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?
?

No butter in the shops my dad checked during his journey home from work. So how are people going to buy soup.

Ummmm.....

(1) Your dad shouldn't be checking multiple shops
(2) He shouldn't be shopping for one item
(3) If there's no butter, then go without
(4) You can buy soup even when there's no butter!

The instructions are 'shop as infrequently as possible.'

Not 'shop as infrequently as possible while making absolutely no changes to your regular diet and being absolutely inflexible about getting precisely what's on your list'. If you have enough food that you can eat that you aren't allergic to, you're fine.

No butter in the shops my dad checked during his journey home from work. So how are people going to buy soup

The logic of this eludes me. I bought butter this morning and there was plenty of both fresh and tinned soup as well. But surely shops can have soup but no butter - or vice versa? Why have people been panic buying washing powder and capsules? Just why?

No butter in the shops my dad checked during his journey home from work. So how are people going to buy soup.

What does the availability of butter have to do with the availability of soup?

How are people querying what’s in the shops. I went last Thursday. Nothing in the way of staples (milk/bread/butter). Went yesterday... came away with everything I needed. It depends on the shop you’re IN and what time you’re there.

Some people on the friend are ridiculous, just don’t eat fruit daily or veg , or use frozen/tinned. Freeze milk or use uht or go without unless a baby young child.
A second shop to buy plums is beyond stupid and selfish.

Everyone needs to make a decision on this based on what’s reasonable for their circumstances. If you have a family and no car you cannot get more than a few days worth of food at once. I’m going twice a week as also shopping for my mother in law. She lives alone and manages fine but has memory problems and can’t think what she needs a week ahead of time. As she’s living alone and will be isolated for months I at least want to be able to get her the food she likes.

We have guinea pigs that need fresh greens. We will do 2 shops a week because kale and spinach only lasts so long and if anyone lives with piggies you will know a lockdown with hungry piggies is not fun. Their health is also massivley important. They don't seem to understand the idea of rationing!

Yes, really different if you're urban, with no car and not as much room for a big freezer etc. We tend to use small shops and markets, don't do a 'big shop' ever. Maybe a delivery for cat food etc once every couple of months, but that's obviously impossible.

I've upped our fruit and veg box, but I still anticipate we'll go at least twice a week. DP is actually a key worker and going past shops anyway, but I think easier in smaller shops where you can just wait for a few people to come out. We're not rigid about what we buy at all, it's the volume and ability to carry for a family of 4 all suddenly home a lot more.

My mum lives rurally and has a massive chest freezer, she can get buy with going really infrequently with a trip to the farm shop for fruit and veg.

Different people have different needs. My dd has a food allergy if I cant get her suitable food I will have to go out and go shopping again... or she can't eat. We have struggled to get fresh fruit or meat for over a week. I will need to go shopping at the end of this week. We don't have the money to store lots of food. I know some people will tell me that I should have tried harder etc but it just isnt possible. I had some pasta and stuff stored up but then people started stockpiling and I couldn't get hold of any so I had to use it. My ds is going through a fussy phase and I really dont think it would do his health any good if he just didnt eat which j what would happen if I couldn't get hold of certain things.
I'm hoping to only go out once a week but it surely depends on the situation. If people hadn't have been so selfish in the last few weeks it wouldnt have been so bad. But I couldn't get hold of suitable bread for my daughter, no suitable cereal etc it has been so stressful. But preppers just want to post about how people should have planned better etc.

I haven't been to a supermarket in almost 2 weeks, I didn't do any prepping or hoarding beforehand, just using every bit of food that is available in my home. My fridge is bare besides milk(delivered), butter, cheese and bacon. There is still fruit kicking about but bananas have been repurposed into banana bread. Ran out of bread a couple days ago and made my own today. I have a delivery of pasta and a couple meats coming tomorrow, so can stretch a few more days.

Going to order veg boxes from my local community store for next week.

Been waiting out the panic and sensibly staying away from others but also feel this will bite me in the butt for when I do go shopping and won't be able to do such an extended stay away from shops again. I usually only make one trip a week to the supermarkets before this so 2 trips would be more than enough but I can understand larger families wouldn't be able to manage it.

We all have to adapt to what is available and not expect to carry on eating as before to a certain extent.

I’m not saying that pets’ health isn’t important. It is. But I think guinea pigs can eat things other than kale and spinach.

People just don’t get it. Every time you go out you increase the risk of getting or passing on the virus. So when you’re saying ‘I need to shop twice a week’ you’re saying ‘I need to spread the virus’.

People are putting themselves at risk to help the rest of us, those of us with the ability to stay at home. They are putting their health and their lives on the line. You (anyone who thinks they have good reasons for buying exactly what they want and not going without a single thing) don’t ‘win’ by justifying your need to go shopping. You put yourself and others at risk. Please think about it.

