Is your kitchen full of food all the time?

by the end of the month, we are always struggling so have very little in.
I almost always have pasta, rice, lentils, milk, bread, eggs, butter, cheese, frozen/tinned veg for emergencies.

I have a very full ( massive) store cupboard. I have about 12 tins of everything....tinned tomatoes, lentils, chickpeas kidney beans, tuna.....lots of pasta/rice/ etc.
I meal plan every 4 days and go to the supermarket then. There's very little in.my freezer...COOK meals frozen peas, sourdough and sliced limes for gin.

Cupboards are always full if possible. I weekly shop so forget gets filled up the goes down over the week

I like fresh food so get a weekly shop delivered using a budget of £75-85 per week including the £5 delivery charge. It really does prevent the impulse buys. I also do a once a month Costco shop for my bulk purchases, and spend £150 maximum on that.

I wouldn't say my cupboards are always overstocked, but if you need something to eat at any given time, you should be able to find it, even the day before the shopping delivery arrives.

Freezer and larder are always full - actually I need to use some of the older stuff up to clear space.

Fridge waxes and wanes with the weekly shop.

I don’t know how people could have an always-full fridge without throwing lots away? Unless they have vast amounts of condiments and drinks in there I suppose.

I generally have things in the cupboards. Beans, pasta, rice, oats, canned veg in the cupboards, loaf of bread in the freezer just in case. Not because I am a planner, but because I can never remember what I have at home so if I'm in the supermarket and can't remember if I have beans in, I'll get some just in case. Sometimes I have none, Sometimes I end up with 12 cans.

I've also been in a situation where one or both of the kids or I have been ill and we've been unable to get out to the shops, so it has come in quite handy to have a few stock things.

I like to be prepared and could never be accused of being a minimalist. We have enough food to keep us fed for months. It might not be the most varied, fresh fruit/veg/dairy-rich diet, but we have a large freezer stocked with meat and a good stock of pasta, rice, tins, flour, and other non-perishable foods. I find comfort in knowing we have a decent supply of food on hand.

To be clear i dont mean kitchens where you have all the spices and flours possible and you are an active cook or baker where you will actually use them up with minimal waste i mean the 50 packs of ramen and you rarely ever eat ramen just stacked in your kitchen just in case!

I live v close to the supermarket and we don't have a lot of space - cupboards, hanging door shelf and mini fridge and freezer. So I do my main shop on Monday and pick up a few bits besides but by the weekend we don't have a lot in.

For those who have 2 / 3 / 6 months worth of food is it because it saves time? Or is it more of a prep-ing thing? Or something else entirely? I would be really stressed to see all that stuff but I understand I’m strange so curious about other perspectives.

If i lived where i had ample storage and was far from supermarkets or had no grocery deliveries so easily then yeah i would stock up but food hoarding like in Covid times everyone taking so much is repulsive and selfish. We really needed rationing then because some people have an emotional reaction to hoard and overbuy food at the detriment of others..in normal times, I would wonder why you're so scared of hunger.. the irony it's not even overweight people that hoard food in cupboards necessarily.

What’s a press?

my Fridge and pantry are always well stocked. I could make you basically anything you wanted to eat right now.

I have enough food for 3 days, getting a food delivery Friday.
I like seeing the shelves 2/3 full as overstuffed cupboards and fridges make me feel suffocated. I hate clutter and maximalist, multi colour aesthetics overwhelm me. I love clean and minimalist look however my teen hates when the fridge starts looking empty

My family of four could live for 2-3 months on what I have at home. It's too much. Sometimes o worry that my freezers are no more than a very expensive bin. But I grew up in poverty, and have developed middle class nigellaesque soft spot for a new kind of bean, legume or pasta shape. Or a new condiment. Or a new kind of grain- it's probably not healthy. But it is a harmless hoarding I feel.

We’ve got about six months worth of food in the cupboards but get a fruit and veg box delivered weekly. We buy yoghurt every few days and milk gets delivered every other day. Don’t eat much meat or cheese etc anymore. Fridge is mostly full of half eaten leftovers in tubs waiting to be turned into another meal. We are definitely an ingredients household - if you want a snack it involves making something.

By the end of the week my fridge is always bare with only condiments/milk left in it. We tend to only buy what we are going to use that week.

I have a full cupboard of staples like rice, pasta, flour, spices etc

Freezer is mostly frozen veg, and batch cooked meals for my toddler so not alot of room for much else.

Yes. We have two deliveries each week and are always well stocked up. I hate running low on anything.

Well stocked cupboard and fridge due to hungry teens

Having too much food in the cupboards weirdly stresses me out. I like to eat down what we have even if it’s stuff that’s not going off. Weird maybe!

I tend to keep a good stock of snacks and essentials such as cereals, rice, pasta, tinned tomatoes and beans etc but fresh food I pay what I need weekly, or twice a week. I tend to meal plan and do a weekly shop and then pick up any fresh bits as needed along the way. I have 3 major supermarkets within about a mile so I’d rather pick up fresh food between big shops than buy more than I need and waste it. I do a fair bit of batch cooking so the freezer is often full but if 2 extra
people turned up for dinner I’d probably struggle to cook them a meal!

My teenage DD used to moan all the time that wew are an 'ingredients' house.

She's consciously being more healthy now so it doesn't bother her, but we are the same as you OP. Especially on the lead up to the big shop.

Currently in our fridge, I have leftover chicken (I'm one of them who gets 3 meals out of a chicken and boils the bones for stock 😂😂).

Some yogurts and cheese, milk, a few condiments and not much else apart from a bit of veg.

Lots in the cupboard pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes and stuff in the freezer like bread, frozen meat, etc.

Yes, loads as I buy in bulk when stuff in on offer for our usuals

We meal plan and buy what is needed for the week’s meals. Other than this we tend to be around 500g to a kilo of dried pasta, 500g or so of rice, a tin or two of tuna and or mackerel, and at least a couple of eggs in the fridge plus butter and milk, then maybe a ‘brick’ of vegetable soup or a jar of asparagus in the cupboard or a yoghurt or two or a bit of fruit or veg if they weren’t used in a meal, plus coffee, tea, flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, pepper, dried herbs and spices, own brand Nutella, and sometimes jam. Our cupboards are definitely bare towards the end of the week.

Cupboards and freezer are full! Its only DH and I, but we both WFH and cook most meals from scratch. We buy bulk from the meat and fish market, bag into 2 person portions and freeze.

My 'system' is that if I open say tartare sauce or a packet of fusilli, I add it to the list to then have a spare in the house. Not for everything, but mainly condiments and things we use often.