We consume.

We started buying our consumables in earnest last week. This is our haul from Costco. We made it through toiletries and some kitchen and cleaning stuff before our cart was too heavy to push and it occurred to us we only have one car and can only carry so much stuff home. We have a list and for the most part we stuck to it. Also we have time to do a bit of comparison shopping and buy some of our preferred brands at other stores if Costco doesn't have them. It's all sort of a puzzle. We need X amount of stuff as cheaply and from as few stores as possible, but for some items we're willing to pay a tad more to get a specific brand.

Aside from the toiletries and cleaning products from Costco we also placed a gigantic order with Amazon.com Groceries. They have bulk discounts on, surprisingly, most of the gluten-free foods I eat on a regular basis. My favorite crackers, cookies, and pasta plus some of the Bob's Red Mill baking mixes are available for much cheaper than specifically gluten-free shopping sites. Who knew that something as mainstream as Amazon.com could be such a gluten-free paradise? If you shop smartly and choose only items from Amazon and not outside sellers, you'll get free shipping on all of it, too.

(And while we were at Amazon we couldn't resist adding a few DVDs to our order.)

We'll have a yard with enough room for a garden, so we ordered seeds for some of our favorite vegetables that we might not be able to buy fresh there. As adults, neither of us have lived in a place where we can have gardens (except for a small patch of tomatoes at one place) and we're looking forward to having one. Apparently the soil is very fertile and any plant that likes sun and water will do well.

We also bought gallons of facial products from The Body Shop and I placed an Arbonne order with Vicky for all the sunblock I'll need.

Next we have to focus on the cats. They, also, need two years' worth of their favorite food and litter. Man, that's going to be heavy.

We know that we have to ignore the current economy and think ahead. All this stuff we're buying is an investment. We'll be happy with our preferred brands and favorite foods and life will be a little bit easier. Life will be different enough, and hard at times, without worrying about running out to CVS for deodorant (and CVS, of course, doesn't exist in Bujumbura). If we were to run out to the European grocery store American brands of cereal could cost upwards of $15 a box, so it's in our best financial interest to bring some with us (local brands have little to no quality control). But with all the rational thought behind it, it's still very weird to be shopping for the future like this.