What cupboard food do you always have in

[Whatdoesitmatterif]

I am bad at managing money and budgeting and the last week of the month is always very tight and after having nearly ran out of food one too many times I think I really need to start keeping a stock of cupboard foods for emergencies etc
What sort of things do you keep in? I can only really think of beans and pasta!

Tins of tomatoes , kidney beans, pasta and rice - can be made into chilli or pasta dish.

For things you can actually make a meal out of,

Chickpeas and cannellini beans (great for a quick soup)
Dry red lentils (for daal) and dry black beans (black bean soup)
Lots of pasta and noodles
Rice
Tinned tuna, sardines, mackerel

And they aren't 'store cupboard' really, but eggs. Eggs can last a long time - weeks. So even if you bought 1-2 dozen early in the month, they can last you til nearly the end of the month and there's so much you can do with them.

You should also look in your area to see if you have a community fridge. I know it's not what you asked, but fresh food is so important too, even when money is tight. We have a community fridge in our local town where people can drop off any fresh foods they have extra of or supermarkets donate excess, so lots of fresh fruit, veg, dairy, bread, etc. Anyone can come and donate and anyone can take something they need.

Tinned tomatoes, a cupboard stocked with herbs and loads of various tins and packets of beans, lentils and chickpeas. Plus plain pasta, noodles and rice.

If the shit hit the fan I have ten meals worth of chilli/casserole/curry I can make at any time, all from tins.

Also think about keeping ingredients for a quick soda bread on hand. It's cheap to make and it means you can make bread for breakfast or soups easily with basic ingredients you have on hand.

Baked beans, kidney beans, pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes, herbs and spices, porridge oats.

Tinned tomatoes, baked beans, pasta, rice, red lentils, green lentils, brown lentils, black beans, kidney beans, chickpeas.

Risotto rice. You can whip up a tasty risotto with not very much as long as you have arborio (or carnaroli) rice.

Teabags
Baked beans
Bread in the freezer
Milk in the freezer
Noodles,pasta and rice
Butter beans
Tinned tomatoes
Custard
Weetabix and porridge
Herbs and spices
Tinned tuna
Stock gel pots
We always have eggs in too

depends if you need things that you can make a whole meal out of or if you mean stock style items to help pad out other stuff?

We always have:
Pasta of several types/spaghetti/Rice/risotto rice/couscous/noodles
baked beans
tinned tomatoes/kidney or mixed beans/chickpeas
tuna
packets of spernoodles/pasta n sauce
various sauces eg soy sauce, sweet chilli, bbq, etc
soups
have a variety of things like flour, bread crumbs etc

fresh we alsways have things like eggs and cheese and salad

freezer always has things like chips, frozen peas, fishfingers, parpake rolls, etc plus a variety of frozen left overs.

Red lentils
Tomato passata
Pasta, fusilli

Tinned: tomatoes, sweetcorn, soups, baked beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, mushy peas, tuna, mackerel, potatoes (good boiled or as potato salad), coconut milk, tinned fruit

Dried: pasta, spaghetti, rice, noodles, lentils, chia seeds, flour, sugar, herbs, stock cubes, mustard powder, suet, popcorn

freezer: pitta bread, puff and shortcrust pastry, variety of frozen veg, variety of frozen meat and fish

fridge: eggs, milk, butter, cheese

All these, and dried milk is very useful for eg. porridge, making a home made soup into a cream of if it's going to be the basis of a meal.

I make jam. It's old fashioned stuff, I know, but it can make a pudding with a a couple of eggs and bread and milk, or a sponge pud, or go on pancakes.

Frozen peas and spinach. Spinach to cheer up curries, peas make very good soup, very cheaply. Half frozen and a tin of mushy peas with a spoonful of mint sauce and an onion make a really nice, protein rich soup.

Smoked bacon bits in the freezer
Onions and garlic (and usually carrots and celery but they don’t last quite as well)
cream cheese, feta, cheddar
frozen spinach
jars of olives
pesto

Various stuff mentioned above

Tinned tomatoes
Coconut milk
Beans (all varieties)
Lentils
Dried soup mix
Lots of different spices and sauces
Pasta
Rice

Pasta,rice, noodles for stir fry, tinned tomatoes, tomato paste in a tube, tuna, pesto, tinned lentils, kidney beans and canelli beans. Usually also some jars of anti pasti like grilled peppers, artichoke hearts.

In the freezer I have chopped onions, garlic, ginger, chilli, sweet potato, butternut squash,peas ,spinach, green beans, milk and bread. I buy sides of salmon when on offer and cut into fillets to freeze. I also buy shop mash on special offer and freeze it in portion sizes. I buy blocks of basic cheddar cheese on special offer , grate them and freeze them.

