Essential Shopping

[jelly79]

At what point are you deciding you need to do an essential shop...?

When you need a pint of milk? So little and often?

Or when you have run low / out of most things so you can do a bigger shop in one?

I'm trying to do it as little as possible, so when I need to do a bigger shop in one. Also, I'd prefer to have to queue as little as possible so would rather avoid the supermarkets if I don't have to be there.

I'm trying to avoid supermarkets. I have been once over the last week to top up milk, fruit and eggs. From a local small greengrocer. I'm hoping I can put off a proper supermarket trip for another couple of weeks like this.

I’m trying to do it weekly, though I did have to top up bread & milk half way through.

Tricky because we can only buy X amount of milk etc but as we’re all at home all the time, we’re using more than normal.

I was only able to buy 2 pts of milk today which doesn’t go far for a family of 4.

I go for fruit, veg, butter and milk to nearby small coop. Dh does big shop once a week. We run out of mentioned stuff in the middle of the week.

Bread
Milk
Fruit
Vegetables
Eggs
Flour
Butter
Meat
Rice
Pasta
Sauces for cooking
Squash for kids
Yoghurts
Biscuits
Sugar
Sanitary towels
Toothpaste
Shampoo/conditioner
Laundry detergent

Anything else is nice but not essential

Aiming to do a big shop every 10 days, then we need to pop out for milk and bread about once a week as well (to a smaller local shop).

Managed to get a Tesco delivery slot today though for tomorrow so if most of that actually arrives then I'm hoping I can go a bit longer without having to do a big shop.

Weekly shopping.
We don't have a 'local shop', we have to drive 2 miles into town for any food shops. So might as well make it the supermarket where we can get everything.

Aiming to go once every 5 to 7 days for things like fruit, veg, salad, bread, milk, yogurt. We’re reasonably well stocked with batch cooked stuff in freezer and long life items so it won’t be the end of the world if we can’t get much fresh stuff but so far our local shops and little fruit and veg place haven’t been running short and are strongly enforcing the 2 metre distancing rule.

One supermarket shop and one local newsagents shop for top up essentials like milk and bread is what I'm trying.

This is why we'll end up in lock down.

There is no reason to go out for milk 3.5 days after your weekly shop.

"fruit, veg, butter and milk" in fact all of these will last a week

Managing to do a big Aldi shop, used to once a week but now every 10 days.

Get milk delivered and lucky to live opposite a grocers for fresh fruit and veg and they sell bread too. Would normally get everything except milk from Aldi as grocers is more expensive but trying to avoid big supermarkets.

The grocers opposite us is doing quite well from people like us shopping there now who normally wouldn't.

Once a week I get a large supermarket delivery of all the 'dry' goods and fruit and veg.

Once a week I go and pick up a big box of meat, pies and dairy products from the local butcher. They have just switched this to a contactless 'click and collect' system which is actually working really well.

That's what I've always done, so I'm still currently going out once a week.

We are very rural and regularly get cut off in bad weather so I have two large deep freezers outside, an under counter freezer, an under counter fridge and a traditional cold stone pantry inside. They are always full (no panic buying happened here) and I work a rotation systemŷ so it's rare we have to pop out for top up shops even in normal times excluding wine

Perhaps the 'rural' way of living it will become a bit more of a normal way of life for others after this?

@crustycrab
We don't have space to store weeks worth of milk. Same goes with fruit and veg that needs to be stored in fridge.

I'm actually surprised at how little no we lasted just by emptying out the cupboards eg hot dog and baked bean hot pot and steak pie using tinned steak and home made pastry.

Dinners we are generally fine, it's lunches that are hard due to DD usually at school and DH getting his lunch at work. I'd like to make bread but hard to find bread flour.

• how long we have lasted

Am going to the supermarket every 5 days. Have 6 people in the house (5 adults, one 12 yr old), so we get through a lot of food. I'm also trying not to over buy because if everyone gets too much then there's not enough food for everyone who needs it.

We've managed to avoid any supermarket trips since we've been in lockdown by sharing a friends shopping delivery. We've got a delivery booked for the 6th April - I'm hoping we won't need to go out before then.

I'd only go if absolutely desperate, not just for a few missed bits

It's a balance between not going out more than you need to and not buying more than you need.

It's important to only buy what you need, but with large families or buying for others who are vulnerable or self isolating that means going out more and shouldn't be criticised.

We are going to the corner shop twice a week for milk and eggs but haven't had to go to the supermarket. I don't have the room to store a lot of milk so we have no choice. We are OK for meals at the moment and are going to use the corner shop, butchers and greengrocers as much as possible to avoid the supermarket.

@Stellaris22 I managed to get bread flour but couldn't get yeast. We already have some but I'm hoping to get some before we run out.

Our main limiting factor is storage space- not everyone has multiple fridges and freezers. Our 'normal' fridge freezer doesn't fit food for a week for a family of four. Luckily we got a second fridge for the bar last year. So it's perfectly possible that people would need to go for milk etc after a few days as they can't store it.

@PinkSparklyPussyCat I have yeast but no strong bread flour! I have rye flour but it needs mixing with normal flour.

A standard sized fridge freezer can hold all the fresh food needed for a family of 4 for a week. Fair enough if people have just a tiny one.

But in that situation they need to think about what is "essential". It isn't essential to always have milk and bread in the house.

It isn't essential to go to the shops for bread alone

I've managed to get an Asda click and collect slot for Tuesday and I'm buying everything I think I could possible need or want for at least 2 weeks as I do not want to have to go near a shop in the meantime. It's a biggie too as we are a household of 5 including 3 adults and 2 teens.

Milk freezes well. Also buying two loaves and freezing one. Hoping to avoid shopping more than once a week.