To wonder why people do "top-up" shops

[RedSkyAtNight]

Just as the title says really. I've read a few threads where people either mention a fortune doing a top-up shop or mention doing a top-up shop as a job that needs doing in the week.

We shop once a week and buy enough food for the week. We then don't buy any more food until the following week. Other than folks who have very little storage (or possibly very large families?) I can't really understand the need to do a top-up shop. I mean obviously if you want to go and get something different to what you have in, that's fine. But why do it if you see it as a chore?

Family of 7 here. Milk easily lasts a week. Bread goes in the freezer. Most fruit and veg lasts a week. Those that don't get eaten sooner. Iceberg lettuce lasts a week so salad bags are eaten early and iceberg later. Put a couple of bits of meat/fish in the freezer or use chorizo/bacon at the end of the week.
I do the occasional top up if I've forgotten something or if I want some nice bread.

Do I have weird veg/a particularly efficient fridge?! Most veg and fruit keeps fine for s week! Only exceptions are bagged salad, spinach, beansprouts (just thinking about the smell of a bag of beansprouts on the turn makes me dry heave) and soft herbs like tarragon, parsley and coriander. We usually get round this by planning the meals involving these ingredients earlier in the week so they get used. But carrots, courgettes, aubergines, peppers, green beans, tomatoes, cabbage etc - these are all fine after 6 days surely? Even mushrooms if you keep them in a paper bag.

Bagged salad leaves. Punnets of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries. Peaches. Bananas. Fresh crusty bread. Chilled prawns. Bags of prepared veg.

No one has said strawberries last for a week but you don't need everything every day. Peaches often take 5 days before they are ripe anyway. Bagged salad leaves I don't buy after various stories of germs/ musty smell even straight after buying. I always buy frozen prawns, having found 'fresh' frozen in the supermarket has previously put me off. Never buy prepared vegetables I prep my own. Don't buy crusty bread regularly only for Christmas/ Holidays/ if we are having people round. Bananas I don't find too bad, you can buy them green and then they last.

I have if I fancy a French stick though. That can only be had still slightly warm from the oven with lots of butter drool

I agree with Giddyaunt.
Maybe it's an age thing. I meal plan and buy what we need for the week. Once it's gone, it's gone.
But we are on a budget and I can't afford to be buying endless punnets of strawberries and grapes and raspberries. They are bought in with the shop and once they are gone, that's it until next time.
Having said that, I get an Tesco delivery every five days, as I have found that for us, this is the optimum way to shop in the most economical way.
Most perishable stuff - berries, bread, salad - will last to day 3/4 and the next lot will be coming in on day 5, saving me top-up shops which tend to end up costing a lot more than I actually need.
Most milk has a shelf-life of at least a week, so assuming people shop once a week, I can't see any need to have to buy fresh midweek?

You do realise though that a lot of people who are saying it doesn't last a week don't mean it goes off. They mean they have eaten or drunk it before the week is up. Is that so hard to comprehend?

8 loaves of bread/4 boxes of cereal per week for 6-8 people is just greedy. I grew up in a large family (10-15 people at any given time) on a budget that just seems like too much to me (we had a box of cereal per week, 2 loaves a week max).

1 box of cereal and 2 loaves between 15 people? Thats one slice of bread a week each! I do packed/home lunches every day for 5. We use the toastie thickness bread so that along with a sandwich for me is a loaf gone so actually its more like 7 loaves. And yes 4 boxes of cereal because I would rather they filled up on something decent in the morning rather than a small bowl of something and then buying crap later because they are still hungry.

2 loaves of bread to do 15 people for a week!

We have fruit smoothies made every morning and salad most days so that all needs buying again fresh during the week. Son also has food tech homework which I hear about the night before🙄 and sometimes I just fancy something different during the week!

Maybe someone's mum was doing top up shops!

You clearly don't have teenagers - my fridge can look empty hours after it's filled - never mind days!

Is there anyone on this thread who doesn't have a HUGE fruit bowl?

Sorry, 2 slices of bread a week...

Son also has food tech homework which I hear about the night before

Same here! I am clearly the worst mother in the world because I dont keep lemon grass and pigs trotters in the fridge "just in case" :o

We shop online and have groceries delivered. We have limited refrigerator storage and find that much of the food is short dated when delivered, anyway -- supermarkets consider only stuff with a use by date for the following date to be short dated by their standards and it's not always convenient to consume something within 36 to 48 hours. So we find ordering more frequently means we can eat food in the order we prefer. We pay a subscription so get free delivery and so might as well get our money's worth by more frequent deliveries. So basic staples once a week and top up of fresh perishable food more often.
Works for us.
Wouldn't trail around the supermarket in RL that often though

Those of you who find milk goes off - are you storing it in the fridge door instead of the bottom shelf? The door is the warmest part of the fridge so not as efficient.

