How much food do you have stored?

I am not a hoarder and everything in my cupboards is consumed in rotation, but when I was working I planned my shopping on the as much as possible as infrequentally as possible basis.

So food going straight to my freezer, meat, fish, frozen vegtables were bought every three months. Most larder food was bought on a five week rotation so only dairy products and fruit and veg and specials were bought each week.

I have continues this pattern through retirement until COVID when I began to shop week to week because of shortages, and I hate it and I intend to return to the old pattern as soon as lockdown ends.

On average I have a months supply of food at home and 2-3 month supply of freezer food to match my shopping patterns.

I tend to overstock when there's space and we have cans of staples in the garage. I have at least enough to survive comfortably for a month if we had to totally isolate for example. When the kids were small I kept bottled water as well, in case of national disaster - if I lived in the countryside, where I grew up I'd try and be as self sufficient as possible. Without my other half insisting we limit what's in storage I'd also pack 4 freezers and the loft full of supplies.

Wow - that sounds spectacular!
Just me in a teeny-tiny place and very little storage space. I have tinned stuff in a couple of cupboards which has displaced the usual occupants. So much so in fact, that I’m storing saucepans in the oven and my slow cooker in the tumble dryer!

Three freezers?!?! That says a lot about the size of your house compared to mine.
I think need you need to start using up some of that food if for no other reason than spoilage. Have a good sort out.

I was only saying to my sister yesterday about the food in my freezer, I can't put one more thing in it. I made so many dinners, soups, etc and then got a bit bored of them so now out shopping again and buying fresh. Need to get it emptied, but living on my own it will take some time.

Last weekend I had enough party food for an army as my family were coming over for tea. Then we discovered that my Granddaughter is positive for Covid. She is ok apart from being tired and having no sense of smell or taste.

I froze as much of the stuff as I could and then, because I have had to self isolate, I confess to nibbling my way through the crisps and sweets.

I normally have a little extra "ordinary" food in because I am my mother's daughter. She never recovered from war time austerity and rationing.

Self isolation is a pain but I know I am lucky because some folk had to do it for months on end. At least mine will end soon.

I live on my own and keep sufficient to ‘not starve’ for about a month. I have a weekly supermarket delivery for perishables like milk etc, and for when my daughter and her family come for Sunday lunch.

Wow I admire you grannyactivist ! I wish I was half as domesticated as you. My freezers are full but not from what I’ve made there’s very little of that in there. I panic when I’ve got 8 to cook for although I’m always praised for my cooking. I think they’re all just being kind!!

Shandy57

I'm a Londoner living in a rural area and quickly learnt to have a good store/medicine cupboard, as well as a full freezer and fire building stuff ie wood/kindling/matches and candles/torches for power cuts. We do occasionally have flooded roads and I nearly hydraulicked my car last time, plus we have had terrible bouts of snow in the last ten years. I have also learnt what can be frozen. Having supplies in makes me feel safe, and now I'm living on my own, I focus more on having good supplies of my dog's food which I can only get at PAH in the next town.

Same as me. First place we lived (UK) was known for getting cut off by floods and powercuts. Everybody kept in candles, lanterns, camping stoves, canned food. Freezers, if you had one, 1970's were chest freezers as they stay frozen longer. I was a prepper before preppers were a thing..as i said, we all were. Additionally I used to travel on oil supertankers with my husband. On the ships then, everybody kept a go bag packed in case we had to abandon ship. in it you put anything you had of value, any meds you needed plus warm clothes and waterproofs. At home we did the same thing but different contents. The people I knew who knew I did it thought it was funny until the floods started happening in the last few years. Never forgotten a woman interviewed at Whaley Bridge who said she had had to send her husband back during that brief period where folk were allowed to return to their homes for essentials because they only had the clothes they stood up in! I don't EVER want to do it but me and the dog could be up and out of the house and into the car with essentials even if we had to sleep in the car in 10 minutes max, probably less!

Wow, that’s a lot of food! There is just the two of us but, still have a stock pile of dried foods, tins, home made marmalade, piccalilli and chutney.
As a family joke, I also have a 10 year old Christmas pudding. Each year my sister, who lives in Australia asks if it’s time to cook it! Can anyone beat the Christmas pudding age????

oh PS, never had to panic buy in my life

Wow greenlady102, the thought of having to abandon ship must have been scary. You've reminded me to pack a hospital bag, several people have mentioned them recently. Sad to think the last time I had a hospital bag was when I was having my kids, now it'll probably be a fall!

