You’ve probably heard about the recent rice scare and about Sam’s Club and Costco putting a limit on 100 pound bags to keep people from buying them completely out of rice. That was over a month ago, and while it provoked lots of great parody, now I am starting to see serious articles about the recession that suggest, um, ‘hoarding’ as one strategy.

No less an organization than Newsweek has jumped on the hoarding bandwagon, for the simple reason that it actually happens to make sense. It’s ‘icky’, but sensible. Whatever it costs today, it’s going to cost more tomorrow. End of story.

It isn’t necessary however to go all insane with it. You don’t have to turn into one of those squirrelish people who saves every newspaper delivered since 1931 until the stacks reach the ceiling and only little narrow paths remain to take you from room to room. Seriously, don’t do that.

Instead of that, here instead are a few positive ways to hoard, (if in fact you can use those two words sanely in the same sentence):

1) Buy Paper Products in Bulk.

This is a good idea even when inflation is nil, for the simple reason that you can usually save a good bit of money by doing this, and also because running out of toilet paper is one of the least fun occurrences daily life has to offer. Paper towels, tissues, toilet paper, and office supplies can be purchased in large quantities both to save money and to make sure they are always on hand.

2) Hoard Only Items You Will Actually Use.

You wouldn’t think it necessary to write this one out, but the truth is, many people just can’t resist a good buy. If you happen to be at Big Lots just as a shipment of ramen noodles with jalepeno and raisins comes in and the only teensy flaw is that the writing on them is in Turkish, resist the impulse to buy up an entire case of them just because it averages out to only 10 cents a serving. You will be looking at that case of ramen noodles when you are 90, or worse, you will foist it upon poor people during next Thanksgiving’s food drive. What did those poor people ever do to you?

3) Keep Some Powdered Milk and Eggs Onhand.

The reason for this is that during power outages and storms the real thing can be hard to find, plus, if the price of these perishable necessities gets out of hand, you can always use the powdered variety for cooking while you look for a cheaper source.

4) Stock Up On Staples, but Do Your Homework.

Rice, pasta, flour, cornmeal, oats, cereal, and sugar don’t spoil, and you can keep them for years if you freeze them. Put them in heavy duty plastic bags or airtight containers and keep as much on hand as you can. With the floods in the midwest already forecast to hurt this year’s corn and wheat crop, prices are not likely to come down anytime soon. Before you rush off to Costco though, make sure you’ve compared their bulk prices to grocery store prices by calculating the cost per pound. Sometimes wholesale stores can trick you with off sizes that make you think you’re getting a bargain when actually that giant package works out to more per pound than if you’d just purchase 5 generic five pound bags of the same thing at the supermarket.

5) Consider Freezing and Canning Your Own Produce.

If you live near orchards, or near any kind of food grower, consider buying in bulk while items are in season and getting together as a family to process and share your fruits and vegetables. With the cost of diesel climbing by the day, the cost of supermarket fruits and veggies is bound to reflect the cost of transport. Already, the cost of peppers is insane, even in season. Think about what you and your family actually like to eat, and buy bushels of it direct from the grower, then can or freeze it for later use.

6) Buy Local Meat in Bulk.

Again, not only can this save you money, you have the advantage of knowing exactly what you are getting. So much of the meat in the supermarket these days is processed and made to look artificially fresh for shipping purposes. It can be full of hormones and other unnecessary, potentially dangerous poisons. So many good reasons exist for finding a good source locally, it would take an entire article to list them all. For the sake of your hoarding strategy, consider the cost savings alone.

You don’t have to feel guilty about providing for your family. Buying 50 100 pound bags of rice is excessive. But stocking up on items that are sure to spike in the coming months is just good sense.

Trust me, you won’t be the only one doing it.