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

[ImFree2doasiwant]

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?

But there’s a McDonald’s near us so if three adults dropped by and said they were hungry I’d most likely point them in that direction!

The only thing always available here is copious amount of Rose and a bowl of nuts, thats it!

I would never apologise for not delivering afternoon tea for the hoards at a moments notice!

I could always sort out pasta carbonara for meat-eaters or pasta alfredo for veggies. I could do something with lentils or canned beans on the off chance a stray vegan arrived. I could do a homemade vegetable soup, too. If they were going to be here for a while I could make a quick loaf of bread, and if they fancied hanging around for a day or so I could defrost something far more interesting (no microwave).

On the other hand, we do not have store-bought bread, or biscuits, or cake. Even if there was bread, the sandwich filling options are limited to egg mayo or cheese.

There is always tea and coffee. Most of the time, there's milk, too :)

I don't do stress either, so prob wouldn't answer the door in the first place :)

Yes easily - but then we're a family of 7 incl. 4 teenagers so i have a freezer full and also buy large joints of meat which will do lunches the following day. I see you mean sandwiches now - mine aren't huge sandwich eaters but I do have a few loaves in the freezer and also keep ciabatta/ panini rolls & sourdough baguettes so yes I could do egg Mayo, cheese and tomato, tuna & sweetcorn or ham right now for 3 extra adults should I need to!

My mother's parents were kinda like foster parents and also basically if you passed the front door at meal time my nana fed you. Mom grew up with the habit of cooking enough food in case another six or seven people land unexpectedly. It is only with COVID and not allowed visitors that she cooks for two. She is a dab hand of using leftovers.

I don't have the cooking habit but will always have something in that I could make a meal out of. Admittedly it would be some kind of pasta dish. I always have a pack of breaded frozen fish in the freezer and often stock up on the meat deals that our butcher . There is a steep hill between my house and the main road that is lethal when it is icy so have stuff in, in case we get stuck.

I could feed random visitors , but I wouldn't unless there was an emergency.

I think it's very rude to drop in on people, especially close to a meal time.

I'm similar to you, I only buy what we need and meal plan. Having said that I do batch cook and freeze meals so would be able to manage something, becomes trickier though if one or a few have dietary restrictions. But yes I would like notice as i hate feeling like I've just put something together and if we have guests I want to offer them something nice

I could rustle up something at short notice depending on how close to my next shop it is. Sandwiches, pasta, omelettes etc

That's why we have takeaways!

My gm had 6 dcs and 2 dsc. She was born in 1886 and struggled when she was widowed with two dds. My gf, her 2nd dh, was a school caretaker and she used to cook enough to give poorer school kids food during the depression. On my own I rarely bother with a freezer and am 2 mins from a village shop, butcher or fish and chip shop. So don't need much in stock.

Soup? Manky veg are good for soup.

I don't meal plan and have loads of food and little waste.

I have a large family so could easily feed an extra 3.

I imagine your dad and grandparents wouldn't have been turning up out of the blue unless their car broke down nearby or something like that.

Why do you imagine that? My mum and dad live 3 miles away and use our drive to park if they want to go to the local high street (usually a couple of times a week), so are often popping in, particularly if mum’s having her nails done, or dad’s having a hair cut, or they are picking something up from the shop etc.

Like many of the above posters I always have a fully stocked freezer. This is partly because being a disabled non driver I cannot simply "pop" out to the shops because there are none here! I rely on my online deliveries once a week.

However it was not always so. I went through a period as an mature student when I returned to education and really had to count the pennies. So I shopped for one. I would always say I was sorry I could not offer anything more but that it would leave me short. Of course students are used to this sort of thing because you are all in a similar position.

In these days of universal smartass phones I would consider it quite rude and inconsiderate if a bunch of people dropped in around meal time without phoning first. I am one of those people who dont answer the door to casual callers. I do not hesitate to usher people out when they have outstayed their welcome. However I do make a bit of a joke about it, saying "well Im going to throw you out now because XXX" and fetch their coats.

I think mentioned earlier in the thread but I was brought up to always be ready for unexpected visitors and so have things in the freezer for precisely this reason. I also have a large family so its common for me to have sudden extra guests (pre-covid). Most meals can be stretched on a whim.

I'm surprised to hear so many people don't plan for this, but maybe it doesn't happen to them.

Of course, the food would be much better when I have advance warning and can shop accordingly.

Pre-apocalypse I always kept a bag of 50 party sized sausage rolls in the freezer. In the case of unexpected guests who popped in for lunch there would be a cup of tea and I'd throw those in the oven for people to have a few to eat warm.

Other than that, nope. I'd be dashing out to the shop to buy bits.

If anyone popped in unexpectedly around here they would be met with my horrified gaze... No excuse for not sending a courteous text to check it's a good time first.

@arethereanyleftatall I'm the same, never meal plan, always have a cupboard, fridge and freezer full of stuff and generally speaking could rustle up meal if needed. We have probably the lowest food waste of anyone I know though, stocking up doesn't necessarily mean waste. We get through fresh stuff so quickly it never goes off (three teen/preteens in family).

By the end of the week I barely have enough for the 2 of us, never mind extra people.

We don't buy bread either so couldn't even make a sandwich.

My mum always said that when unexpected visitors arrived at dinner time you'd just add an extra cup of water to the soup. I think our generation has lost the skill of 'making do'.

I’ve always got bags of pasta and jars of sauce so I could produce something, but it wouldn’t be very exciting!

We could and often do.

We have 2x freezers full of meat (we always buy 50% to 60% off clearance meat and freeze it), to buy non perishable foods in bulk (Costco) and every few days for fresh foods (no covid restrictions)

Now reading about sandwiches, I always have a spare loaf of bread in the freezer so yes could do sandwiches but I wouldn't ever think to give guests sandwiches. If I was thinking light lunch instead of a proper meal I'd more likely do something like pizza, quiche, salad, nachos, sausage rolls or even soup and (pre partbaked) baguette.