Who doesn't have a stock cupboard

PipneyJane

heavenleigh wrote: »

Of course there will be pics, this is my special little project for the summer holidays (poor kids)
Only problem is i will buy the things tomorrow but oh (who works in construction) will probably take 6 months to put them up!

Yes, but they'll never come down again. Ever. And they'll be milimetre perfect.:)

(I work in the construction industry.:beer:)

Rummer

The one thing I am reluctant to stock is our freezer. Twice we have lost everything in it, the first time was due to my DD leaving the door open which was an accident and the second was when the freezer died.

Both times I have lost a lot of food and as such a lot of money so I am reluctant to pack it to bursting although I do keep a selection of woopsies, bread and ice-cream.

In our case it makes me feel calm and organised and I like knowing that for a huge variety of recipes I have the herbs, spices and other basic ingredients ready to hand.

heavenleigh

PipneyJane wrote: »

Yes, but they'll never come down again. Ever. And they'll be milimetre perfect.:)

(I work in the construction industry.:beer:)

Lol made me chuckle, true but soooooo annoying :0):rotfl:

emweaver

PipneyJane wrote: »

And what would happen if you were one of the unlucky people caught up in the NatWest banking fiasco last month? Would you starve until the bank gave you some cash? Rely on your credit card?

Even though I do not have an account with RBS/NatWest/Ulster Bank, this was a very real scenario for me last month, since my employer banks with NatWest and our payroll was due to be processed about 3 days after the problems were first announced. Fortunately for me and my 6000+ UK-based colleagues, it went through. However, I did have to consider the prospect of paying a mortgage and a month's worth of bills when there was no cash in my bank account.:eek:




I think you are missing the point, somewhat. The basis of a "stock cupboard" is a well stocked pantry, filled with foods you like to eat but with enough wriggle room that you can take advantage of discounts and sales to stock up when you see them, thus saving you money. It also enables you to not have to shop every week, thus saving you time. If the world goes to hell in a handcart it means you've got suppllies you can eat, but that is a side issue. If you don't use it, don't buy it.

Approximately 90% of my recipes start the same way (fry onion with garlic) and a good 60% follow that up with "add chopped tomatoes" but we're unlikely to repeat a meal more than once every 4-6 weeks. The rest are either roasts or cake.

I have a well stocked "pantry". It includes flour, pasta, rice, cheese (in freezer), meat (in freezer), fish (in freezer), dried beans/lentils (some cooked and frozen) and cans of tomatoes, tuna, salmon and mackerel. What it means is that if I fancy pasties, I have the ingredients handy to whip up the pastry and some filling without having to dash to the shops. Or if we have unexpected guests drop in around tea time, I can turn out a batch of scones (thank heaven for food processors). Or when the first batch of chocolate brownies that were baked on Sunday for my birthday turned out too soft to take to work I could whip up a second batch when I found out at 10pm because I had the ingredients in stock.

I was one of those people! I do not have a credit card either I borrowed money off my mil.

If we do end up in that situation again I don't think batching scones and brownies will be any useful lol

90% of your meals being cooked the same way with the same ingredients sounds very boring. We like to enjoy our food how boring eating the same thing day in day out.

heavenleigh

emweaver wrote: »

I was one of those people! I do not have a credit card either I borrowed money off my mil.

If we do end up in that situation again I don't think batching scones and brownies will be any useful lol

90% of your meals being cooked the same way with the same ingredients sounds very boring. We like to enjoy our food how boring eating the same thing day in day out.

rude, and unused to basic cooking! Get me off this thread before i say something i don't regret but wont be tolerated in public!!!!!!

bluebag

I keep a pretty well stocked cupboard because I meal plan and shop weekly, but my friend has vey little and shops daily, she hates clutter of any description and has a very minimilist home. She buys clothes in 'outfits' too.

Mine looks like a massive jumble sale all the time, so I guess maybe she has a point. Each to their own I guess, it's all what works for you.

