Food Planning : Large Scale

Happy_Sloth

Hey there, Long term lurker but first time posting in over 10 years. My world is currently spinning, and i'm trying to get my feet under the table. Today i woke up and decided today was the day i was going to ask for help.... 

I am going to go and ask for some financial help on 1-2 of the other boards, but i figured this board might be able to help me sort out my food situation. Finances are not great, but i'm sure i'm not the only person who has had the coronovirus pull the rug out from under their feet, but we are lucky in some ways. 

I've always been abit of a prepper, about 18 years ago we where in a really bad way and we had occasions where there was not enough food in house to feed my kids. If anyone has ever watched their kids go hungry knows it's the worse thing in the world. When that happened and we got through the rough patch i swore it would never happen again so i started to store food. My husband/kids and family thought i was mad, i'd rotate it so things didn't go bad but i essentially keep a very deep working pantry. 

Well the bad time i'd feared has arrived... and suddenly i don't look that mad after all. 

We are a family of 4 adults (Me, my husband, 2 young adult sons) and since this all started so far food wise we have been living out of our freezer and pantry, with an additional £100 per month for additional perishables. We are shielding so can't really get to the shops but have been ordering milk/bread/fruit and veg, However the £100 is getting harder to find as our savings run out, i don't want to visit food banks because i don't think we need to yet and other people need it more than me. 

When this started i thought i had about 3 months food stored, but 8 weeks in i realised i did have quite abit more than that.  At first i used up my supply's quite freely because i didn't honestly expect this to be a year long challenge. As time goes on i realise that i need to plan and organise the food otherwise i'm going to run out / run out of things i can make into sensible meals. 

I'm normally pretty good at meal planning but doing it on this scale overwhelms me and i just end up crying. I don't honestly even know what i have left the shelves are a jumble of tins and each time i try and list what i have i get half way before breaking down.  I could honestly have 1 months or 6 months food i have no idea. What i do know is that my financial situation isn't likely to get better until it's safe to go outside and i need to make what i have last as long as possible. Worrying is keeping me awake at night because i just don't know where we stand and how long we are going to be able to eat for. 

So lovely ladies and gents .... please help me break this down into manageable/rational chunks that i can manage. 
What would you do? 

victoriajj

I am a long time lurker as well , I can feel your distress
 Can you get your DH & DS's to help you list what you've got, if you can do it together it won't seem so much of a challenge x

gwynlas

Engage the help of the other adults in taking an inventory of what is in stock. If you are doing all the cooking then they should be helping if they are at home.
From the inventory you can meal plan taking in what you have and what you need to buy, this will ensure you are not wasting food. 
.if you are frequently breaking down in tears you need to make an appoointment with your GP as you might have underlying depression which in itself will make things seem harder and insurmountable.

pamsdish

You said you are a family of 4, get them to help, a shelf at a time, group food items in types, ie. soups, beans, veggies, dried pasta, jars of sauces, etc, why are you living solely off your savings, there is money available for you get financial advice quickly. 

-taff

I would delegate. Get one of your other men to take eveything you have off the shelves. Then get one of the others to sort it logically, tins and then fruit/meat/fish. sauces, pasta, rice, condiments, herbs etc. Once that is done, clean the cupboards.

When they're clean, put everything back in in order, get the last one who hasn't done anything to make a list as you're putting back.

Stress and money worries and being in isolation are likely not helping you here. It's quite normal now to be overhwlemed by stuff, so you are not alone. If there's an element of hiding your head in the sand re your supplies, that's also not helping you to do this sorting out because you don't want to face the reality of what actual food suplies you have. But that's a catch 22 situation. If you don't know, you cannot plan.

Foodbanks wise, if you need it, you're going to have to use it. If you have no money coming in, then it's a given, and don't feel ashamed or we don't need it. If you need it, you need it.

Happy_Sloth

-taff said:

Foodbanks wise, if you need it, you're going to have to use it. If you have no money coming in, then it's a given, and don't feel ashamed or we don't need it. If you need it, you need it.

 I know i may need it eventually but i don't want to use it until we are at least getting low on food... i suspect we still have 3 months of food available.  Some people don't have food today... they need it more. 

Happy_Sloth

pamsdish said:

 why are you living solely off your savings, there is money available for you get financial advice quickly. 

We are limited Company Directors.. we slipped through the cracks for support.. i've furloughed myself for £120 a week, my husband is also furloughed.  We've put the mortgage / car payments etc on a break and for now we are just about breaking even... but the minute the support is pulled we are in trouble.   i'm going to go to the other boards and see if there is any other help we can get. 

-taff

Someone is always worse off than you or I are. It doesn't mean you're not worthy of being helped by outside agencies. When I had cancer and the house was a mess [ still is BTW] people kept tlling me to go on DIY SOS or something like that. I told them to go forth and multiply because I wasn't actually as badly off as that. In hindsight, it would have been a good idea. But I felt there were people who could benefit more.

Sometimes, you just have to accept you need help. Maybe not right now, but in the future you may.

Happy_Sloth

-taff said:

Someone is always worse off than you or I are. It doesn't mean you're not worthy of being helped by outside agencies. When I had cancer and the house was a mess [ still is BTW] people kept tlling me to go on DIY SOS or something like that. I told them to go forth and multiply because I wasn't actually as badly off as that. In hindsight, it would have been a good idea. But I felt there were people who could benefit more.

Sometimes, you just have to accept you need help. Maybe not right now, but in the future you may.

I agree but while i have at least multiple weeks worth of food in the cupboard nevermind months, i don't think i'm there yet.  My aim right now is to make what i have last as long as physically possible. 

greenbee

As others have said, make your list so you know exactly what you have of everything - and any use by/BBE dates so you can prioritise what to eat first. Then work out how much you need to eat as a family every day. I went into isolation just before lockdown started, having been out of the country for two weeks and while my cupboards and freezer were reasonably well stocked I had very little fresh food in and my veg box suddenly started to be full of potatoes and fruit (which I don't eat!). As I couldn't go out, couldn't get a supermarket delivery and was reading about all the panic buying, I planned very carefully - I worked out how many calories, how much protein and how many carbs I needed each day, and came up with a meal plan based on using the fresh stuff efficiently and building in protein from the freezer and cupboards. Herbs and spices helped me make the plan more interesting, and the lack of control over the veg box contents have meant I've needed to be more creative. Nothing has been wasted - stalks, dried up ends, tired-looking stuff, kale ribs etc are collected in a bag in the fridge and turned into soup at regular intervals (the compost heap is missing out big time!). I've probably been eating more healthily than ever before, and I've been amazed by how long everything (with the possible exception of chocolate...) has been lasting. Supplies are improving now, but while it's nice to have a bit more choice, I'm sticking with planning around the veg box and trying to minimise my spending and focus on healthy eating. 

Hopefully this way you can use your budget for a bit of fresh fruit and veg. Also consider whether you can grown your own or forage (nettles and ground elder are both edible, as an example - fairly prolific and highly nutritious). 

Happy_Sloth

greenbee said:

I'm sticking with planning around the veg box and trying to minimise my spending and focus on healthy eating. 

Hopefully this way you can use your budget for a bit of fresh fruit and veg. Also consider whether you can grown your own or forage (nettles and ground elder are both edible, as an example - fairly prolific and highly nutritious). 

I am growing some veg myself this year not much but i have courgettes, cucumbers, potato's, chives, spring onions, Kale, Chard, strawberries, spinach. So i should have leafy greens covered.  I have also been buying a veg box that can be abit random but its forcing me to be creative.