Eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge - part two

Frogletina

mrssd wrote: »

Could I join and get some desperately needed help, please?

I retired 18 months ago and, since then my stockpiling of food has gotten out of hand. Besides a largish fridge/freezer in the kitchen, I have a concrete outbuilding which, since retiring, contains two chest freezers (one is the giant, economy size chest type; the other a smallish chest type) and the building has been fitted out with old kitchen units. The freezers are so full that I now have to stand multi-pack tins of beans and tomatoes on top to make sure the lids stay down. The cupboards are so full of stuff that I literally cannot find anything and - yet - I continue to buy

This all started when I retired and I realise that my behaviour is not normal to say the least. I think I put it down to boredom: I was certainly compensating for no longer working. In defence (is there a defence for such hoarding), I hunt out bargains and buy huge amounts. The other day, I tried to fit in 6 packs of 12 rolls of toilet paper and I could not get it in. The penny dropped: I have to use some of this stuff up. I started to sort it put and found myself in tears, as I was so overwhelmed at the task ahead. Anyway, I am persevering at sorting it all into some kind of order. So - besides the freezers, I have so far by way of food -

TINS: 56 tuna; 16 red salmon; 36 baked beans; 13 kidney beans; 9 other types of beans; 92(!) tomatoes; 24 soup (we don't eat tinned soup); 5 corned beef; 2 ham; 17 various fruits;

JARS: 16 assorted pasta sauces; 18 other cook-in sauces; 40 assorted jams and marmalades (home-made); 18 chutneys; 2 beetroot; 7 picalilli; 8 Branston pickle; a plethora of ketchups and brown sauces.

That's just for starters! There's a mountain of pasta (all shapes) and endless types of rice. Washing detergent, toilet rolls and kitchen paper and foils.

I feel like just ordering a skip and chucking the lot in, but - and this is good news - nothing is out of date.

I am reading all this thread and hope to get some useful advice. But, right now, I am seriously overwhelmed by it all. Anyhow, sorry for the long post, but I do need some help. Thanks.

With it all in date, have you thought about donating some food to a food bank? Especially things you don't think you will eat like the soup.

Frogletina

Hopeless_Case

dannie wrote: »

Hi Hopeless Case,

Sorry for the delay in replying to your query.

No, I am not planning to leave the freezer drawers empty "or downsize freezer". I suppose what I am doing is trying to change my habits around food and expenditure on food to what I feel "comfortable" with. I've been doing this challenge for a long time now. I tend to set myself mini challenges thus the two this month.

Thanks for the reply :)

mrssd wrote: »

Could I join and get some desperately needed help, please?

I retired 18 months ago and, since then my stockpiling of food has gotten out of hand. Besides a largish fridge/freezer in the kitchen, I have a concrete outbuilding which, since retiring, contains two chest freezers (one is the giant, economy size chest type; the other a smallish chest type) and the building has been fitted out with old kitchen units. The freezers are so full that I now have to stand multi-pack tins of beans and tomatoes on top to make sure the lids stay down. The cupboards are so full of stuff that I literally cannot find anything and - yet - I continue to buy

This all started when I retired and I realise that my behaviour is not normal to say the least. I think I put it down to boredom: I was certainly compensating for no longer working. In defence (is there a defence for such hoarding), I hunt out bargains and buy huge amounts. The other day, I tried to fit in 6 packs of 12 rolls of toilet paper and I could not get it in. The penny dropped: I have to use some of this stuff up. I started to sort it put and found myself in tears, as I was so overwhelmed at the task ahead. Anyway, I am persevering at sorting it all into some kind of order. So - besides the freezers, I have so far by way of food -

TINS: 56 tuna; 16 red salmon; 36 baked beans; 13 kidney beans; 9 other types of beans; 92(!) tomatoes; 24 soup (we don't eat tinned soup); 5 corned beef; 2 ham; 17 various fruits;

JARS: 16 assorted pasta sauces; 18 other cook-in sauces; 40 assorted jams and marmalades (home-made); 18 chutneys; 2 beetroot; 7 picalilli; 8 Branston pickle; a plethora of ketchups and brown sauces.

That's just for starters! There's a mountain of pasta (all shapes) and endless types of rice. Washing detergent, toilet rolls and kitchen paper and foils.

I feel like just ordering a skip and chucking the lot in, but - and this is good news - nothing is out of date.

I am reading all this thread and hope to get some useful advice. But, right now, I am seriously overwhelmed by it all. Anyhow, sorry for the long post, but I do need some help. Thanks.

The light bulb moment can be awful and make you feel overwhelmed at first, but hopefully you can build on it and move forwards. The suggestion about donating some of it to a food bank seems an excellent one to me as it could help you get a fresh start and not seem so overwhelmed, and help others too.

It's good that you've itemised it, so you can be systematic about menu planning and starting to use it up, and also it's good that you've faced it and why you have been doing it, so that you can look at working on stopping yourself doing it, and also other ways to channel your energy and time

I also totally get the the thrill of bargain hunting and I'm working on controlling it and walking away from YS items if I don't need them, but I had a few times last month where a bought a load of stuff I didn't actually need, just because it was reduced, and I'm trying to empty my freezer, so it's an ongoing process and the thing is to not give p even on a bad day or you end up back where you started!

