Simplifying household stock and introducing routines

Planning_ahead · 1 January 2017 at 5:52PM

I am looking at simplifying food I have at home. I get annoyed when 4 boxes of cereal are open. I believed that if I stocked up it would save money when in reality more boxes are opened.

Same with Jams and marmalade if I have 5 types they will all be open. I plan to simplify have one in the house - result it getting finished before going off, getting pushed to the back and another jar opened.

I noticed the same with biscuits get three different types of Club and everyone wants one of each, if they are all the same only one is eaten at a time. I am not saying this will be the same forever but change after a few months.

Shampoo and conditioner - my family will start new bottles because its new and different. Consistently buy one type and this problem is solved. I have been sucked into buying different ones because they are 'on offer'.

I am beginning to think that because there is so much choice we are consuming more than we need to.

maman · 1 January 2017 at 6:03PM

There are definitely savings to be made on stocking up such as BOGOF or in a shop you don't go to very often.

I have a storecupboard/overflow larder (and similar cupboard in the bathroom for toiletries) where I keep all the multiple buys. Only one of everything is in the kitchen cupboards or bathroom shelves in use at any given time.

Planning_ahead · 1 January 2017 at 6:25PM

Yes I agree keeping a stock in an overflow cupboard helps, I am going to reduce the variation in similar items.
I am finding stock I bought last year has not all been used up and is going out of date. I will use it if its a best before date however my kids will not. It would be used if I did all the cooking but they do most of their own now.

GreyQueen · 1 January 2017 at 7:52PM

I like this idea.

Much choice is actually delusion. Most conserves like jams and marmalades are only flavoured sugars, shampoos are pretty much of a muchness, with perfume and colours and additives to effect viscosity etc giving you an illusion of differences. Cereals are a load of sugary carp in most cases.

By artificially restricting availability, such as having refills under lock and key until the current item is used up, you may be able to train the household to be more efficient. Good luck!

*Jellie* · 1 January 2017 at 8:13PM

This is a great point. I think this would be helpful for me to consider. I need to get better at using things before the dates. I think simplifying would help and will start focusing on that.
I also need to be careful about overstocking 'aspirational' foods- I'm going to eat more fruit and veg and before I know it I've got 20 tins of fruit in the cupboard and tons of fresh. Unfortunately I'll fail to improve my eating habits and have tins of fruit around for ages. I've put together some questions to go through every time I spend. These will identify if I am buying things ahead of building the habit.

monnagran · 2 January 2017 at 3:27AM

I think that you have hit the proverbial nail on the proverbial head GQ. The great problem these days is the matter of the breathtaking range of choice we are presented with.
All those decisions to be made! No wonder shopping takes so long.

Take laundry. washing powder, liquid, tablets or capsules? Bio or non-bio? With conditioner or separate conditioner? Which of these 11 brands do I fancy?

Oh for the days when it was Persil, Rinso or Oxydol. Maybe a swish of Reckitts Blue if you were feeling posh and some Robin starch for the men's shirt collars.

I think that we are so dazzled by the huge advertising industry that we are worried that we might be missing out if we don't have a choice of everything at home.

Time was when if we wanted flour we only had to decide whether it was SR, Plain or Strong we wanted. Now we can, if we wish, have it laced with multitudinous herbs, spices, gluten free, taste free, extra fine, extra chunky......Oh, sorry that's marmalade.

It's all very wearing and takes up too much space in my brain, not to mention my kitchen cupboards.

I'm old and petulant and sometimes yearn for the days when you walked 20 yards to the corner shop and asked for half a pound of butter and that is what you got. In a greaseproof paper wrapper.
"You want to clean the bath madam? Certainly. Would that be Vim or Chemico?"

I'm wandering again. Cover my cage someone and I'll go back to sleep.

[Deleted User] · 2 January 2017 at 9:15AM

monnagran we are of a similar age I think

Lux flakes if needed for baby cardi's or Dreft

, far too many things in the supermarkets that were never thought of let alone bought 50 odd years ago. I can't ever imagine my Mum buying a conditioner for either her hair or the clothes. Soap was in the scullery (now there's an old fashioned word

)usually a bar of Fairy soap green and lasted for yonks .We did get some nicer soap (well my Mum did ) as my Dad was a chemist and would bring samples home from his shop that commercial travellers brought in.But Mum rarely used it on her two muddy sons and equally untidy daughter

At the most it was Lifebouy

and shampoo was Loxene or Vosene, but when things were in short supply our hair had been washed with grated up Fairy soap

.
I can even remember the first sainsbury's supermarket in Lewisham opening up and them selling eggs in boxes with only three in The were eleven pence halfpenny

. We didn't buy them as we had chickens in a coop in the garden and if they went 'off lay' she would buy her eggs at the local Express dairy as she didn't like supermarket shopping at all.The older Sainsbury's before it turned into the giant sort of ones we have today was a small one with a cheese and butter counter and when she asked for a certain amount that was what she got

she would look at the scales and say exactly the amount she needed .Mind you with rationing at the time you never got more than you asked for

Sugar came in dark blue paper cone-like things and was measured out with great care, now and again she got a box of cubed sugar ,but usually only when her 'richer-than-us-sister ' came on a visit.
My Aunt Cissy would come down from Glasgow on her yearly visit and we all had to be on our best behaviour as she was very much a 'Mrs Buckett' type of lady and had 'married well' as they say

:):)
All the best china would come out as my Mum didn't want her going back to Scotland saying anything derogatory about her.Mind you the upside of it was she always gave my brothers and I half a crown each ( a fortune to us children ) when she went home so it was worth all the extra fuss.
Life certainly was a lot more simple back then

GreyQueen · 2 January 2017 at 9:44AM

Planning_ahead wrote: »

I am beginning to think that because there is so much choice we are consuming more than we need to.

