Food waste. Help!

MrsX_2

Having taken stock of my situation I've trying to fathom out where my money goes.

One of the things I've realised I'm overspending massively on is food shopping.

There are two/three of us at home (OH is away for 2 or 3 days a week usually). I spend about £65 per week on a big food shop, but then can easily spend £10 at the local shop also.

I throw a massive amount of food away.

In part I have the best intentions, plan a fabulous balanced diet, but as I'm recovering the from serious illness at present I don't usually end up getting round to cooking the meals I planned and go out and buy pizza instead.

I'm also spending a couple of pounds a day on crisps and chocolate - comfort eating really as I'm at home alone all day, so I'm also getting fat into the bargain.

Anyone got any top tips? My plan this week is to try and eat from the fridge/cupboards, but could do with some long term menu planners for quick easy cheap nutritious meals (we're vegetarian).

krlyr

Do you have much freezer space? This probably saves me the most money - from buying the frozen version of things (often a fair bit cheaper) to bulk-buying a freezing (e.g. a sack of onions, diced then frozen, sack of potatoes prepped into wedges, mash, hash browns, etc. and frozen and so on). Also, having meals half or fully prepared in the freezer really helps with those cases of can't-be-bothered-itis! It's often much quicker to zap a portion of bolognese in the microwave and chuck some pasta in a pan than to go and buy a pizza or order a takeaway.
I often freeze 'elements' of a meal so I can mix and match to suit - saves having the same thing day in, day out and getting bored of it. So I'll have tubs of mashed potato, rice (favourite of ours is Mexican rice - rice cooked in stock and passatta with added jalapenos and kidney beans), etc. as well as bags of loose wedges, roasties, fries, etc. so we can grab out what we want. Whack together a mince and a mash for a cottage pie, just a portion of bolognese to stick on a jacket potato (you can even freeze cooked jackets to reheat quickly, though I don't bother as I tend to microwave ours then just 5 mins in the oven to crisp up), and so on.

I find freezing things helps with our particular situation, which is a bit similar to yours, in that my OH can be away for work every now and then, or having to work late so not home at dinner time. I can make an extra portion and keep it until he's in, I can cook for 2 and freeze his portion if he's away, and if he's home when I'm not (I'm out a couple of evenings a week, or he may be home during the day when I'm at work) he can easily microwave himself a meal without much hassle. It's so much more convenient for us, we really struggled when we moved house and had to leave the giant chest freezer behind - we soon went out and bought the biggest one we could fit in the new kitchen as we were wasting so much money on food shopping! It's definately paid for itself in savings.


You can even freeze cakes and things - I keep a few slices of chocolate cake (yummy served warm - just 1 min in the microwave - with icecream) or cookies (I tend to make the dough and freeze like this - 9 mins in the oven from frozen to fresh cookies) and I've found that having to go to a little more effort than just opening a packet in the cupboard means I'm less likely to boredom eat, but knowing they're in the house stops me buying extra snacks when shopping. Or you could try freezing fruit - apparently grapes go really sweet when frozen so good for those sweet tooth pangs and they won't go off either.

Lots of threads in here with recipes ideas but also another favourite of mine recently is Pinterest - the food & drink section has tons of pinned recipe ideas and you could always search for vegetarian options (though there's quite a few even if you're just browsing)

foxgloves

Lots of good advice in previous post. I think the answer is meal planning, drawing up your shopping list strictly from those plans & sticking to it. If you can do some batch cooking when you re feeling up to it, you can freeze meals in individual or bigger sizes so that you've got something quick to reheat instead of going for pizza. I've been down the 'Oh blow it, I'll send out for a pizza/take-away/buy something else unplanned beause it's quick' road & the top up shops are when the chocolate/crisp/biscuits also seem to jump unaided into the basket. It wastes money & puts weight on big-time.....weight I'm now getting off (over 5 stones to date) but the behaviour can take a bit of time to change once it's set as a habit. When you re meal planning, choose meals you think you'll really fancy eating when the time comes, pizza is fine now & again....in fact, I tend to make us a quick one when I've had the breadmaker on for making dough. You can make them healthier & a lot lower fat. It sounds like you know what the problem is, it's just a case of turning what you know into making new habits.

MrsX_2

I have a small freezer - trouble is, I often forget whats in there and its past its best by the time I come to it. Need to get organised I suppose.

Good news, I've made some carrot soup and I'm just about to make banaa loaf cake which I intend to freeze into portions for son to take in his packing up next week!

