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

We’re a mix of in between, when we have limited funds we run down the stocks, at the moment we could probably do main meals for 2 weeks, they might get a bit repetitive but ordinarily we do meal plan mainly based on what we have that could be used and what’s on offer that week.
Usually every month when I’m paid I go to a discount shop which requires a membership and stock up on heavily discounted surplus meat (£1 for 500g beef mince, £2 for 900g chicken breasts) which I chuck in the freezer, sometimes you end up with lots of chicken, other times it’s lots of sausages. I try and mix it up with buying extra from the shops so that we end up with a variety of proteins. We then make a meal plan based on what meat I managed to get and since it’s mostly in the freezer we decide the night before what we’ll have the next day.
We don’t keep much fresh though and most veg is frozen so we don’t waste things.

@DillyDeclutter 37 jars? How big is your fridge?!

@Vabenejulio i roughly plan what meals we’re having. Ie, sat - chicken and rice, Sunday -roast, Monday - spag bol, and then buy the food accordingly. However, it’s flexible (apart from roast on Sunday) so we may end up having spag Bol another day, or pulling pizza and chips out of freezer if time-short.

I think people have kept a store of food for thousands of years probably. I love to see shelves filled with jars of homemade chutneys, jams and bottled fruits all ready to get us through the winter. Something deeply primitive about being able to feed your family when the days are dark and cold especially.

Since the scares around Brexit (severe food shortages were predicted), Covid, local water supply cut off etc we always have a big stash of dried pulses, beans, peas, grains and cooking ingredients, plus some tins. We could definitely survive for a month and we are often feeding friends and family who visit too so like to be able to cobble something together at short notice.

We nearly always meal plan for health reasons and also hate waste like PPs. Love that feeling when there’s a list of meals on the fridge, all the shopping done and we don’t have to think about it all for a week.

If the apocalypse comes, I’m going to be fine for at least 3 months.

We have way too much really. Since DH retired he has taken over and he is obsessed with menu planning and on line supermarket deliveries each week. Whether we need it or not. And he forgets to delete stuff we don’t need so we can end up with lots d certain things. Last year it was cranberry sauce. We ended up with six jars of it!

We have two full freezers and a well stocked fridge. Very well stocked food pantry. And drawers. And another cupboard. We do cook with lots of spices and condiments though.

I think when DH was growing up money was tight and it partly stems from that. And at one point we lived in Eastern Europe and could get snowed in so we kept a big stock of stuff.

We do a freezer inventory every so often and menu plan around that. And our menu plans aren’t set in stone. We list five or six things and make sure we have the ingredients for those in but they can happen any day in the week. And often things change.

I shop most days because that's how I prefer to do it, I'm not sure what's hard to understand about it. People live differently.

Fridge wise I fill it up with what I know we're going to use that week as otherwise there is a lot of waste. But pantry cupboard and freezer could probably keep us fed for a week or two, not hugely nutritiously but not hungry

I buy “food”: whatever looks good quality and is a good price. I take it home. I cook it. I do this once a week. So generally on a weekly basis I buy fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, bread, milk, cheese

This is essentially what I do. My husband does a “Ready steady cook” every night with what we have in so our meals are always quite varied.

I’m the same as you OP.
When we had the first lockdown I didn’t need any shopping for 3 weeks. I had stocked up a bit though because I could see it coming.

I hate wasting food, so tend to buy only what I need. That said I’ve got a few tins and a good stock of herbs & spices.

I will also have a perge once every couple of months and eat what’s in the cupboard to make sure it doesn’t go out of date

I only buy what we will eat in a week. I used to be much more expansive with my shopping but we wasted too much food. I also meal plan so I know exactly what we will eat each day. Sounds really controlling written down. But I was concerned about waste and my partner doesn't cook, doesn't shop for food either but that's a different matter and I was bored of the "what are we going to have for dinner" conversation and the aggravation of thinking about it. Perfect scenario for me is that by the end of the week all that's in the fridge is milk. (Do have entire cupboard full of cake, biscuits and chocolate).

This

I shop every 2nd or 3rd day and have a weekly shop delivered.

I don't keep stockpiles but I have enough in the cupboards that I could knock up a few simple dinners if need be (nothing fancy - omelette / pesto pasta / beans on toast, tuna and mayo pasta) for 5 of us.

I do batch cook so there is always something in the freezer. At the moment it's bolognese, chicken curry and tomato sauce (to go over meatballs / chicken breast). I have accompanying pasta / rice in the cupboard.

I buy yellow sticker fish and meat for the freezer. We currently have a few sirloin steaks, several chicken breasts and some cod fillet. Also some beef mince.

I also have some beige food (fishfingers, potato waffles etc) and a variety of frozen veg.

We wouldn't starve but aren't bursting at the seams. I don't have 4 different types of pasta for example. Just spaghetti and Fusilli at the moment.

I have fully stocked herbs, spices and condiments and buy / replace as required.

