being organised

I can well empathise! But, as already said, Baby Steps! Change doesn't happen overnight, but it's as much about routine as organisation. Do anything for 4wks and it becomes a habit (so I'm told! LOL)

Menu Planning, Shopping Lists:-

Start by simply writing down each day on your calendar what you've had that day to eat. (Seems studies have been done on this subject and we tend to rotate only about 20-30 meals!)

After one month you will now have a comprehensive menu plan! From that, you can then draw up your shopping list.

Be aware of how many slices of bread you get in your loaf - how many sandwiches would that make? How many loaves would you need for a week for your toast/sandwiches?

When drawing up your shopping list, check your pantry/fridge/freezer to see what you already have - if you've already got it, cross it off your list!

I have recently bought (reduced in Sainsbury's) a recipe box file. I've turned the index tabs round and written the days of the week on each one.
I have gone over our most used meals/recipes and main ingredients and assigned them a day of the week: e.g Sunday - roast; Monday - mince; Tuesday - cold cuts (planned l/overs) and so on. Whatever.
Then, filed behind each day of the week and it's main ingredient, I keep all the recipes I can find for that particular ingredient. So, in the example above, behind Monday's tab, I will have recipes for, Spag Bol, chilli, meatloaves, etc. Once I have used the recipe for the Monday of that week (ie. chilli) , it gets put at the back of that section so I have a new Monday mince meal recipe for the next week, which means I could go 7 weeks before I get to chilli again. If I see a new recipe for mince I'd like to try, I'll copy it onto a recipe card and file it under Monday

One night a week, I look at the front card for each section to see which recipes I'll be having that week and draw up my shopping list from there. I write the meals on the calendar under their relevant days too, so I don't get sidetracked/forget.
The slow cooker and freezer mean that, if I'm making a chilli, I can make double and freeze half. That also reduces my need to shop so frequently.
The bread machine prevents me from running out of bread and I keep a store of Long Life milk in the utility room so I won't run out.

Getting into a routine of organisation is the key - no matter which method you use.

Queenie

I agree with you about the breadmaker. I never thought I would be able to bake bread! Everyone loves the stuff and queue up when it is still hot.

My slowcooker has been a real blessing and is on every day.

As summer is approaching and kids are getting in the mood for ice cream - I have ordered a cheap ice cream maker so that I can make my own sorbets etc - not only should I save money but I will know what is in the stuff!

Fancy tubs of ice cream for nearly £4 a tub are obscenely priced and with six of us in the house would cost a fortune.!!!!

I think this is where I begin to really love my freezer It's a huge 20 cubic foot one that I bought second hand so many years ago that I can't even remember now. It cost me the grand price of £20 because the handle was missing. I can freeze enough milk and bread for a month and still have enough room for meat and veg too. It lives in the leanto conservatory and I paid an electrician to put a socket out there just for the freezer.

What I also do is keep a couple of Tesco Value longlife milk's in the cupboard, no one like drinking these but they are great if you only have enough milk left for breakfasts and coffees but you want to make a sauce or something else requiring milk.

Yuk to UHT or dried milk - none of us like it. As for an extra penny or two a pint for doorstep milk, make that an extra 20p a pint or thereabouts. At 6 pints a day, I can't justify that.

It's £1.27 for milk (2.2 ltrs) at my local papershop-come-store and only £1.17 at the local village Co-op. Twice as far to walk, but I need the exercise anyway.

On that note - the milk in the Co-op used to be only £1.09. When I was saying to a neighbour I met in the shop that I saved almost twenty pence a time whcih saved me a quid a week (since I used five then) that was fifty quid a year! Then I realised that the shop manager was ear-wigging behind us. Next time I went shopping the price had hiked to £1.17

Bread prices? I make all my own. Not just cheaper but no waste either.