Just wondering... how long could you go...

[foodfiend]

...with the food that is in your house right now?

I realize that everyone is different on storage availability, number of refrigerator/ freezers, etc. but we had a plumber come over the other day and he was amazed at what was contained on my basement shelves (after he commented on the extra fridge and the huge freezer in the laundry room when he came in through that door).

And that got me to thinking... (oh no! STOP!!!)

If a sudden snowstorm dumped 4' of snow on you without any previous warning and you had to exist on what was in your home, how long before you would be desperate enough to dig a tunnel out to the main road to hitch a ride with a snowplow to the nearest grocery store? And let me add, all utilities are functioning.

Since I started, I will go first.

I am figuring maybe 2 or 3 weeks. I do have enough food for much longer, but I would be craving fresh eggs and milk. And perhaps fresh veggies although I have a lot of canned and frozen fruits and veggies. I also am stocked with bags of different kinds of rice, pasta, flour, etc. and a decent amount of chicken, ground turkey, fish, and other "mains" in the freezer.

I may need to add chocolate to the shopping list, but only after I've finished the bags of chips left over from Christmas baking.

Anyone else want to chime in?

[chef_Tab]

I think we could stretch 5 days. I have no pantry and the refrigerator/freezer are apartment size. But even when I had a house, I didn't do much better because I am a minimalist. I envy those with full cupboards, because an extra person for dinner is never a problem, while it throws me into a tizzy. I guess I have always been lucky enough to live within a mile of a grocery store.....until now.

[Gourmet_Mom]

We don't have a freezer at this time, so I'm at a disadvantage. I am also on the down side of my freezing unit stock. I'm due to restock next weekend. That being said, I may could go about 4-5 days. If I was fully stocked...3-4 weeks.

[DFen911]

Probably a week, I could go longer but it would lack fresh veggies.

[Gourmet_Mom]

Since I've done this for a couple of weeks, I can say that the lack of fresh veggies is a MAJOR bummer. I think I ate salads and heavy veggie meals for a couple of weeks after the last two outages!

Luckily, we had a generator, but I was ready to consign it to the devil in the end....the constant roar was getting on my nerves in the second week! Thankfully we had neighbors to share and absentee neighbors with stocked freezers and refrigerators that needed to be emptied. AND we had the means to get to the ABC store. I think we would have gone completely crazy if not. The grocery store was open, but with limited supplies due to trucks not being able to get in.

[Harborwitch]

Not long. I'm having horrible trouble not buying for a week at a time or being able to "stock up" on sale stuff. Our extra little fridge turned into a freezer (won't work as a fridge if you want anything in the freezer compartment to stay frozen) so that's a "good thing" I think - but fresh food doesn't have a lot of room.

[Gourmet_Mom]

This conversation is making me nervous. We've not had a major hurricane event in quite a while. OIY!

[cjs]

I am certinaly not a minimalist!! I have an actual pantry room that is about 7' deep with shelving on both sides and other than top shelves dedicated to 'equipment,' the shelves are filled with food.

Two freezers downstairs and the frig/freezer upstairs (all full). I have no idea how long I could hold out, cause I've been canning/freezing veggies and fruits the last few years, so that would help also.

Fresh salads I would miss desparately, tho!

P.S. Now that Roy is doing 95% of the shopping, he loves to find bargains......the freezers will never be empty (or manageable) I fear.

[Lorraine]

We have two deep freezers, and the fridge/freezer, all loaded. The pantry is stocked, lots of dried beans, pasta,dry milk and buttermilk, it helps being married to a caterer. Lots of chocolate, jams and jellies. I think we could go at least a month, although we would miss the fresh stuff. If the power goes out, we have propane cassette burners and the bbq.

[Mare749]

As Jean said, we could go an awfully long time, so I'm not even sure. We have enough venison to carry us for months. Since I buy a lot in bulk, my basement pantry is well-stocked. The hardest part for me would be having to go without fresh fruit, vegetables, milk, and eggs, so I would say 5 days at the most.