Are You a food hoarder?

YorksLass

Happy_Sloth: They say you NEVER forget being hungry.... but you REALLY NEVER forget your children being hungry!

How true.  It's a sobering thought this still happens in a first world country.

candygirl: Yes, I'm organised and always have been.  It must be in the genes!    I have all kinds of lists (not just for groceries) and don't think I could function without them.  It probably drives others mad but that's how I am and I'm probably a bit too long in the tooth to change now.

luvchocolate

I try to stock up on tins etc before winter in case of bad weather, but this year even more so. I'm in a 1 bedroom property so limited space. Freezer full love buying reduced meat etc. So only need fesh veg,fruit and milk

OrkneyStar

Happy_Sloth said:

helensbiggestfan said:

Great thread Candy. 

When I was little I used to laugh at my mum for her generous food stock. I once asked her "Are you preparing for  WW3". She said no, but once you've been hungry you don't forget.  

I totally agree with this sentiment,  when my kids where little we lived on benefits, there was a point in time around 2002  when they where swapping the systems over and we where without any benefits for about 3 months because the government made a pigs ear of it as usual.  

I had 2 toddlers at the time, it was horrific.. sometimes we didn't eat for days,  try telling a 2 year old there is no money to buy food?  and try and make 2 nappy's last a whole day!  it was awful!  I remember begging social services to take my kids because i couldn't afford to feed them.  

After that hoarding/prepping became a way of life.. i swore that would not happen to me again! things are super tight right now,  but at least i know i have a good 6 months food in my house.  It's one less worry.. i haven't bought anything other than bread and milk since Christmas and while paying the bills is a worry, at least i know my tummy will be full.  

They say you NEVER forget being hungry.... but you REALLY NEVER forget your children being hungry!

Thanks for sharing this, I hope things improve for you, and am so glad that you don't have to worry about food on top of other bills, for the time being at least.   

Happy_Sloth

OrkneyStar said:

Happy_Sloth said:

helensbiggestfan said:

Great thread Candy. 

When I was little I used to laugh at my mum for her generous food stock. I once asked her "Are you preparing for  WW3". She said no, but once you've been hungry you don't forget.  

I totally agree with this sentiment,  when my kids where little we lived on benefits, there was a point in time around 2002  when they where swapping the systems over and we where without any benefits for about 3 months because the government made a pigs ear of it as usual.  

I had 2 toddlers at the time, it was horrific.. sometimes we didn't eat for days,  try telling a 2 year old there is no money to buy food?  and try and make 2 nappy's last a whole day!  it was awful!  I remember begging social services to take my kids because i couldn't afford to feed them.  

After that hoarding/prepping became a way of life.. i swore that would not happen to me again! things are super tight right now,  but at least i know i have a good 6 months food in my house.  It's one less worry.. i haven't bought anything other than bread and milk since Christmas and while paying the bills is a worry, at least i know my tummy will be full.  

They say you NEVER forget being hungry.... but you REALLY NEVER forget your children being hungry!

Thanks for sharing this, I hope things improve for you, and am so glad that you don't have to worry about food on top of other bills, for the time being at least.   

Things are tight right now but i know I'm still lucky in comparison to other people,  i know my situation is a temporary blip which will disappear as soon as my hubby gets on top of his health and finds a job,  there are many people who its a never-ending reality they can't get out of.  

if I'm honest I've learned to appreciate these blips in my life, it keeps me grounded and reminds me how lucky i am. 

carrotstick_2

Yes I am a food hoarder! I go through phases were I hoard food, and then use my supplies up if we need to save money / have an unexpected bill. It's found to be useful on more than one occasion, even if my partner does laugh at my tinned tomato supply. 

candygirl

HAPPYSLOTH that sounds like such an awful.time for you all I'm so glad things are a bit better for You now xxx

OrkneyStar

carrotstick_2 said:

Yes I am a food hoarder! I go through phases were I hoard food, and then use my supplies up if we need to save money / have an unexpected bill. It's found to be useful on more than one occasion, even if my partner does laugh at my tinned tomato supply. 

