It wouldn’t feature on my lockdown shopping list either…
I would not stockpile, but here’s what would be on my essentials list for a Coronavirus lockdown or any other period of quarantine.
Lockdown shopping list
Olive oil – the starting point of about 80% of my cooking
Tinned tomatoes – I’m half Italian, tomatoes feature quite heavily in my cooking
Pasta – (see above)
Soup – As a working-from-home freelancer I always have a stock for lunch; might grab a couple (I mean a couple) of extra cans/cartons .
Calpol – Suddenly realised yesterday that we’d run out. Went to get our usual bottle and discovered, surprise, surprise, it had run out at Boots and Asda. Managed to get a 24 packet of the fastmelts, which we’ve never had before
Flour (plus yeast) – We make quite a lot of bread; 350g of flour will make a loaf and it costs about 30p
Paracetamol – Matt suffers with headaches, so we always need some in the house. Also, required if we get a temperature. We were extremely low, so I bagged two very cheap packets at Lidl. Which? has a great article about the cheapest places to buy popular medicines
Cannellini beans, kidney beans, chickpeas – these are staples of so many favourite family meals. They are always on my shopping list.
Lentils – We had Lincolnshire sausage & lentil simmer for the first time the other week. Amazingly the kids loved the Puy lentils; healthy, filling and pretty cheap, I’m going to buy more and look for other recipes. Suggestions welcome
Tinned tuna – We’re all fans of fresh fish, but store cupboard tuna pasta bake is one of Maria’s favourites. It requires two tins of the fishy stuff, so I’ll make sure I get some in
Wine – No explanation required
Berries, bananas and any other fruit that freezes well – Not just about fruit, this is a good guide on stocking your freezer
Frozen vegetables – I’m a big fan of frozen veg anyway: it works out cheaper, means I include it more regularly in the kids’ meals and it cuts down significantly on waste
Milk – We get ours delivered from milk&more; no trips to the supermarket and it comes in environmentally-friendly glass bottles. They also deliver our eggs, butter, orange juice and a number of other groceries
Rice – Another staple in our household from accompanying winter warming chilli con carne to a quick egg-fried rice at lunch
Replenish first aid kit – embarrassingly, until a couple of years ago I didn’t have one. Make sure you do (for any event). The Millie’s Trust one is great.
Pack of A4 paper – pencil and paper are the best boredom busters ever
Bleach – my dad has always been obsessed with it and uses copious amounts when cleaning floors and bathrooms (he does a lot of my cleaning!)
Chocolate and biscuits – Long shelf-life and good for energy and morale!
Here the Independent provides a list of the supermarket rules for lockdown shoppers.
