Who doesn't have a stock cupboard

grandma247

Fuddle we did not have a store cupboard at home when I was a child because we lived abroad and food was easy to come by then but when I was in my mid teens and my mother had married my stepfather we did have a store because my stepfather insisted. Well done you for learning all these things. I home ed and I have said for a long time children need to learn how to be versatile and think outside the box not just be able to tick boxes in a test. As for the BOB bag think about what possible reasons there might be for you to have to evacuate such as do you live in a low lying area? You may only need to leave in very extreme circumstances so you may have time to pack it there and then if you have everything to hand. It is always wise to know where important documents are anyway..

Bb My experience of domestic science was similar to yours. It is what is badly needed now. This area is poor but people buy ready made food and junk for their kids because they have no idea how to cook from scratch. You would not believe how many take aways there are. They are almost on every street corner.

Pah I was sceptical too about that post. It smacks of a lazy journalist to me. Your list of tins would be an absolute emergency kind of thing and not for long term i agree.

I put this on the make do thread but will put it here for anyone who does not follow it. Ramadan is set to end around 19th August and that is a great time to buy bargains of staple foods from your local Asian shops if you have them.

adelight there are rules about living in a caravan on touring sites. You have to move somewhere else after 28days I can't remember how long for though. Thanks also for the info about the inhalers.

Cat501

I'd also like to thank adelight for the inhaler information. Very useful especially for those in England paying prescription charges (ASDA are selling them at 2 for £7), but also useful to everyone else for minor emergencies - the panic of realising you've inadvertantly almost run out is enough to bring on an attack

eta just read they will sell two at a time, and no more often than once every 8 weeks to each customer

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18936197

prepareathome

Well a good part of my meal tonight is out of the store cupboard as last week was checking what I had and found a few tins had got dented - so put them to one side to use. Tin tomatoes, potatoes, vegetable soup and carrots ( also some chicken roll and tongue but not touched them yet) so have thrown all these in a casserole dish ( after carefully smelling and checking the inside of the tin by emptying them into a bowl first) along with some beef sausages so that is tonight's meal I just added an onion didn't bother with seasoning as what is in the soup should be enough. I know the tins only got dented since I bought them as I never buy tins that are not perfect so if you don't hear from me you know they got me, but all seems fine. Its the chicken and tongue ones I am not so sure of.

I have also for first time done an AF order as not getting out so often at moment to do shopping so thought with them doing free delivery I will buy some bits and bobs - £42, but all stuff that will go mainly into store cupboard as its things like cous cous, rice, vermicelli, pasta. olives, gherkins, soups all of which I do have in oh and a few of the pies GQ loves as I only have 2 left.

Anyone any idea if you can free tomato pur!e - its I have bought a few of the 850g tins but will never use that in one meal, I usually use the 142g tins as this is just the right amount for us - I know I could bulk cook and freeze if I must but just wondered if it on its own could be frozen - ice cube trays might be an good way.......anyone tried it.......will go and dig out my freezer book and see if it says anything in it.

Thanks for the info about the inhaler will pick up couple then if I forget to ask doctor its not such a big deal - will make sure I put a label on them as to when I got them so I know when I can buy more.

adelight

grandma247 wrote: »

adelight there are rules about living in a caravan on touring sites. You have to move somewhere else after 28days I can't remember how long for though. Thanks also for the info about the inhalers.

