Do you have a storecupboard / larder / backup food?

[TheKitchenWitch]

I don't mean if you are a Prepper necessarily, just do you have deliberate extra food stored at home? And if so, what things do you have?

I set up a larder in the cellar during Covid (partly because of shortages it was good to have some backups, and partly as I had the time to do it!), and I've found it really useful since. I basically have all the regular essentials which then get replaced immediately as they get used up. I also add to it when things are on offer.

I have:
tins & jars - beans/pulses, tomatoes, veg (inc. potatoes), sauerkraut, pickles, fish, fruit
long-life milk, soy, coconut
jams, spreads, honey
teabags and coffee beans
dry baking ingredients - flour, sugar, cocoa, yeast, salt
oil, vinegar, condiments
rice, dried beans / pulses / grains
pasta and noodles
part-baked bread and rolls
savoury snacks - crisps, nuts, crackers etc
sweets snacks - biscuits, chocolates, sweets
pet food

I also have a toiletries section (def. learnt that lesson from covid!)

We buy drinks by the crate (not in UK, it's more usual to do here) so always have a lot of water/lemonade etc in.

It gives me a weird sense of pleasure to see it 😁 and obviously a certain amount of security - we can manage for a good while without needing to go shopping if necessary.

Just interested in who else does this and what sort of things you have?

Out of your list I keep:

tins & jars - beans/pulses, tomatoes, veg (inc. potatoes), sauerkraut, pickles, fish, fruit
long-life milk, soy, coconut
jams, spreads, honey
teabags and coffee beans
dry baking ingredients - flour, sugar, cocoa, yeast, salt
oil, vinegar, condiments
rice, dried beans / pulses / grains
pasta and noodles
part-baked bread and rolls
savoury snacks - crisps, nuts, crackers etc
sweets snacks - biscuits, chocolates, sweets
pet food

in stock in my food cupboards but I thought that was just normal?

I keep the bolded, I mean.

Yes of course. I think most people do don't they? I have back ups of almost everything that we use on a regular basis. DH also gets twitchy if there are fewer than eight tins of baked beans in the house. I bulk buy stuff when it's on offer so for example I currently have about 8 bags of plain flour in the pantry.

I also have backups of most household goods like lightbulbs, bin liners, washing powder etc.

We could probably survive for 6-8 weeks without going to the shops if we absolutely had to. Obviously we'd be eating some really weird combinations.

No. We stocked up in the run up to Brexit and we’re still eating the beans and soup a couple of years later. Lesson learned. 😁

I have always been a bulk buyer as it’s much cheaper but you need the space and the money to be able to do this. I know it’s a privilege to be able to do this as I grew up in an extremely poor household and have known hunger as a child. I have two large cupboards with all the items you have listed except sauerkraut, nuts, biscuits, sweets.

Yes, we live rurally so seven miles to the nearest supermarket.
My store cupboard and freezer are always fully stocked and I replace anything used during the weekly shop.
I'm not going to get the car out because we've run out of bread or teabags.

We’ve always done it as we buy things when they’re on special offer. It saves us a fortune.

I maintain a store cupboard of around 60 tins including tinned vegetables, we run a second freezer (where it's kept in the shed so already cold = less power used) full of frozen meat & veg. I maintain stocks of spices, herbs, flavouring and a lot of dry baking ingredients including dry yeast. I try new basic recipes all the time so if we're ever without power or without certain staples, I can still give the family a varied and nutritious diet. Post Xmas when we were skint, we lived on the stores and ate like kings!

I did a mini version of this during covid, that period in the summer where it looked like we could be going back into a hard lockdown. I wasn’t worried about shortages, just wanted to avoid having to go to the shops if people were going mad again.

Had a couple of kilo bags of pasta, jars of sauce, instant noodles, tins of soup, beans etc and some basics like flour and cereal. By then we had started buying boxes of 50 toilet rolls so I had an extra one of those, plus shower gel, shampoo & conditioner and some frozen ready meals. Would have gotten us through an extra weeks

I don’t have it any more, mostly because I’be since moved and don’t really have the room at the moment (had to do some major renovations). Once the house is back to normal a bit I’ll probably built it back up.

Yes, I always have had one kitchen cupboard for unopened tins and packets.
That way we don’t run out of the things we use frequently. If I take any of these out of the cupboard, I always replace like for like next time I go shopping.

