What will you be stocking up on 'Just in case ' ? 7 March 2022 at 10:08AM in Old style MoneySaving 226 replies 59.3K views

London_1

Hi we were having a discussion at my DDs yesterday evening about what things people will stock up on 'just in case' Well I've always had a 'just in case' store cupboard since about 1960 but then I grew up with rationing and post war austerity. My DD thought perhaps pasta, flour ,rice and lentils as a start. I said what about salt and spices as I always have a good stock of them in the cupboard, they help to zing up even the most basic meals . I would never be without sweet chilli sauce either if I can help it. But then I do like spicy food. I've never thought that loo roll was anything you had to have in great stock, as it just take s up too much space .Perhaps tea bags and maybe coffee, in my case definitely ground coffee and UHT milk.  

So what do you think what's an essential 'just in case ' item, bearing in mind there is a strong possibility with the present situation at the moment that inflation may it 10% by the summer. 

Rosa_Damascena

Nothing! Stocking up might save money in the short-term but is a supremely selfish act. We all need to buy enough and no more.

There is going to be a lot of craziness in the world this year and I think it will probably do some of us good to do without for a bit.

London_1

I can understand this point of view, however many people won't
My late Mother, when WW2 was imminent in 1939 stocked up on as many herbs and spices as she could find .
She was 39 when WW2 started so had pretty good memories of WW1 and what my late Granny had to cope with. She remembered how difficult it was to get food to actually have much taste.
So she bought seeds in packets and stashed away , and also as many dried herbs and spices that she could find.

Our food was always fairly well seasoned growing up, and I too have always had a good stock of salt,pepper cinnamon cumin ,corriander etc in my cupboards.
I can make two litres of carrot and corriander soup out of a kilo of carrots that will do at least 5-6 portions and I spice it up with ground coriander, garlic and cumin and sometimes some mild chilli powder. Most of my food is spiced as its what I have grown up with.
 Porridge oats to me would taste of nothing without a good dash of salt. 
I'm not suggesting in any way to go mad and fill your house with food stuff ,that would be absurd, but a small basic cupboard of essential stuff  would be reasonable .

I see a lot of supermarkets sell sacks of rice ,well the amount of rice I eat in a year is minimal so I won't stock up on stuff I don't need, but I do bake a great deal so an extra bag or two of flour won't go amiss, I will double wrap it and freeze it for a week to make sure there are no weevils in  it
Sugar I only use in cake and biscuits and I can always whizz up some granulated sugar in my blender to make caster sugar.
Pasta is another ingrediant I don't use a great deal so I wouldn't bother with that ,but I do like my cuppa and my treat for myself is a pot of ground perked coffee. My eldest DD is off to the USA at the end of this month for a fortnight and will bring me back some nice Columbian blue that she buys in New York. My grandson lives out there, and its always top of the list of stuff she brings back.

No one wants to see shortages in the shops or high prices , but its going to be a fact of life sadly the longer this goes on.

tooldle

Wow, I'm impressed. Herbs and spices in regular use in WW2.
My Dad was born in '31 and his parents in '04 and '05 respectively. Very plain cooking was the order of the day for them and I don't recall any spices featuring even when things such as 'chilli' and 'vesta curry' became popular in the '70's. My mum's family were similar. Mum is slightly younger and her family had multiple allotments on the go throughout the war years and into the '50's.  All very plain food for them. They did start to eat curry after a posting to the far east in the mid '50's.
We have shortages in the shops in South West Wales and have done for some months now. Stock levels are very hit and miss which does bring difficulties for anyone shopping to a list, or on a tight budget.

euronorris

I'm going to focus my garden efforts this year on growing things that often produce a surplus, and then canning that surplus for a rainy day. I'm more concerned with having shelf stable stuff now due to the increase in price of electric, and the ongoing conflict and cyber attacks. I wouldn't want to lose a freezer full of food, due to a cyber attack on the electric grid, for example.

newlywed

I have refilled rather than stocked up… just refilled my one bag of plain flour, one bag of strong white, and bought three 500g of my favourite pasta as it was on half price offer. 

That’s it really. I always try to have about 2 weeks worth of meals (and loo rolls etc) available in case of illness or anything else. 

Am on the side of enough and a bit extra. I live in a flat with limited space and don't want it to look like a warehouse!

and growing up my parents were often short of money, so know how to adapt what we may already have (soup or curry is always a good option) or purchase alternatives if there are any. 

However, in Morrisons yesterday there was nothing on the loo roll shelf at all (I wasn’t buying any and didn’t need any)

euronorris

I always keep a good stock of toilet roll for the simple fact that a stomach bug can wipe you out very quickly, if it runs through the household. The last thing you want to be doing is having to make a mad dash to the shops, hoping you can last, in order to get more loo roll. No fun for you, and you're also then just spreading it around. So I have kept extra for a long time, and just replace a bag of 9 each time we finish one (on rotation).

-taff

I already have a well stocked cupboard or two, with herbs and spices, stock cubes [essentials] but I wont be buying flour,  I still have some in the freezer. I can't stock up the freezer because we were planning on work on the house including rewiring this year so I am trying to run them down. I will be growing a bit of fresh including as many tomatoes and herbs as I can [there're all the woody herbs in the front garden and in the back, the soft ones.

 I think more things like tinned tomatoes, fish and meat will be on the stock up list this time. I have enough pasta and rice and can make my own pasta if need be. Bread making was a bit demystified during the last few years so I'm not afraid of flatbreads, tortillas or bread even if the latter doesn't come out as soft as the shops..

joedenise

I too like to keep lots of herbs and spices in the cupboard.  I also keep a few tins of tomatoes, baked beans, chickpeas etc but also like to keep bags of various dried beans and pulses.  Teabags and coffee beans are also essential - particularly the teabags - I can manage without coffee if necessary but would hate to not have any teabags!

London_1

toddle, my parents moved to London in 1938 from Glasgow, and lived then in the east end where its always been fairly easy to get spices and herbs even pre-war as there has been a large immigrant population since the early 20th century.
I grew up eating spicy food and have always enjoyed it.

I am at present running down my freezer stuff to defrost so was only really thinking about packed dry goods.

I have always had tinned fish, salmon, tuna, sardines, pilchards etc in my tinned store In fact just had a sardine and tomato salad for lunch about 10 minutes ago

Loo rolls I'm not too fussed about as I live alone and find a 9 pack lasts for ages in my house.

newlywed enough and a little more sounds about right This was a general list really of stuff that may become useful for the 'just in case scenario.I'm in no way suggesting rushing out and stacking the house from floor to rafters with food apart from the cost it would be just daft  

boultdj

Salt, yeast, pepper, tea, coffee and powdered milk are my essentials, I've just got another bottle of sunflower oil as I'm allergic to rapeseed, that should last me a while, I also have suet in, useful for pastry as well as dumplings to bulk meals out.
Herb seeds for me, and extra can get dehydrated for winter use.
Flour I get the 10kg bag from the world food isle and that does our bread for 4/5 months.
I also have laundry eggs and have got refills to last about 18 months.