How much food do you keep in the house?

[Owlsintowels]

Following a recent chat with someone who had a really strong reaction to having lots of food in the house, she was shaking and teary at the thought of having more than just a day or two of food, especially food which can be eaten straight away without cooking, I'm interested how common this is.

I'm the opposite, I sleep easy knowing if the shit hit the fan brexit my family would be fine for the best part of a month without visiting any shops, and I assume most people are like me, space permitting.

The person in question is someone I love, I'm not trying to criticise them at all, I am ken to understand how common this is and if anyone is willing to share their reasoning for it. I think this one is related to a fear of overeating and regaining weight which was lost a few years ago. For context the person in question is a lovely healthy weight, neither over nor under, so there definitely isn't anything like anorexia in the picture.

I should have mentioned my spices cupboard, and my baking cupboard. Both of which mean that basic ingredients can be both stretched and made very interesting (and different). So rather than 10 days of the same "mince and tomato sauce" - I could do at least 5 different types of tomato sauce with the mince, to serve with a variety of pasta, rice, tortillas/wraps, or potatoes (if I had enough mince...). Unfortunately, as I had filled the freezer with various things over Christmas, I have used up all the mince and not had room to replace that yet. ...

'Four months, six if you eked it out with veg and bits.
Grew up very poor.'
Yes we were very poor too, think second hand clothes and shoes and no toothpaste or fruit ever except rhubarb sticks from the garden ate dipped in sugar bags
I have loads here absolutely loads of everything , toiletries, over the counter drugs for every illness going it's nuts !

According to my husband there is enough food in the kitchen to feed a small army for 3 months 😂
There is just us two.

I go through phases. I like to have a well stocked cupboard but I think it's useful to stop shopping and use things up. So I've had a recent binge of using up all the different types of flour in the house and reduced those down. Only one out of date bag left! Same with eg pasta and rice and couscous and dried beans and lentils and such like. And the freezer, I like to run down to bare bones every 3 months or so as stuff like raw meat does deteriorate after a while. Tins generally rotate in and out and I don't normally see the need for more than 4 tins of for example chopped tomatoes unless there is a premium version on sale. So sometimes it's a feast and sometimes it's "wot, no beanz?!?"

I suppose l could not shop for a month if l had to. But l would need bread and milk and fresh veg to make my ideal meals.

Waaaaayyyy too much.
DH has been Brexit prepping since 1999...

I live in the midlands and because there's talk of 'bad' weather, ie the white stuff, possibly on its way and because I had to give up my car, it's made sense to fill my freezer and cupboards more than I usually would. Oh! and my booze cupboard too!
Let it snow!

I'm two miles from a meagre village shop, nine miles from a supermarket and in bad weather there's no chance whatsoever of getting anywhere so I have a well-stocked pantry, freezer and cupboards, probably enough to feed the two of us for at least six weeks 🙄
I struggle to think how people can manage with only getting day to day food (like someone I know), although I obviously accept cost comes into it.

I’ve got quite a lot of food in the cupboards and freezers at the moment. I’m in the process of trying to use it all up and it just seems so silly to have so much food in. I’d forgotten about most of it so it must’ve been stashed for years!

I go through phases based on my mental health at the time.

usually thought I'll have a stocked freezer/store cupboard and household stuff like cleaning products and toiletries and then buy fresh food every week.

I grew up in poverty, frequent house moves, debt collectors etc and we never had enough food or anything else so the thought of being hungry terrifies me so occasionally I'll go mad on stocking up to last a year, I also like the idea of being able to lock myself and the family away and remain fed, warm and safe if we had to.

On the flip side I like to get rid of everything, become super organised and micro manage everything so will have only exactly what we need in. It's a helpful tool for me and those that know me to know how I'm doing.