I keep: Dry goods: rice, spaghetti, pasta, dried noodles, tea, herbal tea, coffee, sugar, cocoa, lentils, raisins, pet kibble, muesli, porridge oats, biscuits.
Tinned: peaches, apricots, pineapple, pulses, tomatoes, peas, sweetcorn, baked beans, olives, tuna, syrup, condensed milk, soup, pet food, stock cubes.
Cartons: passata, fruit juice, custard.
Jars: honey, marmite, peanut butter, jam, marmalade, mustard, pickles, chutney, mayonnaise, pesto, pasta sauce.
Bottles: cooking oil, squash, beer, wine, hot sauce.

I don’t keep flour any more as it can get a bit old waiting in the cupboard. Herbs and spices similarly I just keep the ones open in the main cupboards, I don’t keep extra stock.

We have food in the cupboards and freezer so we’d get by for a couple of weeks eating weird combinations if we had to, and that’s good enough. When they announced the Covid lockdown we bought about ten tins of soups and a load of porridge oats (and a week’s worth of wine and beer, which we’d finished by day 2) and figured that we’d survive somehow. As it was, we just went shopping daily to get out of the house a bit more and there were never any real shortages anyway. We finally threw the last of those porridge oats out for the birds a couple of weeks ago.

We don't really have a big enough kitchen to have a back-up stock on top of what we already keep in the cupboards. And no garage either.

I have a small pantry and its always got stuff in. I buy at least 1 or 2 extra items a week, even if its just a 15p tin of spagett or 40p pack of stock cubes. This little stock helped me so much during covid and during two periods of unemployment.
I will always have this amount. Im not a prepper, but with maybe a foodbank donation, if i find myself unemployed and waiting for benefits again we could prob get through the 5 week wait and not starve.

I have:

Tins- beans, tomatoes, spagetti hoops, Tuna, sardines, tomato soup, passata, mushrooms, peas, potatoes, carrots, peaches, pineapple, kidney beans, mandarins, chick peas.

Washing up liquid, soap, toothpaste, spare toothbrushes, vinegar, bicarb.

Oats, lentils, barley, split peas, bran flakes

Lots of stock cubes and cheap herbs

Jam, marmalade
Oat cakes
Tea bags
Multi vitamins

In the freezer I always have: frozen peas, cabbage, carrots, onions,broccoli and green beans.

It doesnt leave the most glamorous menu but we get our 5 a day and protein.

Oh i forgot pasta rice and oil too!

We have ended up loving some of our weird combinations... although im working again we still love baked bean curry.. basically frozen onion, baked beans and curry powder with rice. Quick and hot!

Yes of course. I think most people do don't they?

Do they?

I just think the head space to rotate it all & avoid food waste is too much.
In case of armageddon I will be too preoccupied to browse my cans or I will pillage!

I dont have enough to need to rotate as its stuff that gets used all the time anyway. Just put the newer stuff as you buy it at the back.

I have a small stock of tins in the basement and a box currently full of teabags that I refill whenever I go to lidl, once in a blue moon, along with certain other things I can only get from lidl.

@tulips27
I don't think most people have a large quantity of backup food, no.
I wouldn't have the space for it all in my kitchen food cupboards, so it's only because we have a dry cellar (and put up shelving specifically for this) that I can do it. Plus as a PP mentioned, you need the money to be able to get going and buy double/multipacks etc in the first place.

We have a set of shelves in the understairs cupboard (which is in the kitchen) with:

Beans and pulses.
Tinned toms.
Passata.
Tomato puree.
Noodles.
Jams and pickles.
Tinned soup.
Tinned fruit.
Stocks and marinades.
Various condiments.
Cleaning products.
Boxes of tissues.

We usually have a few shelves full.

We tend to buy in bulk when things are on offer, and store them there.

I'm aware that we're lucky to have the space, and the money to buy in bulk.

It always seems so unfair that the unit cost when buying in bulk is reduced, but the initial outlay is higher, so those than need cheaper food can't access it.

@safeplanet I only have things which I use regularly, so as one gets used up, I get one from the storage, and it goes on the shopping list. No food waste at all.

I dont have enough to need to rotate as its stuff that gets used all the time anyway. Just put the newer stuff as you buy it at the back.

But how do you know how much of the same stuff you have? And does that mean you eat the same thing every week, week in week out?

Doesn't everyone in case of the next zombie apocalypse?

@Mueslikid you can keep flour in the freezer and use it straight away. It keeps it fresh longer.