Advice for my first home from the food experts please!

rachbc

Milk, bacon adn sausages aren't really storecupboard iteams though are they?

I am maybe not the person to ask as I have a mild food shopping addiction. But I woudl start by looking at your mums cupboards and working out what you use most from those...

but for me

pasta - a short shape and a long one
basmati rice
cous cous
red lentils

tinned toms
tinned baked beans
tinned kidney beans
tinned chick peas
tinned sweetcorn
tinned tuna

olive oil
veg oil
wine vinegar
dijon mustard
soy sauce
wostershire sauce

spices (I ahve about 40 built up over the years)

plain flour
self rasing flour
sugar

I do have tons more than this but those are basics

CompBunny

When I first moved out my big ones were:

Store Cupboard
Tinned tomatoes (Value are fine, but often good offers on brands at approx 25p/tin. You get more in the tin with plum tomatoes, but chopped are more convenient. Whichever suits you best)
Tin of kidney beans (Value are fine. Good for throwing in a chilli or stew or anything really, cheap protein)
Chickpeas - not anymore tho as my partner doesn't like them
Tinned sweetcorn (Value again! Cheap big tins. Sprinkle on pizza to bump up 5-a-day, in sandwiches, in chilli, curry, wraps even spaghetti bolognaise!)
Tin of tuna - again not anymore as I am now a vegetarian
Pasta (penne or fusilli suit most things)
Spaghetti
Tesco Value Pasta Sauce...some may disagree but I think its good value and I use it as an ingrediant in sooo many things.
Noodles (big packs or the value ones with the high-salt powder sachet discarded!)
Rice
Tinned new potatoes - value all the way!
Instant mash - not the best but fine if you are feeling extra lazy
Various tins of fruit - in juice. cheap, quick dessert, one of your 5 a day and soooo good if you are under the weather
A couple of tins of soup - good lazy lunch/can use as ingredients/sick day comfort food
Garlic powder/chopped garlic
Chilli powder
Mixed herbs
Pepper
Salt
Oregano - cos its amazing added to pizza
Plain Flour
Self raising flour
Granulated sugar
Caster and icing sugar if you bake
Corn flour
Cooking oil
Olive oil - only if you will really use it as it can be expensive
Vinegar
Balsamic vinegar

But I totally agree with the post about tailoring it to only what you will DEFINATELY use or you will simply be throwing money away :eek:

Also, invest in some storage tubs. Dosen't have to be tupperware, my local tesco were selling a pack of 8 "Tubbits" for £1.50 the other day. Store grated cheese, open tins, extra portions, sauces...pretty much anything. Can be frozen, microwaved, used in the dishwasher..and saves you a fortune in wasted food. If you don't think you can use any leftovers within a few days, freeze them!

Another thing, think of your freezer as a second store cupboard...freeze chopped onions, bulk bought cheese that you can grate and freeze, cheap fruit, reduced 10p bread, reduced veg...freeze freeze freeze!

You must be really excited!!!! Congratulations on your pending new pad, hope all goes smoothly for you

HTH!

I agree with Baandar posting below too...but if Mum is willing to help out with the initial "leaving the nest" shop then it makes sense to get in some long term useful bits and pieces that can be fallen back on at any time. Just IMO though

baandar

personally i wouldn't bother buying lots of stuff. Get a blackboard and chalk, write up your meals for the week and buy what is needed for those recipes. Your cupboards will soon fill up but atleast it will be things you are using. Saves money too.

h007

hello.
i have recently been in the exact same situation as you (scary isnt it!!) and these are the bits i have so far found i needed in my cupboard

- tinned tomatoes
- tinned kidney beans
- baked beans
- sweetcorn
- pasta
- rice
- couscous
- tomato paste
- passate
- tinned tuna
- oil
- ketchup/brown sauce/mayo
- salt and pepper
- mixed herbs


i also make sure i have eggs in as they go with anything and ommlettes are great at using up bits of veg/meat you havent got round to using etc

KME91

I cook an awful lot, and i try and keep all of the below in stock, but even with all the cooking i do i find jamie's list excessive. (And I have most of his books and love them for straightforward tasty recipes) plus it doesn't include a couple of vitals, worcester sauce for one, mint sauce and horseradish, tomato puree, some jam, peanut butter, and you only need one mustard, colemans, i go for.

you only need the baking powder and self raising flour if you're going to bake.

With spices I'd recommend buying what you need when you need, you'll build up a collection of what you need soon enough.

A couple of things I've found that I wouldn't be without now, pickled or jarred peppers, pureed garlic and pureed chilli. In the italian aisle in tesco.
so my list, as well as the above

olive oil
vegetable oil
white wine vinegar
plain flour
baking powder
granulated sugar
pasta
noodles
tinned tomatoes, tuna, kidney beans, coconut milk
rice
honey
nuts of various variteis
cream crackers
stock cubes
pesto
curry paste
soy sauce
ketchup
mayonnaise
salt & papper
nutmeg
cinnamon
oregano
bay leaves
coriander seeds
cumin seeds
chillli powder
5 spice
curry powder
paprika
frozen peas, braod beans, canned or frozen sweetcorn, pastry.
and don't forget tea and coffee if you drink it.

Base_Hunta

Try to score most of your furniture and other house items on Freecycle. That will safe you a ton of money

kittykitten

CompBunny wrote: »

Another thing, think of your freezer as a second store cupboard...freeze chopped onions, bulk bought cheese that you can grate and freeze, cheap fruit, reduced 10p bread, reduced veg...freeze freeze freeze!

I do a lot of this already, as tend to do a lot of the meals at home currently, but am really intrigued by one idea I didn't know about: can you really freeze cheese??! What do you do with frozen cheese?

kittykitten

Thanks to everyone who's given me ideas on here - really helpful!

I do quite a lot of cooking already, so know enough about my likes and dislikes to be able to pick things from the lists on here that I certainly don't need, but more importantly you lot have reminded me of quite a few things I hadn't thought about - how could I miss sweetcorn off my list? And mint sauce? etc etc.

I guess I'm just so used to working from a store cupboard that's been built up over many years, particularly with my baking (although I'm hoping to take a lot of baking ingredients with me when I go (or if I go, at the rate the solicitor is moving), as I'm the main baker in this house so it'll never get used without me!

maman

If you're used to cooking for the family, you can carry on making large recipes and freeze all the spare portions for HM ready meals. I have those flat plastic boxes from the £1 shop (like you get Chinese take-away in). They're great for single meals and stack beautifully in the freezer. I write what's in them on a piece of masking tape. When you've got a stock of meals in it will make your meal planning so much easier.