Do you keep a fully stocked larder?

[BerriesNutsConkers]

I grew up in a multigenerational home where my mother and grandmother loved to cook. We always had a fully stocked fridge/freezer/cupboards. I do the same and always keep a good stock, I shop twice a week and just keep things topped up. If I see something I always use being sold as a special offer I buy a few extra.
I rarely run out of things. I don't meal plan as such but know I've got the means to make a number of meals, I also keep a stock of homecooked meals in my freezer.
I had a new friend visit recently and while we were chatting in the kitchen I decided to make some Welsh cakes to have with our coffee, she was shocked at the ingredients I had to hand and that I didn't need to go out to the shop.

Do you keep a well-stocked larder? I find it helps keep costs down, my grocery bill averages £100 per week for 2 adults and 2 teens.

Yes I do. If I see something running low I replace it, even if I don't plan to make a recipe with that ingredient for a while. My baking cupboard is always stocked up!

Yes we have all sorts of baking ingredients to hand,and lots of dried goods - pasta, rice, couscous, spices, tinned stuff etc.

if we suddenly had to stay inside we could cope for quite a while apart from milk and fresh fruit/veg (but lots of frozen tin veg/fruit)

Same as this. When I get complaints of “there’s nothing to eat” it actually means “there’s nothing I fancy in amongst all that food in the fridge/freezer/cupboard”.

My late mum always had well stocked cupboards -it’s a fortunate position to be in

Probably not as extensive as yours, but there are certain items that I try to make sure that I don't run out of.

Yes I do. Although sometimes things like spices go out of date before I can finish them, which is annoying.

Definitely. And everyone in the house has been trained to add to the shopping list whatever has been taken from the larder cupboard.

I had to check what the ingredients of Welsh cakes were, but yes I have a well stocked cupboard and I could make them if I fancied.

I have every spice and condiment under the sun, lots of specialty Asian ingredients, baking ingredients, lots of tins of various beans, tinned fruit, every kind of sugar, various types of flour, pasta, rice, cous cous, bulgur wheat, various noodles and I always have eggs, butter and milk.

I like to eat!

Yes my food cupboards and freezer are full. If I had a financially tight month or exceptionally bad weather, I could survive out of my back up food stock for some time.

Yes I do. And I could make Welsh Cakes right now too!

Yes. Very fortunate to have the space and money to be able to do so. It's very rare I run out of something and if we do it's because someone's taken the last one and forgot to add it to the list. We've actually just been through it all for out of date checks and a clear out - very little was out of date because I only buy stuff we do actually use. I could definitely make Welsh cakes right now, or a birthday cake or quite a fancy meal!

Yes I do, I started in earnest during COVID because I never wanted to experience not being able to feed my children again. The problem of not being able to get pasta in the pandemic meant I started a proper pantry that's filled with dry goods and tins. If we needed to we could live off it for a few weeks without shopping at all, it gives me security.
I've always had a few tins and baking stuff though, I can't imagine not having anything in at all.

I couldn’t make Welsh cakes because sultanas don’t cross the threshold here 😁

Yes I do. I was brought up in an area where we were regularly snowed in during the winter, so my mum always had a well stocked freezer and having literally no food in the house is incomprehensible to me.
It did strike me a few years ago that one of the problems of using ready-made meals and food is you never really build up a store cupboard and can't rustle something up without going to the shops. I can imagine if you survive on convenience foods how you would get in a situation where the cupboards are bare. It's difficult to square if you have a low budget for food though. The ingredients for eg lasagne would cost more than buying ready made in some cases, and although you would have most of them in the cupboard for a second and third meal, the start-up costs are higher.
I bulk buy everything - my husband used to laugh at me but he didn't during the pandemic, when we had enough toilet rolls and hand soap to see us all the way through!

Yes I do as well. It's the way I grew up and I'd feel really odd not to.

I could make Welsh cakes now. And I think I might!

Yes! In all other ways I am quite a severe minimalist, but food is exempted. Started with the Brexit cupboard, which morphed into the Covid cupboard, it's now the cost of living cupboard. Has paid off so many times!

I do try and most months we are roughly overstocked this month I’ve ran most of it down to do a big refill.

Yes I do, a well stocked larder with tins and dry goods, a well stocked freezer, a good stock of alternative heating and cooking fuel and candles. I also have a list in my head of meals that can be made out of the stocks. I've got a good first aid kit, and a stock of a couple of weeks of prescription medicine.

I used to live in a place that was prone to power cuts and being cut off by flooding and snow, so I'm always prepared.

Yes, I do, mainly because I like to cook, and make a lot of meals from scratch.

At a guess, we could get by for a couple of months.

Sadly I don’t have the space but I remember both of my grandparents keeping a good stock of everything in their larder. I do keep a small stash of spices, pasta, tined tomatoes, pickles and stock cubes but that’s about it.

Yes I could also make Welsh cakes!😂

Yes, I meal plan but have a good stock level, we can’t just pop to the shops up here.

Paid dividends in Covid as we keep 4 of us fed for a couple of weeks whilst we tried to get food orders.

For sultana haters I make plain ones, just cut in half and fill with jam

I could make Welsh cakes as we never eat raisins. I could make lots of other cakes though!

Not sure what counts as a "well stocked larder". But I would pretty much always keep in stock store-cupboard foods that we use regularly eg rices, pasta, pulses, cous cous, canned food, flour, sugar, nuts, spices, oils, vinegars. If we run out or are getting low then I would add them to that week's shopping list. I don't keep a huge amount of stuff in the freezer but would always be able to make some kind of a meal (more likely a vegetarian one unless it is early in the week) or make a basic cake.