Do you keep a lot of food in stock at all times?

[IsThisCluttered]

I'm an over shopper, I recognise that. We ALWAYS have food in the fridge, freezer & pantry.

I have an enormous range of herbs & spices & condiments & we use them all v regularly as we cook a lot & often make more complex dishes.

We pretty much always have stuff that could make a meal or several meals if anything happened & we couldn't get to the shops.

I have a lot of things like various types of rice, pasta, flours, sugars, tinned tomatoes & many types of beans & pulses.

I was in a friend's house recently & was a bit surprised how little food she had in her cupboard & fridge. It was spartan. She said she strictly only buys what's needed that week & by the end of the week the supplies are gone & the frudhd is literally empty.

I get that we're all different but I feel anxious when we start to run low (which would still mean there's a lot of food to someone else) & having a full fridge gives me a sense of calm & peace.

I did not grow up with a shortage of food so don't know why this is.

I'm curious how other people manage this?

I'm like your friend. I don't have the space. We meal plan and do a big shop every week. I have one food cupboard and an under counter freezer. I have a full spice rack and a shelf in the fridge door full of the condiments you mention, and the cupboard is full but no, I wasnt prepped for covid, and I'm certainly not prepared for the zombie apocalypse. They can have me

I find it hard to understand because I don’t see the advantage in it versus knowing I’m sorted for options for a few days/a week. When I’ve been with people who shop every day it has worked out more time consuming and expensive. But obviously it works for you and there must be reasons why you prefer to do things that way

I would like to live like your friend OP, being a minimalist, I would love the fridge especially to be down to not much before loading it up again, it’s easier for a good clean plus everything gets used up efficiently. The truth is I live like you do as our youngest has an ED and we go through a ton of food.

I reckon I'd be OK for a month at least, although it would be getting boring toward the end and that's assuming that whichever disaster had happened didn't affect the power supply. I keep the big stuff in the dishwasher .

I've always made sure there was plenty of food in (I didn't run out of anything during covid) and while it hadn't occurred to me that it might be related to growing up with only the bare necessities, that probably does come into it. But packing up the kitchen to move house a year or so ago was a nightmare even after a couple of months of trying to whittle it down 😖

No, because I can't afford to
However I live alone and as long as my dog is well catered for, it doesn't matter

Yes, cupboards & freezer are always full and we could probably go a couple of months without shopping (except milk, fruit, fresh veg like potatoes etc).
Even make our own bread so no immediate worry there although we always have things like bagels and a sliced loaf (or two) in the freezer.
Toiletries are not a problem as we have a good stock of everything we need.

When lockdown hit there were local appeals for groceries, household goods, toiletries etc to help people who were desperate. We were able to provide a few shopping bags of items from our cupboards. It really brought it home how "prepared" we were.
Think I got it from my parents. Having lived through rationing in the 40's & 50's, in later life my Dmum liked to keep the larder & cupboards well stocked.

I generally just buy as something is finished but have a stock of staples such as flour and pasta. I usually meal plan, check what we already have and add spare ingredients. However whilst kids were off it's all been a bit more rushed so I have an overflow of stuff. I'm working through it all so we are back to minimum of stuff.

I can feed an army without going to the shops LOL.

I have 2 fridges, with their freezers, plus 2 other freezers, one of which is an upright 5 draw.

I have frozen seafood, bread, chicken, beef, gluten free bread, pizzas and meat pies. My house sometimes feels like a hotel when my sons and their partners giving us a call on a Friday asking if we are home on Saturday. Or call us Tuesday, Wednesday or whatever day, to ask if they can come for dinner.

Having plenty of food helps me not to stress.

Hello,my name is Tangerine Plate and I’m a food hoarder 🙂 Just in case the kids are sick/we’re snowed in or whatever there’s always food.

We could probably survive for at least a month with food in freezer x 2 and cupboards
I would still need to shop for fruit, salad and fresh veg though
I buy a lot of yellow sticker items too

We could also survive for a month or more on what we have.

I’m on quite a tight budget so I meal plan and try to stick my shopping list as much as possible so everywhere is pretty full after a shop but it quickly goes down to almost empty towards the end of the week. Even if I buy extra stuff for the cupboards and freezer just so we have ‘something in for emergencies’ it still gets eaten because I have a teenage boy with a bottomless stomach and if its there he’ll eat it just because he can so I’m still no better off. I’d have to buy an awful lot over and above what is actually needed to keep a constant flow of extra food in and I can’t afford to do that.