Good luck, this forum is a great resource!

Frogletina wrote: »

With it all in date, have you thought about donating some food to a food bank? Especially things you don't think you will eat like the soup.

Frogletina

Excellent idea :)

Suffolk_lass

mrssd wrote: »

Could I join and get some desperately needed help, please?

I retired 18 months ago and, since then my stockpiling of food has gotten out of hand. Besides a largish fridge/freezer in the kitchen, I have a concrete outbuilding which, since retiring, contains two chest freezers (one is the giant, economy size chest type; the other a smallish chest type) and the building has been fitted out with old kitchen units. The freezers are so full that I now have to stand multi-pack tins of beans and tomatoes on top to make sure the lids stay down. The cupboards are so full of stuff that I literally cannot find anything and - yet - I continue to buy

This all started when I retired and I realise that my behaviour is not normal to say the least. I think I put it down to boredom: I was certainly compensating for no longer working. In defence (is there a defence for such hoarding), I hunt out bargains and buy huge amounts. The other day, I tried to fit in 6 packs of 12 rolls of toilet paper and I could not get it in. The penny dropped: I have to use some of this stuff up. I started to sort it put and found myself in tears, as I was so overwhelmed at the task ahead. Anyway, I am persevering at sorting it all into some kind of order. So - besides the freezers, I have so far by way of food -

TINS: 56 tuna; 16 red salmon; 36 baked beans; 13 kidney beans; 9 other types of beans; 92(!) tomatoes; 24 soup (we don't eat tinned soup); 5 corned beef; 2 ham; 17 various fruits;

JARS: 16 assorted pasta sauces; 18 other cook-in sauces; 40 assorted jams and marmalades (home-made); 18 chutneys; 2 beetroot; 7 picalilli; 8 Branston pickle; a plethora of ketchups and brown sauces.

That's just for starters! There's a mountain of pasta (all shapes) and endless types of rice. Washing detergent, toilet rolls and kitchen paper and foils.

I feel like just ordering a skip and chucking the lot in, but - and this is good news - nothing is out of date.

I am reading all this thread and hope to get some useful advice. But, right now, I am seriously overwhelmed by it all. Anyhow, sorry for the long post, but I do need some help. Thanks.

I wanted to endorse the Food-bank idea. Excellent for the store-cupboard lurkers.

I used to stockpile for the next Suffolk siege and I still do when I am not conscious about what I am doing.

My suggestion is to set yourself some challenges, to live out of your freezers and store-cupboards for at least two weeks a month. You will need to meal-plan based on their contents; keeping shopping items to an absolute minimum - fresh things like milk and eggs, fresh fruit.

This needs to be your new boredom relief and you should consider doing lots of recipe research to vary what you do with the items you have.

You need to set up a mrssd stores inventory - all the pasta, all the freezer contents as well as all the tins and jars you have confessed to. I recommend you also check out the Old-Style Monthly grocery challenge here for lots of techniques and recipe inspiration.

In other words, divert your boredom by flipping the model and saving the money you have paid supermarkets to store their stuff for them.

We will all support you, with any tips we have, or at least empathise because many of us are now using the (got the) T-shirt as a duster!

Lots of goodwill and welcome!

[Deleted User]

As you know you are not on your own, we nearly all go through it. I have been on my own for 20 years and still have freezers full as well as cupboards but I am not stressed by it. I do not go shopping very often, about once maybe twice a month. Bread and milk in freezers but I also use long life milk, dried milk and QT tea with milk powder so th chance of running out is minimal. Have bread making ingredients and packs so can make bread if necessary. I am not keen on shopping but do like to shop for food !! and I like to do prep so like to buy fresh veg although I do like frozen and have lots of different types so end up freezing the fresh !!. I batch cook and freeze then cook next meal from scratch instead of using the frozen until I have a mad urge to clear out freezers. Love to do meal plans so that helps with the mad urges. I love to know I can just fancy something and I will know that I have the stuff in to make the meal. Bit hopeless but I do not care. Hang on in there. xxx

maddiemay

mrssd stop beating yourself up and look forward to having fun using up everything that you have bought in such a :money: fashion.

Is there something that you consider a treat, but do not manage to do often because of cost?, theatre, days out, eating out, trying workshops to learn new things, crafts etc? if so how about transferring the money you will now be saving from your regular shop to a treats pot, would give you an incentive and perhaps divert your attention from the void you may well feel for a while. JackieO on these threads has what I think she calls a happy cash stash and a holiday fund and she loves adding to the pots as she saves money on her food shopping, then enjoying the fruits of same.

With regard to my own stores very little shopping done this week and a joint of beef OUT of the freezer and in the slow cooker for pulled beef, may result in 1, perhaps 2 meals being added back to the freezer, but will be added into the rolling meal plan. IN today tub of Swedish Glace DF ice cream:D

I have a lot of baking supplies, GF and non GF, but it is far too hot for baking, plus there are 2 cakes in freezer from last batch bake to be used, only 1 GF cheese scone left though so may be able to scratch the baking itch soon:D

We will all be cheering you on and offering suggestions if needed.

x

mrssd

Thank you, all. I have passed the first challenge and that is trying to find this thread again!

