What do you regret buying in your prep stash and lessons learned.

[RusticaRubra]

I regret buying tinned stuff. I don't have loads but probably have about 20 tins of beans, soup, veg and fruit. We will get through it but the family are all cats bum face about it. Tinned toms and Devon custard - yes, other tins just no. I won't do this again. Next time my focus will be on having external delivery supply chains of fresh fruit and veg if I can't get to the supermarket.

If there is a next time, I will cook and freeze.

What do you regret buying in your prep stash and lessons learned.

We didn't get to the tinned soups, but they've still got plenty of mileage left before they are out of date. Ditto the tinned carrots and potatoes. We also have more tuna left than I thought.

The things I'm really grateful we stocked up on are coffee and tea. I normally buy only when they are on offer, and full price is eye watering. Having said that, I have about 2.5 months of cheap coffee to go!

Tinned ready-meals. We donated them to food banks but I will never listen to DH again when he says that he loves spaghetti hoops - he clearly doesn't.

We have more UHT than we need. I actually use less of it than I usually would. We keep buying two 4-pint bottles of fresh milk everytime we are in the shops to avoid running out (usually we get only one) so all the things I usually use UHT for (baking, pancakes, naan,...) I now use fresh milk for.

My plain flour to bread flour ratio was off. We have plenty of plain flour left but no bread flour. It will get used eventually but the space could have been used better.

I bought a large bag of plain flour because I couldn't get my usually tiny bag (we don't use a lot of flour) I've stored it in an air tight container in the pantry so it'll last but I was struggling to get baking powder for when I need self raising (I find just buying plain and adding baking powder as and when works absolutely fine) I managed to get some sachets and have managed, but it's on my list of things to always check for when I go shopping along with macaroni. We'll go to Costco eventually and hopefully be able to buy a bigger pack.

I don't regret anything I bought as it kept us going in first 3 weeks of lockdown when I could not get a delivery slot. I bought long life milk, tins, pasta, toilet rolls, shampoo and hand wash as w ell as frozen food and was so grateful for it. I am keeping stocked up just in case of anything else on the way. Next time I would stock yeast and strong flour.

I'd get more cereal, kids being at home 24/7 and snacking on it meant we flew through it.

The easy-yo yoghurt maker has been a life saver.

Crisps didn't last two minutes and take up so much room, I'll just be getting microwave popcorn next time as it's a space saver and very popular.

DH ordered pot noodles and didn't eat them. Apparently not as nice as he remembered.

Popcorn kernels last year's, very little room for storage too. Easy to cook.

We've been very fortunate in that at covid didn't get a hold here like they anticipated so aside from initial shortages due to panic buying everything was/is now relatively accessible and going to supermarkets never became an orderal.
I don't regret many of my preps but I did buy a few cans of rice pudding....I've never eaten it and doubt I will (texture is not my fancy). dH might now eat for breakfast now that it's cold (southern hemi)
Should have bought more cake mixes (I'm a lazy baker) as the cheaper brands still aren't back on shelf - my only bugbear.

I don’t regret buying anything. But we only bought extras of what we would usually buy

I will buy more yeast and flour Shampoo and conditioner and craft stuff for kids

Nothing
I used my tinned potatoes in casseroles and made speedy potato salad with them and they were fine
Used a lot of the soups as cheat risotto bases
Always use tinned.toms etc
I even used the instant mash!

My only regrets are buying too many treats and also running down my stocks just before lockdown.

I'm tempted to use up everything again now, but with the possibility of a second peak it feels too risky.

I regret not getting a chest freezer and filling it with stuff from M&S, like their lasagne. I’m shielding so everything is delivered, but I’m missing M&S. We’ve still got a lot of soups but I need to restock flour and things like arborio rice. I had good Brexit stores and I’ve previously had chemo so I stocked up for that. I was amazed at how fast things got depleted once lockdown got going though. Thanks Bellini, your advice on previous threads was brilliant.

I don’t regret anything I bought but I regret not doing better date checking and stock rotation. A few things we had stashed from early last year (cous cous, pasta, cereal bars) we will not use as we are now trying to eat low carb wherever possible, but some have now gone out of date so the food bank can’t use them.

Maybe friends would take them? Or would you eat them in an emergency? Pasta lasts years.