I might try the minimal thing for a bit, I don't know if I'll like it, it may make me tidier? Ha, more chance plaiting fog!

prepareathome

We rarely eat the same meal twice in a month......yet I use my storecupboard and freezer daily.....having it all there means whatever I fancy to have that day or the next (if its something I need to defrost slowly) I always have it in be it Sunday roast on a Wednesday and meat pie(hm) on Sunday........all I buy each week is fresh fruit, veg and milk.....so some weeks I don't buy anything else others I make sure I go up when things are YS and add them to my stocks.

Hubby would eat the same thing on the same day but I hate the thought so never meal plan as such, but I check regularly what is in freezer and check I have all the things in I might use with it for any meal we want.....

For me its the store cupboard that makes it possible as can pick up YS or things on special offer, only ever what we eat I do not have anything in that we would never eat.

Popperwell

Most of us are not doing this for fun...it's because we have to and our meals are not the same daily.

The future looks very bleak from what I and others have discovered in the last day or two(often via this website)and many who are doing ok now are in for a big shock(most of what is coming has been ignored by the media or been hidden whilst the Olympics have the attention of the mass public)

I wonder if I will have a roof over my head. I am not sure I can do much less you can only cut back so far. I think all I can drop is the telephone, internet and tv license. Approx £1.25 daily. And then my only entertainment will be a radio. How boring will that be. Much as I love radio.

We have benefits being scrapped, reduced, some new increases in what you have to pay with changes to CT, HA and bedroom tax, households being whcapped on how much they are entitled to and even those who work may find they are affected in some way any saving may be very welcome even if that means having a food store of some kind.

If anyone has not had to take help from the State or can continue to avoid doing so they are very, very fortunate.

GreyQueen

I know two people who had a helluva shock on payday and it was nothing to do with the recent troubles with NatWest; they went to the bank and their salary wasn't there.

For one woman it was a screw-up with her smallish employer's payroll run and she got her money a week late. The other one's largish employer had suddenly folded with no warning. She was out of a job and she never did see that month's wages, nor did any of her colleagues.

If something like this happened to you, and you went to sign on, you'd be at least 4 weeks without any money, at the best. Possibly longer.

I also live less than 5 minutes' walk from the shop. I know they have no warehouse as I see their delivery lorry arrive 7 days a week. In truly foul weather, it may not arrive at all. Food doesn't grow in shops, it comes in on lorries, and if there is a problem with the delivery, people counting on buy-as-you-need domestic logistics will have an unpleasant surprise.

In my city, in December 2010, when central heating systems needed a part, there was a tiny wee problem; the parts were in Scotland. Several hundred miles of slippery roads which meant that a fair few people had a miserable time until the weather had improved enough for the deliveries to come in. That was nearly 2 weeks for some of them.:(

Supply chains are complicated, long and fragile. Factories in Europe struggled after the 1995 Kobe earthquake because they were relying on parts from factories in that area, which suddenly weren't working any more. It's called JIT in industy (just-in-time) and it isn't how I choose to run my domestic economy.

But your life, your business. I would be very embarrassed to have my plan for emergencies down as borrow off MIL.

PipneyJane

heavenleigh wrote: »

rude, and unused to basic cooking! Get me off this thread before i say something i don't regret but wont be tolerated in public!!!!!!

Thanks Heavenleigh. I was gobsmacked!

Off the top of my head, I can come up with a dozen recipes that start "fry onion with garlic". None of them come out of a packet and none of them taste alike:

Malaysian "Chicken Livers with Curry"
Onion quiche
Beef madras
Pad Thai
Keema curry
Chicken vindaloo
Chole paneer
Coq-au-vin
Tuna lasagne
Chilli-con-carne
Corn Pone
Beef stew

The one thing all those dishes have in common, beside onions and garlic, is that they rely on store cupboard ingredients: spices, pulses, rice, noodle, etc.