How much food to you keep in the house?

Same as yours jessbut over the last year or so as money has become increasingly tighter,I tend to shop every few days,and write a list of what is needed but like to keep a few store cupboard essentials and be able to knock a meal in an emergency or in case of a visitor or twoxx

Same here, although I do tend to get carried away after I've defrosted the freezer and go mad filling it - only to end up when it comes to defrosting time again having to throw away things I've forgotten about...
This Christmas I'm determined (yet again) not to over-buy. [fat chance emoticon]

With my plan to, hopefully, retire next year I'm trying to get organised with food. Over the past few years I've cleared out food that my son has left here, both freezer and larder stuff. And the S.O. tends to do the shopping, so I find things in my freezer that I didn't know I had. I want to get my life organised now that the kids seems to have actually really left home properly [apart from leaving rooms full of clothes, stereo equipment, guitars..I could go on but y'get'm'drift]. I'm always curious [well, nosey] as to what other people eat. I'll often have porridge when I get back from work and then just an omellette or salad later. Throw in the odd banana and apple and that's me done for the day.

For many years, even when I was with exdh, I have always done a meal plan for the week. It is NOT set in stone, but that, coupled with doing a sort of feezer inventory from time to time, really helps. Also try to bulk cook where possible, and freeze any left overs. (Have just put the remains of yesterdays beef casserole into the freezer, only a portion for one, but hey!)

It means that the shopping list is based on the meals, plus any other things that we need, and things that will actually make meals,but of course if I see bargains, (esp. reduced to sell stuff that can be frozen) I grab them.

Store cupboard wise, always a fair amount of pasta in different shapes, tinned chopped tomatoes, tinned ratatoullie (very useful, helps to bulk up a casserole or stew, can make a great pasta sauce with a few added ingredients, or the basis of a vegetable curry), part baked bread.

A couple of years ago we couldn't get out of the village due to snow. For the first few days the village shop managed to supply most of what we needed, but then they ran low as the suppliers couldn't get to them! I became very good at stretching things, a lonely steak in the freezer was sliced up and turned into a sort of mock stroganof, the odd portion of smoked fish and the tail end of a bag of prawns became a fish soup, served with one of the part baked baguettes from the cupboard.

Luckily I tend to keep a good stock of cat food, I might easily have had a mutiny on my hands!

I think you have to strike a balance between being organised and being spontaneous.
When the children were at home I planned a whole week's meals, shopped once a week and stuck to the plan. I would make double quantities of anything freezable so that some nights it would be just a matter of defrosting something and doing fresh vegetables or salad.
Now though with just two of us, I only plan 2 or 3 days ahead and if we want to go out on the spur of the moment we can., without wasting anything.
One thing I have found in the year since retiring is that we seem to have gone away a lot and I am constantly thinking that I'd better not buy something because it won't get used up in time before the next jaunt.
I still do a weekly 'inventory' and replace any of the staples, rice, pasta, tinned tomatoes etc that are running low. I haven't enough space to keep several packets of stuff.

I've always got too much. Now it's just me, the shelves are clearing a bit and I've just had a sort out in my freezer. However when the family are here I get stocked up again - you just can't win - just chucked out frozen baby food as they won't be back until spring. In winter, especially if we are going to be snowed-in again, I tend to keep long-life milk and canned stuff just in case..... and I have located my Gaz ring for when the electricity/gas goes off - oh I am a bundle of fun and optimism.

I do a main shop once a month then just top up with bread and milk as necessary so at times I have a lot in the cupboards/freezers and other times not as much.

If for any reason (snowed up, illness) I could not get to the shops, there is nobody who could help me, so I keep at least two weeks supply of food in stock. I don't plan ahead, just make sure I have plenty of tins, packets, cartons, frozen foods, long life milk, dry goods, etc. The only things I need to replenish regularly are fruit and yoghurts. I now buy two large baguettes and cut them into pieces and freeze them. If I take one out every morning it is ready to use by lunch time.
Now you have made me hungry, so it is time for some cheese on toast, with mustard.

Always have plenty of pasta and risotto rice. Tinned tomatoes, several sorts of flour and dried fruit. Also try to have at least a week's supply of cat food in the house. Some chicken and minced beef and vegetables in the freezer covers us for most things. Nowadays there are normally only odd days that we can't get out, but when we lived in the country we might be cut off for a week at a time. Once we had no electricity for a week so our neighbours who had a smallholding cooked up everything in there freezer and threw a massive party

I keep a camping-gaz stove and spare cartridge, torch, candles and matches where I could find them in the dark, but I have been here for over two years and we have had only little momentary flickers in the electricity supply. When I lived in the Pyrenees, the lines were above ground and often got weighed down by snow. We had a two day power cut when my family were visiting, but I had a cooker that ran on bottled gas and a wood-burning stove. We played games by firelight and candle light and my grandchildren said it was the best two days of their stay!

A good point about having a camping gas stove especially if you live in an area subject to power cuts or snow. If you can heat up some water you can make a hot drink.

We normally get snowed in for a few days at least once every winter, so we keep loads of food. OH has sacks of flour, because we normally end up baking bread for the hamlet and we get milk from the farm. We have a bottled-gas hob, wood burner and bread oven to cover all eventualities. It is a great shame that twenty years ago someone who owned the property did their best to destroy the well, but we hope to restore it one day.
We have some winter salads in the greenhouse.