I think people do get it but it's not always that simple. Good for you if you can manage to make food last weeks on end not everyone is as great as you are. People are showing you that there are valid reasons why people might have to go out once a week but you refuse to admit any of them are valid. I have struggled to get enough food to feed my family for the last 2 weeks. I mean I suppose I could have just tried to make more soup but my ds hates sauces so wouldnt eat it so he would go hungry. I used the last of my bread flour making bread, couldn't get hold of any more. So tell me what I should have fed my dd, no suitable bread, no suitable cereal, no meat, no veg, limited fresh fruit. If I buy the wrong thing it could kill her.

Personally I understand 2 trips seems reasonable if you can barely get anything in trip 1 - but the whole point is that people must try to get by as best as possible on just 1 outing per week for the lockdown to be effective and as short-lived as possible.

We intend to just shop once a week, and leaving delivery for those who need it, but I'm not hopeful of ever getting much as the shelves around here are now permanently almost bare of the everyday items. I haven't seen eggs, loo roll, paracetamol, pasta, bread in weeks. More recently beans, cake, cheese, butter, rice, veg, frozen pizza is very hard to come by. It's so frustrating.

I really hope the lockdown encourages people to make fewer trips, and that supermarkets impose limits to ensure normal, fair-minded people finally get a sniff at these items! 🤞

@Ginnymweasley I've got 2 close friends with small kids with life threatening allergies and they have really struggled to get appropriate food. It's very stressful for them. Like most people, they're making do but it's hard going, especially if you're a key worker and have limited time to shop.

So DH did our weekly shop today and there was no fresh meat at all. Nothing.

One tip is to see if any wholesalers in your area have rapidly turned their hands to delivery- as restaurant demand has disappeared lots are trying this to stay in business. I've seen veg, fish and meat, all reasonably priced.

@Ginnymweasley you clearly have a valid justification to go out when you must. There are lots of circumstances in which some special dispensation is necessary and right, and one just has to take the most stringent precautions to remain safe and keep others safe.

However, lots of selfish, entitled, shortsighted people definitely are taking the piss, and those people will be putting the rest of us and the most vulnerable amongst us at much higher risk of serious illness and a horrible death for absolutely no good reason at all.

@Ginnymweasley I said in my first post that it’s different for people with illnesses and allergies. I probably should have reiterated it. I understand you’re in a much more difficult position that households who don’t have that to deal with. Sorry if I offended you personally, it wasn’t intentional.

And I don’t think I’m great, I really don’t. I’m just honestly, genuinely shocked that some posters don’t want to change their diets at all, and come up with reason after reason for why they shouldn’t have to. I’m not a prepper and I’ve run out of quite a lot of stuff but I’m making do with other stuff. I guess I assumed everyone was.

I usually shop for fresh stuff several times a week. I do about 90% of the household shopping on foot (go with DH in the car to get fizzy water & big boxes of washing powder now and then). Where I live now I do have space, but I lived in houseshares until I was 30 and I know what it’s like to have limited space. I understand not everyone is the same. I still think a lot of people are being crazy and selfish and I really do wonder if they truly understand what they are doing.

How are people querying what’s in the shops. I went last Thursday. Nothing in the way of staples

There often isn't, but you can make do without those things. You don't need bread or milk, you can eat other things for a while.

I can. My son, who has asd can’t. His staple diet is very narrow. For anyone who says “if he’s hungry, he’d eat”. No, he would not. He drops weight very quickly which makes him hugely vulnerable.

Provided they have milk when you go, I don't see the need for a 2nd shop. We have a toddler who guzzles it's and we manage.

As a family of 5 with limits of 1 loaf of bread for example I think I will go 3 times a week.
Especially as we are eating every meal at home now.

As a family of 5 with limits of 1 loaf of bread for example I think I will go 3 times a week.

If each item is limited to 1 and they have things in stock you could always get one loaf of bread, one pack of wraps, one pack of bagels and a pack of crumpets and then that would be all your bread items to last for a week...

I think the thing is, it's difficult to plan so you have to take what you can get. I've been trying to get some flour for weeks. not fancy pancy flour, just a small bag of plain. I can only get microwave packets of rice, no actual proper dried rice, no dried pasta, no dried noodles. We've been managing with potatoes and bread which I haven't had any bother buying, and with what's left in my cupboards. Managed to get fresh noodles and pasta last week which was a nice change.

However, if you do have rigid requirements, specific dietary allergies or have limited cooking ability I can see how it becomes very difficult. It's also been more expensive as the cheaper options aren't available.

It also seems to vary depending on where you live. A friend who lives in the next town, about 6 miles away, has no problem getting toilet roll but cant get chocolate, we had plenty chocolate and no toilet roll.