How long could you last without going food shopping?

alfiesmum

I've been reading through various threads on other sections over the past few days. They involve the person having no money (bank emptied my account / benefits didn't pay this week), that sort of thing. And the poster will claim not to have a single thing to feed the family, and they're desperate for food.

It got me thinking, if I had not a single penny to buy food, how long would my cupboard take me. I have three of us to feed, I don't have huge mountains of surplus, but I still reckon I could make it stretch a couple of weeks, ten days at least.

I'm not saying it would be appealing. Pasta, with tinned tomatoes. That Christmas pudding that nobody wanted by the time the Queens speech has been on, but we'd survive. Are these people being over dramatic, to add to their plight, or do some folks genuinely only have in the house, exactly the amount they know they'll eat this week alone?

So how long would your cupboards last you?

System

i reckon at a push a week but only because ive been running everything down to clean/defrost

frugal_shopper_2

alfiesmum wrote: »

, I don't have huge mountains of surplus, but I still reckon I could make it stretch a couple of weeks, ten days at least.

I do have plenty of surplus, last winter when nobody could get out for a couple of weeks due to the waist deep snow here I almost ran out of coffee (since that happened I have bought a load so now have enough to last months) but other than that I barely made a dent in the food that is around & I was making bread daily for most people living in the street & providing them with anything else they were short of.
I could survive for several months without food shopping if I had to, the only things that would be a problem are milk & butter because powdered milk is not the same & there isn't a good alternative to butter which stores well.

bigchef37

I'm a larder hoarder - I could probably feed my family of 5 for about 2 months! Although with the portion sizes given in the Sainsburys £50 thing I might be able to stretch it to 3 months!

Living in the middle of nowhere (nearest shop is 4 miles) I always keep a few cartons of UHT milk in the larder - its better than powdered and you can use it for cooking. Butter can be frozen by the way.

raphanius

i'm a hoarder so i could probably feed my family for a month at least. i have combo of raw ingredients, hm meals and misc veggies and soups in the freezers. i would have to get bread, milk, eggs, butter and perhaps the odd fresh item to convert raw ingredients into meals. i always keep a well stocked cupboard aswell so i have carbs in the form of rice, couscous and pasta plus a good stock of baking ingredients.

VfM4meplse

I think it would take me a good 3 months to run down my freezer and storecupboard, I'm just buying fresh fruit and veg atm in order to do just that!

(Just drinks and condiments in the fridge).

candygirl

Only a week:o:oat the most:eek::eek:

asparagusnextleft

I think we'd be fine for a couple of weeks. When we were up to our necks in snow last December, we didn't panic as we have well stocked cupboards and freezers and knew we wouldn't starve. I always keep plenty of tins in, in case of emergency!

My mum has always kept a lot of food in, I get it from her!

Middy

I could survive for about 12 days. Have 2 litres of LL milk. Though after day 8, I will run out on F&V - fresh, tinned and frozen.

After that - it will be rice and pasta.

CompBunny

Hmm....at a push, two weeks for the two of us? We are living with my mother at the moment so have limited cupboard/freezer space so have to shop fairly wisely as to what we will use and eat! Which has unfortunately at times got me into the habit of buying daily...

How do you guys manage regarding fresh foods in emergency situations? Or has it just been a case of "do without!"?

Squeezie

It's partly dependant on your income, surely? If you have a bit of spare cash, then it's easy to take advantage of special offers and stock up the freezer etc.
But if you are on a low income, you're more likely just to buy what you need because you can't afford to do a big shop and stock up. So, when it's gone, it's gone.

I've just had a big shop (and Approved Food order) delivered, so we could last a month or so, though it would get very dull towards the end! In reality, we'll do another big shop in a fortnight.