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?

Yes. We get snow most winters and often it's fine but dh's rear wheel drive is crap in the snow.

I have large cupboards in my utility room and a larder just off it. I have a 10kg bag of chapatti flour and the same for rice. I keep about 8 different types of lentils, tins of chickpeas, spinach, sweetcorn, tuna, mushy peas, fruit cocktail or other tinned fruits,mango pulp, cartons of passatta and white sauce. I then have several different types of pasta, couscous, barley and risotto, vermicelli, gram flour, plain flour, self raising, baking powder, yeast, baking soda. I keep all herb and spices too. I keep a few boxes of each of the cereals my children like, porridge oats and bags of mixed dried fruits. The freezer is always stacked with mixed veg, peas, frozen peppers, chips, waffles and fish fingers. I also make sure to keep a supply of spring rolls and samosas in the freezer for unexpected guests and as a snack treat for us.

In terms of other household products, I have washing up liquid, toothpaste, dishwasher tablets, washing powder, fabric softener and loo roll.

I thinks it's just common sense to stick to things your family already eat and to have that bit extra in. I replace as and when needed and it often means we only need to shop for fresh food.

I only have the things that I use all the time and that I'd be buying regularly anyway.

I've never looked for tinned spinach but feel that that would be an excellent addition (I always have it in the freezer)

Yes, I do. We are a large family and I am not very organised, so I find it hard to make sure the regulars are replaced before they run out. I also like to buy certain products from certain shops, so I go to each shop not very often and stock up! We also live a 10 min drive from the nearest (small) shop, so running out of something is often very inconvenient.

In my shop I generally have;

Ketchup and Mayo (0-10 bottles depending on when you look!)
Spaghetti
Fusilli
Lasagne sheets
Cornflour
SR and Plain Flour
Sugar
Chocolate spread
Oats
Hot chocolate
Soup
Beans
Passata
Garlic and tomato purée
Jam
Marmalade
Syrup
Cooking oil
Gravy
Part baked bread

We call it "The Shop" in our house!

I have a larder with tins, jars dried goods. I have a dehydrator and a pressure canner, I've been canning potatoes for long term use today. I'd love a freeze drier, but cannot find any in the UK, plus they are so expensive

I keep a house in a similar way to my grandmother and mother, so like a 1930s farmer's wife who never knows if the shops will have what you need or even if you will be able to get to the shops!

When COVID came I felt validated. And since shortages are so random these days I continue to work with a stock room.

To me the odd packet going out of date is a better cost than the stress of wanting to produce a cake at short notice and not having any baking powder. I have more of an issue with the waste of people opening a packet of biscuits and leaving most to go soft. That's better than eating more than you want I suppose.

Nothing, we don't have the space.

Ooh, thanks for the tip @Harebrain will try flour in the freezer!

I have a pull out larder. Small kitchen, but lovely 1960s, cupboard, which is in the conservatory Surprised no one mentioned herbs and spices. I'm old skool,cook from scratch. Plenty of herbs,spices, tinned goods,dried fruit,nuts,and pretty much everything else shown on here. Big bags of dry dog food are kept in the spare bedroom wardrobe,along with light bulbs and candles, batteries, toilet paper and kitchen paper.

No

I judged stashers hard during lock down

I live in the Western Isles, where there has always been the risk of bad weather meaning food shortages because the ferry can't get in. Now it's much worse because the ferries are old and constantly breaking down, so every sensible person has a store of essentials. If people like us don't have to go to the shops when supplies are low, then that leaves more for people who don't have as many options (we do of course share with neighbours if we have plenty and the shops are empty).

We grow all our own vegetables, so one freezer is full of vegetables, and the other is full of meat (our own sheep, plus locally sourced pork and fish). We buy rice, flour and lentils by the sack (large family so makes economic sense even without supply problems) and I have a good stock of tinned goods, plus UHT milk. If we have to, we can manage without shopping for a month or so. Our chickens are very good layers, so we have eggs for 10 months a year, plus duck, quail and turkey eggs in season.

I make soap and shampoo, which inevitably means a surplus, but farmers use a lot of soap! I bulk buy toothpaste though, because that's one of the few things I really can't make myself. I like the feeling of security that comes from doing the best I can with the advantages I have (land, labour, health), but I would really rather have a reliable food supply and enough money to make use of it!

I'm old skool,cook from scratch. Plenty of herbs,spices, tinned goods,dried fruit,nuts,and pretty much everything else shown on here.

It never occurred to me to dry herbs, I should do that. WE have bay and rosemary all winter, and don't use parsely or coriander (they taste like soap and suffering respectively to me!), but the others could be made better use of. Will add that to my gardening list, thanks!

