Well, we’re officially in a recession, some are predicting a depression. The latest trend suggest we may be heading for another dip - a sort of ‘W’ shape for the economy. Lots of people are losing their jobs. How safe is yours?

Very few people have a totally safe job, and even those that have managed to hang on are coping with pay cuts and shorter hours.

This is where a well-stocked larder comes into its own. Most people these days buy food as they need it - but there are problems with this:

• The more often you go to the supermarket, the more often you buy things you don’t really need - especially if you have kids in tow.
• You waste petrol/diesel/LPG by going to the supermarket more often.
• You are at the mercy of price changes.
• Why do you want to spend wasted hours going up and down the aisles and in checkout queues?

If, like me, you only have a mere cupboard in your kitchen for food storage, you’ll need to find somewhere. I use a spare bedroom - well, the one the estate agent called a bedroom, but won’t actually take even a single bed without some severe modification. Some shelves, and salvaged bookshelves, gave me lots of room to store tinned and dried food.

Why should you do it? See list above - and then think about the future. If you lose your job, and you’re well-stocked, there’s no immediate panic about where the next meal is coming from - you can use your larder to ease the financial strain of job loss. You’ll have more time. You’ll spend less money. There’ll be less stress in your life.

How to stock up? Well, firstly, don’t buy stuff that no-one will eat. Eat what you store, and store what you eat. Make any changes to diet, especially with children, gradually. Get creative with menus and recipes - I’ll be publishing lots of tasty recipes for wholesome meals with tinned, preserved and dried foods. And I can guarantee that none of them will be long winded, so those of you who are busy need not spend forever in the kitchen.

Secondly, make like the stock market and buy when the price is low - take advantage of twofers and bogofs as well as reduced prices and offers. Don’t forget coupons where they are available - look online. If the price is good, don’t just get one or two tins - get 4 or 6! They won’t go off! At present, I have 4 jars of coffee in my store as Morrison’s have an offer on Gold Blend at £3/jar. Before the offer finishes, I may get another 2 jars. I like Gold Blend. Now I’ve mentioned online, search for manufacturers offering free samples as well as coupons - the samples usually come with a coupon anyway.

Thirdly, if you don’t already, include Lidl or Aldi in your shopping run. They have some excellent and unusual foodstuffs in their canned and jar range, as well as a raft of brand names. I went to Lidl today, and they have a lot of offers.

Fourthly, buying some things in bulk can save a lot of money - and time. For instance, I buy kilo bags of kibbled onions from sausagemaking.org (about half way down the page). These are excellent in taste, convenient and money saving as you only use what you need - no onion halves in the fridge stinking out the rest of your food. Be careful though - not all bulk packages save you money.

Finally, practice first-in, first-out with your food stores - use the oldest-dated first. It just needs a little discipline. Once a week, check the dates on your stores and move anything with less than a month to a separate area - or into your kitchen, so you know it has to be used soon.

Since I started my *ahem* walk-in larder, I’ve spent much less money on foodstuffs (even though I’ve been stocking up), less petrol or LPG for the car, less time on shopping AND I can cope with the unexpected, whether that consists of unplanned visitors, hungry students or cash flow problems. I feel more secure and sleep easier.