Food Storage At Home

Rosyrain

Rosyrain

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Washington, USA
I saw an old fashioned antique icebox the other day and was amazed at how small it was, and secretly wondered to myself how a family could live with such a small cold food storage appliance.

It got me to thinking about how people store food and purchase it around the world, so I thought I would ask everyone on here to weigh in since we have a good sampling of people from all over the world. In America we tend to buy and keep about a months worth of food on hand at all times, with the only exception being fresh produce and dairy products. I think part of this may stem from years ago during the time of the Great Depression when people could not get food to eat, maybe we just like the comfort of having food around.

For others on this forum, how often do you purchase food, and how much do you store at home at any given time?
 
I usually have enough to feed all of us (5) for the week. I usually shop on-line and get it delivered. I make an approximate menu plan for the week ahead and then invent dishes each day adding store cupboard spices, herbs etc. The freezer(s) are another matter. There's usually plenty of stuff in there too! There is always lots of beans, pulses, rice and flour in the cupboard. If a situation arose where I was unable to shop, I reckon we could easily survive on store cupboard and freezer for a month, but meals would be largely vegetarian and I expect I'd run out of tinned tomatoes quite quickly as they get used a lot in sauces and casseroles,. So - I suppose, in a way, I do have a month's supply, if pushed.

I also have an Aldi at the end of my road (UK budget supermarket - prices there are much lower than the big stores) so I'm trying to shop there more often to save money. As they don't deliver, it will mean I get more exercise!
 
We shop a week at a time. Although living a little out in the country we do tend to make sure in winter that we have a couple of days extra in [we live at the bottom of steep hills and it's a long long walk to the nearest shop - maybe not by you guys in the USA standards but enough for here in the UK] the powers that be do seem to forget that not everyone lives in London and it's often a while before roads get cleared.
I also think we used to eat more tinned food in the past than we do now. Also smoked and dried was more common too.
 
We have 2 refrigerators that we need when there are many leftovers particularly after parties or occasions. It is important to keep leftover food in the refrigerator because we live in a tropical country where food is easy to spoil due to the heat. Even dried fish or dried meat, we keep them in the fridge for preservation. Another problem in a tropical country is the flies. They would lay eggs on meat or fish and when those eggs hatch, they become worms. So we are careful not to leave food lying on the table.
 
We just have a small under the counter fridge and a similar sized one for the freezer. We shop once a week for grocery shopping - that's the fresh stuff and to refill on the other stuff plus the likes of cleaning materials etc.
We have plenty of flour, beans, lentils and other dals about, so I could easily feed us for probably a month without issue. I have enough spices to keep life interesting.
As for tinned food, I don't even have a shelf for the tins anymore. We have around 10 tins at the most and 2 of those will be coconut milk!

If the weather is due to be really bad, then we will build up a stock as well, because as stated above, if you live rurally you can expect to have to survive a few days before the roads are sorted out. But at the same time the biggest issue tends to be gales or torrential rain which brings trees down. Then you have to wait for the minor roads to be cleared and that takes time. Still we rarely have issues and I haven't know any for a long time. Some of the places I have lived in the UK, you had to have a better supply of food that would last without a fridge because of where we were, but that is easy to adapt to.
 
I used to have a lot of tinned food as well, but do not really buy it anymore myself. The most I have in cans at any one time is a couple cans of tuna, diced tomatoes, and condensed soup for cooking. All of my veggies these days are either purchased fresh or frozen.
 
Rosyrain said:
I saw an old fashioned antique icebox the other day and was amazed at how small it was, and secretly wondered to myself how a family could live with such a small cold food storage appliance.

It got me to thinking about how people store food and purchase it around the world, so I thought I would ask everyone on here to weigh in since we have a good sampling of people from all over the world. In America we tend to buy and keep about a months worth of food on hand at all times, with the only exception being fresh produce and dairy products. I think part of this may stem from years ago during the time of the Great Depression when people could not get food to eat, maybe we just like the comfort of having food around.

For others on this forum, how often do you purchase food, and how much do you store at home at any given time?
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I'm in America. At my house we do the month stock, just like you said. The only exception is canned goods. we Stock ip on those. I'm using cupboards to store food right now. Soon I'll have a pantry, though.
 
It is kinda funny the way we do things in America as opposed to other countries of the world. I have learned that many people only have what we call "mini fridges" here is the US as their only refrigerators. Here we have large ones that are normally 5 to 6 feet tall.
 
My fridge generally only contains some vegetables in the bottom, fruit juice, half open jars and leftovers stored on the shelves. I really could do with a fridge half the size as much of it is empty space.

When I was a child we did not have a fridge, only a larder with a meat safe (to keep out the flies). My mother used to shop locally two or three times a week for fresh vegetables, meat, bread etc. I do the same as I don't have a car and and only buy as much as I can comfortably carry home.
 
When we get moved we'll only have a small fridge. But not quite as small as a dorm fridge
 
I have a mini fridge, a regular two door fridge and a freezer. My husband likes to shop in bulk so there are all used in one way or another. Then there comes a giant electricity bill. Sometimes I think I could live on a standard fridge and call it a day.

Bulk shopping has resulted in a lot of wastage so recently I've been advocating shopping weekly As it stands there is no set pattern though. With proper planning I think we could save overall.
 
We store our food in the refrigerator or freezer for those food items that easily get spoiled. And for other food items that needs to be stored in a dry place we store it to individual separate container and then just put it in our kitchen cabinet. We do the shopping for our food stuffs at home on a weekly basis.
 
We try to have a weeks worth of food during the summer and the dry goods like flour and sugar for about a month. During the winter we stock up the freezer just encase we have a storm that will keep us in the house for a few days.
 
I had one fridge until very recently when we renovated our house. I now have a fridge upstairs in my kitchen and an extra fridge downstairs in my utility room. I am looking forward to going to the store less for milk and juice. I can now store extra cartons downstairs in my spare fridge. When I renovated my basement we added a large walk in pantry so I can store a lot of dry good now. I'm a sucker for a good sale on soup and pasta and like to stock up on these items as well as toilet paper and paper towels.
 
I shop once a week because I don't drive, and have a volunteer that takes me to the grocery store. Everything that can be refrigerated for the week is put into the fridge and all frozen foods are put into my chest freezer. I keep a small supply of frozen food in the freezer section of my refrigerator. About once every two weeks, I'll go into the storage room where I keep my chest freezer and rearrange all the items, so the most recent purchased food is on the bottom and older frozen food is near the top.

I tried living without a chest freezer after I sold my old one, and I realized I did not have enough space in the top frozen section of my refrigerator for the week supply of frozen food. So, I went online and purchased a brand new one from Costo that was delivered the next day with free delivery.
 
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