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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not be able to feed 3 extra adults unexpectedly for lunch?

565 replies

ImFree2doasiwant · 01/04/2021 14:17

I'm single, with 2 small children. I do a weekly meal plan and shop once a week.

If 3 extra adults dropped in for lunch, I'd either be able to feed them but have to go shopping again, or not have enough food in to feed them at all.

Its not like I can't afford to, I just buy the food that we, as a family, will eat. I have a small freezer. I could probably manage dinner better.

Am I that unusual?

OP posts:
jessstan2 · 02/04/2021 23:52

@MyInsidesLoveFrench

RampantIvy I really don't mean to sound snobby, but we like to look forward to dinner!
Don't we all! Nothing snobbish about that.

There's nothing wrong with pasta bake either, it can be lovely!

BackforGood · 02/04/2021 23:52

The more you post the more ridiculous you are sounding MyInsidesLoveFrench.

This thread isn't about preparing a dinner for guests you invited 2 weeks in advance. Or preparing a meal for a special occasion, or a dinner party. The OP was asking about if you'd have the wherewithal to be able to rustle up a bit of lunch for 3 adults in your house without prior notice. There are 450 posts at the moment and the overwhelming majority would be perfectly able to give them enough sustenance to stave off the hunger until their next meal.
Calling a perfectly filling meal such as a pasta bake "toddler food" makes you sound incredible snobbish about food, but also like you haven't understood the question, which is about being able to produce something to eat for people when you weren't expecting them.

Mamanyt · 03/04/2021 00:01

I think that many of us plan and buy just what it needed, so, no, you aren't being unreasonable to plan that way. It is how your family does things. However, you do say that you can afford it. While I wouldn't encourage random "drop-ins," neither would I spend a moment resenting them, simply over an extra trip to the store...unless it became a habitual thing!

I'm a bulk shopper, only shopping once a month...I could feed three drop-ins, but it would definitely be an "you take what you get" meal, and might well be microwaved ramen noodles! Do THAT a couple of times, and you won't have drop-ins again!

GrapeLipBalm · 03/04/2021 00:08

The pp assuming that people who don't cook a restaurant style meal for every meal must be a wasteful, panic buying hoarder is bonkers. I meal plan a nice meal in the evening but just have something light at lunch time. I'm neither wasteful, nor a panic buying hoarder Confused

MamaAm · 03/04/2021 00:22

I don't do a meal plan and shop more regularly than I should probably. However I have some frozen staples such as m&s frozen ratatouille which can be cooked in a pan, added to pasta, tinned tomatoes and a few different seasonings (Italian herbs, garlic, onion) for an impromptu dinner where I haven't been to the shops! This is easy to expand to several people, takes minimal effort but is still nice non the less. Frozen garlic, onions, mushrooms and the Bolognese vegetable mix is also very handy! I have a two year old and plans often change!

riceuten · 03/04/2021 01:35

If this happened and I wanted to entertain - I would either go or depute my partner to pop over to the Co-Op, or ask them if they wanted to order in a takeaway - I don't tend to carry that much in the way of additional food in the larder.

THEDEACON · 03/04/2021 04:06

I could always rustle up soup (tinned toms frozen onion stock cubes or frozen peas onions stock cubes) I always have part baked rolls or bread for such occasions really cheap and longlife Always have eggs and cheese so sandwich filling or omelette I always have a cake usually battenburg and a pack of chocolate biscuits squirreled away Every eventuality covered for very little expense

LipstickLou · 03/04/2021 06:28

DH food hoarder. He currently has 32 Christmas puddings in the cupboard! We always have extra as both our parents were War babies. I tend to do pasta or risotto if people turn up at meal times.

RampantIvy · 03/04/2021 07:47

it's just this need for a fully stocked larder "my kitchen is like a mini-supermarket" mentality that I don't understand!

It’s the only buying in food for the week mentality I don’t understand @MyInsidesLoveFrench. Everyone I know has a larder cupboard with store cupboard essentials. Even recipe books, magazines with recipes in assume that people keep a cupboard full of essentials. That is how most people who aren’t on their uppers operate. We aren’t all lucky enough to only live 5 minutes away from a shop with long opening hours.

Is there no spontaneity in your house? Do you not suddenly change your mind and think that the steak and ale casserole that you made that is in your freezer might not be what you fancy when the day has been hot? Earlier this week, we changed our minds and had a salad instead of said casserole. We could do this because I always keep salad ingredients in the fridge (we eat a lot of salad in our house). Or we might decide to have a takeaway on the spur of the moment, although this happens quite rarely. There is no food waste in our house BTW.

As for shopping lists, I keep a spreadsheet of items that we use frequently, so making up a shopping list doesn’t take long. I also have a shopping list app on my phone that contains a list of what I have bought before. It reminds me to buy less frequently bought items like bird seed.

speakout · 03/04/2021 07:58

RampantIvy

I agree.
It saves time and effort to have a well stocked larder.
DD wants to bake- it's all there. DS wants to make a pizza- go ahead.
I but rice in 15 or 20Kg sacks, it is literally a quarter of the price on smaller bags.

