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

[unn]

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.

Toast, stuffing, hot chocolate, multiple cups of tea. I don't want to go to the shop between Christmas Eve and 27/12 so I buy extra staple food.

Just google "Christmas food waste" @unn and you're not wrong. I do understand that people may live rurally and not have shops open - that's the situation my mum is in and she always has loaves in the freezer and a couple of packs of UHT in case she gets snowed in.

But buying ridiculous amounts of food for Christmas is nothing new. I don't have any problem with freezing and using up leftovers but many people do, they don't know what to do with them or are worried about food poisoning, or like my friend, just don't like the idea of ever eating someting they've eaten before.

We live very rurally, we have a chest freezer which we stock so we aren’t always driving to the shop.
nothing gets wasted. You are being judging and unreasonable not to realise that the whole world isn’t like you.

I stock up because dragging 2 children round the supermarket for a full shop is hell (DH is usually at work between Xmas and new year) when they are all hyped up due to Xmas or overtired from all the festivities. I meal plan and put lots in the freezer so it all gets taken out and used. I buy extra milk because we always have lots of visitors who all like to have cups of tea/ coffee/ hot chocolates. My eldest is basically a baby calf when it comes to milk and will have cups of milk every day (usually gets a carton of milk at school at snack time) and then one at bed.

Food wise, even if I'm not hosting, my children are off school and are basically gannets and like sheep graze all day. I'm feeding them an extra meal Monday - Friday (usually have school dinner at school). We go on days out and usually pack up (extra bread and pack up stuff needed). Usually DH works from home so will have a variety of food for lunch whereas if we are packing up it's sandwiches or hot soup and bread all round. If we are hosting family they also need packup for the day out.

If hosting family that's a whole other family worth of food shop needed. Some people host parents/ in laws/ family for multiple days. Cooking for more adults requires more food. Cooking for extra adults plus extra children also means food goes down quickly. It's not always easy to just nip to the shops when hosting, especially if you have a "I'll come for a ride out" relatives. My great aunt (early 90s) was notorious for getting in the car every time it went out the drive. If you went to the shops she was coming with, so any outing took 3x as long as it should.

If you are just doing Christmas dinner but have absolute gannets for family members you also end up with a huge shop just for Christmas dinner. DH, BIL and Great Grandfather in Law are gannets at Christmas. Great Grandfather in Law is a gannet everytime he goes somewhere else to eat (Great Grandmother in law is basically a sparrow and exists for days at a time on fresh air and could give even the most competitive under eater a run for their money). So when he comes for Christmas dinner he piles his plate high multiple times and eats like a man starved. DH, BIL and GGFIL can eat 2 whole trays of roast vegetables, a full tray of roast potatoes, half a serving dish of mash, half a serving dish of both red cabbage and a serving dish of cauliflower cheese between them. They also devour all the meat (if I'm hosting 12 I always get a piece big enough for 16) and pigs in blankets that are left. I always make the 3 gannets go to the serving table last so everyone else gets their share, then the 3 gannets can scrap between them for the rest of the food. One year I thought I had seriously over catered and expected leftovers but it was completely hoovered up by the 3 family gannets who ate 3 huge platefuls then had 2 deserts.

You can freeze what you dont use.

I am bad for milk, I never can gauge how much I'm going to use and how long past expiry the one i have will stretch

Yabu.
We're a family of 4 and had a couple of relatives round for my son's birthday weekend. Did an afternoon tea (mini sandwiches), and I always have toast for breakfast. 3 loaves of bread in one day. It's really easily done.

The kids have porridge and drink babycinos, I drink endless cups of tea with milk in... often get through 3-4pt a day without anything special happening.

6 loaves and 16pt isn't bonkers for a week, especially with visitors

This is ON TOP of what they usually buy. If they buy 8 pints of milk and 2 loaves of bread normally. They are then buying 24 pints of milk and 7 loaves of bread.

There is a lot of food wasted at Christmas. I read on here think it was the last Christmas, someone saw someone down their road chucking a whole cooked turkey with about 6 portions carved into it - into their bin. Not wrapped. Foxes took a fancy to it that night and the carcass was on the pavement.

I save my irritation to those who stockpile dozens and dozens of loo rolls. Dh and I nearly ran out in lockdown, we were down to a few squares once thanks to the stockpilers

Now I'm worried that people are keeping a record of how much food I usually buy.

I don’t understand why it’s hard to understand that people need more essentials like milk and bread when they are hosting. I imagine most people are perfectly capable of planning what they think they’ll need, and aren’t just haphazardly buying 16 pints of milk just to throw it all away!

We get through 24 pints of milk in a week in our house.

I won’t be buying any extra for Christmas but if I had a lot of guests coming I might need to.

Bread freezes so never goes to waste.

We're not even hosting apart from the odd drop-in for drinks.
it's just that we're all at home for a few days and I don't enjoy grocery shopping.

I go through probably 6 pints of milk a day in my house. And a loaf of bread. So if I didnt want to repeatedly go to the shops then my trolley would be full of bread and milk.

We had the same during covid. Large family buying their normal shop, having people frown upon why I had 'excessive amounts'

All of it. And any other household with a teenage boy probably

We shop 4-5 times a week to keep him fed.

(Walks 5 miles a day, exercises 2 hours a day 5x a week plus more on Saturday)

Also, I look like I'm stockpiling kitten food atm
but those little monsters eat A LOT

You are beat running it past op

I routinely have 12 pints of milk in my fridge and another 12 in my freezer, plus 2 loaves in the bread bin and another 2-4 in my freezer. If I have used my freezer stash, I could easily be buying 18 pints and 4 loaves.
With young adult boys home full time none of it lasts long.

We get through gallons of milk a week thanks to my teens who may as well just have bloody milk IV’s fitted. Now it’s the school holidays, an extra 16 pints probably won’t even touch the sides.

Regarding a “Christmas shop” I do have to repeat the mantra to myself that’s it’s “just one day so how much can we realistically eat?” whist trying not to be dragged into temptation by all the shiny delicious looking treats that Sainsburys have at the moment!

I really hate the “but the shops are only shut for one day” brigade. I don’t want to go to Morrison’s on Boxing Day or any of the lovely, lazy days after to get more milk and bread. I want to sit on my sofa all day and watch telly like normal people.

I don’t want to go to the shops on Xmas day or Boxiing so I need enough to cater for 10. I don’t think it’s unusual to spend time with family & friends or not want to go to the shops. Plus you can freeze bread & milk.

The things with bread & milk is that you think you have enough but then everyone wants cereal & toast & sandwiches & tea and it’s gone in minutes!

We will definitely eat more than normal, being off school and work. It's also likely to involve more cooking and baking, and less convenience foods, so more ingredients needed.

But more than that, we will have plans that mean going to the supermarket would be inconvenient. It's a 45min drive each way to the supermarket from here, and I don't want to do that if I can help it. We won't be at work to pick things up in town, and will avoid the busy city centre like the plague.

Well we don't have a local shop.... So we have to drive to a local town, and I don't want to be doing that over Xmas, it's a nightmare to get in and park etc. We are only four, but as pps it's the not wanting to faff around in shops over Xmas that's the motivator to get extra stuff in.

This thread makes me feel better about my husband’s milk (alternative) consumption! He gets through 1L in 2 days! That’s before anyone else has some!

Reading the title of your post OP, then seeing a Sainsbury's ad, "Stock up at Sainsbury's"
😅

I don't buy that much of specific items for a day long visit from family members.