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 loads, probably enough for three to four months, I going to wind it down a bit though because there are only two of us.

I tend to buy in bulk, and raw ingredients rather than processed foods- tinned toms, not sauce mixes.

So I've always got more than a week's worth of lentils, beans, rice, nuts, flour etc.

I also have a chest freezer.

When I lived in a much smaller house, I had nowhere to store food. You could only buy a few days worth at a time. There simply wasn't anywhere to put it.

It's not just cash that limits poorer people's choices. Space does, too. No use doing BOGOFs or bulk buying loo roll in a two up, two down.

I do a 10 day meal plan/delivery and could survive a week extra (tins, jars of pulses, rice and frozen veg, wine) if necessary. Thats it, just me and DD. No room.

Grow own herbs and some veg.

@daffodilis
Tell me more about your dehydrator please! What do you use it for?

@botw1
Not stashers. This is about having stuff you actually use all the time.

@rosio
It doesn't go out of date because it's not "spare stuff", it's stock that you use from one week to the next.

It means that if you run out of an item, you don't immediately have to rush out and buy it - this is useful if you don't have shops locally, can't get out for whatever reason, or there are shortages. It can also be money-saving to buy when things are on offer, or bulk buy.

I do only buy most things on offer and in bulk, Amazon used to be good for this but it's not so cheap anymore, sometimes on Prime day or Black Friday there are household goods offers and I get six months or a years supply in but offers are a bit sparse now.

I'd love to be more self-sufficient and grow veg for us, but sadly I have the exact opposite of green thumbs, EXCEPT that I have recently discovered sprouting and microgreens and it is honestly a revelation! It means I can have fresh greens in a matter of days, couple of weeks at the very most. I'm amazed at how some (radish, peas) give quite a substantial sprout so fast.
I've just ordered some more sprouting jars and another selection of seeds etc.

I do just stuff we eat so it’s rotated. Spare bread in freezer, uht milk. I’m rural though and it’s 16 mile round trip to the nearest little shop for milk etc. you only run out a few times till you learn it’s easier to have spares.

Herbs and spices are just normal everyday things to have though aren't they unless you are talking about kgs of them. I have tons of different herbs/spices but it isn't a stash like the OP is discussing its just what I use cooking everyday.

We don't really have the space, so no.

I did used to have a little stockpile, before and then during COVID. But then the DCs got bigger and we ran out of storage space. I love the idea in theory though

I have a few backups of some spices that I use a lot of and it's v. annoying to run out just as I am using it (pepper, cinnamon, turmeric, ground coriander and a salad dressing mix I am slightly obsessed with that only a few shops sell - I always stock up on that!).

A few years ago I'd have laughed at the idea of having a larder like this, but I realised during Covid that it totally made sense for so many reasons, and now I love having it. I never have to panic about what's for dinner, even if I haven't meal planned or managed to get to the shops. I've been ill this last week, and DH was away, so it's been really useful to be able to make all our meals plus lunches for the kids from stuff that we have at home. (Supermarket deliveries aren't a thing here yet).

I have a 9 tray excaliber dehydrator. Absolutely love it. I dry a lot of vegetables and fruit. Make vegetables powders for adding to stews, soups, smoothies etc. Mushroom, beetroot powders are my latest. Going to start trying to do some jerky next. Only just got my pressure canner, it's a presto one from the States, I've canned beef mince in broth, pasta sauce, potatoes and carrots so far. I do a lot of vacuum packing with dry goods. Trying to prolong the life of food without the need to use electricity ie my freezer so much. My pantry is a working one, so even though I have a good supply I use things and replace. Just did a no shop January apart from a few fresh necessities and managed quite easily.

We use the cupboard under the stairs to store things when we bulk buy and I just keep a couple in the cupboards in the kitchen. We have a Costco membership so will go every few months and bulk buy tinned tomatoes, passata, baked beans, etc. I also always make sure there's spare pasta and box of tea bags as it would be Armageddon of we ran out of either of those.

We use the cupboard under the stairs for food storage, toilet rolls stack up next to the wardrobe in the corner of the spare room, I usually bulk buy these when on offer. Storage of cleaning materials is in a cupboard in the utility room, spare freezer is in garage, we probably have several weeks supplies of food for two of us

This is nothing to do with “stashing” or “hoarding”, it’s really “what’s in your pantry”.

Those who kept good stores save money and have a back up on case of emergency - whether that’s bad weather, illness, job loss etc.

Yes if you just buy what you need weekly, you must have to pay top whack most of the time for it.

I have a store cupboard in the kitchen, but don't buy in bulk. I do buy before I run out.. So yesterday I noticed I have less than a third of a jar of smoked paprika, so it's gone on the shopping list for next week. We always have chickpeas kidney beans, pinto beans, butter beans, lentils, chopped tomatoes, baking supplies, stock cubes I'll buy a new box when I notice I only have 2/3 left. Usually a tin or two of custard, few tins of soup, dried pasta, rice etc. I do also have a huge drawer full of spices and dried herbs. I don't let things completely run out before buying more. There's usually at least chicken breasts, boneless thighs, pork loin steaks, some mince and some kind of fish (currently undyed smoked haddock) in the freezer. I thought this was just standard for people who cook from scratch. It's how you can just look and make a meal from what you have in the cupboards/freezer.

No because no space. And I don’t buy water (pointless) or soft drinks (bad for your teeth).

Yes, I'm a natural hoarder. I can feed us basic food for 2-3 weeks at least.

Pasta, various types of rice, cans of chopped tomatoes, beans and pulses, dried lentils, herbs and spices, flours, yeast, dried mushrooms, canned tuna, canned anchovies. Lots of far more random things too as I tend to over stock

No, we don't have space and we live close to shops. I was inwardly laughing/ groaning to see all of the apocalypse panic-buying a couple of years ago.

I live in a semi rural area but I don’t stockpile (except for pasta, rice, tea, coffee and sugar that I keep in large containers)

I tend to go to the supermarket once or twice a week and live beside a butchers and small shop so I pick something up on the way back from work

I always have a large carton of uht milk, plenty of flour, vacuum packed yeast. Plus standard store cupboard dried stuff - lentils, pasta, mushrooms, rice, couscous, and tins of tomatoes, beans and fish. There's meat, fish & veg in the freezer.

Enough to deal with a week snowed in or a bad bout of flu.

I don't really 'get' why people run out of things. Why OP? Why do you run out of basic herbs and spices. Like WednesdayPlaits, I have tins of tomatoes, baked beans, kidney beans, coconut milk, basics. As soon as you use it, it goes on the shopping list. As I reach for the last toothpaste/shampoo/shower gel, it goes on the shopping list and 3 more are bought. I just don't really get why people run out of things unnecessarily.

Exactly. If you have the space to store things, and enough working capital to bulk buy long-life goods when they're on special offer, it's just obvious common sense. Who wants to have to worry about getting food when you're stuck at home ill or with an ill child?

@caringcarer chicken pasta in blue cheese sauce sounds delicious. Would you mind sharing the recipe please ? I love blue cheese and DH thinks it the food of the devil! Could be perfect to make to freeze portions just for me.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

I have never iny life worried about bring unable to get to a shop.

I don't live in the wilderness, alone

It's also been proven that most special offers bogof/3 for 2 etc are a con