Two food shopping trips a week?

[Coffee234]

Hi. I know this isn't a big issue.
Just wanted to see what people thought and what you will be doing.
I usually do one big click and collect shop and then a small (fruit and milk) shop a few days later. No chance of getting a click and collect slot and I'm thinking it should go to the more needy anyway.

So do you think one big shop and one little shop is ok with the current lockdown.
How are you going to plan you essential food shop now?
?

I'm wandering the same numbermonkey. We're a family of 5 with two teens. I will find it very hard to get everything we need for a week if the limits are still in place. We are also buying for my in-laws at the moment too.

Apples, oranges, slightly green bananas, melons, passion fruit, kiwis, refrigerated grapes and mangoes, any citrus, pineapples, pomegranates, all of those will last a week if stored correctly.

I've got a click and collect next Thursday cant get on the site to see if this is still happening or if its instore or delivery only?? Anyone who works for tesco could they confirm this ??

Agree this is a problem. We’re nearly out of milk & get through a lot of it. I am also shopping for my parents and MiL. But because of the restrictions I can’t get enough to do infrequent trips. I’ll work it out though.

Do one shop. If the fruit doesn't last all week, then you have a couple of days without fruit. It'll be fine. If there aren't any eggs, buy something else instead. Don't keep going back to top up unless you're having to carry it all home by hand or something.

I’d love to be able to limit to one shop per week, but with Sainsbury’s (e.g) limiting 3 items of veg at a time that’s pretty impossible.

Thank you for all the replies.
I think I will continue what I'm doing, but just pop in the little shop for the small shop.

I really hope others manage to sort things out. And of course I am hoping this lock down is over as soon as possible. I completely agree with it and it's heartbreaking hearing all the terrible stories.

We’re doing one grocery shop in 2 weeks, possibly even three if we can comfortably stretch it, and at one supermarket only - no traipsing around all over town to various stores. We’re also shopping for my daughters who are isolating as one of them is vulnerable. On the same day that we do the grocery shop we will go to pharmacy and pick up my daughter’s prescriptions (through the hatch). We will then deliver groceries and meds to my daughters and go straight home. All done in one trip out.

Make a fruit salad after day 3. Keep in the fridge. It will last another 4 days.

I am going to have to go more than once. Am currently shopping for us, my parents and friends in isolation. I won't be able to get everything in one go if we are restricted to certain items. Will do it in two runs.

No chance of me being able to do one shop. I'm trying to shop for my vulnerable parents who live separately, plus for our household. Given the restrictions on products it would be impossible to do that in one go.

It is hard, there are 5 of us including a 1 year old who drinks quite a lot of milk and 2 other young children. We are limited to one milk product at our local supermarket, and all the big ones were gone this morning and there were only 1 litre cartons left. That would last approx 24 hours. I don’t want to go out shopping again, but we need more milk.

we will do a weekly shop and top up on milk and bread later in the week - if supermarkets are only allowing 2 milks or loaves of bread - that won’t last a week

As it happens, I have just meal-planned, listed and then shopped for 2 weeks'-worth of food for 4 (2 adults, 2 older teens / near adults). I need to self-isolate (asthmatic teacher, protecting myself after closing the school last Friday) and wanted to have everything in.

The first week uses mainly fresh food.

The second week uses mainly tinned / frozen food, and long-lasting fruit / veg such as apples / squash. I am also batch cooking fresh food such as peppers etc into home-made sauces and soups to freeze for week 2 (by which time the freezer will be a bit emptier).

There is no food that isn't meal-planned and on the list. The list includes a couple of batches of baking (flapjacks) to cover elevenses. Nobody will be able to snack (except if planned) or - beyond e.g. sandwich fillings - be able to have a choice about what they eat, but tbh that's always been normal in this household.

Lunches - we usually eat sandwiches / rolls and soup, followed by fruit - are the main issue. I have unearthed some couscous / bulgar wheat for salads, and do have 1 small bag of bread flour from Before the Flood. Milk for breakfast cereal and coffee is my best guess at what we will miss most.