I was up at 5 this morning and sorted that damn food mountain out into categories: I guess it was on my mind to do something about it. OH got up and asked what I was up to: he never ventures into "my shed" and was amazed at what he saw. In my panic, I said I had been collecting it from sources for a charity. I don't think he believed me, but thought perhaps it was time that the "charity" benefited So, I came clean. He was remarkably good about it considering...

We have packed up boxes of tinned and packeted stuff we definitely will not use, together with anything with a short use-by date and he was going to take it to the tip. However, having seen the comments from Frogletina and other, he is going to take it into our local food bank tomorrow. Talk about missing the blinking obvious!

He's happy to help me wade through the stash left, as long as he doesn't get the same thing every night. So it's a tuna nicoise salad tonight, which involves cooking eggs only - and BONUS! - it will use up some of the tuna. It will also use up one of the 9 tins of anchovy fillets and a few olives from one of the 7 jars I found in one of the cupboards. Tinned pears and ice cream from the freezer for afters.

It is going to take time as the inventory is worse than I first suspected, but I'll get there. Every time I use something from the pile, I am going to put some money in a box (kind of buying it at a a bargain price) and then treat myself to something non-food related with half and give the other half to a charity, which should keep me motivated.

I still have the freezers to sort through, but it really is too hot at present to even contemplate it.

I'll keep popping in to let you know how am doing. A MASSIVE THANKS TO YOU ALL.

maddiemay

Well done, great that you have your OH on board as well. So pleased that you are able to donate the unwanted to a food bank, what has become a problem to you will be a fantastic help to some other people.

Yes, do please keep us posted, these boards are great for new meal ideas as well as reminders of things that have slipped from the memory.

caronc

Welcome mrssd, you know what you've got to do and I love the idea of popping money aside when you use anything. What a good incentive to use stuff up.


Today nothing has gone in or out of my freezers or cupboards and apart from some pea pods picked yesterday nothing has been used up.

mrssd

Thank you maddiemay and caronc.
I'm busy drawing up a spreadsheet and wondering just why I found the need to buy quite so many jars of powdered cinnamon (7)! Even I can't get through that before it reaches its use-by date. Still, it should keep beyond that.

OH has taken this task of mine on board. He has just come back from walking the dog by the allotments. He always stops and talks to some of the allotment holders and this time came back with the news that one of them will happily swap some of his courgettes for a tin of tuna. It seems that even allotment holders grow more than they can use and I can definitely use courgettes up quickly. I never seem to have enough fresh veg. I can see a pattern developing here: "Now, who will give me a lettuce and some tomatoes in exchange for a tin of salmon?" It might just work.

I have also made the decision to stop shopping on-line quite so much, as it would appear that it is here that I buy "bargains". I will (honest: I WILL) draw up a basic weekly list and stick to it. I also tend to go to the supermarket on a daily basis, mainly for veg. It just happens that bargains get in the way. So, from now on, I'll only take with me enough cash for what I need and that way will not be tempted to buy the endless 2 for 1 offers.

I hope I can stick to all this!

Hopeless_Case

mrssd wrote: »

Thank you, all. I have passed the first challenge and that is trying to find this thread again!

I've just discovered subscribing - you click on 'Thread tools' on the green bar, then 'subscribe to this thread', then 'add subscription'. You can then go straight to your subscribed threads via by clicking on 'Quick links'.

I'm pretty sure I've joined a few challenges which I haven't been able to find again before I found this

I was up at 5 this morning and sorted that damn food mountain out into categories: I guess it was on my mind to do something about it. OH got up and asked what I was up to: he never ventures into "my shed" and was amazed at what he saw. In my panic, I said I had been collecting it from sources for a charity. I don't think he believed me, but thought perhaps it was time that the "charity" benefited So, I came clean. He was remarkably good about it considering...

We have packed up boxes of tinned and packeted stuff we definitely will not use, together with anything with a short use-by date and he was going to take it to the tip. However, having seen the comments from Frogletina and other, he is going to take it into our local food bank tomorrow. Talk about missing the blinking obvious!

He's happy to help me wade through the stash left, as long as he doesn't get the same thing every night. So it's a tuna nicoise salad tonight, which involves cooking eggs only - and BONUS! - it will use up some of the tuna. It will also use up one of the 9 tins of anchovy fillets and a few olives from one of the 7 jars I found in one of the cupboards. Tinned pears and ice cream from the freezer for afters.

It is going to take time as the inventory is worse than I first suspected, but I'll get there. Every time I use something from the pile, I am going to put some money in a box (kind of buying it at a a bargain price) and then treat myself to something non-food related with half and give the other half to a charity, which should keep me motivated.

I still have the freezers to sort through, but it really is too hot at present to even contemplate it.

I'll keep popping in to let you know how am doing. A MASSIVE THANKS TO YOU ALL.

I'm glad your OH has been so understanding and great that the food bank will benefit :j:j

Out: Frozen chicken
In: Nothing