I like coffee; not any coffee that comes as a powder from a jar but proper, creamy, strong espresso. One of the few things I brought to England twenty years ago, apart from a suitcase of clothes, was a coffee percolator – only because I could not possibly carry a whole, big espresso machine. It is not only me – my husband and my oldest son like good espresso, albeit a bit less strong and with milk. Still rich and creamy! This is why we have Krups espresso coffee machine (the one on the picture) and all was well until last February its pump broke down.

To mend or not to mend, this was the question. Giving credence to our sensibilities (what about the environment, the landfills are filling too fast as it is, let’s save the resources of the planet, kind of thing) we decided to mend. We believed that mending our coffee machine also made financial sense: many personal finance management gurus will have us believe that mending our possessions and looking well after them saves money.

When reducing our spending, it is very tempting to try options that are universally considered inexpensive; such as camping, for instance. Succumbing to temptation and in the spirit of experimentation we went camping for the weekend. You should understand that for me this was a big step: the last time I went camping was over thirty years ago and my mum and I lasted only one night. After that, we packed the tent and moved in my auntie’s mountain hut. Funny story, I know; but it also means that I know next to nothing about camping, how to organise it, what is needed and generally how to survive it. Enjoying it is in an entirely different league.

When I asked my friend Elaine to write the articles on store cupboards there had already been some talk about it and I knew that she had worked hard to create one for herself and her family. We, however, were still resisting. Thinking about it, I have another friend who has a store cupboard – and although her reasons for creating and maintaining it are probably different it follows very similar rules to the one that Elaine has.

Once Elaine’s articles were in, and true to my promise that on this blog I will publish only practical suggestion I have already experimented with, we decided to ‘jump in’ with the masters of organisation and create our own store cupboard. We had to deal with three issues which very likely some of you are puzzling over as well. These were the issues of space, of construction and of content.

This post is the second article on store cupboards written by Elaine Colliar from Mortgagefreeinthree.com.

Well, start from first principles – what does your family like to eat? And from that what are the staple foods that can be safely stored?

In our case, we enjoy cooking and eating ethnic cuisines, so we knew that every week there was likely to be a “something” with rice, noodles or pasta.

Come up with a “rough” meal plans for the entire period you wish to create your stock cupboard for. If you plan for a month, you will create a plan 12 times per year. If you plan for a year, then you can just do this the once.

This article was written by Elaine Colliar from Mortgagefreeinthree.com. Thank you Elaine!

I resisted the idea of menu planning and creating a store cupboard for a very long time.  In my head I thought that laying in stores of food was something done by WI ladies, grandmothers and those who ate bland, unimaginative and plain food.  It couldn’t be something that we “modern foodies” would dabble in.

When I actually accepted that some forward planning was going to have to happen (as I quickly had to become used to a credit crunch food budget) I was, frankly, amazed at the savings in both time and money that quickly mounted up.

I found I relaxed about food, and no longer fretted that we didn’t have enough.  I no longer had cupboards full of food “and nothing for dinner” and my weekly spending on food tumbled by 75%.

Over the last eighteen months we have managed to reduce our monthly expenditure on food by between one third and a half. It is anybody’s guess how much we used to spend before my records began. But in December 2009, the first month of records, we spent on food £548.98. Yes I know December is not exactly a usual month and that is why I am not going to be comparing it with any odd one, but with December 2010 – our spending on food was £353.40. All else was the same – four adults and one growing up lad (all sons back home for Christmas); Christmas dinner that if anything was nicer in 2010; and our customary New Year’s Eve party for our friends. During a normal month now we spend about £280 on three adults and a growing up lad. This was achieved by applying the following four rules.