In the fridge hoisin sauce, sweet chillli sauce, soy sauce, ketchup, brown sauce , gin.

Pastas, rice, noodles

Corned beef, tuna, sardines

Beans (several types), tomatoes, soups

Garlic, herbs, olive oil

Vegetables...they aren't store cupboard but if you have a freezer and are able to batch make pasta sauce and chilli sauces you can use grated carrot, lentils etc which are cheap and can either completely replace meat or mixey matchey 50-50 etc.

Vegetables are always the cheapest foodstuff, potato and cauliflower curry is delish.

Do you have a pressure cooker or a slow cooker? These really energy wise and the pressure cooker is super quick and really useful for lentils and stuff like cheap meat cuts.

It's probably sensible to work backwards.
If you google store cupboard recipes you will get loads of ideas of dishes you can make from the basics.
When you know what end result you want you can build a store cupboard relevant to you. There's no point in having a cupboard full of things but not liking the things they make. If money's tight you want food you know will be eaten, any food that goes in the bin is expensive.

My number one store cupboard meal is always tuna pasta bake, as I always have tuna, pasta, chopped tomatoes, sweetcorn. Plus enough herbs spices, vinegars to make it taste good.

Chopped tomatoes can be the base of so many sauces.

Chickpeas are great for falafels and curry's.

Tinned beans and rice for chilli

The other less obvious things I always have are tinned water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, pineapple, sweetcorn and rice noodles. They make a stir fry from any bottom of the fridge veg actually taste like a stir fry. Top with some store cupboard cashews and you have a pretty decent meal.

Pasta. Lentils. Tinned fish. Herbs.

Tinned tomatoes
Pasta
Peanut butter
Breadsticks
Red lentils
Kidney beans

Always have these in...

#Cupboard
Pasta
Jar of pesto
Partbaked rolls
Baked beans
Tinned Toms
Jar bolognese sauce
Tin of ham
Odd few eggs

*cheap meals: beans or toms on toast, pasta mixed with 2 x teaspoon pesto. Omelette with eggs/tinned ham, jacket pot with beans, tortilla...use eggs, salt and pepper and throw in some mixed frozen veg/odd left over potato.

#Freezer
Bag frozen veg
Chips
Bag chicken strips

Chopped tomatoes
Bag of dried pasta
Tins of tuna
Oats
Any of those packets of rice/bean stew/orzotto type things when they're on offer
Lentils/cous cous/risotto rice
Baked beans

Noodles
Miso
Stock

You can make ramen with anything left in your fridge / freezer and it's filling.

Corned beef. Tins of tomatoes. Pasta and rice. Tins of tuna. Sardines!

Store cupboard basics here

Tinned Tom's
All kinds of tinned beans
pasta rice noodles
Coconut milk
soy sauce
a couple of colmans packet mixes eg sausage casserole
A fajita old el paso type kit
Jar olives peppers artichokes
Porridge
Jam
Honey
Oat or almond milk
Longlife juice
Squash
Cereal
Tins of soup
Pesto
Tomato puree
a jar of dolmio type pasta sauce
Not technically store cupboard but stored correctly can last a long time
Onions
potatoes
Garlic
carrot

I know you asked for food cupboard
ideas but do you have a freezer? I always think there are lots of things that you can freeze or buy frozen that you could stow away in the freezer to make meals with your store cupboard stuff.

So you could freeze odds and ends of bread, grated cheese, any leftovers from meals.

If you are able.to take advantage of big packs of meat - assuming you eat it - then split down and freeze or take advantage of reductions

Buy
Frozen peas
Frozen chopped onions
Frozen garlic chilli ginger
Frozen sweet potato/butternut squash etc
Fishfingers
Frozen chips
Quorn
Pizza
Frozen fish fillets
Frozen pie
puff pastry sheet

I always keep a pack of sausages and bacon as well.

Iceland is really good for stuff like this - loads of offers - you obvious need the space to freeze but I can often get a week out of stuff I stow away with my store cupboard basics and a few fresh items

8 Meal ideas Using a mix of the above which would get you through the final week. Again assume you can afford to stock pile and store.

tinned Tom's anchovies jar of olives spaghetti Frozen garlic and chilli

Fish finger sandwich and chips and peas

Quick butternut squash and chickpea curry with rice

Pie peas roast pots (assume you have a bag of potatoes)

Pizza and a bag of salad, chopped up tomatoes pepper cucumber etc

Bacon diced onion rosemary tinned Tom's - all reduced down and pasta

Puff pastry Pizza- spread with puree pesto mix - squeezed out sausages cooked and put on top or bacon. Olives artichoke pepper and any odds and sods from fridge - top with cheese and cook in oven

Sausage mash peas gravy