MrsX_2

foxgloves wrote: »

Lots of good advice in previous post. I think the answer is meal planning, drawing up your shopping list strictly from those plans & sticking to it. If you can do some batch cooking when you re feeling up to it, you can freeze meals in individual or bigger sizes so that you've got something quick to reheat instead of going for pizza. I've been down the 'Oh blow it, I'll send out for a pizza/take-away/buy something else unplanned beause it's quick' road & the top up shops are when the chocolate/crisp/biscuits also seem to jump unaided into the basket. It wastes money & puts weight on big-time.....weight I'm now getting off (over 5 stones to date) but the behaviour can take a bit of time to change once it's set as a habit. When you re meal planning, choose meals you think you'll really fancy eating when the time comes, pizza is fine now & again....in fact, I tend to make us a quick one when I've had the breadmaker on for making dough. You can make them healthier & a lot lower fat. It sounds like you know what the problem is, it's just a case of turning what you know into making new habits.

Yes, getting organised is the key, and being realistic, as I heaven't the energy more much cooking at the moment.

Well done on your weight loss. I suspect I've put a fair bit on over the last few weeks. I'll worry about that later!!!!

krlyr

One thing you can do is make an extra portion or two when you cook a meal, and freeze that. No extra work really, maybe peeling an extra spud or two, but seems a lot less hassle than going out of your way to batchcook, yet you gain an extra meal or two in your freezer! I often make enough mash for 4 or 6, for example, so we have 2 servings at dinner and freeze the extra 2/4. Less daunting than cooking up a whole sack of spuds in one day (which we often do, but sometimes we just can't face it!)

I bought a batch of plastic takeaway containers and write on them in Sharpie what they contain and when I froze them, helps me know what's what. Occasionally writing up a list of what we've got, trying to organise the drawers by contents, and keeping a mental tally help!

wm3010

I think one of the key things about menu planning is to make sure that you include at least one "cheat" night a week, and at least one storecupboard night too. For cheat night, I would usually have something defrosted from the freezer, and for the store cupboard night maybe something like pasta with pesto. It means that you have a couple of easy meals for if you are tired or short of time, and also means that if plans change and you can't cook for whatever reason, those items will stay in the cupboard/freezer for the following week and you won't have to throw anything away. Accepting that I am not going to be able to cook from scratch every night due to life getting in the way and loosely planning for that has actually made a big difference to the amount of waste we have in the house.

lostinrates

MrsX wrote: »

Yes, getting organised is the key, and being realistic, as I heaven't the energy more much cooking at the moment.

Well done on your weight loss. I suspect I've put a fair bit on over the last few weeks. I'll worry about that later!!!!

I often face the energy issue. I deal with that by making sure there are easy things to cook on the menu. E.g. Tonight is onion and garlic soup. It's home cooked, inexpensive, not unhealthy, and took a short while earlier to prep ( 15 mins) and is opin the oven on low for the afternoon. It could be done in a slow cooker.

Plus, it's enough for left overs or lunch tomorrow ( or a portion could be fridged for a meal after in the week or frozen for a ouple of weeks time).

MrsX_2

lostinrates wrote: »

I often face the energy issue. I deal with that by making sure there are easy things to cook on the menu. E.g. Tonight is onion and garlic soup. It's home cooked, inexpensive, not unhealthy, and took a short while earlier to prep ( 15 mins) and is opin the oven on low for the afternoon. It could be done in a slow cooker.

Plus, it's enough for left overs or lunch tomorrow ( or a portion could be fridged for a meal after in the week or frozen for a ouple of weeks time).

Yes, I'm very lucky that I was given a soup maker last year. Before I had one I woud have said it was a frivolity - but I use it at least once a week Fabulously easy, just chuck all the veg in - twenty mins later - delicious soup!

maman

When I was losing weight I either just didn't buy crisps or chocolate or I bought a few bits I really didn't like for DH so that I wasn't tempted.

I'd suggest you write an inventory of everything in your freezer and plan your meals from that (and your fridge and storecupboards) only buying essential items. Things don't go 'off' in your freezer, they might be slightly dry or something if they've been in there for years but they'll be OK to eat! Trust me I've done it!;))

MrsX_2

maman wrote: »

When I was losing weight I either just didn't buy crisps or chocolate or I bought a few bits I really didn't like for DH so that I wasn't tempted.

I'd suggest you write an inventory of everything in your freezer and plan your meals from that (and your fridge and storecupboards) only buying essential items. Things don't go 'off' in your freezer, they might be slightly dry or something if they've been in there for years but they'll be OK to eat! Trust me I've done it!;))

As it happens the freezer is more or less empty at the moment except for some burgers that have been there about two years!