Food purchased - just in case?

Forgot, Stansgran, the chicken can be roasted later in the day and eaten cold or in curries, etc. or frozen- does not need to end up in the bin.

Must say BOGOF offers and perhaps prices too cheap for some foods do seem to encourage waste. Here food is much more expensive, and that does encourage cutting down on waste. If you paid 12 quid for a small chicken (as we do for free range here) - you just don't even consider wasting it. Perhaps? What do you think?

no over planning here - and we often go out on spur on moment- but then, when we get back if there is something I was about to cook for lunch- if dates are important, will cook it in a casserole, and eat it the next day- or freeze so I can be lazy another day neither of us fancy cooking. Always been quite good, and I am no chef or cordon-bleu- at chucking all the left overs and bits that need using into a frittata omlett, a sort of bolognese type thing, stir fry or stew- truly not rocket science and quite enjoyable.

Fortunate that small amounts of waste end up in one of the compost bins, or fed to wildlife. Using up food makes me feel so much better than chucking it, somehow.

I have a DH like janeAs who will suggest we eat out and looks hurt if I say I have a chicken roasting and so I shut up and go out. DH does the shopping these days and if I really dislike his choices I cook them straight away. I am not as keen on fish a s he is or offal and he dislikes pasta and I love vegetables which he doesn't seem to choose well. Totally incompatible . He thinks I am wildly extravagant but he won't buy things to go with things and I often have to do a shopping run to fill in and it often startles me how much I spend on what he should have got but hasn't

I like to go food shopping twice a week, so only plan about three dinners beforehand, so rarely have any waste.The only thing I keep in for visitors are some extra yummy biscuits .we do have a little waste in bread sometimes, but that's all.We have one fridge and one ( not large ) freezer.

I find the trouble with planning meals too far in advance (ie more than a day) is that it seriously tires one's brain, and also reduces spontaneity. MrA likes to do things on the spur of the moment and if his last-minute suggestion that we go out for a meal is met with a But-I've-got-a-potato-pie-in-the-oven-type response, he assumes either a hurt, or annoyed, expression depending on his mood and/or how upmarket his dining suggestion has been.
I tend to acquiesce to these requests out of fear that if I say no, he will never suggest going out again.
But it does mean that I don't like to plan too many days in advance, 'just in case'..... which strangely seems to bring us back to the OP
With a Co-op half a mile away and a Waitrose within cycling distance, I've turned into my mother and go shopping for food nearly every day. How did that happen?

I always have 'just in case' items for surprise visitors or if I can't get out, but they are mainly tins and packets or frozen goods. Last week I cleared out my food cupboards, disposing of anything way out of date, and vowing to use up everything dated earlier this year. I therefore have lasagne for dinner tonight, made from tinned minced beef, dried pasta and a jar of Dolmio cheesy sauce. I dread to think what it will taste like, but I couldn't throw it away! Later next week I have to use up outdated tinned salmon, tuna, stewed steak, soup, baked beans, tomatoes, caramel condensed milk and corned beef, as well as several types of tinned fruit. (What, me a hoarder? )
I much prefer cooking fresh food from scratch, usually making two or three of something and freezing the spares, which often get buried in the freezer, only to be unearthed when I defrost. Then there follows a period of using up those items. I would say I could probably feed myself for a month on my stored food.

I have 3 fridges gaga and 3 freezers - there is just no hope! To be fair one fridge freezer is DD3's awaiting space in her garage rather than ours. And one fridge is full of beers of differing sorts, cider, white wine of differing sorts and prosecco!

I think it is a consequence of have five children mostly living within visiting distance!

Must say I abhor waste- but sometimes, especially when having visitors, a small amount of it can't be helped. Fettlebaum- why not try and better plan the use of the second portion- with cooking it with the other, and then freezing for instance- or using it 2 days later with different veg and/or carb/sauce, etc.

Have far too much fruit because of visitors, and some veg too- so tomorrow I will cut out any brown bits and stew the fruite, and make a ratatouille sort of thing with veg- eat some, freeze the rest. it just takes a litte planning and effort to avoid most, but not always all- waste.

Agreed too kitty. Earlier ( first) post a bit rude I think

Well I have to confess that my fridges (as opposed to freezers) are often stacked with very similar stuff to yours kitty and it does usually get eaten. (Yes, I have 2 fridges too) I plan meals also but sometimes have a mad moment and disregard the menu.

