Dithering - shall I keep a store cupboard?

Ches

When I was first married in the early 60's I, like most other women at the time, had houskeeping money. I bought the exact amount of meat/veg/groceries/cleaning stuff needed for the week on a Friday and rarely shopped the rest of the week as there was very little money left over anyway so the everything had to last. I did however have quite a well stocked cupboard of tins for emergencies and ingredients for baking. Nowadays I shop for the freezer/store cupboard picking up whatever bargains I find in whatever shop I happen to visit so probably shop several times a week. I am undecided if this is actually moneysaving as I never really have to stretch food because I always have plenty in stock.
For instance in the old days Thursday was always leftover day and anything edible left in the fridge was made into a pie or a quiche. Today I always have more food left over than week to eat it in so quite the opposite. Is it really worth storing vast quantities of goods (there are 2 of us) just because they were bought cheaper? For instance I have 12 bottles of washingup liquid because I bought it when it was half price which was still a large outlay in one go when to buy 1 bottle a week/fortnight wouldn't be noticed. I have done the same with most other things I use regularly and do wonder if this is really OS.

Rummer

I try to only shop once a month for the bigger things and then top up from local shops once a week. I do look in the bargain area but only on that monthly shop so I just have what I need. When it comes down to it though you just have to do whatever suits you and your circumstances.

[Deleted User]

Ches like you I also was married in the early 1960s and a leg of lamb at 17/6d did almost 6 days I well remember Thursdays as being 'Oh my God what can I cobble together for dinner tonight' I remember Vesta curries coming out onto the market and buying one and making it streeetch with boiled rice and chips:D .My late husband said the box it was in probably tasted better than the stuff itself:eek: I never bought one again.
In those days curries were considered quite exotic, and it wasn't as easy to buy the herbs and spices that you can get today.I used to make odds & s%ds pie which was a pastry case with almost anythging in it ,a left over sausage a bit of mash grated cheese a chopped up onion.A rasher of crispy bacon ,,virtually anything would go into my open pastry case and bunged into the oven as long as it was savoury any left over was put into my husbands packed lunchbox on Friday morning.
Although most of the time we were stoney broke with two small children living in a flat with no hot running water and a shared toilet with two other families we were happy enough as everyone of my friends were in the same boat.True we never did a big shop as
A. there wasn't enough money to buy it
B. there wasn't enough room to store it
C. I did my shop once a week on a Tuesday as it was family allowance day and only bought the joint for the weekend on a Saturday afternoon ,usually quite late as the butcher would knock down the price a bit
I was a canny shopper even in those far off days .Today, I also ,like you, sometimes forget and buy stuff because its a good price but over the past year I have been 'working down' my stock of food and cleaning stuff as I had a light bulb nmoment and realised it was just cold hard cash sitting in my cupboards.I still have a 'store cupboard' but no where near as full as it used to be.In these cash strapped times its better to make do and mend if possible and streetch your food and cleaning stuff as far as possible its like going back nearly 50 years or living as my late Mum did when ratiioning was on and just having enough to cover your needs.I still have a small stash of tinned stuff though I just can't get out of that habit .My DDs often say 'do you ever eat those tins of sardines/pichards in the cupboard Mum' and the answear is yeas when they get near to their best by date then they get eaten and replaced as 'you never know when you might need them ' :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

tori.k

its odd this thread just come up, as ive challenged my mum to run her store down i think she still shops for five even tho we all long flew the coup, she run's 2 fridge/freezers and her weekly shopping bill for 2 is nigh on the same as mine for 5, i think she shops because she's bored, she says she shop's because you never know...well we know she has enough washing up liquid for the next 2 years her hording has come in handy at times tho, when my brother was in uni he'd turn up bag in hand to do his weekly shop at mothers

greenbee

tori.k wrote: »

... her hording has come in handy at times tho, when my brother was in uni he'd turn up bag in hand to do his weekly shop at mothers

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

grandmasam

Oooh yes, i do that too!! Married in the 60's to a farmer so couldn't get to town every week and with 4 children [3 boys!!] quickly learnt to do cheap and filling meals for them,except the boxes of jelly were often empty as the little darlings would divide the cubes up and eat them!! and put the empty boxes back.:eek: Now on my own i had an LBM a couple of months ago as i had to run down the fridge and freezer due to being away for 6 wks. I spent very little up to travelling [see sig] and i've resolved to stop this buying for a large family when theres only me now.Should follow Weezl's thread as this may work for me.

