A savings buffer that isn’t cash?

It’s a dilemma many of us face every week: “What if our income dried up and all we could feed our families was what’s in the cupboards?”

Now, as millions of us face higher energy prices or are waiting for our Universal Credit to kick in, it’s a question everyone might be starting to ask themselves.

The Trussell Trust reported that almost 650,000 people used a food bank for the first time between 2023 and 2024. That’s more than six times higher than the first year of the lockdown.  

When Universal Credit was just starting and people waited weeks for their first payment, Quids in! got to thinking. What if we all built our own foodbank? Now we’re revisiting the question. 

Save on Food & Save with Food 

Stockpiling is not only a way to save on food, it’s its own version of savings. Think about when we get our income. We might set aside a little cash while we have it so when times get tough, we have some reserves. 

That’s what a Doomsday cupboard is. At the start of the month, or whenever we are paid, we buy all our food for the month. So if our income dries up, or an unexpected bill comes our way, grocery shopping is one less expense to think about. 

Non-perishables like tinned goods and frozen peas, or food that doesn’t spoil easily like potatoes are the best for stockpiling. See more of our tips on stockpiling.

As Quids in! would always say: Don’t fear the worst, just prepare for it. That’s why we call our personal little foodbank our Doomsday Cupboard!  In our free download (seen below) we teamed up with the food kit people at Foodini Club back in 2018 to create a cheap and easy plan to build our own ‘Doomsday Cupboard’. 

So whether we aim to save a month’s food costs, need to migrate to Universal Credit, or have to sit out an alien invasion, we’ll keep the family fed.

Image: Yuri A / Shutterstock

_{Updated August 2024}