I only shop once a week. I may very rarely pop out for milk or something, but I meal plan sensibly, and don't need 24/7 fresh strawberries and crusty bread!

I do a weekly meal plan. I put veg that needs to be fresh (e.g salad, fresh spinach, beansprouts etc) in meals in the earlier part of the week, and things that last longer (e.g carrots, cabbage, broccoli etc) with the meals toward the end of the week. I also have frozen peas and sweetcorn to fall back on if necessary. We eat the berries, grapes etc at the beginning of the week, where as apples, bananas, an uncut melon etc will last to the end of the week. I also have tinned peaches/pineapples etc in the cupboard, should I suddenly find myself short of a fruit or two. I also batch cook and freeze using fresh ingredients - e.g. in my lasagne I use courgettes, aubergine, mushrooms, onion, garlic, peppers, tomatoes as well as the mince. I make sure to cook them within a day or two of shopping, when the veg is fresh, and then freeze until we use.

I freeze bread, and take the next loaf out when needed. I bulk buy meat online and freeze it, defrosting as needed. Fish tends to come from the supermarket, and used towards the beginning of the week, or is frozen.

Honestly, I have really no need for top up shops at all, and I cook from scratch and we get our 5 a day. I am organised though, and have to stick to a budget. If I didn't plan, and topped-up with what we fancied as and when, I'm sure our food bill would double, as would our food wastage.

i havent read it yet but i clicked on it thinking it was about pay as you go phones, topping up instore, somebody in front of me in Boots the other day asked to top up her phone there and they had to get about 10 staff members over as nobody knew what to do !

Mrsm, yes that's pretty much what I do.
I can't imagine any emergency that needed a midweek dash for tarragon or raspberries!
I was brought in in a hamlet and my mum did not drive, so everything had to be bought once a week and made to last.
Soft fruit and fresh bread is much more of a treat when limited.

If people are running out of milk that I can understand. I thought people were saying it didn't last meaning it went off.

As I said before, me and DH cook almost everything from scratch so we are not eating ready meals at all. We don't eat meat or fish so the only things we have in our freezer are milk, bread, rolls, frozen peas and spinach, frozen rhubarb and frozen red berries (for smoothies and crumbles). We don't need a big freezer.

Just goes to show how the other half life. Growing up the loaves you had to cut yourself were cheaper. We all used to have a tiny bit for breakfast and when it was gone it was gone. We wouldn't have breakfast.

I think most large families don't have fridges large enough to store a week's worth of milk.

I don't meal plan as it just doesn't work for us. DD often comes home not feeling like what we have planned for tea because she had something similar for lunch at school. Sometimes she goes to a friend's house or she has a friend over. I tend to keep the freezer and store cupboard stocked with foods to rustle up meals from anyway.

People just HAVE to have punnet of strawberries or chilled prawns, fresh crusty bread on hand 7 days a week? talk about first world problems! I buy berries once a week(3 types) they get eaten within 3 days but my little darlings will not be bought anymore as there is other fruit to be eaten. Same goes for the one packet of biscuits I buy per week. There is a lesson to be learnt here. Not difficult to see how people are eating too much!

There's a lot of people on here with no understanding of fixed budgets or 'when it's gone it's gone' Groupie as illustrated with threads that start with AIBU to be annoyed that DH ate all the cheese where a DH ate a block of cheese that was intended to be for packed lunches as a 'snack' that will generate lots of replies along the lines of 'just buy more cheese', 'stop being so controlling', 'are you trying to starve the poor man in his own home' or similar but the OP is doing her best to feed her family on a limited budget and DH is behaving as if funds are unlimited.

They are bought in with the shop and once they are gone, that's it until next time.

This. Absolutely. I buy enough food for a week, so if there is a run on e.g. bananas, then there will be enough oranges or apples to last through to the end of the week. I would never go 'Oh, the bananas have run out, so although there is enough fruit to last till the end of the week, I have to go out to get bananas.

There is, quite literally, nothing but sauces, mustard etc left in the fridge at the end of the week - maybe a bit of parmesan and a block or too of cheddar, because that's snack food - and virtually nothing left in the freezer. We buy a week's worth, and eat it ALL - if favourite thing A is eaten by day 3, then favourite thing B comes into play.instead....