Shopping too much?

IndigoGirl

I think anything that stops the accidental spending will help so yes to going for basics without him (if that's necessary although a tough talk might help with that). I find that if we go for 'just a few bits' we buy other stuff too so the fewer times you shop the better.

I agree that only taking the money you need will help. And do an inventory that you can take with you. Standing in the shop with a list showing you already have 20 tins of soup can be quite enlightening

There are two sides to holocaust shopping (my OH's term for my storecupboards). Firstly is that you must endeavour not to waste anything. If you're using everything up by the use buy date then really, as was said above (sorry, I missed who said it), you've probably given yourself a nice buffer for these tough times.

Secondly we got inventive. I came up with an idea to use our stash which actually caused us to expand our repertoire of meals and introduced some new things to our menu. We only really meal plan our weekday dinners as we work full time and don't get in until 5.45pm. Weekends we have more time so we have a vague plan but can be more flexible in getting food out of the freezer mid morning etc and making use of fresh stuff we buy on Friday evening. So, I set a challenge to use a different category of food each weekday. For example, we had categories of freezer 1, freezer 2, fridge, storecupboard and a lucky dip (a random repeat of one of the catgegories). each weekday we have to choose a meal based on something from that day's category. Naturally, you put things from other categories with it but you can't just go to the shop for the item you fancy. If you've chosen chicken from the freezer but you haven't got any potatoes left, then you're having chicken with rice or pasta or making a curry. It certainly makes you more original

I found this idea helped us actually save money too because we started introducing more basic meals on days which weren't 'freezer' category. It use to be the norm that we would base our meal around meat and work from there. When you're on a fridge day and there's no meat in there then you get ideas for something else that becomes your base ingredient. I found a renewed love of omelettes that way.

I completely understand how overshopping can happen. I remember times when I was little that we had next to nothing and also, when I was a carer for my mum in my 20s, it wasn't easy for me to get to the shops as I don't drive so I always made sure I had 'enough' in to feed us. It took me a while to realise my circumstances are very different now given that my OH drives and and the universe has invented online/home delivery shopping I'm more relaxed now but I still like a moderate store cupboard for those times when one of us is ill etc. I'm currently taking a 'use it or lose it' approach to everything, including food, which is helping us get through everything.