Posted: Thu Jan 08, 26 12:01 pm Post subject: Living out of the food cupboard
Well store cupboard, cleaning cupboard and freezer. How about for a month? Well I did have a Tesco order yesterday so maybe a bit of a good point to start.
The freezer is full - mind that includes 2 large loaves of bread. But it's packed tight underneath.
The wall cupboards have an excess of tinned vegetables, packets, pasta, sundries. Am just eating half of a frozen pasta and veg meal. Another half for tomorrow. Breakfast was using up some vegan cheese slices in sarnies to get rid of the cheese. Don't think I shall go for future vegan cheese.
Have looked in the cleaning cupboard - plenty of washing up liquid bought in 5 litre container, along with shampoo and hair conditioner as well as bars of soap bought in bulk and added too for Christmas presents. Also plenty of conditioner for the washing machine and soap powder bought in bulk.
Let's keep a track of running down the cupboards then. Regular updates to come. Anyone want to join me. Even if we compare strange recipes.
I have quite a lot in the store cupboard and freezer, and might be able to manage a month one way or another, but have a husband to feed who wouldn't take kindly to it. I do try to make things go as far as possible, so we have just finished the Christmas chicken in two helpings of stew and still have a little bacon to finish. I have a lot of rice, but don't make curry any more as husband says it puts his blood sugar up, but do use pasta for remains of roast lamb in a tomato and onion sauce.
I'm vegan. Tried some cheese slices a couple of shops back. Not to repeat. I'm sure the packaging tasted as good. Last slice eaten with bread and marmite just now this morning.
Have the remains of a frozen pasta and veg meal to use for lunch. Will have to settle down to do another large run of pasta and veg for the freezer next week.
gz
Joined: 23 Jan 2009 Posts: 9570 Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
Posted: Fri Jan 09, 26 9:36 am Post subject:
Three of mine are vegan, so having vegan mayo and pesto on the larder shelves and making my bread vegan as well is no bother when they choose to visit. Vegan cheese is a matter of taste. Some is definitely acceptable..some not so..the memory of "scheese" tbh I'd rather have my cashew nuts as such.
Plenty of preserves and home dried and frozen fruit. Stocks of dried pulses..I don't have a lot of tinned ones now unless I see a bargain. "Baked beans"...yech!! Too sweet!
Winter squash on the shelf and leeks in the garden.
Space constraints mean that I haven't as much flour and oats in stock as I used to....but I'm catering for one now and it would take too long to get through a sack compared to when I was catering for six of us.
We have tried baked beans without added sugar or salt, but they are horrible. The only way to make them without would be to make them from scratch I think, so we have given up with them. I only have tinned tomatoes and haricot beans in that line now.
If I can I buy fresh, so vegetables in particular are tricky to store for any length of time if you want things other than root veg or squash. Currently we have leeks, potatoes, onions and some purples sprouters or their leaves in the garden, but that is all, so have to buy at least once a week.
Recently moved home so living out of the store cupboard was essential to reduce the amount of stuff we had to move with.
But what I would say is make sure you get some nice fresh food as well. Rather than set yourself 4 weeks why not set 6 weeks or a month and live mostly out of the store cupboard.
You can still prioritise stored stuff but have the occasional fresh treat.
It can be fun creatively living off what you have got. When we moved into our last house the previous own had left a load of cans of food - about half had no labels. I didn't like to waste them so every day I opened a can to find out what it was and created a recipe to use it until they had all gone !
Mind you I've sometimes had to do that with stuff I froze and put in the freezer when I forgot to label it - lots of stuff looks the same when frozen and viewed through freezer boxes !
I think that you must be an interesting cook Mark. One worries about someone going off and leaving a fairly full food cupboard.
I was thinking just that it would be good to go to the Farmers Market locally and look for fresh stuff this morning. But the ice patch that is the road outside is devoid of even dog walkers (very unusual). Probably not everyone will make it to the market either with the state of the rural roads.
Most of my shopping is delivered via a supermarket delivery in the way of groceries as I don't drive and the village shop is mainly bread and milk, alcohol/vapes/sweets/crisps to stay open. Fresh veg is really a no go as it doesn't sell. Bit like very rural here you see. Don't trust the pickers and packers at the supermarket.
We are fortunate enough to have a greengrocers just down the hill from us. Not all of his stuff is local, so if we can we buy from places we know stock local things. Sadly the farm shop I used to patronise for fruit and veg closed, as it was convenient and I knew where most of it came from.
The Ringtons Tea rounds man is due this morning, think the weather will permit. He carries a good variety of tea bags, a rather nice speciality coffee and lots of biscuits (non of them vegan). Will buy coffee and biscuits for the next door neighbour's up coming significant birthday in a couple of weeks time. Saves a lot of effort as she's a chain coffee drinker.
gz
Joined: 23 Jan 2009 Posts: 9570 Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
Posted: Mon Jan 12, 26 9:29 am Post subject:
We have two shops for food and stuff in this village.
One halfway down the scheme this side of the village was a key stores now a one stop....with sparse stock.
The other at the bottom of the hill is a premier...just been done up well and expanded, but still very basic. Nothing that they'd consider "fancy", not cheap or even inexpensive...but you can walk there. Just don't expect anything organic....
The veg has improved, but isn't very inspiring
It is expensive...even as small shops go...for most things. They run three of this marque of shop in different places, and not very small ones either.
We used to have a greengrocer...but locals didn't appreciate fresh fruit and veg....they'd rather go, whether by bus or car, to the big box shops in Ayr A pity as she knew her stuff.
We still have a greengrocer, but depending on how things are going, he is either reasonably happy or complaining about how people don't spend money or only want cheap things. He stocks our charcoal and I have been buying his fruit and veg on and off since we came here. We also have a butchers, but I fell out with him soon after we arrived and he included a bit of extra bone in my half leg of lamb, so I refused it. I use a farm shop which has its own cattle and pigs and local sheep now. The also frequently have venison and sometimes rabbit shot locally I think.
The Coop down the road used to be very good, but now I call it an 'inconvenience' store as they don't have most of what I want. They have also recently had a redesign and the aisles at the back of the shop are now very narrow and rather intimidating to my mind. Still get milk and occasionally a few other bits there, but nothing else much.
Depends on how you view it. If you are just trying it to reduce the amount in your store cupboard, seeing if you can do it as a sort of challenge but not too seriously, then no it doesn't. If you are really taking it very seriously then it does.
At present we are tending to live a bit out of the store cupboard and freezer as we haven't been well and don't feel like either shopping much or doing a lot of complicated cooking.
If I was really, really seriously broke I wouldn't be even considering going out for a meal. Because the finances wouldn't allow of course. Been there, done that.
I'm really seriously stockpiled. Not biscuits, chocolates, left over Christmas though thankfully. Rather well, just too much stockpiling when the prices looked good. Too too many loo rolls. Looks rather like the fabled stock piles of loo rolls after the Covid shut down. And there's only one of me.
I've been buying cleaning in quantity - 5 litre sizes to decant down to save on plastic. Buying from the Suma Wholefood Coop through a home group has saved money as well.
I like tinned baked beans - Branston's are best but more expensive and never on offer. So not often on the shelf.
I like to have a bit of stuff in store so that I don't run out. Think I have 5 tins of tomatoes, but I do tend to use them 2 at a time so that I can make several batches of things at once to go into the freezer. I have enough jam/jelly to keep a large family for a year as I like making it to use various fruits, but we are now working our way through the very old stuff and it is really lovely. The top shelf is solid glass jars of various sorts. I have managed to get rid of some, but it seems a bit of a waste to just put them in the recycle.
A pity as she knew her stuff.
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