Is there an etiquette for this?

[MarmiteCoriander]

If you ask a neighbour for potatoes, sugar or eggs etc- what do you normally do? Buy a replacement packet the next time you shop? Give them back the exact same amount of potatoes/eggs or do nothing?

If it's just a cup of sugar no. If it's a few eggs then yes I'd get as close as rounded up.
I haven't borrowed food, but I have asked my neighbours for a tin opener when I first moved in and couldn't find mine.

I'm shocked that so many of you are shocked about this. It's commonplace in my street and was so growing up too. Today I knocked next door for tin foil, yesterday she called over the fence to borrow a potato masher. Surely it's a lovely neighbourly thing to do?!

D'oh I mean we keep hens and in summer they can make far more than we can consume

I didn't realise people think borrowing food is weird! My neighbour often asks for a cup of milk, some sugar etc if she isn't getting her shop delivered until later and has ran out, she is elderly and doesnt get out much. I borrowed an onion the other day as I didn't realise I'd run out until I started making dinner and was home with the kids on my own so it was a faff to go the shops for an onion. Borrowed salt as again
we'd run out and had just had fish and chips delivered! We don't replace it or give anything back as it's just a neighbourly favour that you know will be returned at some point.

Well in my case, we live rurally. The nearest shop is 4 miles away and that's a supermarket that closes at 4 on a Sunday. It happens sometimes that you're missing an ingredient for a recipe and rather than go without or have the palaver of making an expedition to the shop, I'd ask a friendly neighbour if they could spare an onion / cup of sugar / whatever I need. We are always happy to help each other in my village.

Nothing to do with the situation at hand though. You might as well tell us that you do yoga on a Tuesday for all the relevance it has.

Ah, so when I asked my neighbourhood online if they had any green cotton so I could get on with my sewing and a reel was popped through my letterbox that doesn't count either 😂

You've never run out of cat food, or needed a can of tomatoes half way through a recipe?

I remember when I was a child in the early 90s, it was normal for our neighbours/my family to borrow sugar/eggs etc from each other but I've not heard of or seen it being done since then.
I wouldn't dream of nipping next door to ask if I can take their food.

This
who the fuck asks to borrow food?🙄

Never 🙄

It’s fucking weird🙄

Corner shop is 5 mins from where we live and there's a massive supermarket 10 mins away but I'm regularly swapping food items with two neighbours and sometimes other people on the street too. I guess it started when the DC were small as I didn't fancy getting them in the car, particularly once they were asleep.
On the memorable occasion that I was making Thai green curry and first borrowed coconut milk and then went back for Thai green curry paste from the neighbour, I replaced it next time I went to the shops. Usually, though, I've just borrowed a small amount of a greater whole (eg two slices of bread when I realise we have none and am making a packed lunch or a few ounces of a random ingredient) and don't bother replacing as the neighbour will borrow similar things from me. We each have a spare key for the other and sometimes I'll come out of a meeting to a WhatsApp saying she's let herself in and borrowed a particular item. It's not limited to food either!

This is normal in my street. We all have young kids who play together and we are all friends after all these years. It’s sometimes difficult to just duck down to the shops when you have to load up all the kids just to grab an onion. I also live in a small beachside town (Australia) and the shops don’t stay open late. Things like a bit of flour or sugar, we don’t bother returning unless it’s the last bit in a bag, then we replace the whole thing. A whole vegetable or egg we give back. I love my neighbourhood.

You've never run out of cat food, or needed a can of tomatoes half way through a recipe?

No I haven't and if I did I'd deal with it without involving anyone else. Like most small problems.

This thread's given me a good giggle this morning - the degree of disgust some people have at the idea you'd think people were asking their neighbours for a lone of their knickers 😂😂

Or a loan of them 😂

I find it very odd too. The whole I started to make a sandwich and realised I didn’t have bread, eh? One person tried to make a Thai green curry with no Thai green curry paste or coconut milk.

I can’t decide if it’s being skint or being totally disorganised. Or both. I decide what to cook based on the ingredients I have. I thought everyone did. I can’t perceive starting to make a sandwich or curry and not knowing I didn’t have the main ingredients to do so.

If I didn't have it I wouldn't make it.

Maybeebebe
You've never run out of cat food, or needed a can of tomatoes half way through a recipe?
No, why start a recipe that you don't have the items for?

I had neighbours like that. They’d send their kids in to “borrow” things. “Have you got Mayo?”, “Any chance you have some ketchup?” None of them were replaced. One day I was so frustrated by this I drew a map to the supermarket that was about 300m away and wrote “While you’re there, can you please replace the mustard, Mayo, ketchup, etc, that you “borrowed” and didn’t replace?”
They didn’t replace anything, but stopped asking.

I don’t think I’ve ever borrowed food but I can well imagine sharing toilet rolls during the lockdowns! - didn’t have to in the end, but I would have and I remember Facebook shoutouts of who had toilet roll.
If it’s one thing I could take without taking the pack - a toilet roll, an egg etc - I probably would replace but not be in a massive hurry to. Something like some sugar I’d replace with a bag later on. If it was a friend I wouldn’t replace but would maybe buy them a bottle of wine (to share) as a thanks.

I generally find that Skodas keep food fresher.

I think it's lovely when neighbours feel comfortable to share things! I know on our neighbourhood group chat there's often a message like "in the middle of cooking a chilli, realised too late i didn't have a tin of tomatoes!" And someone will offer one up. Maybe I just am lucky to live in a rural area where people are happy to help eachother out as it's not always possible to drive 10mins to an open shop!

I gave a neighbour who was in the middle of baking the remainder of a small bag of caster sugar, I didn't expect anything back and she didn't replenish. Only give away what you can afford to not get back!

A lot of my neighbours have chickens and large gardens growing veg so we can normally find eggs or veg for sale at the edge of the property with honesty boxes so I wouldn't borrow but I do buy. Theres a shop a short walk away for anything else. For borrowing things it's more like equipment or tools. In fact just yesterday my neighbour lent me his hedge trimmer so I could do the hedges and I gave him a couple of my sunflower heads that had gone to seed which he used to feed his pet birds.