Mr Gaga is pretty good at eating whatever I give him but I don't buy orange juice except when DS and family are coming to stay. Mr G prefers a bottle of beer or even water when he comes back from his biking trips.

I absolutely disagree that you are as described in your last paragraph. I think you are just normal!

kitty!

kitty ....... I like you!

The thing is that, although I plan dinners for every day, I don't plan lunches so we have what is available or what we fancy. Lots of stuff goes with coleslaw (if you fancy it) and we quite often have what we call a 'plate' of what ever is going: ham, smoked mackerel, pork pie, hard boiled egg and coleslaw! Orange juice is bought because, if you come in gasping for a refreshing drink, you don't want to have to go to the pesky village coop (not far away but costs a fortune and not much choice!) especially if wearing gardening clothes

Obviously, I have more money than sense, am very profligate and losing my marbles to boot.

It is not me that is a just-in-caster, it is DH. We have had family to stay this weekend and I planned the meal for Saturday down to the pudding and the cheese, but we still had to get two supermarket chocolate pudding thingies - just in case we didn't have enough of what I had made for dessert. There was plenty, and we now have two chocolate puddings that are destined for the freezer until we can palm them off offer them to future guests!

When we moved here in 2012 we brought with us our tall freezer which used to live in the utility room in our previous house. Here it lives in the garage as there is a fully fitted kitchen but no utility room (really miss my u.room) There is, however, a fitted 3-drawer freezer in the kitchen.

I have, or rather had, a bad habit of buying BOGOFs and putting one in the garage freezer, which gradually filled up and which I hated using as access to the garage is not easy, being full of Mr Gaga's hoarded "things which may come in useful" (hmm) plus his bicycles (several) plus wood stored for the wood burner etc etc.

So I decided that two of us really should be able to manage with the built in 3-drawer freezer and I have gradually used/disposed of the stores in the garage one. There are only 2 large pizzas and a fruit tart in there now and once I have used them up I shall defrost the beast and sell it. Or give it away. Either way its days are numbered.

My shopping habits have changed as a result and my weekly supermarket spend has much reduced. I now turn away from anything that is not on my list. We are only 1 mile from the shops and about half a mile from the Spar shop. I really hope that I can keeep to my new regime and not be tempted to buy food "just in case"!

I avoid our village shop like the plague but I had to nip in for a pint of milk last week due to the hard working builders greedy buggers and their tea breaks.

75p??? They're 'avin a larf!

I only buy chocolate and biscuits just in case, so nothing gets wasted!

No jingls!

Not where I live jbf My nearest shop is 5 miles away. Although that is not quite true - we do have a post office in the village - open one half day a week!

Is there no Co-op, or 8 till lates, in these out-in-the-sticks places?

The only thing I buy 'just in case' is and that's just in case somebody turns up and drinks my share.

I agree re the soft drinks Maggie, but now that they have been condemned as the root of all dietary sin, there's no need to feel guilty about throwing them away
I always have some ham, eggs, cheese and bacon in the fridge.
They usually get eaten for lunch with salad, but I can make a main meal too if I need to. I rarely throw anything away.

I had to throw out two packs of raspberries yesterday that had mould on them. Flippin' Ocado! I'm sure their stuff isn't always as fresh as it could be.

With me it's soft drinks. I always feel we need to have them in for visitors, yet they of course drink one glass and we're left with the rest of the bottle till it's flat or way out of date. I do feel guilty when I pour them away, but surely it's better than drinking them just for the sake of it?

I am on Petra's side. I live in a rural area. I plan my menus, buy what we need and never buy things that people just might want.

If one of us occasionally has a yearning for something we rarely consume, they either go out and buy it, even though it is 10 mile round trip to the supermarket or they go without. I certainly do not waste money buying on the off chance and then throwing it away. My menu plan starts with a quick survey of what is in the fridge to make sure anything with no obvious immediate used is incorporated into the next few days menu.

Anyway I have an almost empty fridge most of the time because if I do not have an obvious use for something in the next two days, it goes in the freezer until it is wanted again. This will apply to every thing from packets of cold meat, pate, half used tins of baked beans or tomatoes, anything. I keep these left overs in one basket and plan menus round them so that they do not stay there very long.