Always have fruit, bread, cheese, eggs, basic salad stuff (cucumber, lettuce, tomatoes), some type of cereal, porridge oats, tinned tuna, beans, passata, rice, pasta. Randomly always have hummus as DC3 has it everyday. Also usually have some crisps / biscuits about too.

(I also have the non food stuff - toilet roll, cleaning products, sanpro, toiletries, laundry stuff but I don't stockpile and buy as and when I need and shop around for special offers)

I've never, ever had nothing to eat or run out of loo roll but I'm lucky in that I live nearby a supermarket and have never been too poor to afford the basics.

I’m the same as you with dried food, tins and there is always protein in the freezer. But fruit, veg and fresh food is bought in the big weekly shop. There’s always something still left over though like carrots which last ages. I know I can always make tuna pasta, scrambled eggs or fish and frozen veg if I can’t get to the shops.

I don’t understand people who go to the shops almost every day and only buy food for one or two days at a time. Especially small local supermarkets where it seems like the food is more expensive. I’d also feel quite stressed to open the cupboards and not see any basics like rice, pasta or tins.

My freezer is well stocker. Mostly with yellow stickered bargains. I always have tins of beans,soup etc in the cupboard.Always have pasta and rice in too.

I think it’s reasonable (if you can afford it) to keep canned and dry stuff in - tinned tomatoes, pulses, rice, pasta, lentils. I know I used to pick up stuff, often meat or fish on offer, stick it in the freezer, forget about it and find it in the pre Christmas freezer clear out covered in ice. Now I do a freezer week at least once every couple of months - I sort through and meal plan around what I find.

We'd be ok for a month or so, just surviving, as we have tins of tuna,sardines, potatoes, beans and tomatoes.
. We could probably cobble a few meals out of our small freezer, with leftovers, and we usually have a big bag of rice and a box of porridge oats.
Our weekly shop of meat and fresh produce could probably be stretched to last longer.
I also have a couple of large water bottles as we've had water supplies cut off twice in the last few years. Wouldn't last long but would tide us over a few days.

No I don't. I don't have the space and I don't want to waste food. I have things like big bags of pasta and rice but I don't keep tins as I don't eat anything tinned really apart from tomatoes when I make a bolognese or something. I don't keep much in the fridge either as fresh food spoils quicker and we're only a family of 2.

I usually buy what I want on the day. I live a 5 minute walk from both an Asda and a Tesco superstore.

I am the same. I have always kept my chest freezer full just in case!!!.Yesterday freezer died and I had to throw out so much. I will never keep as much again!!! (and get a smaller freezer.) I will however keep up my stock of dried goods and tins just in case. All this started with Covid !!!

Well my fridge was empty till this morning when I got my weekly shop but the thing that kept my anxiety down was the fact I could throw something together out of items from my cupboard and freezer

I’ve never understood meal planning. How do you know what you want to eat four days from now? Does this mean buying only listed ingredients for given meals (plus presumably staples for breakfast and packed lunches?)? What do you do if one or more is out of stock when you get to the supermarket?

I buy “food”: whatever looks good quality and is a good price. I take it home. I cook it. I do this once a week. So generally on a weekly basis I buy fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, bread, milk, cheese. Kitchen always has pasta, rice, tinned goods, herbs and spices. I decide what to cook for dinner the night before/that morning and defrost/marinade as appropriate. This also means there’s no wastage: if something is looking a bit sorry it gets eaten first. There’s nothing to plan.

I think it’s a difference in mindset. I cook what I have (limited choice), rather than deciding what I want to eat days in advance and then shopping accordingly on the assumption I have endless choice available to me. That has to be utterly overwhelming.

I have loads of herbs, spices, condiments etc, generally have white fish, chicken, mince and some veggie sausages or quorn mince or something in the freezer plus some frozen veg, and tins of tomatoes, pulses etc plus rice and pasta in the cupboard. I top these up as and when needed and just get fresh fruit and veg and meat (usually from the reduced section and will often be frozen if too much!) during the week.

So yes, I always have the makings of a meal (probably a weeks worth tbh!). I also usually have some batch cooked stuff in the freezer - dhal, curry, chilli, bolognaise etc.

Apart from anything else surely it makes sense to buy reduced/on offer stuff as and when and do a big shop from the supermarket in town! My DH used to buy bits and bobs daily from the corner shop but much as I'd like to support local businesses, the reality is that it's usually about twice the price...

I thought everyone was more like you OP until my sister years ago was fretting that she didn’t know how many nights she’d be in hospital giving birth and couldnt meal plan that week accordingly. It blew my mind a bit.

I live alone in a city. Why would I need to stock pile food? When I run out of milk, I go to the shop to get another one even though it's UHT here and I could in theory have extra in the cupboard.
I also don't have a car so everything shop load has to be of a size I can comfortably carry.

Apart from store cupboard things like rice, we only buy what we plan to eat that week.