It's possible to just move from site to site every 28 days but I would rather have a seasonal pitch and spend the required days away from site as I would if I had a mon-fri rental anyway. I think if you have no dependents, few possessions and plenty of friends/family you can visit then it's doable. It's quickly becoming my 2013 plan so I will make it work

If anyone can't find what they want on AF www.naturallygoodfood.co.uk and www.blueplanetwholefoods.com sell beans, pulses, grains in bulk for reasonable prices, some less than the supermarkets. Sorry I just love stock cupboards and am a bit nutty about being ready for anything.

fester

Confuzzled wrote: »

i was wondering if anyone on here had recommendations for a vacuum sealer?

i'll need one that can stand up to regular use and i would prefer one if possible that will take any kind of food grade safe bag you throw at it (there are some bags that have some sort of special texture on them and some are just the same solid plastic) also if possible maybe one that will deal with mylar

any ideas? suggestions, hints?

also if anyone knows of a cheap source of the bags i'd be very appreciative thank you

I bought one a couple of weeks ago and it seems pretty good so far, though it may be more than you wish to pay - Foodseala AVS550.

It is one of the few which can seal to -0.8 bar, which keeps food for longer.

As for the bags, well the normal type vacuum sealer needs the bags with the patterns inside to allow it to extract the air, otherwise it will give up and just seal the bag.

There are ways of using ordinary food grade bags but using straws or crumpling the edges so they allow air in. The heating element them melts all the plastic and seals it up. There is a long thread on here called Vacuum sealers for food - money-saving or not? which discusses them (can't link as new user)

quintwins

there are lots of sites which allow you to live there full time for 10 months of the year, personally thats not for me the only way i'd live in a static longer term was if i was building, we acually were looking at buying one for a few years time and decided the site fee's weren't worth it, hubby didn't want to rent it out and have people around our stuff for how often we'd use it given the weather here the site fee's would get us a good maybe 5-6 weekends in a fancy hotel inlcuding breakfast.

Popperwell

adelight wrote: »

It's possible to just move from site to site every 28 days but I would rather have a seasonal pitch and spend the required days away from site as I would if I had a mon-fri rental anyway. I think if you have no dependents, few possessions and plenty of friends/family you can visit then it's doable. It's quickly becoming my 2013 plan so I will make it work

If anyone can't find what they want on AF www.naturallygoodfood.co.uk and www.blueplanetwholefoods.com sell beans, pulses, grains in bulk for reasonable prices, some less than the supermarkets. Sorry I just love stock cupboards and am a bit nutty about being ready for anything.

Could not get the second link to work but found my way there quite quickly, thanks for the information...

Butterfly_Brain

I picked up some seeds in Aldi today all reduced to 15p a packet, I managed to get 3 cabbage 3 parsnip 2 parsley and 2 leek not bad for £1.50

Confuzzled

fester wrote: »

I bought one a couple of weeks ago and it seems pretty good so far, though it may be more than you wish to pay - Foodseala AVS550.

It is one of the few which can seal to -0.8 bar, which keeps food for longer.

As for the bags, well the normal type vacuum sealer needs the bags with the patterns inside to allow it to extract the air, otherwise it will give up and just seal the bag.

There are ways of using ordinary food grade bags but using straws or crumpling the edges so they allow air in. The heating element them melts all the plastic and seals it up. There is a long thread on here called Vacuum sealers for food - money-saving or not? which discusses them (can't link as new user)

thanks so much for that, i've seen something quite similar looking on ebay i'll have to see if they are the same, it's showing up at nearly £90 on amazon so a bit over what i was wanting to spend but i'll have a read through of that thread before i make my decision, oh and i found it so i'll leave the link here for anyone else that might like a nosey too https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/265376

cheers :T

fester

Confuzzled wrote: »

thanks so much for that, i've seen something quite similar looking on ebay i'll have to see if they are the same, it's showing up at nearly £90 on amazon so a bit over what i was wanting to spend but i'll have a read through of that thread before i make my decision, oh and i found it so i'll leave the link here for anyone else that might like a nosey too

cheers :T

Ta.

Am I allowed to link yet? Well we'll see -

- oops, no I'm not ! - but if you google "lava practical guide vacuum packing" then it will probably be top of he list.

That is an ebook I found very useful (it is mentioned in that thread you gave the link for I think). A booklet all about vacuum packing stuff.

It was written by a firm who sell an expensive range of German machines - but applies to all vacuum packers.