Nice work, Florence ! Batch cooking is the business. I do a lot, but have to be in the mood. Mostly veg and tomato + beans/lentils that can be herbed or spiced further when I finally use them. Also stews and soups.
I batch bake some things; biscuits, cassoulet and bolognaise sauce mostly. I make a double batch of biscuits and they keep well in a metal tin. The cassoulet recipe I have is for 6 people, so easily does us for 3 meals and the bolognaise I get an approx. 500g pack of mince and that does us 3 meals too. If I have a lot of lamb left over from the joint, I sometimes cook that up with 2 tins of tomato and onion, and that does for 2 meals.
In the cupboard checking there was the discovery of a stash of boxed tea bags obviously bought ages ago on some special offer. Still in date till end of year. 8 boxes of 20. The fortnightly visit by the Rington's Tea man will have to go - at least till late autumn if he's still doing a round here. He comes round delivering good standard tea, coffee and biscuits fortnightly. Definitely luxury. But with stock in hand, luxury goes out the door.
I've had to ask if | can place a cleaning order with the local Suma buying group as they are thinking of doing a lorry load (well £375 worth in total) of stock. What I have won't last till they decide to do another sort of coming up to Christmas. Trouble is that this is the cheapest way to get good standard laundry conditioner and such. I buy in 5 litre containers and decant into smaller bottles.
I thought to join the local eco-home shop but it's a slightly dotty shop where not all works so that you can walk in and get things. Oh and the access is decidedly dodgy at present. A chimney fell off an old property next to the line of shops involved. Due to the age of the property with the chimney, the required roof repairs and it being on a three way road junction, nothing much is happening. Nearly a year on.
I only use fabric conditioner for hand washed woollens so use very little. I have a supermarket own brand that has been sitting there getting slowly used for ages. If I tumble dry I have the balls with rounded spikes on that keep the things soft. It it goes out in the garden to dry then it takes its chances and ends up a bit hard.
Otherwise I use as few cleaning agents as possible. Some stuff for the bathroom and other sinks, toilet descaler, and washing up liquid mainly. Bicarb is quite good on some things too, and vinegar on others.
Some of it is price increase, some of it is signs of blank shelves. And some of it is just precautionary due to the political situation from what I can gather. And definitely the deliveries look to be smaller.
I try to keep a stock of things I use frequently as sometimes I can't get them easily. Think we could live on stored food for a bit, but some meals would be a bit odd.
It goes well eating out of the cupboard/freezer/fridge. Yes, there has to be the top up of bread, spread, milk but nothing serious.
And no - not yet bored with the batch cooked supplies.
I do remember that the budget for food used to be less than it is now. Things have snook up in price. Once upon a time I used to keep a spreadsheet of the cost of staples (having time to spare as not being a worker). I deleted it when it got to the point of being depressing.
I do batch cook some things, and we do live out of the freezer where possible. Not only have things gone up in price, but the size has often gone down as well. It makes it rather tricky if there are 2 or 3 of you because there often isn't enough to make a meal. I do buy meat and most veg fresh from small shops, so I can pick however much I like, but I am thinking more of tins and packs of other things.
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