It's possible, if hard. I had to plan a restricted menu, as much of what we would normally purchase wasn't available, but i had a long list of possible substitutes (lentils vs meat mince, for example) so bought those rather than leave it for another day.

We are shopping for 4 households so it is tough.

However for those saying fruit goes off within the week, for most fruit (other than raspberries), 1 part white vinegar to 8 parts tap water... Steep the fruits, lightly jostle every so often for approx 15 mins, remove fruit, rinse, dry and store as normal (in a clean container for the likes of strawberries and blueberries).

This kills any mould spores that may already be on the fruit when purchased and massively extends the life of fruit as well as removing nasties.

We'll have to make more than one trip a week. We don't drive and are about 1.5 miles from the supermarket, we can walk there and back reasonably easily but would obviously be limited to what we can carry. So, we can either go twice and walk there and back or once and need a taxi or bus (if they're still operating? ). We are reasonably well stocked at the moment so it will probably be next week before we really need food but after that we will need to shop and I think that walking would be better.

It’s not a struggle to make fresh fruit last more than a few days! I’ve had some apples in the fridge in a brown paper bag since the beginning of February and some pears in there for two weeks, still hard conference pears. My banana from Thursday last week are only just ripe and will certainly last until this Thursday. The red grapes in the fridge are also still firm and fresh. Strawberries left on the side? I’ll give you that one.

Yeah, that’ll work fine if there’s stock. I went to Aldi on Friday...nothing. Empty shelves. Today... really quite and loads of the essentials.

Similarly to @cantkeepawayforever, our plan is first week mainly fresh foods/leftovers, second week mix of fresh and frozen, third, if needed, mix of tinned/longlife and frozen.

UHT.
Yes, it's minging. If it's too minging, don't have milk. If it's for your cereal, eat sth else for breakfast. Toast. If it's to go in your tea, have another kind of tea (green, herbal) that doesn't require milk or cut down number of cups a day.

Apples keep for ages in the fridge, so do other kinds of fruit. If it's going off too fast, buy your fruit unripe and store it carefully.
For 2 people, you should be aiming to shop every 10 days. Every week if you really have to.

Sorry to be blunt, but I'm in France, we're 10-14 days ahead of you, we went into lockdown earlier, and more and more people I know are getting ill. Doctors and nurses are really struggling and the number of deaths among HCPs is starting to show.

In the last week I’ve been to 9 shops I needed to to get enough food to last us the week because so many shops have been stripped bare. I managed to get a 9 pack of loo roll on Saturday and as I was picking mine up a young guy shoved past to grab 3 of the remaining 4 packs. An absolute legend of a woman asked him why he needed 27 rolls of loo roll and he put two back. Apparently she saw him do the exact same thing the week before so he’s clearly flogging them somehow.

Anyway, my point is, I’m reasonably well stocked for now but I’m down to about 2 pints of milk so we’ll be out by Wednesday. I’m hoping my partners work is closed ASAP so I can go out without the kids as the hours he’s out means I have had no choice but to take the kids. It’s bloody stressful!

We're struggling to get by on three shops a week, simply because there are no available online deliveries for a big shop and other shops are missing key items. We're eating a lot of veg and perishables and trying now to stockpile.

Buy what is available not what you would ideally like. It isn’t difficult and it could save lives (including your own due to lower viral load)

OP going out for fruit isn't an essential shop.

You might be a carrier of the virus without knowing it and when you pop to the small shop you might infect people.

But that's fine because you can't go for a couple of days without fruit.

It's going to be difficult times for everyone I been checking for a delivery slot everyday hoping someone cancels but no such luck. We got a delivery 2 weeks ago and not been able to get one since.
We went to the supermarket last week and the shelves where empty been relying on the corner shop for essentials up until now and I''ve noticed all their prices increasing. Hubby went to get spuds earlier and the corner shop wanted £9.00 for a small bag total rip off, loo roll was £5.00 for 4 can't carry on paying extra for things it's crazy. I need a supermarket shop asap but they need stock to be able to do that.