I still have a lot of tinned stuff and dried in the pantry [yes, i've got one!]and fresh in the garden , i hope ,when i get home next week. However, i will cut my shopping for food habit, drastically, because thats what it's become. I must find a goal to save for otherwise i shall slip back and store [hoard] food again.Now i confess, i have enough toilet rolls for the next 2 years, stored under the bed. :o

caz

natc

grandmasam wrote: »

.Now i confess, i have enough toilet rolls for the next 2 years, stored under the bed. :o

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:My mum has aswell, makes me laugh!!!

This is a good thread. Im only 25yrs (!!!) so have not gone through the rationing and the like, but even when i was a kid, mum didnt work, just dad, back in the 80's (!!!) things were still hard, and had to make do for things. Seems like the last 15 - 20 yrs, ppl have gone mad and started hoarding food/cleaning stuff, just because they can afford it!

My mum buys absolutely loads every week for a family of 6, there is only her, my dad, and 13yr bro at home now. Its like what Jackie said, all that food in cupboards and freezers is cold cash, and usually my mum has to throw loads away! What a waste. Me and OH have looked at our shopping habits over the last 6 months, we used to shop at supermarket every week, now we shop at butcher and grocers weekley and get all the dry/tinned stuff one a month. we dont throw hardly anything away, there is always something we can cobble together! And another thing, theres not half as much rubbish, all the fruit/veg/meat from the super comes in plastic packaging, no more of that now too :j

ivyleaf

Interesting thread!

I do sometimes buy much more than I immediately need of something when it's on special offer (the latest being 2 packs of "100% extra free" dishwashing tablets at Lidl the other week) and I really haven't anywhere to put them away! - they're on a corner of the worktop )My neighbour came in last week to fill her flasks when we had a power cut (we have a gas cooker so were boiling water on saucepans) and she commented that she has now started buying a new one of something only when the old one has run out as she was fed up with having nowhere to put things. Trouble is, it's so tempting to buy extra when something we use regularly is on offer

morganlefay

Thanks for this Ches,you and the others on here are right, and I hadn't realised what I was doing. I married in 70s and am a dreadful hoarder. I've got cupboards and baskets of stuff which I occasionally cull, and now there are only two of us at home who's going to eat it all ? My new goal is to go through all cupboards and eat or chuck stuff in them - my other failing is keeping things 'for best' till they go off and then I have to chuck them. So we're going to eat all the special things I've been hoarding (I think 'Ready Steady Cook has been a bit of an inspiration !) and then I'm going to try to buy less, cook less, eat less and have a lot of lovely space in the house - currently occupied by rusting tins of out-of-date things etc.
Thanks !:T

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

tori.k wrote: »

her hording has come in handy at times tho, when my brother was in uni he'd turn up bag in hand to do his weekly shop at mothers

Same happens in our house my daughters and grand-daughter all come to "my shop"as they call it.
My husband has the irritating habit of giving out things,someone just has to mention having to pop to the shop for whatever and he'll say" oh we'll have some of that I'll get it for you",sometimes I feel like a charity.
I guess realy I don't need half or more of what I've got but being brought up when I was I think it's my survival instinct telling me to hoard.
God knows why,but I just have to follow it.:rotfl:

mizzbiz

We are in our twenties and still hoard stuff - don't know why as our house is tiny and we have hardly any room. We always have tinned sardines and pasta in, but if we've run out of 'nice' food, rather than eat the stocks we are holding, we say we fancy something else and go down to the Tesco Express to spend mega bucks on something else. This is wrong, wrong wrong, especially as i'm now unemployed and trying to see things in a different way.

Thanks to this thread, i'm going to squeeze as many meals out of what we have as possible and not spend until neccessary :-)