Do you shop your freezer or pantry ?

hollydolly

hollydolly

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Location
London England
..before going to buy more food ?

Very often I find myself shopping for food, .. perhaps not gone out deliberately for groceries, but while I'm out doing other things, I'll pop into the supermarket and buy groceries, when in fact I have more than enough at home..

Do you use up most of what you have at home.. do you shop your freezer and pantry.. before you shop for more groceries, or are you like me, continually refilling your store cupboards without really knowing what's been in there for months already ?

As well as a fridge freezer and pantries in the house, I also have a chest freezer in one shed, and a Larder freezer with extra pantry shelving in the Barn...enough to keep me for at least 3 months if I shopped my own house..

This is the Barn...
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I'm determined now to get the freezers down to a more manageable size. This started due to the pandemic.. and the shortages, so I overstocked, but even tho' there are some shortages currently, it's not too bad yet that I can't begin to use up the foods particualrly the frozen foods that I have..
 

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We stocked up the freezer, filled up the pantry, and even added shelves in the den... back in 2020. Maintained the stock through early 2021 and then began drawing down on those items. Most shopping is for perishables. There is some of the stuff in the pantry and den, that might take a long time to use up. Attempting to accelerate the drawdown simply got boring, if you know what I mean.
 
I go to the local stores every week or two for normal consumables. Every few months make the hundred mile trek to the nearest Co to fill the freezer, mostly fish and chicken, and for coffee, caned goods, laundry detergent, and other items that are much cheaper there. Usually when I make a trip to Denver to see my son, or to Glenwood Springs for 2-3 day mini vacation. There is a super Walmart 30 miles away that I visit once a month, which is considerably cheaper than the local supermarket also. I probably have enough in the freezer and pantry to last 4-5 months if needs be. I generally figure it will never be cheaper, so I tend to stock up more often than not.
 
RadishRose said:
I don't have a lot of space for stocking up, but I do have some multiples of things I really like, such as coffee, canned tomatoes, cannellini beans, pasta, mayo and some frozen veggies. My only freezer is not large.

Usually I do shop my home store but sometimes I too, forget and buy more.
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This is exactly what I do, and the same items also. Fruit and fresh produce I buy as needed.
 
RadishRose said:
I don't have a lot of space for stocking up, but I do have some multiples of things I really like, such as coffee, canned tomatoes, cannellini beans, pasta, mayo and some frozen veggies. My only freezer is not large.

Usually I do shop my home store but sometimes I too, forget and buy more.
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Exactly the same. Except my multiples are tea and pinto beans instead of coffee and cannellini beans. Michelle drinks coffee but only 1 cup, only in the morning.
 
I have 3x the shelves you have Holly and they are stocked with various...paper products, canned goods, crackers, condiments, coffee, staples, booze (hubby's supplies) and pop, tonic water. Upright freezer has the meat, veggies, bread, ice cream, etc. etc. A small fridge carries extra milk, cream, eggs and tetra juice boxes and pudding snacks for son that works at night. I do refill everything as needed and all is rotated and checked for expiry. As for shopping I always have my grocery list updated and order every week or two depending on needs as well as Costco warehouse every 2 weeks. Yes, I do pop into the store for some veggies and fruit that I don't like ordering online at the grocery store.
 
I shop sales so if something is a good price lots comes home. Basics like beans, canned tomatoes, a few soups, V8, Coffee! are high on the list. I do have to watch the date stamps. A Costco run really fills up my cupboard.
 
Not really. I have a small table in the kitchen area and keep cans, jars, non dairy milks on the bottom shelf. I have things like pasta and some bulk items in the cupboard. Freezer sometimes has items and sometimes it's almost empty or empty.

I don't pay close attention but sometimes I take a quick look before I go shopping. I think buying more of what you may already have is pretty common.
 
Remy said:
Not really. I have a small table in the kitchen area and keep cans, jars, non dairy milks on the bottom shelf. I have things like pasta and some bulk items in the cupboard. Freezer sometimes has items and sometimes it's almost empty or empty.

I don't pay close attention but sometimes I take a quick look before I go shopping. I think buying more of what you may already have is pretty common.
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I was very good today..., I went to the supermarket to get my car washed and while that was getting done, I shopped .. but I didn't buy a single item that I already have..! :D
 
Last week I went through all of my stored goods including paper products, detergents (laundry and dish), other cleaning products and canned foods. I am pretty sure (seriously) that I won't need to buy laundry detergent for at least another year, if not longer. And I could go months without buying most anything else except perishables. So I am now going through all of those things in my pantry. I want to see how low I can drive down my grocery bill, too.
 
Leann said:
Last week I went through all of my stored goods including paper products, detergents (laundry and dish), other cleaning products and canned foods. I am pretty sure (seriously) that I won't need to buy laundry detergent for at least another year, if not longer. And I could go months without buying most anything else except perishables. So I am now going through all of those things in my pantry. I want to see how low I can drive down my grocery bill, too.
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That's the same as me Leann... aside from frozen goods which I could use up in about 2 months .. I have enough canned and dried goods to last longer.. and as for cleaning stuff, paper good like Baking foil, and parchment paper, as well as Kitchen paper and loo rolls... then all types of cleaning stuff, I have enough to last me a year with the former , and goodness me, I should think probably 2 years for the latter easily .. .

I have them all stored in the barn in big plastic lidded Totes, with just a bottle of each cleaner that's needed, under my kitchen sink.. which get topped up as and when needed
 
I've been working my way through my freezer (in preparation to moving in 3 weeks) and have sadly found that a lot of the lower layers have expired. Makes it easier to get the food used up (I can see bare shelves in a few places!) but shockingly wasteful. I started stocking up a lot in the beginning of the pandemic and apparently I was just eating and replenishing the top layers without doing a rotation starting from oldest.
 
The only freezer I have is in my mid sized refrigerator...an old G.E. so I shop for my cabinets and every other nook and cranny where I can store non perishables. Although I only have a small kitchenette, I'm blessed to have lots of cabinet space. I have additional food items in the storage cubes and hassock pictured. Don't know if you can tell but there are two cases of Izzes beneath the books. Also there are canned goods beneath the table that holds those items and more food storage behind the speaker, covered by magazines.

Storage Cubes area.jpg

Hassock & Plant.jpeg
 

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