Do you shop weekly or monthly?

GreyQueen

I'm a city centre resident and a singleton and I shop every 2-3 days. I seldom spend more than £5 at a time but eat a lot of salad veggies and find that they get a bit tired if bought once a week.

I don't go out of my way to 'go shopping' - I go to small stores inc Liddy and Aldee when I'm passing right by them on foot or on the pushbike.

Today's shop was intentional for the sea bass and unintentionally for the blocks of cheese YS'd down to 33p each...........

I don't meal plan as it doesn't allow me the flexibility to make best use of YS bargains and what I feel like eating on any particular day. With a diet mainly comprising whole foods and a weekly spend in £10-£12 range, I feel I'm doing OK.

Islandmaid

I shop for 2.75 adults (DH, p/t DS and myself) and buy meat monthly then weekly shops for fresh veg and things like cat food, loo roll as is needed. I meal plan weekly but with a monthly overview i.e Chicken, Mince etc for meals based on my monthly meat purchase.

I think I would find it quite hard to organise if it were just for me and no car, I'd be tempted to shop daily, but I am 5 minutes away from an Aldi.

Hermia

I don't have a car so do a monthly online shop for store cupboard food as well as household stuff like loo rolls etc. I buy fresh produce every few days or just whenever I am out. Sometimes I might get a couple of bags of stuff from Lidl to last most of the week. Other times I might just buy a couple of items each day on my way home. I don't like frozen/tinned fruit/veg/meat that much so I like to buy little and often. There is a local veg box scheme so I am going to try that and see what I think.

Fusspot

SunnyGirl wrote: »

I live alone too and meal plan and shop online monthly. I buy 48 cans of dog food, cat litter etc so I don't have to carry all the heavy stuff myself. I did the same when all 3 children and my husband were at home too.

I buy fresh fruit and veg, frozen and tinned also enough milk and bread for the month so I don't have to go to the shops in between deliveries. This is partly for budget restraints (I'm a mature uni student with a part time job) and partly because I hate shopping I batch cook and freeze in portions for myself so use the fresh stuff first and throw very little food away.

I eat well, have more than my 5 portions of fruit and veg a day, eat plenty of lean protein in meat, eggs & pulses and a varied diet which is cooked from scratch.

Just being nosey, what foods do you batch cook? I am up and down with this, I get enthusiastic for it and then lose it all and it goes to pot.

Fusspot

Thanks for all your replies. I do find it easier to shop online for the heavy stuff. I also find batch cooking helps save shopping inbetween, that's when I can be bothered to do it

SunnyGirl

Fusspot wrote: »

Just being nosey, what foods do you batch cook? I am up and down with this, I get enthusiastic for it and then lose it all and it goes to pot.

Spag bol, chilli, keema, curry, casseroles, sauces for various pasta meals, lasagnes, cottage pies, pasties, soups.... I just find it easier for nights when I'm working or at uni I used to work 50+ hours a week so think it's an ingrained habit with me now. If I don't meal plan and batch cook I end up eating rubbish as I don't want to cook every night if the week. It's a form of laziness really :rotfl:

ETA: my mantra with it is always cook once eat twice. Although now I'm only cooking for me instead of a family of 5 I can eat more than twice from each cooking session!

[Deleted User]

I can't carry as much as I used to, so I'm shopping as often as every 2-3 days now. Tesco's don't like it, the money-off vouchers have dried up completely.

GreyQueen

jack_pott wrote: »

I can't carry as much as I used to, so I'm shopping as often as every 2-3 days now. Tesco's don't like it, the money-off vouchers have dried up completely.

I gave up using my clubcard, I rarely go over £5 a shop and spend £60-£70 a month at all venues, and all they'd offer me was the occasional £5 off a £25 spend. Pointless. And when they stopped doing that doubling up thingy a few times a year, it was the final straw.

I have one of those stylish two wheeled shopping trollies which you see everywhere these days and find them a great help when shifting heavier stuff as gorilla arms are so last century, dahling!

Fusspot

SunnyGirl wrote: »

Spag bol, chilli, keema, curry, casseroles, sauces for various pasta meals, lasagnes, cottage pies, pasties, soups.... I just find it easier for nights when I'm working or at uni I used to work 50+ hours a week so think it's an ingrained habit with me now. If I don't meal plan and batch cook I end up eating rubbish as I don't want to cook every night if the week. It's a form of laziness really :rotfl:

ETA: my mantra with it is always cook once eat twice. Although now I'm only cooking for me instead of a family of 5 I can eat more than twice from each cooking session!

Please tell me - how do you stay motivated Do you use your slow cooker to batch cook? I have tried this and then I find once I have frozen something I don't fancy it anymore so I end up eating rubbish. Also when you batch cook there's all the pots to deal with, even though it does make life easier afterwards.

SunnyGirl

I got rid of the slow cooker a while back as it was way too big once the kids left home so I use casserole dishes and pans. I cook one kind of meat when batch cooking and do it over a few days. For example, today I made myself a roast chicken dinner for tea and while the oven was on I cooked a bolognese sauce and a chilli in Pyrex dishes with lids. The chicken was eaten as a roast tonight, the other breast has been shredded and frozen for a pasta meal later in the month and the bolognese and chilli made 4 meals each from 750g of less than 5% fat minced beef. One lot of cooking equalled 11 meals where I don't have to cook :T

It's such an ingrained habit with me that I don't need motivation particularly. How about trying just one batch cooked meal this month? I don't know how many you're cooking for but even something like a spag bol where you double up the quantities and eat one and freeze one would be helpful?

As for the washing up I fling it all in the dishwasher which is about to finish now