This is a profound remark.

Take cleaning products, that regular adjunct to grocery shopping. I'm a grown-up woman who has been running her own household since the early 1980s, plus I have intermittantly cleaned for a living.

In all that time, I have never ever found anything which couldn't be cleaned with one of the following cheap products; washing up liquid, basics cream cleanser, soda crystals, bicarb of soda. Very rarely, I may deploy Vanish oven cleaner, but only tends to be necessary if I've been slack with regular(ish) cleaning.

Yet go into any supermarket and its wall-to-wall cleaning products. Mr Muscle is probably now in a civil partnership with Mr Sheen, Whammo, Bammo and DeJunkit are forming a boy band, and the rest of the ASBO cleaner crowd like the Cillit Bangers are rioting in lurid containers like swaggering gangsters........

You could spend an arm and a leg over a lifetime on this carp and still have no cleaner a home than a regular low-maintenance type like me.

Multiply this level of complexity across all categories of the supermarket shop and you can see why people are getting stressed. I once made the mistake of being in a HASDA on a Saturday afternoon when it was full of nuclear families doing their weekly shop. The levels of stress, angst and actual rows between Mr and Mrs over choices with not a hair's width of difference between them in most cases, was shocking.

[Deleted User] · 2 January 2017 at 9:59AM

I agree GQ far too many unneeded and useless things on the shelves ,probably why I dislike shopping so much .This morning I shall go and buy my fresh fruit and veg and that's all I need for probably the next fortnight at least.
I have two food hampers given to me as presents over Christmas filled with stuff I would probably never think of buying,but will enjoy and use up all the same. My DDs ma-in-law bless her will always give me odd little bits and pieces in my hamper, and my DGS Danny who got married on Christmas Eve and spent his wedding night in the Shard Hotel in London brought me home some tiny jars of jam from their breakfast tray

:) He travels quite a lot with his job and any hotel he spends the night in I always get the 'goodies' from when he comes home I get shampoos'shower stuff pots of jam/honey etc

Bless him when he is in America with his job I always get pots of Concorde grape jelly which is lovely I don't eat bread anymore but I like a wee dollop of jam in a rice pudding or sometimes on a cracker with some cheese.That boy saves me a fortune as I never have to buy any jam at all and as they are only little pots they don't sit in the cupboard for months at a time

:):)

monnagran · 2 January 2017 at 10:50AM

Isn't nostalgia a wonderful thing JackieO?

I don't think any of us would want to go back to those days, there was plenty wrong with them and life was extremely hard, but those of us who lived through them yearn for the simplicity of life.

This is way off the subject of this thread, I'm good at doing that, but I was born in the late thirties so grew up during the war. We were so taken up with the matter of sheer survival that whether or not we could get our favourite brand of tea just wasn't something that concerned us. Just as well really, as the question that bothered us most was whether we could get tea at all, and if we could how we could make our miniscule ration last until the next ration was due.

But oh! my goodness, how grateful we were for every moment of pleasure. If we got a whole night in our beds without the siren summoning us to the air raid shelter, it was a matter for rejoicing. In fact just the fact that we DID wake up in the morning was enough for a prayer of thanks.
If we felt warm we were thankful, because most of the time, especially in winter, we were cold.
If the rations were extended to add some extra dried fruit for Christmas, that mouthful of mince pie or fruit cake was relished with nothing short of ecstasy.
This, my friends, was not just for the duration of a history lesson or a TV programme but for the whole of life, hour after hour, day after day, year after relentless year.

Life was basic, simple, boring, terrifying and an unending struggle. But it was all we knew and the moments of relief and comfort were cherished.

So..............when we oldies pour scorn on the public angst that accompanies any suggestion that we should tighten our belts, be grateful for what we've got, give up any of our precious choices or put up with any slight deprivation, please forgive us and try to understand why we are how we are.

Good heavens! Where did all that come from?

2017 will be the year when I try to understand that the supply of goods in the shops will not suddenly disappear and it is not necessary for me to keep stocks of things while I can still get them.

suki1964 · 2 January 2017 at 12:00PM

I think this is why I prefer to shop it lidl, very little choice

sells everything I need, without a bewildering amount of choice. One type of veg oil, one of olive oil, one of sunflower. - simples

When I was growing up the 'supermarket' was Lipton. A deli counter for eggs, bacon cheese and ham, then up one aisle and down the other to the one checkout. You only had a basket, no need for trolleys cos you only got sugar, tea, coffee, vim, washing powder , soap etc

They sold what was needed, not shelves of choice. Do we actually need comfort in 20 different scents? Do we really need 7 different brands of cheese and onion crisps?

Andrex has the biggest market share of loo paper. If that wasn't good enough ( all those different colours and thicknesses) they are now convincing people they have to buy wet wipes to be clean. :eek:

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Simplifying household stock and introducing routines

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