How much of the extra 16 pints of milk and 5 loaves of bread bought just in case are actually consumed

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Will be celebrating Xmas Day with my parents and a couple of their friends. Our milk and bread consumption is less than normal as drink Buck’s Fizz instead of coffee.

I see shoppers buying ridiculous amounts of milk and bread.

I reckon the extra 16 pints of milk and 5 loaves of bread, bought just in case - of what? Most will be binned.

Wer hosting for 22. 3 being starving teenagers. I don’t want to go to the shops Xmas ever or Boxing Day. We definitely have more than usually in our shop for the 23rd. Different families different reasons

Easily frozen, therefore zero waste.

20 odd guests. Tea, coffee, breakfasts, Yorkshire puddings, bread sauce, cauliflower cheese sauce, creamed leeks, soup with the leftovers - all use pints and pints of milk.

I get through gallons of milk over Christmas. Just because some people have no guests or just do a bit of frozen veg and turkey for lunch doesn’t mean every family does the same.

How on earth do you know it will be wasted?, i hope you didn't do that sucked a lemon look as you saw it

When we’re at home DP and I drink a lot of tea and coffee and the DC are always asking for hot chocolate so we do buy a lot more milk than normal. Also you need milk for custard and bread sauce. Sandwiches are a staple for a buffet tea and I can use a whole loaf making up a mixture of ham and cheese sandwiches. Well put some in the freezer for New Year if necessary, none of it goes in the bin.

I wouldn't buy that much but if I am feeding ten people 3 meals a day for a few days then it is a lot more needed than normal. I definitely don't want to have to be going shopping over the Christmas period as spoils our fun and stresses me out as chief cook. People that say this usually are not those who host a crowd. I am fine overbuying on non perishables as everything gets used in the end.

You don’t know what will be wasted but yes people do buy far more than they need which will therefore - in most cases - be wasted

although I suspect it’s mince pies rather than milk and turkey that people can’t be bothered to strip and freeze

We have bought 1 extra loaf to freeze and 4 x 4 pints of milk which is the usual for us. Having family, lots of tea, coffee, cereal etc it will all get used. No waste here. I think if you have kids as pp have mentioned lots of hot chocolates etc may be why the extra milk is bought

It's not just the one meal is it though? You don't understand that people might like to buy extra nice things in a Christmas shop that they usually wouldn't?

My normal weekly shop is bare bones. Enough for 3 meals a day and homemade snacks for the DC and that's it. No nice extras, no wine, no nibbles. So my Christmas shop has olives, crackers, nice cheese, prosecco, pate, posh crisps, smoked salmon. All things I usually wouldn't buy because I want to enjoy decadent food for a week over Christmas. I'm sure lots of people do this.

I stock up on wine (awful mn confession) but don’t buy milk and bread ever.

I said, I don’t get it. Other people can do as they wish. But for ME, it’s not something that I personally understand in MY life

And yes, for us it’s just one meal. No different to if we fancy a Sunday roast. The children get a few selection boxes so they are covered.

There's only two of us. But we are having brother over for dinner. We just get a bit extra so we actually don't have to go to the shop over Christmas... it's a ball ache.
So can imagine people buying lots of stuff have bigger families and feel the same as me.

I can see the need to but in extra food as that is part of the festivities , but to bulk buy items such as milk / bread is weird as it's not as if the shops are closing for a week or two .

I'm surprised you haven't been told you have to stop buying in case the neighbours children on left may see you brong ot on from the car and the neighbours on the right MIL cousin who lives in Canada is in AA

I run a food bank, so thoughts and prayers please as I attempt to do Christmas dinner for 700 people including every dietary requirement and religious observance under the sun I breathe a huge sigh of relief at 5pm on 24 December.

Personally? We’re secular Jewish so it’s party food + Chinese here rather than a roast. I have stocked up on UHT milk for when we run out of fresh. If we run out of bread it’s the bread maker (for which we have ingredients in already), or crackers. Or nothing.

I avoid the shops because, frankly, I am in them for work collecting all the unsold “surplus” including Norfolk bronze turkeys, posh desserts and so on. And the music and crowds make me uncomfortable. So I buy a little more than usual on or around the 20th to keep out of the shops until the 27th.