I live on a narrow boat. One tiny freezer and little fridge I have Tesco delivery every 3 weeks (I have to take my little wagon to a carpark to meet it) and I go to village coop once a week to by fresh produce. I am growing potatoes, tomatoes, carrots and sugarsnap peas in veg buckets. I also grow salad leaves in a pot. I didn't hoard during lockdown...I think that is so wrong to do.

Wow, that sounds like a full time job. You must enjoy what you do.

Now the children have grown up and moved out it's just me and DH, so we don't really need to store much.

That said, we both work full time so have a well stocked chest freezer and the freezer drawers in the kitchen.

I'd like to live at your house - do you want a lodger . I could probably last 10 days by myself.

I have a few supplies, but whenever I've stocked up, I forget what's in the cupboard! I only plan meals 2-3 days ahead. It's just the two of us most of the time. We have plenty of food shops and a market close by, so no need to store lots of food. I prefer it that way.

I have 4 freezers and 4 cupboards of tinned stuff for 2 of us. Yes I hoard. My mum did because her mum did and she did because of the war. My children aslo have my habbit, was great when the shortages hit as they didn't have to go out.

So many unexpected people turning up and being fed, di you run a restaurant? No way could I facilitate that amount of food unexpectedly or even at Christmas. Also the space needed for storage must be enormous. Unless you live in the backwoods somewhere can't see the point of hoarding all that food. About 3 weeks supply in this household with some homemade meals in freezers.

It seems I have turned into a preper , as the Americans call them . I started of preparing for Brexit , then I increased my preparing when the first cases of covid started . I am still preparing for the next out come , what ever it may be . I buy extra long life and tinned food every week . I would say I would have enough food and toiletries for my family for 3 months or more . I have it in stacker boxes ready for any eventuality . As I was taught as a brownie be prepared .

I think I am an undiagnosed/secret hoarder. I like stuff - it makes me feel comfortable. I buy things in case I run out . Every now and then one of the children tries embarrass me by looking in the cupboards. Once I had sixteen bags of flour and I don't even bake. (This was well before covid). Another time, it was the fairy liquids - eight of them. I know there's a lot of toothpastes upstairs... I know this is not interesting .

I like to have a small stash of non perishable foodstuffs/toiletries etc but am finding this is not working at the moment, as having a 26 year old grandson living with us, (who seems to eat constantly) decimates the food I have bought in an instant ! I joke with shop assistants that I could be rich if I didn't have to buy food weekly, sometimes a few times a week. But I do think it is good to have a bit of a reserve, as we never know what could happen week by week.

grannyactivist

To answer some of your questions; we live on the coast in Devon and have an allotment with soft fruit, vegetables and fruit trees (fig, damson, greengage, plum, eating and cooking apples, cherry, pear(s) and elder). I have picked probably 8kg strawberries and 6 kg were turned into strawberry and elderflower jam - there’s probably 4kg more to be picked that will be eaten/frozen.

Our immediate (biological) family is large and visit often (non-COVID times); when my daughter and and granddaughter were visiting home from NZ in 2019 we were mostly a family of 20+ and with friends visiting too we were a very jolly household. We also have foster children and many people for whom we have become their family.

To the person who asked if we gather people in off the streets, yes, we did in fact used to host ‘waifs and strays’ ?, but now that I run a homeless charity it’s rare that I actually bring homeless people home any more, but we do still support a number of people in the community who have no, or limited, support.

Baking and converting our allotment produce into jams, pickles, chutneys etc. is my way of relaxing.

I am in awe, and think you're bloody marvellous!

Just the 2 of us here, well occasionally 5 when family visit.
Fridge freezer is almost empty as I'm using everything up to restock fresh when it's all gone. I do this once a year so everything is rotated, so no 4yrs old frozen veg.
Tins cupboard is full with fish, beans tomatoes etc.
I buy dog food in bulk 14kg bags x 3 at a time and store in lidded bins. It's so much cheaper that way.
We shop weekly for fresh food e.g. bacon eggs veg fruit etc and try not to buy too much as it would be wasted

All round to yours then

My husband loves cooking but he is a meat and two veg person. I am more versatile, for example yesterday I made pasta with bolognaisse sauce and froze two portions. Whenever I make a meal I make double and freeze it. I have loads of blackcurrants from the garden which are waiting for me to make tarts. I don’t make jam any more because of the diabetes. We could probably live from the freezer for 2/3 months.