Store cupboard challenge

Penelope_Penguin

mardatha wrote: »

Things to do with one ancient banana?

Bananas going a bit black

Primrose

Mardatha - It's RSPB Birdwatch week-end . You'll probably find the blackbirds will appreciate a treat !!

rev229

We have been eating just from the store cupboard, fridge, and freezer since beginning of the year with just needing to buy milk, bread, furit and veg. I can't even explain why I need sooo much food in the house. But bulk buy from costco to save money. We haven't really made a dent in it yet because when I make a spag bol, chilli etc I then have enough for several meals which I freeze. I have a fridge freezer in the kitchen and a large fridge and freezer and store cupboards in the garage! Oh and I have enough cleaning products and toiletries to last forever!!! It like see something on offer, buy it as it may never be on offer again!! But it always is. We still have veg frozen from christmas and so much chocolate!

ZCC72

I thought I would share this tasty (made up!) recipe with you lovely people - I did a freezer raid, as I couldn't face shopping, and came up with Vegetable & Sausage bake - broccoli and cauliflower florets, tin of tomatoes and 4 sausages (browned under grill) with cheese sauce poured over, followed by a layer of spinach, topped off with mashed potato and a little sprinkling of cheese, then popped in oven at 200deg until done! Used up quite a lot of the veg that has just sat in my freezer for ages - using a pyrex casserole dish, I managed to get 6 meals out of it! It tastes absolutely gorgeous!

My next task is to use up the pitta breads I appear to have hoarded!

newlywed

Having run low on supplies last month waiting for payday - I found the bottom of my freezer

What can I do with some frozen forest fruits and frozen raspberries? I was thinking crumble but any other ideas? (I don't like cream and can't stand summer pudding!!)

Primrose

Newlywed I've got lots of forest fruits in our freezer and am slowly using them up in my breakfast porridge. I fill a pudding basin full of them on a Sunday evening, leaving them in the fridge overnight to defrost. Every morning I scoop out a handful and microwave them for 1 minute in another pudding basin with a sprinkling of sugar then add the porridge oats & milk and cook for three and a half minutes. Alternatively if you have either a smoothie maker or one of these mini food processors, you can throw a handful of fruit in with some oats and yoghurt to make a smoothie.

highland_fling_2

hi everyone
have been eating out of freezer and storecupboard for last month and still they look just as full as when I started. Probably because I have cooked meals, soups etc and put couple of portions back into freezer. However I know in reality I must have made a dent in the stored food. My brother says if ever the bomb drops he's coming to my house as a nuclear bunker has fewer provisions!!!
This has certainly been a lesson to me, I don't need and sadly usually don't use half of the food I buy. Hopefully this challenge will result in me becoming more disciplined in my shopping habits and only buy what I know will be used up in a reasonable time, resulting in less waste and clutter in the kitchen cupboards. This discipline is going to apply for whoopsies and special offers too, if I only buy what I can use then it will allow someone else to benefit from the bargains, afterall there will be other offers next week.

Primrose

Yes, I do agree about the stocking up of freezer and storecupboard and sometimes buying more than you need just because it's on a special offer - and then not using it up in a reasonable time. My OH does most of the shopping (his choice because we always used to argue about what was necessary and what wasn't) and he does an excellent job of keeping our storecupboard well stocked. But sometimes I think he believes he's shopping for the whole street. I had to clean out our storecupboards a while back because of a leaky tin and was appalled at the amount of old stock we had which had to be thrown away. Often it was because the cupboards were so tightly packed that we didn't know what was lurking at the back, so ended up buying duplicates. I'm desperately trying to meal plan to reduce & rotate our stock but OH then returns home with another batch of groceries looking as pleased as the cat who's bought a mouse home. I've tried to insist on a "buy nothing for a while except bread, butter & milk" even if it means using our ingenuity to use things up" but he doesn't seem to feel comfortable without the normal supply of tomatoes, mushrooms, bacon in the fridge. And he also keeps coming home with packets of salad leaves and celeriac when when we still have loads of the stuff still growing in the garden.

fedupandskint

The last 2 months I have said I'm doing this challenge only for me to stick to it for a week or so and then see something in Mr's S and T to make me think I need it and then I cave in bigstyle at this point.

So for this month I have decided to not take any money to work to stop me popping to Mr T which should be alright as I don't often call in after work.

Freezer is full to bursting as usual with cupboards full. Even have plenty to make some snacks like flapjacks and biscuilts out of as I don't want to buy these anymore. No more crisps once the last bag has gone.

When I stuck to this before for a couple of weeks I found I lost a bit of weight due to not snacking/buying choccie/crisps.

Have frozen boston baked beans in the freezer and the posts have given me ideas about what I can have them with and even prepare in advance to reheat after work.

Hopefully I can be more like this :j in a couple of weeks! Small steps to take to make change, buying food is all part of the spending money problem.

Come on, you CAN DO IT!!!!

leiela

Im trying really hard to do better and thus far i am on week 4 of the £50 a week personal shopping challenge which thus far i have managed to stick to.. yay me :j

A few weeks ago i made a full inventory of all the stuff in my cuboards it was my intention to use what i had before buying more. But tbh i keep buying more and more and my cuboards are getting fuller and fuller now granted alot of this new stuff is GOOD, ive bought some baking things and for the first time in my life ive started baking which my kids love and i've bought lots of things to get my on the path to OS money saving.

HELP!!!

BUT I need to make space i need to get rid of all the stuff i have, i need to stop buying things even though they are good money saving things because i lack space, argh.... i have things that have been in the cuboards for years and will undoubtedly say there for YEARS MORE if i don't work out a way of using them.

I have so many things in my cuboards i've tried making meal plans and work with what i have but i end up in a mess and overwhelmed and end up buying more stuff to use instead.

In some ways its not so bad because i am staying within budget but i really want all this stuff GONE!!! i want i nice clean slate cuboards filled with things i use not with things i look at and wonder "why the hell did i buy that??" or things that are so buried i don't even know they are there.

Any ideas how to make this all as pain free as possible???