometimes and stock up when not required.By the way I love Oats too, as a change in my breakfast routine.Eggs & toast though is my favorite breakfast.
Toast is good any time a day…
Oats has been a staple for me since I was in high school. There’s no week that I do not eat it at least twice. The fiber content is what endeared me.
and the taste. Some people say it tastes bland, but I love the flavour.
I have a problem with large packs. lol. I nag my husband about buying too much and not finishing it at the end. Now, he makes sure that he finished his oats before its expiration. lol
Just goes to show that you can teach an adult dog new tricks. 🙂
lol! This sounds like something I would do. Only mine is cake batter chapstick. lol!
I feel understood. Thank you. 🙂
I absolutely love oats. There is just so much you can do with them from overnight oats to a good bowl of oatmeal to a variety of cookies. Reading this, I didn’t really think 6 bags sounded all that excessive.
Neither do I. It’s when I think of 30 pounds things got a little… erm… weird?
“Looking at them makes me feel safe.” Hahaha
Everyone gets oats for Christmas!
Hell, no! Then I would have to give them away! 😉
You gotta get the oats when you can! I do the same thing when I see items being discontinued. All the oatmeal and oatmeal cookies for you!
Yes! At least I can experiment with recipes without worrying about running out.
I might have done the same thing in your shoes. I’d much rather have too much than not enough.
Exactly! So happy to hear I’m not alone.
I went to Costco recently and found two packages (one box, one bucket) of Mountain House freeze dried foods. Seemed kind of random in placement, so I grabbed one. I wanted both, but my husband told me no. Bastard. Lol. We went searching for them in the store, found an employee to ask, as I wanted to know the price (or so I told my husband) and if they had more. They didn’t, we literally got the last one. We argued about it, but he lost. Probably just gave up and called it a win that he only had to buy one of the two. Lol. We’re always having that discussion. He says we only need X amount and my response is, I have allotted space for X amount. Therefore, we’re buying the amount I say. Lol.
LOL! It’s a wonder that he still tries to get his way.
Sooooo funny, but true. I am like this about things on sale…even if it’s not a great sale. I feel like I HAVE to get it right now!
I know! I have so much crap that I didn’t really need, just because it was on sale. I’m currently in the process of purging all of my crap and it’s quite a relief. Now I just have to teach myself not to buy more
Oats can do sorry many things. Cereal, yogurt, ice cream, cookies& make bread. I bought a bread maker back two years ago best investment I buy everything in bulk and use it as much as I can! You can say no to a good bargain!
Exactly my point! And you’re right — oats can do everything. So really, it wasn’t odd at all by 30 pounds. 🙂
Ohh that’s me and my husband – every week !! Lol! I am still laughing!
Awesome! I’m realizing this happens to more people than I thought.
My husband is the “panic” shopper in my house. He bought so many pens once that they all dried out before we could use them all 🤣
LOL! Love that story!
lol! oats are so good but i am a firm believer of “everything in moderation.” my boyfriend and I do love stocking up on things when they are on sale though hahaha
As my partner says, everything in moderation. Including moderation. 🙂