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How long could you last ?

(92 Posts)
nanna8 Thu 17-Nov-22 09:22:10

Just thinking, reading some other threads, how long could you last on the food that you already have in the house without having to go shopping? I reckon we (2 of us) could last about a month just now. Then we would have to start eating grass and Italian parsley which seems to be about our only regular ‘crop’ in the garden. Our freezer is small and about half full.

Missiseff Sat 19-Nov-22 15:32:28

A week. Only buy what we need on a weekly basis.

CBBL Sat 19-Nov-22 16:07:14

I would be OK for meat for about 10 days, but would soon run out of bread, butter and fresh veg! I buy fresh meat from our weekly market, portion it up and freeze it. As it's just me, it lasts quite a while, as I also have some vegetarian or neat free meals each week.
The cats would be OK for about a month!

elleks Sat 19-Nov-22 18:07:47

Georgesgran

Probably months - other than needing milk and the odd loaf.
DH died last year and I’m still working my way through the freezer! The tin cupboard is going down nicely though.

Georgesgran; I lost my husband in January, and cleared most of a cupboard of tinned and packet food that he liked and I didn't. The food bank were very grateful!

Grandmama Sat 19-Nov-22 18:31:12

Have I dreamt this - is it Sweden where people are expected to have a certain quantity of food in the house - maybe a month's - so they can survive particularly harsh weather.

Blondiescot Sat 19-Nov-22 18:32:34

We used to joke that if there ever was a zombie apocalypse, we'd hole up at my in-laws' house, as my MiL used to stockpile enough food to feed half the village! Now that they are both housebound though, I do their shopping and they don't have nearly as much stuff hoarded away. I think we'd probably be ok for around a month, apart from milk and fresh fruit and veg. I have veg from the garden in the freezer and plenty of flour, so I could bake my own bread.

Bignanny2 Sat 19-Nov-22 21:42:23

About 3 - 4 months as long as we didn’t expect to eat the same sort of meals as we do normally. My freezer has plenty of meat and frozen veg and portions of meals that I’ve cooked previously and frozen. But once they were gone it would have gone it would tinned soup, tinned beans etc. I have uht milk and could make soda bread I expect.

CanadianGran Sat 19-Nov-22 21:43:08

Same Blondiscot, we used to say the army could drop by and she could feed them!

We would have meat/fish from the freezer, and rice or pasta to last about a month probably. I don't keep much frozen veg or fruit because I find it frosts up within a short time.

If I could turn all the jars of condiments into a soup that would do for another week or two!

SparklyGrandma Sun 20-Nov-22 06:17:40

I could manage a month - you can freeze bread too. I would miss fresh fruit and veg though.

BrightandBreezy Sun 20-Nov-22 10:12:58

I think 3 months if I counted every tim and dried goods but there would be a dearth of fresh food after the first week. I have probably a month's supply of frozen veg and would have to get my fruit from tins if it was really sticking to everything in the cupboard. Could spin tinned fruit out about 3 weeks. Just thinking how awful it would be not to be able to get fresh food though 🤔

sydney01 Sun 20-Nov-22 12:49:32

We'd certainly last a few weeks but it wouldn't be the healthiest of times. Plenty pasta.. plenty cereal but it would be awful without milk. Good for tinned foods but the freezer is small so we'd be out of meat and veg pretty quickly..

OnwardandUpward Mon 21-Nov-22 15:32:59

If you have a dehydrator you can dry jars of veg. I have several jars containing mushrooms, spinach, kale and peppers but in reality this would only last a week if there was no actual fresh veg. The mushrooms were really handy recently as I needed some for a recipe and had run out. It is also considerably cheaper to create your own gourmet mix.

Need to get some sort of milk for the store cupboard, but it all seems to taste awful, any recommendations?

Doodledog Mon 21-Nov-22 15:49:37

Long life milk is fine in tea/coffee and for baking etc. I don’t drink milk so can’t say if you can taste the difference that way.

I don’t mean that Puro stuff that used to come in long-necked bottles - I mean the milk in cartons from any supermarket.

OnwardandUpward Mon 21-Nov-22 15:52:37

Thanks Doodledog, then the thing we would want to make sure we didn't run out of would be coffee. grin

Casdon Mon 21-Nov-22 15:58:59

I can recommend fresh lactose free milk if you want milk that tastes exactly the same as ordinary milk but lasts a lot longer. Check the sell by dates, it’s usually a month ahead. Once opened it lasts longer than ordinary milk too, you do have to keep it in the fridge but it’s far nicer than long life milk, which I always think tastes a bit fishy.

grannydarkhair Mon 21-Nov-22 16:00:54

I used to never like the taste of long life milk, but started buying it during the first lockdown. If I want fresh, then I buy semi-skimmed. But with the long life, I buy skimmed, and I really can’t tell the difference in tea now.

M0nica Tue 22-Nov-22 07:27:17

I probably am mildly lactose intolerant because milk and its close associates, yoghourt and cream make me feel sick, and, as a result, anything that tastes of milk has the same effec.

However, I do not like milkless tea. As a result I use skimmed UHT milk, for the simple reason that it is totally devoid of taste or smell, but still has the 'softening' effect of milk in tea and the like.

My daughter is at the other extreme she loves milk, preferably green top straight from the farm. I cannot even touch the bottle, because of the aroma, my stomach has an instant reaction.