I am same as you.
I can't buy one of anything , if I'm meeting friend she will say have you got any Ariel / lenor / cans Coke / beans/ loo roll that I can buy ? The answer is always yes .
My garage is my overflow , 2 freezers in there & 1 in the kitchen !
If you have the money to , I can't see the harm of buying on offer , my mum was/is the same.
My brother and sister in law are total opposite & quite often order take away as nothing in the house

We could survive a nuclear fall out. 2 freezers, a pantry with tins of everything- tomatoes, beans chickpeas, extra condiments, juice. Too many packets of cereal, all the baking ingredients- including different types of brown sugars and every herb/spice you could wish for. I think it’s because I grew up with sparse cupboards. My parents are very frugal -(post war rationing mentality rather than poverty-driven) I think it’s a reaction to this.

Yes, I do. A home should always have a well stocked store cupboard and freezer

I buy what I need for the week and have a little bit of extra in the freezer and cupboards. Usually bread, beans, tuna, tinned tomatoes, herbs, eggs, tinned fruit and some kind of "beige food" protein and potato. I like carbonara as a quick and easy meal so I usually keep some lardons and Parmesan on hand as well.

I'm the same as you op.
I keep well stocked cupboards and freezer. I cook a lot and waste very little, all leftovers are used up.

Whenever I see a 'well stocked' fridge, I wonder what's going mouldy at the back.

#Booksandflowers

i was in a similar state with too many cans in my kitchen. I used the Olio network to offer them to people in my local area and the people who responded picked up the food within hours. All of the cans were beyond the Best Before date but none were out of date. Tidied my cupboards and no waste.

I’ve always kept stocks of long dated foods such as pasta, rice, breakfast cereals and tins. I’d upped levels when Brexit was happening and to cover winter. This saved us during the initial covid lockdown as we both work shifts in the nhs and were unable to get to the shops.
It also meant we could donate to the village unofficial foodbank during those first weeks to help those shielding.

I usually only buy goods on offer though ie 3 for 2 etc. so choices may look slightly random lol.

We definitely wouldn’t starve for at least 4-6 weeks if every shop shut. However the variety would be limited and the combinations might be a tad weird.

With us it is not just food and toiletries.

Costco is our goto shop for household items so things like kitchen towel, loo roll, washing liquid, fabric conditioner, dishwasher tabs, bleach, antibac spray etc are bulk bought and are lining the shelves in the garage. 6-Months supply of most items but when the offers are on it make sense to buy more.😉

i could probably stock a small wholefoods shop - we have enough to keep us going for months.
we usually bulk-buy dry stuff (rice, chickpeas, oats, lentils, beans etc) - in bags that range from 2.5kg up to 25kg! and things like tomato puree/ passata, flour, pasta, coffee, sugar and tea. All our olive oil, apple cider vinegar, laundry liquid, shampoo and conditioner comes in 5L containers (the last two tend to last for years - as I only wash my hair about once a week and my partner doesn't have much hair to wash!)
The freezer's always full (of soaked/cooked beans, extra portions of meals that can be defrosted quickly, foraged berries, frozen veg/garlic/ginger). We grow some veg, and try to buy stuff when it's reduced (I'm a big fan of Lidl's £1.50 boxes) so we eat really well, but don't spend that much on food overall.

Having lots of food in stock isn't an issue. Over-buying and then chucking half of it out because it's gone off before you have the chance to use it is obviously a different matter.

I started adulthood in the age of BOGOF and 3for2 deals so it's always made sense to stock up. If you buy one item a week instead of buying 2 on a BOGOF deal and keeping one in the freezer/cupboard you're paying twice as much. I always have lots of herbs and spices, store cupboard things like flour and sugar, dry things like rice and pasta, tins, and frozen veg in big bags. I shop once a week online, I don't do any top up shops, and I use up all the fresh food from one week till the next. But I have enough food in stock that it could last our family of 5 for 4 weeks if we got strict with rationing.

I have a fair amount of food that will last a while eg lots of different canned and bottle beans, chickpeas, lentils,olive, sundried tomatoes etc
We have a lot of veg in the freezer including steam packs. I alwas have olice oil,balsamic, dates, date syrup, coconut oil, fresh lemons, avocado's etc I also always have baking stuff such as yeast and flour.
Despite all this ds and dh say there's never anything to eat!