How do you know? It’s likely they don’t want to shop over Xmas, they’ll have extra people staying over from all across the country/world and…. Bread and milk can be frozen :)

That amount would only last a few days in our house.

My DC, and especially my teenage son, are like bottomless pits when it comes to food. DS can easily consume a 2 litre carton of milk in one sitting! 😂🙈

Already solved that dilemma after an incident with the postman’s poodle’s aunt in Peru who saw glow of lights late one night and told the news of the world that we were running an elf workshop. Awful experience all round.
We now get around that by living in an isolated location (this part is actually not from the land of make believe) with no neighbours or passing traffic so that we can be rebels (or hermits).

I got accused of ridiculous overbuying yesterday, alongside the start of a lecture of the shops only being shut for one day.

It was just my normal shop, I have a large family, with a couple of dietary requirements thrown in for good measure.

I got accused of it a lot over covid as well.

Another thread started by a poster with no imagination as to how other families might do things differently and prefers to work from the assumption that they must be idiots. 🤷🏼‍♀️

People eat differently over the holidays

On an average week we are a house of 2 adults, one child and one baby. We have cereal or porridge for breakfast, cheese/ham/egg sandwich for lunch with some fruit and protein/veg/carb based main meal. We can make a chicken or joint of meat last 3 days. Snacks on between meals are crackers, toast, fruit and puddings are fruit and yoghurt. On a typical weekend we go through 2pts of milk, 3l of oat milk, 1 loaves of bread, 0-3 eggs, 1 meat based items, half a back of cheddar, 1-2 bottles of beer maybe a bottle of tonic.

When my in-laws visit for a weekend with have eggs/bacon/mushroom/smoked salmon etc on toast for breakfast, more elaborate sandwiches for lunch, nicer dinners, make crumbles or pies for puddings. We go through 8pts of milk, 2l of oat milk, 3 loaves of bread, 8 eggs, 2 meat based items. 6 bottles of beer, 1 bottle of wine, 2 packets of sharing crisps, a packet of crackers, 3 packs of various cheeses, a pack of nuts. ..... It will be very similar over Christmas but rather than being with us for 3-4 days they are staying for 10! 3-4 days will be similar to this and the rest more normal eating patterns but still that's 2 extra adults. We eat a lot of rice and pasta during an average week as they cook quicker than potatoes, my mil struggles with pasta so we eat more potatoes. We use frozen veg for speed during a typical weekday and fresh veg in the weekend or when we are at home. Food changes from quick fairly tasty food to taking those extra steps to make it taste really good

I have bought a lot of the non-perishable extra in the previous few weeks and if they don't get eaten they will go in the cupboard to be eaten over time subsequent visits. I've got a Christmas delivery booked for the 23rd which should cover most of food until we go back to work/school in January so 12 days normally my food shop covers 5-7 days.

For me, one of the joys of Christmas is the ‘step up’ in the shopping.
if you normally buy the every day value stuff for example, then for Christmas you think ‘fuck it, it’s Christmas’ and join the queue for the deli ham. It’s joyous, and if you don’t get it, or go around saying ‘it’s just a roast’, then I would urge you to try it, embrace the joy!

But surely you still arrive home wearing a trench coat and a trilby hat in case Florence the neighbourhood gossip may judge you on what is or is it ot is good plonk or worse still doesn't see what brand of butter you buy because Fido the supermarket manager is sleeping with Florence's husband and he looks at you with the glass eye all judgemental like so you feel bad

I've got some part baked bread and long life milk in addition to my normal, as we'll have Ds and DIL and DD and SIL to stay. Its not because the shops will be shut (they're not really are they!), its so we dont have to go out if we dont want to and can just cosy up at home.
I can't imagine anybody just randomly buys loads then chucks it away after Christmas. There might be a few I suppose, but you can't tell just by looking at someone in the supermarket! I love glancing at others trollies and thinking of all the friends and families getting together.

I agree OP - I was reading another thread and it got me wondering why we put ourselves through this ridiculous ritual every year. I'm sure we all buy stuff we know we won't use, and it is such a waste. But you get sucked into the advertising and the relentless push to make you buy more, more, more! I even briefly contemplated buying a load of the 15p vegetables and making some soup, and I NEVER make soup!