Fuzzyspringroll · 03/04/2021 08:28

We have a fully stocked larder in the basement, which also houses an additional fridge (for drinks) and a larger freezer (in addition to the small one in the kitchen). We probably would have enough food to last a month without having to go shopping. Both DH and I work in schools, so I'm trying to be ready to go into quarantine at short notice, if necessary. (Won't be needed anymore now, I think.)
I could feed several people on short notice but that's just because we are sometimes buying things in bulk. We live abroad and the supermarket has just had "British" week, so we've got about 30 bottles of cider, seven large bars of Cadbury, a few bags of frozen fish and chips, 40 tins of baked beans and some bags of crisps. We do the same when "Asian" stuff appears for a week...it's meant to last for the year until it comes round again. (I could get it in the more expensive supermarket but don't see the point when we've got the storage space.)

SchrodingersImmigrant · 03/04/2021 08:28

Inam fairly confident Frenchie has been just winding us up for fun 😁

MyInsidesLoveFrench · 03/04/2021 08:35

I buy the same regular essentials each week for breakfast and lunch and certain bottled ingredients and spices etc will obviously last.

But years ago I wanted to start to learn how to make the meals I'd always loved in restaurants. These aren't ambitious meals but hard to replicate if you don't follow an exact recipe.

Most are really simple to me now though as I've cooked them so many times.

But it does mean I wouldn't want to just rustle something up from what we happened to have
(and nor would my family).

coogee · 03/04/2021 08:38

We live abroad and the supermarket has just had "British" week,

It's still on isn't it?

SmellsLikeWineIGuess · 03/04/2021 08:40

@MyInsidesLoveFrench

*I'd suggest buying a couple of large bags of dried pasta, a carton of passata and a tin of tuna. * This perfectly illustrates my point about actual meal planning rather than rustling something up from your food cupboard staples.

This is toddler food! I wouldn't dream of serving it as a meal for ourselves, let alone guests.

So if people just turned up unexpectedly, you’d be so ham-strung and incapable of rustling something up (seriously?!), that you’d just let them go hungry?!

Who is that inept when it comes to food....?

BarbaraofSeville · 03/04/2021 08:41

Is that a Lidl or Aldi thing?

What does foreign Lidl/Aldi sell in British week?

I love the Lidl special weeks, especially Greek, Spanish and French.

needadvice54321 · 03/04/2021 08:43

I'd struggle with bread- we just don't eat much of it so regular have none in. I've got a well stocked pantry though, so could make a meal - tuna pasta salad, jacket potatoes, soup etc. Sandwiches would just be unlikely!

Frazzled2207 · 03/04/2021 08:47

@AmyLou100

I have friends whose home culture has ingrained in them that you always have enough in the house just in case of surprise visitors though.

That is my culture too. It's actually not about providing a 3 course meal, but making someone feel at home in your home and the way is through a meal or food.

Ah I’m the exact opposite- I can’t bare the thought of visitors dropping in unannounced. Luckily my family know better. It’s not so much the time that’s an issue but my house is never “visitor ready”, unless, of course, I’m expecting visitors.

I could feed 3 extra adults if they turned up as we have a big chest freezer and generally quite a lot of food in the house (not fresh stuff though) but I’d be really stressed and unhappy about it. So I suppose Yanbu OP

Frazzled2207 · 03/04/2021 08:48

I meant to say it’s not so much the FOOD that’s the issue

BeyondMyWits · 03/04/2021 08:52

We had a house of teenagers before covid it was unusual to Not have extra drop ins for dinner. Life is so much quieter at the moment, and they are going off to uni so those days have passed....

Freezer surprise was the order of the day. So yes, could whip up some extra food with no notice.

Moggylover78 · 03/04/2021 08:55

I would struggle too so would like many others have to give away my own meal as a sacrifice. It’s funny because my friend has created this app enabled meal prep container that’s stores food that could work in times like this, can’t remember what it is called.

Fuzzyspringroll · 03/04/2021 08:57

@coogee

We live abroad and the supermarket has just had "British" week,

It's still on isn't it?

Well, ours only seemed to have a few remnants left last weekend so I don't think it's still going on here.
Fuzzyspringroll · 03/04/2021 08:59

@BarbaraofSeville

Is that a Lidl or Aldi thing?

What does foreign Lidl/Aldi sell in British week?

I love the Lidl special weeks, especially Greek, Spanish and French.

It's Aldi. They sell baked beans, chocolate fudge and lemon fudge cake, Tyrrell's crisps, cider, Cadbury's chocolate, wine gums. Can't remember what else.
MyInsidesLoveFrench · 03/04/2021 09:06

SmellsLikeWineIGuess if it was one extra person I'd just make what I was cooking stretch further.

Any more than than that and I'd just go to the local shops and buy extra to bulk out what I was cooking. We're not averse to emergency Charlie Bighams to in that situation either

I'm actually really surprised that a PP suspects I'm just winding everyone up! I do have many friends and family similar to me, which is why the cooking spontaneously from store cupboard staples is so unfamiliar.

Middersweekly · 03/04/2021 09:09

Well I buy quite a large shop every week but that’s for 6 people including DH (who could easily consume 2 persons amount of food) and 3 teenagers. If 3 adults walked in and expected dinner they would get pasta and pasta sauce and possibly a salad. I don’t buy enough meat etc to feed anyone else really. Lunch would be a sandwich as I buy 4 large loaves of bread a week so I could give them that. We don’t have much waste in my house to be honest as between DH and the kids they make light work of the food in the cupboards!