A ridiculous amount of food in my cupboards

Popperwell

valk_scot wrote: »

B&M and all the usual ££ shops round here sell foodstuff that's too close to the BB or Use By dates for the supermarket warehouses to accept. It's the same sort of range that Approved Foods get too. My local shops also sell some foods that have gone past their BB dates at really rock bottom prices.

Most town centres have at least one ££ shop too. We've got three in our High Street, I get cat food, toiletries and gardening stuff from them too.

Our three food shops are Herons(Freezer food shop)tesco's and soon Aldi's but to get to pounds shops, Iceland and/or B&M you have to travel elsewhere and savings can be lost if you have to add bus/taxi fares.

I think my town is large enough for some of these outlets also people need to save money on basics and we have a couple of large enough retail units they could use.

Meadows wrote: »

http://www.approvedfood.co.uk/

http://www.rosspa.co.uk/

Thank you for those links...I knew of Approved(they never seem to have utems I can use)but the other is new to me and looks interesting...I do look over the AF site regularly...

Pre-war_babe_33

There is a website "Stilltasty - your ultimate shelf-life guide" for anyone who is interested.

Apparently sugar, salt, cornflour and vinegar will keep indefinitely if properly stored. Loads of food, even the perishable stuff, can be used well after their BB or Use by dates.

flutterbyuk25

OP - I think my storecupboard is bigger than yours, and it's just me here! :rotfl:. I like a well stocked cupboard, but I do stock rotate so new stuff goes at the back. A good storecupboard helps me through months when money is needed elsewhere.

craigywv

nothing wrong with having loads in store cupboard, come to my house and i guarantee you will think your storecupboard is fine,mine is borderline hoarding! i have it under control with rotation etc but i like it and I NEED IT! as a comfort thing OH being made redundant next week so been storing for when shtf . Everyone id different my whole family are all similar loads of grub in, yet my friend only keeps what she will use in a week she has sauces etc but no stores/cupboards. so i wouldnt feel too bad about keeping food just remember to eat it as its no good opening cupboard and looking at it, maybe buy fresh f&v and bit of meat a week and use the bulk of your eatings out of your store cupboard you will see big difference in your money good luckxxx

bargainbetty

Check your other cupboards too. I am in the middle of a new food challenge due to a need to save money this month, but I did the store-cupboard and toiletries challenge too last year.

If you are embarrassed by the amount of food you have, please think about how I felt with the discovery that I as a person living alone, I had five bottles of shampoo, six of body wash, seven litres of bleach, and 36 loo rolls. And 4kg of pasta I had stashed in the hall because the food cupboard was full and it was a bargain.

Do a menu plan for the week, and be flexible about your ingredients. You'll be amazed by what you won't need to buy!

good luck

scaredy_cat

i think that as we are supposed to be in for a harsh winter then you'll love your overstocked cupboard, you can make meals without having to go out!!

i'd say to add a few cartons of uht milk. they will always be handy.

Pre-war_babe_33

Rice is another food that will keep indefinitely - I recently bought a 5kg bag of Basmati rice which should last me to the end of next year and probably a bit beyond as I am the only one here to eat it. It improves with age apparently - bit like me I suppose.

Must stock up with sugar and salt soon as I am running a bit low on those - by low I mean just three bags of sugar and one of salt so want to have a year`s supply of that.

I have only got 13 tins of baked beans and 9 tins of chopped tomatoes left now plus 11 tins of condensed mushroom soup and 7 tins of condensed chicken soup. I have got 5 large tins of Spam and 3 of corned beef which should last me quite a while though as I don`t eat much of those - and yes, I do rotate my stock although I must confess that I recently found that two of my tins of chopped tomatoes where "best before Sept 2010" now how did that happen! They will be used up fairly soon though - no rush!

A friend takes me to a large supermarket about once a month to stock up so I only have to buy a few bits and bobs of the perishable stuff locally to see me through. I buy the large boxes of mushrooms and slice them up and put them in the freezer. I also get the largest cauliflower I can find and cut it into florets for the freezer. The stalky bits and leaves go into a separate bag ready for when I have enough bits and pieces of other veggies to add to them to make some lovely homemade soup.

My friends all think I am mad "Why do you want all that stuff?" "Well we might have a harsh winter." I reply, and according to the weather forecasts I am probably right.

spinningsheep

I defrosted my chest freezer today, and was dismayed to find food in the bottom that I remember having in there when we moved to this house in 2008!! So, I had to bin some manky things, but I know now I have literally enough food to last me approx 2 months. The same goes for my dry cupboards, loads of jars of sauces, pasta etc to keep me going.

Catslovelycats

This has inspired me to sort through my food cupboard. We are collecting food at church for hampers for the winter, so I can use the clear out to give some of my excess stuff to somebody that actually needs it. Thanks for your posts everyone. I live alone and it's nice to know I'm not the only one with several bottles of shampoo/cans of tomatoes etc! But now to do something about them!

catwoman73

I also get the largest cauliflower I can find and cut it into florets for the freezer.

Genuine question - why don't you just buy frozen cauliflower - I'm sure its cheaper than fresh for most of the year?I like this thread - we too have a ridiculous amount of foods in our cupboards and I would like to cut this down - just don't have the space and we have all the shops and supermarkets within a few miles, so apart from the depths of winter, there's just no need for it for us - we're lucky enough to be financially comfortable so don't need to save every last penny, although I do see the sense of buying in bulk to save money and there's lots of things that we never pay 'full price' for, but I also think there's lots of things where the 'full price' is just a comedy value IMHO, set to make the 'always can be found on special offer' price look cheap. I realised this a few years ago, especially with products like shampoo that can always be found on BOGOF if you'e not bothered about the brand. I had quite a lot of BOGOF stores (5-10 bottles each of shampoo/conditioner/shower gel etc) and I just stopped buying them and it took a couple of years to use up! I now just buy as needed and don't allow myself to have more than one spare of anything like this - this hasn't let me down and I've never had to pay 'full price' for these products since - saves a lot of room as we have one small cupboard in a very tiny bathroom.

This thread's also a bit more manageable than the thousand post thread storecupboard challenges! I'm interested in the psychology of it and also ways of finding the discipline to stop buying stuff when you have plenty in and don't need to buy more!

I like to have a sensible store cupboard of basics like flour/sugar/beans/tomatoes but would only have one bag of flour and no more than 4/6 tins of beans at a time for example.

We do use Costco for the real bargins that they sell like T-Rolls and dishwasher tabs - saves chasing the less reliably available bargins in the supermarkets - these items are under the bed as there's lots of room there.

I like to keep room in the freezer for meat, which we semi bulk buy from a farm shop and also frozen leftovers - soups, chillis etc, so don't really go RFQS hunting.

I think one of my main problems is that I really like food and can spend hours in the supermarket looking at it and thinking - I'd like to try that - I just want to try more than there's meals available LOL. I also like a really varied diet and have loads of cookbooks and notes in with what I'd like to try and recipes torn out of magazines etc. I probably have more things on the 'to try' list than I have meals left in my lifetime. However, when I decide to cook a particular dish, I will always find that, despite the storecupboard, that at least one vital ingredient is missing and will need to be bought!

Over the past couple of years I have really tried not to buy things without having a plan of how and when to use it as some things have hung around for years. I once decided I needed to make sticky toffee pudding and then saw and bought some reduced dates from tesco that were nearing their BBE date - when I finally got around to making the sticky toffee pudding (which was fabulous BTW) the dates were 4 YEARS out of date! Still tasted fine though. I've still got half that bag of dates left so might have to make the pudding again soon!