I don’t do this. I mean, we have 3 tins of tomatoes in the cupboard but generally we live in a town with hundreds of little shops within a 5 minute drive and 6 shops within a 5 minute walk, 2 main supermarkets 5 minutes by car and I have a regular delivery slot for my food shopping. Butchers here is brilliant.
I just buy what we’ll need from one week to the next and then if we run out of something we can nip out, no hardship. We don’t meal plan either!

We do have hens though so a reliable source of eggs. And a booze fridge both in the kitchen and another in the shed. No spare freezers though, we barely use the freezer we do have.

I've always got back up supplies. Lockdown and the ensuing supply line issues here have made me more careful about having reserves. Australia has had empty supermarket shelves on and off since covid and since all the weather dramas of drought, floods and bushfire.

I stocked up on frozen chips as we were warned that there would be no stock in supermarkets in February and it's unlikely to resolve before April. Unfortunately my kid with ASD ate his way through the freezer supply and there are none to be had.

Yes I do. I have

5kg of various pasta
8 passata
8 tinned tomatoes
12 big jars hot dogs
6 corned beef
6 spam
4 big dried mash.
12 tinned spuds, peas, carrots, corn, kidney beans, mushrooms, rice pudding.
4x Dried milk, 4 jar coffee, 4 boxes tea, 2 hot chocolate.
6 cup a soup boxes
5 bags Bread Flour, sugar, desiccated coconut
Dried egg powder.
12 Coconut milk
Tons of spices/curry mixes/paste jars
5 kg rice
6 packets various noodles
6 stir fry sauces
4 olive oil
4 sunflower oil.
4kg porridge oats
6 boxes cereal
4kg popping corn
2x 110 wash surf powder
3 shampoo and conditioner
6x9 toilet rolls
2x3ltre vimto
3x12 kg dog food.

I've also got a hydroponics set up with a led light system that my says he can DH hook up to a solar phone charger so I can carry on growing salad if the power goes out I'm very attached to my fresh salad 😂.

I am bipolar and I have always worried about having food in for my kids when they were small. I was piss poor broke and "prepping" for the worries that pop into my head at night is the easiest way for the get over them. I acknowledge the worry, no matter how bizarre, then work out a plan so I know what I would do in that event. So I prepare for having zero money, another pandemic but also for a zombies 🧟‍♀️

We do eat certain stuff on a weekly basis.. pasta, tinned soup for my lunch in work, rice etc. I have about 3-4 tins of the stuff i keep at any given time, sometimes less if we have wanted more, but ill top up with that as my 'spare' or usually things like pasta are in my fortnightly shop anyway.

My pantry isnt very big so i can readily see the 3/4 tins/jars/packets.

Also I do use my stick as as a ladder and I entertain A LOT so ours always being rotated and dipped into. Some times it might run low, but I always top it up. Not unusual for me to use it in November to free money up for christmas and then replace it in January. I'm on a fixed income and I'm disabled with a variable condition so at times it's really saved me. If I know someday OSS struggling, I have been known to put a care package together to donate.

Live rurally and are a family of 6 and have a pantry cupboard (converted the old coal shed). I always have approximately 15 tins of tomatoes, various beans, tuna, soup, etc all organised and easy to rotate. Several oils, squash, flour & baking ingredients. Plenty of biscuits, cereal, oats and pasta etc too. It’s all stuff we eat, cook & bake a lot too. We have a well stocked wine area, tonic etc. Freezer well stocked with batch cooked stuff, veg, pizza etc. As no takeaways deliver here. I always have an 18 pack of loo roll in the top of the airing cupboard too as it seems to vanish quickly with 4 kids. We can comfortably manage a while without shopping other than milk top ups. I don’t do a big shop every week though.

Erm no I wouldn't say most people do? We have 1 or 2 tins of beans which I replace when they run out. Half a bag of each flour, 1jar pasta sauce, 2 tins tomatoes , 1 tin kidney beans etc etc I don't keep bulk spares of food, didn't know that was the norm 🤔

Omg that is so much stuff! Genuinely didn't know people would keep so much spare stuff. I wouldn't be able to store it all for a start. Doesn't it go out of date?

Why? They were the ones not going to the shops...
I've shopped the way I do since I left home. Buy at the cheapest price/on offer whether I need it that week or not because it saves money
So I never buy peanut butter full price, I buy when on offer whether I have 1 jar or 3 in the cupboard
When I couldn't get any food for 5 weeks during lockdown it was bloody helpful!

Oh and I also had 10 bars of soap and 10 bottles of hand soap. So I was able to take some into work as we couldn't get any
If I checked now I probably have 6 bars of soap and 8 bottles of hand soap so that's fairly normal for me

Yes they were, they were the ones buying 50 toilet rolls etc

Yes they're panic buyers
Preppers prep for that exact scenario so they weren't out shopping
Two different things