Do you keep a lot of food in stock at all times?

I meal plan for the week & do a food shop on a Saturday so by Friday the fridge is looking empty but there is always bits in the cupboards & freezer that we could make do with for 4/5 days if we needed to. I hate food waste so tend to buy what I know we need so that we throw very little away.

I always have some food in the cupboard and the freezer, enough for a day or 2 of meals minimum but I do leave my fridge go to nearly empty by the weekend. This is the way we minimise waste. We do a food shop on Sunday and all the meals and snacks get planned for the week. By the end of the week the fridge will only have condiments, milk and cheese, maybe a couple of veg or a bag of salad ( in case I need it to go with some freezer food). I also like it this way because I give the fridge a really good clean, wash the drawers and wipe the shelves with disinfectant spray etc before filling it up again so my fridge is normally very clean.

Dad’s income was sporadic growing up so sometimes we’d have lots of money and other times not enough. So my Gran and Mum always bought in bulk when times were good - I do the same. Lots of frozen / tinned veg and meals, bags of flour / rice.

We could live for a week or so (prob more) on what we have in the freezer & cupboards - I always buy a little bit extra on 'non-perishable' items so only have to really get fresh veg/fruit/meat each week .
I grew up in a poor household & live relatively rurally so always have that in my mind.

Today I bought 8 tubes of Flahavans oats which will last until spring as we’ll have porridge nearly every morning when it’s really cold. It’s often difficult to find in winter. Normal oats are available but this is our favourite.

Surely someone like that doesn't make meals from scratch?

I meal plan and do a weekly shop so usually only buy what we need for that week. Things like herbs we have in and I usually have tinned soups or something in.

I hate food shopping with a passion so I tend to buy lots so I need to do it less. I watch the you tube shopping hauls and I could put all of them to shame! I shop about 4 xs a year. Unpacking is a nightmare but so worth the time I free up for myself. I have a few freezers and fridges,and three pantries but I realise I am somewhat extreme compared to most.

I have a fair amount of food that will last a while eg lots of different canned and bottle beans, chickpeas, lentils,olive, sundried tomatoes etc
We have a lot of veg in the freezer including steam packs. I alwas have olice oil,balsamic, dates, date syrup, coconut oil, fresh lemons, avocado's etc I also always have baking stuff such as yeast and flour.
Despite all this ds and dh say there's never anything to eat!

I started adulthood in the age of BOGOF and 3for2 deals so it's always made sense to stock up. If you buy one item a week instead of buying 2 on a BOGOF deal and keeping one in the freezer/cupboard you're paying twice as much. I always have lots of herbs and spices, store cupboard things like flour and sugar, dry things like rice and pasta, tins, and frozen veg in big bags. I shop once a week online, I don't do any top up shops, and I use up all the fresh food from one week till the next. But I have enough food in stock that it could last our family of 5 for 4 weeks if we got strict with rationing.

Having lots of food in stock isn't an issue. Over-buying and then chucking half of it out because it's gone off before you have the chance to use it is obviously a different matter.

i could probably stock a small wholefoods shop - we have enough to keep us going for months.
we usually bulk-buy dry stuff (rice, chickpeas, oats, lentils, beans etc) - in bags that range from 2.5kg up to 25kg! and things like tomato puree/ passata, flour, pasta, coffee, sugar and tea. All our olive oil, apple cider vinegar, laundry liquid, shampoo and conditioner comes in 5L containers (the last two tend to last for years - as I only wash my hair about once a week and my partner doesn't have much hair to wash!)
The freezer's always full (of soaked/cooked beans, extra portions of meals that can be defrosted quickly, foraged berries, frozen veg/garlic/ginger). We grow some veg, and try to buy stuff when it's reduced (I'm a big fan of Lidl's £1.50 boxes) so we eat really well, but don't spend that much on food overall.

With us it is not just food and toiletries.

Costco is our goto shop for household items so things like kitchen towel, loo roll, washing liquid, fabric conditioner, dishwasher tabs, bleach, antibac spray etc are bulk bought and are lining the shelves in the garage. 6-Months supply of most items but when the offers are on it make sense to buy more.😉

I’ve always kept stocks of long dated foods such as pasta, rice, breakfast cereals and tins. I’d upped levels when Brexit was happening and to cover winter. This saved us during the initial covid lockdown as we both work shifts in the nhs and were unable to get to the shops.
It also meant we could donate to the village unofficial foodbank during those first weeks to help those shielding.

I usually only buy goods on offer though ie 3 for 2 etc. so choices may look slightly random lol.

We definitely wouldn’t starve for at least 4-6 weeks if every shop shut. However the variety would be limited and the combinations might be a tad weird.

#Booksandflowers

i was in a similar state with too many cans in my kitchen. I used the Olio network to offer them to people in my local area and the people who responded picked up the food within hours. All of the cans were beyond the Best Before date but none were out of date. Tidied my cupboards and no waste.

Whenever I see a 'well stocked' fridge, I wonder what's going mouldy at the back.

I'm the same as you op.
I keep well stocked cupboards and freezer. I cook a lot and waste very little, all leftovers are used up.

I buy what I need for the week and have a little bit of extra in the freezer and cupboards. Usually bread, beans, tuna, tinned tomatoes, herbs, eggs, tinned fruit and some kind of "beige food" protein and potato. I like carbonara as a quick and easy meal so I usually keep some lardons and Parmesan on hand as well.

Yes, I do. A home should always have a well stocked store cupboard and freezer

We could survive a nuclear fall out. 2 freezers, a pantry with tins of everything- tomatoes, beans chickpeas, extra condiments, juice. Too many packets of cereal, all the baking ingredients- including different types of brown sugars and every herb/spice you could wish for. I think it’s because I grew up with sparse cupboards. My parents are very frugal -(post war rationing mentality rather than poverty-driven) I think it’s a reaction to this.

I am same as you.
I can't buy one of anything , if I'm meeting friend she will say have you got any Ariel / lenor / cans Coke / beans/ loo roll that I can buy ? The answer is always yes .
My garage is my overflow , 2 freezers in there & 1 in the kitchen !
If you have the money to , I can't see the harm of buying on offer , my mum was/is the same.
My brother and sister in law are total opposite & quite often order take away as nothing in the house

I’m on quite a tight budget so I meal plan and try to stick my shopping list as much as possible so everywhere is pretty full after a shop but it quickly goes down to almost empty towards the end of the week. Even if I buy extra stuff for the cupboards and freezer just so we have ‘something in for emergencies’ it still gets eaten because I have a teenage boy with a bottomless stomach and if its there he’ll eat it just because he can so I’m still no better off. I’d have to buy an awful lot over and above what is actually needed to keep a constant flow of extra food in and I can’t afford to do that.

We could also survive for a month or more on what we have.

We could probably survive for at least a month with food in freezer x 2 and cupboards
I would still need to shop for fruit, salad and fresh veg though
I buy a lot of yellow sticker items too

Hello,my name is Tangerine Plate and I’m a food hoarder 🙂 Just in case the kids are sick/we’re snowed in or whatever there’s always food.