Family of 5 'shop from home'food storage challenge...

D&DD

Sammy I used to have a one bed flat with 4 of us in it but used to store it in crates under the bed :rotfl: I've had this 'habit' for years :rotfl: I think flours are a great thing to store as I use them the most..As most old stylers know the prices are creeping up on bread and even flour so it may be a useful thing to have a couple of bags to hand.Just buy one extra thing a week(preferably when its BOGOF ) and you'll be surprised how it mounts up..

KuneKune thanks for the support It means a lot for the boys to hear the public understand why there are striking.

Duchy you have to start now you've written it here :rotfl: Seriously though It just shows with our current situation it does help immensly if you hve a few bits in

Now I really must get baking I have a lot to get done today so I must resist the pull of MSE..for a couple of hours at least!! Will update later thanks so much for all your posts they are inspiring me so much XX DD

thriftlady_2

I read about the 'pantry principle' in The Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn. It sounds just like your system D&DD.

Basically you stock up on storecupboard/frozen items when the price is good. In the US it seems that supermarkets put certain things on special offer at regular intervals. The idea is you get to know when things go 'on sale' and buy enough to last you till the next sale. I've never noticed if British supermarkets follow the same pattern.

I wish I'd stocked up on butter a few weeks ago when it was 20p a block cheaper.

cheerfulness4

Finding this thread really inspirational but just wanted to ask a question. I want to store baking goods, etc and wondered if it is okay to store them together in a large lidded plastic box. It's similar to those underbed boxes and it would seal the foods tight. Would the plastic smell after a while and taint the food? I can't afford to make a mistake but thought it would be okay as its a new box. Anyone know?

Thriftlady - I have found that our supermarkets follow the same principle and I can 'guess' what will be next. For instance - I'm on standby now for the Readybrek to go on BOGOF soon. Always stock up each year.

calleyw

D&DD wrote: »

Sammy I used to have a one bed flat with 4 of us in it but used to store it in crates under the bed

I would second that I use to store loo rolls etc under the bed.

I was lucky that I had understair cupboard and a couple of storage boxes and kept extras in there. And another two storage for toiletries

But a couple of storage boxes under the bed would be great for people in small places. Just keep a running list somewhere.

Yours


Calley

lbt_2

D&DD wrote: »

Might have to get some milk tomorrow I have longlife in 'the store' but prefer fresh for the boys and DS3 has soya milk..

I love your thread. My cupboards are as full as yours but not even nearly as useful. I plan to run down the stuff that I don't really use (probably bought when on offer!) and stock it with more useful stuff. But my freezer is really well stocked - all with useful food that we eat often. I have two small freezers but as soon as we rebuild our garage I am going to buy a huge, enormous upright one so I can cook, cook, cook and not worry about if I have room to put it in the freezer. There was a great thread last week on food for the freezer, and I have loads more ideas but nowhere to put it at the moment.

My little girl has to have soya milk too - Tesco have the fresh Alpro milk on offer at the moment (I think it was 2 for £2) :j

newlywed

calleyw wrote: »

I would second that I use to store loo rolls etc under the bed.

I was lucky that I had understair cupboard and a couple of storage boxes and kept extras in there. And another two storage for toiletries

But a couple of storage boxes under the bed would be great for people in small places. Just keep a running list somewhere.

That would be great.... if the area under the bed didn't already have all my craft stuff stored neatly in boxes, OH's diy books, along with my suitcase with all my summer clothes!!

Have put multipacks of loo roll on top of the wardrobe though - but think OH would have a fit about storing food in the bedroom

