Stock up vs Use up?

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

I find reduced and BOGOFS can be my downfall instead of uplift.
All the same I would rather have the comfort and security blanket of stocked up Cupboards, Freezer, Fridge etc but need reminded Fresh is best provided I have the right way to use things up/stock food up.

BitterAndTwisted

There is no such thing as "out of date beans, lentils and the like". They are just not guaranteed to be in prime condition. Which is a million miles away from being inedible. I do not want to hear of you throwing such things away ever again.

If organisation is not your strong suit or your storage is just too cramped to remember what you've got I suggest you do what I do: a sheet of A4 paper with an inventory of what's on each shelf sellotaped to the inside of the door. As things are taken out to use or bought they are either ruled out or written down. I scan that list before I go shopping to check what I've got and to make mental lists of meals. That way I never buy stocks of things I don't need or already have too many of. That excludes tins of tomatoes as you can't have too many of them.

ragz_2

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

There is no such thing as "out of date beans, lentils and the like". They are just not guaranteed to be in prime condition. Which is a million miles away from being inedible. I do not want to hear of you throwing such things away ever again.

How dare you?! Everyone knows they mutate on midnight of the BB date and turn into inedible poisonous substances and begin emitting noxious gasses into your cupboards :eek:

I really need to get my cupbaord contents out and rotate/eat some of them. I blame approved foods though, stuff looks like such a good idea on the website, I really did want that red pepper spelt :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

My store cupboard is my best friend at this time of the year.I am like a squirrel and stock up for the winter ,or in my case that looong loooong month that comes after Christmas.I have only been to buy really essential stuff three times since Christmas Eve (milk,bread,fresh fruit and veg) and the rest of my food comes from my cupboards and freezer.This means that so far out of my £100.00 budget for January I have only spent about a quarter of it so by the end of the month hopefully two thirds of my cash will go into my Holiday Fund .I am munching my way through stuff I bought last year with no problem at all and staying out of supermarkets.Its great because I find I can be a lot more inventive with what I have in store.Yesterday I sprinkled some paprika into my tuna ,sweetcorn and mayo salad and it gave it a nice 'kick' which was better than a slightly bland flavour that you sometimes get with tuna.There's enough left over for a filling for a jacket spud today.I too list on the inside of my cupboards whats in there and on the outside of the freezer as well and cross off as used.Nothing gets binned in my house unless its totally inedible .I grew up in an era of the post-war 1940s-50s where it was almost a crime to throw food away and we certainly never had a 'nanny state society' telling us to chuck things out because of a date stamped on anything.Bearing in mind in those days we didn't have the refrigeration,freezers or abilities to store food as well as we do now so one would think less food got binned today than 50 years ago but it seems that the opposite is the norm.

3v3

JackieO wrote: »

.... .I grew up in an era of the post-war 1940s-50s where it was almost a crime to throw food away.

Nothing "almost" about it: it was a criminal offence.

Wasting food during rationing a criminal offence

Archibald Brown was fined £4, plus £6 costs, for wasting butter, margarine, cheese, lard, bread, bacon, pickles and preserved plums

HelenYorkshire

ragz wrote: »

begin emitting noxious gasses into your cupboards :eek:

They only do that if I eat them :eek:

I don't actually have a lot of dried or tinned stuff, so it's easy for me to rotate (or more likely use up hen panic).
However that'll have to change once I start drying or preserving my own garden produce etc.

Spices are a different matter - is tahini dated 2010 too old to use...?

Perhaps i would be more organised if I were catering for other people (I probably wouldn't feed them mystery freezer meals....)

mumsiemum

ragz wrote: »

I really did want that red pepper spelt :rotfl:

I've got loads of that too :rotfl:

Ive been doing the January grocery challenge and am using the money saved to start building up my store cupboard (Thanks AF!)

I love the idea that we have that to fall back on if we suddenly found ourselves short of money. I like the idea of stocking up for January (post Christmas spending) It would take the pressure off the old purse after the festive excesses!

MM

[Deleted User]

3v3 wrote: »

Nothing "almost" about it: it was a criminal offence.

Wasting food during rationing a criminal offence

Archibald Brown was fined £4, plus £6 costs, for wasting butter, margarine, cheese, lard, bread, bacon, pickles and preserved plums

he must have been mad My Mother would have skinned him alive :)

BitterAndTwisted

HelenYorkshire wrote: »

Spices are a different matter - is tahini dated 2010 too old to use...?

I work on the premise that if there's no visible mould then it's still good to eat. I would have thought that the oil in tahini would have acted as a preservative.

D&DD

ooh did someone mention red pepper spelt??? I have a few of those too maybe we should start a support group to use them all up

I just can't get below a certain healthy amount in my cupboards I'd be a nervous wreck.

I rotate religiously and use what I store/store what we eat tbh I only had to chuck one tin last year which I didn't realise had a tiny puncture in it.

Stems from being so skint when we lost our home in the last recession and back then there wasn't any tax credits etc we were literally living hand to mouth with 2 small kids to feed so I swore never again to be in that position.

I buy on a sale cycle (only ever buy stuff when its reduced or on special offer) and have enough 'stock' to be able to hold out for the reductions.