It took me ages to get used to not shopping for a family but now seem to have mastered it,I find that going to the farmers market for my veg is the best option for us as I only buy loose what I need instead of prepacked,and if any veg left it goes into a hearty soup and frozen for lunchtimes.
I freeze my baking most weeks and always have stews and pies in the freezer for emergencies along with a decent amount of dried foods in the store cupboard.I split loaves into half and freeze if we run short it takes minutes to defrost,so not a lot of waste really in this house now I have got the hang of things.

It took me a long time too, *glamma, and I'd just get the hang of it when someone would reappear!

I hate not having 'one on the go' and 'one in stock' and get very upset if someone has raided my stock and not told me. I think that is a throw back to having to feel a large family.

I try to do a menu plan each week but always include a previously frozen casserole, curry, lasagne type of meal so that, if we decide to go out or get a takeaway, there is room for manouevre.

Christmas, however, means all reason goes out of the window. This year we have 9 adults and 4 children coming for lunch, some of whom will stay for a few days and some who will reappear around mealtimes. I can't get my head round all that so I overbuy like mad, just in case!!

I am another one who does a big shop every five weeks and justs tops up fresh food each week. I also plan menus a week and cook double amounts and freeze half so that I always have a range of instant meals in the freezer. The meal plan is fairly flexible because DH's work has always involved a lot of last minute travel but it does mean I shop to a list and do not impulse buy which helps control expenditure.

By doing the big shop every five weeks there was one month every year when I did not need to do a big shop so put the money aside to finance the extra food expenditure at Christmas.

I probably have too much food in the house, but most is store cupboard stuff, or frozen. I do a big online shop about once a month for all the boring things, like loo rolls etc, but buy fresh goods as and when I need them. Always seem to run out of something, though!

I keep the freezer well stocked and have the usual store cupboard stuff. Living in the countryside does mean that during bad weather I can be snow/iced in !

I also like to spend one day every ten days or so cooking various things which I then freeze in individual portions so I don't have to cook every day

There is a random factor in my shopping. There are about 7 large bags of bread flour dotted around. I think this was prompted by DH saying that flour would increase in price this winter, due to the drought in the States etc
I think we will be having pizza at least once a week. One of the few veggie meals DH really enjoys.

Over in France we keep enough food and packaged ready meals to see us through in an emergency.

About two years ago there was a sudden blizzard for 24 hours leaving the farm road unuseable for 24 hours and the other local roads seriously unuseable for the next 24. Fortunately we had arrvied a day before the blizzard so had done a run to the supermarket, but had we arrived a day later and we would have been reduced to eating boiled rice and jam or pasta and marmite. Now I always make sure I have three days supply of real meals before we need to start on the pasta and jam.

I have enjoyed reading this thread. I keep a similar store cupboard to most of the above posters as I live in the countryside and hate to venture out when the roads are icy and don't want to waste petrol so also do a shop fortnight.

We also appear to be so well-organised! That goes for us sole GNs who sometimes have to go from cooking for one to many.

Do an awful lot of cooking and have many visitors - so keep freezer and pantry topped up every week. I can't plan meals as the weather usually dictates what our taste buds fancy!
Have small mobile home parked outside that has a bottled gas cooker and fridge which would be great help in an emergency. Also have a coal fire which I could always bake potatoes etc in the hearth.

When OH retired back in 2004 he thought I would enjoy him joining me doing the weekly shop. Initially he followed me round like a little lamb.....
This changed into queries about my shopping habits. Things like: " Why are you buying this, you only just threw one of those out. "
That turned into full blown Trolley Control. His. I gave up after that!!!!!!!
He now happily trundles of by himself loving every Bogoff available, and I have a house full of paper towels, coffee, pappadoms, etc. etc. and God knows what else. In his eyes money is only there to be saved.
This culminated a few years ago in us nearly getting thrown out of Morrison's.

There was an offer in the run up to Christmas . One Gin, one Vodka , one Whisky at a very good price. A whole page advertisement in one of the broad sheets.
Small print ( read by me, who else? ) said one deal per customer.

So, a trip to Morrison's it was to be. This he planned like a military operation.
I was given strict instructions!!!! Buy the three and physically leave the store.! Then go back in. In his eyes that would make us new customers.
We did. Came back in and went through the procedure again. Ha Ha......
Manager appeared at check out and told us in no uncertain terms we could not buy the second lot. I could see a security guard slowly moving towards us and thought lets leave now!
If I had been on my own I think that I could have argued this out ; technically anyway. But not with OH there who, in my opinion is a total liability.
He has also promoted himself to CEO of the Fridge/Freezer!

Anything decent I want food wise I get online..

johanna, that made me laugh!
I'm sure you could have bought two lots of the offer if you'd gone to separate tills!

I do a supermarket order once a month, which includes some food items – canned goods such as tomatoes, pasta, rice, butter, olive oil, sauces, flour etc. However, it is mostly for cat food, cat litter, cleaning stuff, fruit juice and the filthy lager than Mr absent drinks. I buy fresh meat, fish, vegetables and fruit two or three time a week but not from a supermarket. I use the freezer mainly for storing home-cooked dishes rather than bought frozen goods. At a rough guess, we could survive for four to five weeks on stocks in the house if we had to but I would have to be very imaginative towards the end of that time and there would be an acute shortage of greens.