It could be said that I hoard tinned tomatoes too - the two tins that I bought over a year ago are still sitting in my cupboard, because none of us really like them and I really don't know why I bought them! I should really donate them to someone else who can use them (they are still well in date). We like tomato things, including actual tomatoes, pasta sauce, passata, soup, and so on just not keen on tinned tomatoes for some reason. I could maybe blend them up before using but somehow that doesn't appeal either! Aren't we humans (me) funny things?

The other point that I wanted to make, perhaps more important, is I guess there really is no right or wrong about hoarding/stocking up - back up there I said I have one in use, with one or two as backup, but looking more closely at my cupboards I realise that for some things I maybe have 3 or 4 as backup for some and actually no back up for others. As said before, as long as you rotate stuff and don't end up wasting/throwing out out of date food, it's what works for you that matters. Having a stash of food can be useful if money is needed for other things, but equally if money is needed for other things and all your money is in your food it's not that helpful either. Bottom line is we all have to do what helps us survive, feel equipped to face the week, the day and so on.  Take care all.

TripleH

@orkneystar I 100% agree, rotating is the key part. I think that is probably the bitcthat gets forgotten.

I admit in my student days, I batch cooked and would live on pretty much the same thing every day in a week but would rotate each week. This was more a lack of access to alternative recipes than inability to cook. I also sadly learnt the more effort you put in to turning food into a meal, the less likely it was to be stolen. I'd say despite that, overall my diet as a student was better than now because I couldn't afford excess biscuits etc.

maisie_cat

OrkneyStar said:

It could be said that I hoard tinned tomatoes too - the two tins that I bought over a year ago are still sitting in my cupboard, because none of us really like them and I really don't know why I bought them! I should really donate them to someone else who can use them (they are still well in date). We like tomato things, including actual tomatoes, pasta sauce, passata, soup, and so on just not keen on tinned tomatoes for some reason. I could maybe blend them up before using but somehow that doesn't appeal either! Aren't we humans (me) funny things?

I open a tin 3-4 times a week, mostly to make pasta sauce or tomato based soup. I work on the basis of having ingredients rather than processed made up recipes for flexibility & taste. I get that people have concerns about rotation.             I spend 15 minutes or so a week reorganising my FIFO (first in first out) system in both cupboards and garage boxes.

mumf

People who do not store food,nor anything else for that matter ,always call those who do, ‘hoarders’. Our food stocks are ‘storage’. Hoarding is what happened when the first lockdown was on the cards ; frantic overstocking of things that were reportedly going to be in short supply ,and probably were never going to get used. I can remember going into our local Tesco to get some groceries,and the shelves being stripped.One young woman ( this sticks in my mind) appeared to have taken every tin of potatoes from the shelf along with a lot of other stuff in two mountainous trolleys.I commented to my wife that no way that woman eats tinned potatoes!

Indeed,two weeks later,social media local to me,showed bin day on a dog- walk ,and there were piles of loaves of bread sticking out of quite a few wheelie bins. Hoarded food,not needed.Shocking.

At that time ,all we needed was fresh stuff for the fridge.We store a lot of tinned and dried foods - and use and rotate it- so we didn’t contribute to the panic buying/ hoarding. We had an organised food- storage system. Not just random bags of pasta and tinned spuds!

We have stored food in our lovely walk- in pantry ( and a dry- lined outbuilding where we have two freezers too) for the last twenty+ years. When the children were little,my wife was a stay home mum ( one of THE most important jobs ) and I was involved in a serious industrial accident. No work,no pay ,simple as that. A settlement was made,but a long time later. Short term,we were in a pickle. We almost lost the house ( that’s another story ,and the reason I loathe the financial industry)Thankfully,parents helped out and we scraped through. After that ,we were like squirrels on speed! That situation was never going happen again .

Once I was fit enough ,I cleared the dumping ground that our original pantry had become ,refurbished it and shelved it. My wife budgeted for extra food,and before long we had outgrown it ,and I commandeered an outbuilding and there ,not only do we have freezers and food,but cleaning and bathing materials,pet food and every other consumable a household uses. I was on a mission to pay the mortgage off too and for the next ten years I grafted like a machine. We achieved our goal six years early!

Since then, we have experienced redundancy, cancer, and plain -old being skint! There was no problem with grub though ,and our home was safe.