To use up tinned potatoes

Tinned potatoes are a delicacy fried , ideally in a mix of lard and butter until there are crispy edges. Beat a few eggs in a cup and pour over the potatoes. Turn the heat down low and draw the cooked egg in to make space for the uncooked egg to come in contact with the heat.

Salt & pepper and a scatter of parsley.

Start with lardons or a few rashers of bacon fried over a gentle heat until the fat runs for high days and feast days.

I have moved to home deliveries so get loo roll, cat food, washing powder, razors and meat all delivered.
My stash with winter coming is paracetamol, cough sweets, lemsips, candles, nightlights, matches, LED lanterns.
Rice, lentils, flour, pasta all standard, along with tins toms, sweet corn, beans, tuna and pasta sauce.
Also have spare washing up liquid, teabags, coffee, caster sugar, honey
I don’t have much room so this is about the most I can do

Normally wouldn't give my kids UHT milk to drink but my DC love milk so if I was running short of fresh I would pop a little in the glass to make the fresh last a little longer, they never suspected

I have been glad of most of my stash, especially loo roll, tinned fruit, corned beef, other tinned meat, flour, yeast and tomatoes. The Smooze coconut and fruit smoothie lolly things have been lovely, ice pops too and jellies.
Stuff I’ve given away, tinned pies, and dried milk, the latter because the food bank said they were desperate and I prefer uht anyway.
I’ve yet to use my tinned potatoes but will likely fry or deep fry them. I’ve lots of instant mash it’s not bad so will try to get it eaten. Fortunately DP is not fussy.
I’m never going to buy so much evaporated milk, in big tins. I’m using it up for pancakes and scones, but I don’t like it as a sub for cream.

The only thing I regret is buying some tinned lentil soup in multiples that I hadn't 'taste tested' before doing so. My normal policy is buy one tin and try it out before buying more. I didn't and it turns out the stuff is disgusting. Still, DP is quite good at eating things with extra sauces added, he says he doesn't notice!

I discovered it became nearly impossible to get gluten free pasta as it just vanished off the online shelves. I have since ditched GF and the world didn't end, but lesson learned. Never take anything for granted.

Found it's essential to keep records of foods and locations. Now have number coded shelving with a database of foods to go with. This saves time in the long run and would help immensely I go sick and DP has to find where I stashed stuff.

Tinned potatoes are great in a lentil curry.

Oh and don't take your eyes off the coffee stash. I did and ran out!

Ah yes, the importance of the coffee stash!! That has just reminded me to get some more of the decent coffee as we're practically out again - I just ordered a 250g bag of ground and a 1kg bag of beans (we have a grinder) from Cloud Picker. (As DH will only accept a limited amount of "ordinary" grounds, like Bewleys or Starbucks).

I need to go a Nespresso order very soon also, but I'll be in the city this week one day and returning clothes to M&S across the street so will go in person. As I think DH would have kittens if I took up their current offer (essentially 7 sleeves free if I order 25 - but that would take us months to use up and my preferred decaf is not available at the moment). Although, I could see if DM needs some too, and DMIL, as we are visiting both in 2 weeks...hmmm,....

I have no instant coffee in the stash!

DH has a few bags of ground but I'm not keen on it. I've recently lost my love of tea (apart from maybe one cup of assam every now & then) but now really like millicano instant. Might have to brave B&M as it's usually about £2.50 there.

Well I ordered a large bag of coffee beans and a small bag of already ground coffee online on Monday to replenish the stash (we had ordinary but no nice coffee left). But didn't tell the household.

Tuesday, DH brought DD to an appointment and home via local deli, where he also bought a small bag of ground coffee (also nice but different to what I'd ordered).

So today when my order arrived, I had teen DD admonishing me, and telling me that I need to put all my orders on a list so they know what I have coming! It's not like it won't get used - the 2 bags of ground will be gone within 10 days, the beans will last a while as we can grind them as we need them. And we're both still at home for a long time yet!!

Not enough chocolate!!

@AnnieCartwright

I regret not having hair clippers to cut my husband and sons hair.

I finally managed to get some Remington ones for £20. Even the dog clippers were sold out!

Nothing. I didn't buy anything I won't use. I wouldn't use UHT milk by choice but it's fine for sauces and puddings.

I've got quite a lot of tinned fruit and whilst I don't usually eat it when fresh is available, I do enjoy it with evaporated milk.

I don't regret any of it, we've used it all and I've kept things topped up just incase there is a second wave