Having to "find" space in the kitchen as it is - finally convinced OH to get a slow cooker and now need to put something away so it can sit on the worktop. Thinking the food processor will be put in the cupboard as I don't use it every week. He'll be upset if his beloved coffee machine is put away (even though it's hardly used) :rolleyes:

sammy_kaye18

Well my under bed storage is taken by stuff - i don thave any cupboards in my house bar the airing cupboard which is full of the boiler and other thign sot be stored - hampers mainly for chrsitmas gifts to go into. Under bed has more stuff includign the things for hampers in those under bed storage containers. I do hve asmall room which i want as a pantry its abotu 6/7ft long by abotu 5 foot wide but bf has commondeered it for all hsi junk ie car bits, bike bits, storage boxes etc and ripped out the shelves that were left in it - im hopign i can convince him to put up a few shelves or clear a bit fo space/sell stuff/bin stuff whatever so i can regain soem of it - i do have a bathroom cupboard but the first bit is full of paint (which i could freecycle), the second one is the towels home, the third is the beddings home and the fourth has cleaning stuff and is chock a block with loo rolls!! The top bit which is abotu 4 inches high and the length of the shelf has my stock of sanitary products on - i seem to always catch the deals and always think i need more when in fact i probably wont need ot buy for the rest of the year now.Think i will do a guide shop on line of a few bits now and get it sorted. I have to clear out the kitchen cupboards soon as they are ful of tupperware and cuisine dishes which arent even ours so all that rubbish can go and i can start storing in one of them too hopefully. Will have to do that tomorrow - yes i think that is my game plan for tomorrow

D&DD

Aw Sammy can't you 'encourage' him to ebay some of the bike bits to gain your pantry back..or part of it
Cheerful a lot of places recommend storing food in plastic tubs,I use a few lidded plastic boxes for flour especially,ds3's speciality flours are kept in a seperate lidded crate too.This also helps if you are really unlucky and get those bugs in a bag of flour as it limits the damage to surrounding food stores.
Thriftlady I s'pose my system is a mishmash jumbled together of all those other organised ones :rotfl: It works well for us and I think the key is it needs to be what works for your particular family/budget/lifestyle:D Mine has to be suitably chaotic to fit in with our lifestyle lolol

Day 3 has been manic :eek: Baked a couple of apple braids using my panasonic,was a bit scary as I've not used it for that recipe before and because it cost so much I'm scared of breaking it
Baked some choc chip cakes for school pack ups and cooked some sausage rolls.
Made a shepherds pie for tomorrows dinner and a small cheese and potato pie with the left over mash for my lunch tomorrow!
Dehydrated a whole tray of mushrooms,picked my braeburns in the garden,found 7 more blackberries :rolleyes: and a few strawberries ready which survived the wet weather.

Breakfast was a tad rushed as someone overslept this morning...:whistle:
fortunately my toaster has 4 slots so doublequick toast for brekkie for the elder 2 boys,Dad took ham sandwich in for his..well its his lunchtime due to the early start..DS3 had a leisurely round of toast and tea and me..well I nibbled some samples most of the morning!!

Lunch for the boys was sausages,french bread rolls with cheese or ham,grapes and ds3 has his obligatory strawberries..(I think this is going to be what most of our budget goes on this week!!)

Dinner homemade chickenburgers in homemade sesame seed rolls with salad and wedges (if wanted),pudding was the apple braid and custard so I am stuffed!!!!! DS3 has a weird diet so tonight he ate chicken saved from sunday with his gf baguettes followed by...strawberries can you see a theme here?:rotfl:
Had to get milk today for the boys thanks for the heads up on the soya milk:D :T soooo

TOTAL SPEND SO FAR BY DAY3 IS JUST £3.96 :j

D&DD

Morning all
Plans for today include doing a stocktake of the freezers...I have quite a few apples,grapes and bananas still but will need to get some strawberries soon,the ones in the garden need a few dry days to ripen off.Need to do a batch of bread and rolls and some gluten free stuff for ds3,he's got quite a bad outbreak of his 'spots' at the moment so I think he's been snaffling someone elses lunch on the quiet :rolleyes:
I'll pick some spinach today from the garden and make a spinach lasagne for me for dinner tomorrow,will need some help later too as I need to think up some meals that the boys will eat with what I have..they don't eat pasta or rice,so that's out but fortunately we do still have lots of our potatoes in store Well thats all for now folks off to get my pinny on...again!!!:rotfl:

sammy_kaye18

D&DD - can you post your brownie recipes please????? and the apple thingy too?? today is going to be my baking day from now on so besides bread and rolls im looking for inspiration - plus my 3 year old is poorly today so want somethign to do with him for the day (dodgy tummy but not being sick if you get me!) >:(