A ridiculous amount of food in my cupboards

[Deleted User]

Pre-war_babe_33 wrote: »

Why do you want all that stuff?" "Well we might have a harsh winter.".

I can relate to the whole of your post pre war babe. I honestly thought I would start to run some stocks down but then had whispers (joe batardi) that winter would again be terrible, like in 2010. In 2010 we were stranded for 6 whole weeks, no shop for miles and all lanes out of the village are very steep and were dangerously slippy. We ate well during the whole time, although I had to be very imaginative with our food. I have dehydrated lots more food this year so have even more stashed away

I did a sort out of two cupboards last week and `found` 16 tins of condensed soup, ok sounds like too much but they help make fab pies as well as being a good base for dehydrated veg. I have around 45kg of various flours all in lock and lock airtight boxes and stashed neatly in a cold, long, airy shed which is attached to a wall. I have the usual freezer goods plus alfalfa seeds for sprouting, so can easily grow my own fresh vitamins

Not forgetting the tonne of divine chocolate and bottles of hm wine. If we are snowed in for a long period again then it won`t be a grey austere time, next time boredom will be prevented via books, ds lite and a big stash of good knitting wool

bettycrumble

This is the problem I am having at the moment.

My cupboards are full of items we use for meals. I have nothing in my stocks that we don't use.

The thing is I've been panic buying recently and I have so much now. My instinct tells me to keep my stocks up but it goes against everything I know.

I'm going to run it down a little I think. I don't need 4 bags of oats for example.

I endeavour to have 2 of each item and 6 tins at anyone time. I think this is a more sensible way of working for me, even though I do stock rotate.

Does anyone else feel that food hoarding in case of emergencies is addictive behaviour?

Butterfly_Brain

I don't think that having a store of food is wrong. If either person loses their job, is ill, there is an unexpected bill, bad weather etc you will be glad of your stores. We have had to face all of these scenarios and believe me we were glad that we had some form of preparation, which included enough money for three month's mortgage and bills. Benefits can take up to three months to sort out and they are not as generous as this government would have you believe. I look on mine as my own food bank and at least I have recipes sorted that I know my family enjoys. I also keep a few treats, such as chocolate, cake making and bread making items, I can even make yoghurt and cheese from dried milk.
I also have other forms of cooking and heating, just in case we lose power, frozen food stores would not last too long if that happened.
I remember the winter of 63 ( I was 5) when we were snowed in for months, even in London 4 foot icicles hung from the windows, even the sea froze :eek:

Meadows

Pre-war_babe_33 wrote: »

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.

Until you get weevils!

A female weevil lays an egg inside a grain kernel (she can do this up to 254 times!). The egg hatches and for one to five months depending on the season, the larva lives inside and feeds on the kernel as it grows. Upon reaching adulthood, the weevil emerges from the kernel to mate – and look for new grains to invade. This process can take place inside a bag/jar.

LameWolf

I keep my cupboard and freezer well-stocked, because there are whole weeks at a time when I'm not well enough to go shopping, and I don't like asking the long-suffering Mr LW to go and get more than perishables in his lunch break.:o

I keep it under control, though, by having everything listed on an Excel spreadsheet, which I amend whenever I buy or use anything. It's on a separate sheet along with my meal plan, so easy to do. I also make sure to use things in rotation - if I buy a pack of 4 tins of tomatoes, they'll be put away behind any that are already in the cupboard, for instance.:o

The other thing is I keep an ongoing shopping list - when I identify a need, I jot it down. When there's enough on the list to be worthwhile shopping or there's something we need now, and I'm well enough, and Mr LW is available to take me, I shop. If there's anything I'm unable to get, I transcribe it onto a new piece of paper, and recycle the old list (so no carrying over things we no longer use).;)

I always reckon to be able to feed us for a month, with just perishables (such as milk, although I do have a carton of dried milk, as I use it in some recipes) coming into the house, if it were necessary.;):o

short_bird

I saw the list and thought mmm, tarka dahl! However, I was a bit concerned by the date on the salmon and personally, I wouldn't use it.

Food stocks? Nothing wrong with them. I'd get more tinned goods and jars meself, simply because if anything did go awry, I'd prefer not to go out. If the power's gone, it's 9 floors to our flat.

Thinks: need a non electrical can opener:rotfl:

floss2

OP, please print out your list, and cross things off as you use them, then you won't perpetuate the "problem"

Catwoman, I feel the same way as you - we don't have much in our store cupboards but have plenty in the freezer. We are also saving to pay off the 20% shortfall from our endowment when the mortgage is up in 2 years time, so would rather have cash in the bank than in the cupboards.

Pre-war_babe_33

Kittie - I thought I was bad enough but your hoard is even bigger than mine - how many are you feeding?

Butterfly Brain - you are the same age as my eldest! I remember the `63 winter very well as my third child was born at the beginning of that winter.

Meadows - are you trying to put me off. So far I have had no problems with weavils. I use those clippy close type boxes for lots of my stuff.

At the moment I am trying to wind down my freezers (I have two) ready for a defrosting session but it just seems impossible because I take out say, a pack of mince and then add a couple of tins of tomatoes, some veggies and lentils and cook them all up and end up with about a dozen or more servings, all in their individual boxes that I then have to cram back into the freezer. I am at the stage now that the doors are getting difficult to close. I think if this cold weather continues I will just dump everything in a large plastic box with a secure lid on and put it in the garden while I defrost at least one of the freezers. Does anyone else have this problem?

Meadows

Pre-war_babe_33 wrote: »

Meadows - are you trying to put me off. So far I have had no problems with weavils. I use those clippy close type boxes for lots of my stuff.

Not trying to put you off but rice may not keep as well as you might think and clippy closed boxes keep things out but something already in is also keep in.

bargainbetty

Pre-war_babe_33 wrote: »

At the moment I am trying to wind down my freezers (I have two) ready for a defrosting session but it just seems impossible because I take out say, a pack of mince and then add a couple of tins of tomatoes, some veggies and lentils and cook them all up and end up with about a dozen or more servings, all in their individual boxes that I then have to cram back into the freezer. I am at the stage now that the doors are getting difficult to close. I think if this cold weather continues I will just dump everything in a large plastic box with a secure lid on and put it in the garden while I defrost at least one of the freezers. Does anyone else have this problem?

Yes! I am trying to empty the freezer by cooking things. I took out a small half shoulder of lamb and put six lamb hotpot meals back in, a pack of lamb mince turned into six shepherds pies, and a pack of beef mince turned into seven large portions of chilli.

The chicken is just sitting there, mocking me.