How do proper grown ups grocery shop?

Plasticman

We're never sure how many people we're going to be feeding from one day to the next so it's a challenge! We shop once a week - generally the same things that we know we can make meals from. We keep the freezer and cupboard well stocked. At the end of the week any leftovers that won't keep get thrown into the slow cooker and are eaten (and frozen if there's more that we can eat). We have very little food waste that way.  

littlegreenparrot

I have a veg box delivery every week and plan what I'm going to eat around the contents. 

I like it because it arrives, means I get variety that wouldn't occur to me otherwise, I automatically eat more fruit and veg, and don't actually have to make decisions  

I only plan a few days in advance, and deliberately try to have nice leftovers in the fridge for lunches and laziness. 

So- tonight I'll cook the last portion of some chinese chicken thighs that came out of the freezer yesterday, roast veg, and apple crumble. There are three bits of chicken, 1 will be dinner, the other two will be stripped off the bone and put in the fridge. 
The roast veg will be dinner plus leftovers to go into salads for lunch. Apple crumble will use up sad apples and be breakfast for the next few days. 

Following days dinners will involve leftover chinese chicken....probably salad ish or stir fry things as the veg that need using would suit that and it won't involve the oven. 
 

YorksLass

We have an online delivery twice a month for the bulky/heavy stuff - with a limit on the spend per shop.  The weeks in between are top up shops or an in person visit to the SM for the odds and ends that might be out of stock or not stocked at all by the online supplier.  It's also an opportunity to look for ys items.

I meal plan weekly, Saturday to Friday, but it's flexible to allow for any ys bargains or left overs.  As another poster said, it also serves as a reminder to take things out of the freezer in a timely fashion.

pumpkin89

This thread is fascinating!  The basis of my shopping list comes from checking the offers page of my preferred supermarket online.  I bulk buy things we use regularly when they're on offer (washing capsules, toiletries, tea/coffee, tins etc.) so rarely run out of those and don't have to think about needing them.  Before I go shopping I add to the list any fresh essentials that I don't want to forget, plus any requests from DH.

Aside from anything we really liked the look of in the offers, the meal planning is done on the hoof as I walk round the supermarket.  For example, I'll select some meat/fish based on what looks good and/or is discounted, and buy vegetables that go with it.  I guess to an extent this relies on being quite a good cook and not using recipes (at the end of the week, I look at what's left in the fridge and design a meal based on it).

I would say you can keep doing what you're doing, but take it a step further - so if you've picked up an item you fancy, think about what you'll have with it and buy the other ingredients at the same time.

sarahj1986

So for us/me the best way of doing our family shop is as follows

1, big monthly shop when I’m paid. This will include the built heavy items like fizzy drinks, toilet rolls, tins, cans, freezer items etc

2, smaller shop 2/3 times per month there on after however it all depends if I need fresh items. The summer for example we eat more salad so I tend to buy that twice a week as we eat it so quickly 

the big shop I try to plan at least 10 days of meals within that. I also look at my entire inventory. Do I need more foil? Do I need more cheese? What snack/breakfast items do we have? Lunch ideas etc 

after that it’s weekly meal plan. I always have back up items in the freezer like pizza, wedges, nuggets that kinda thing

FairyPrincessk

This is such an interesting thread--probably partly because working out a system for us and then tweaking it periodically has taken awhile.  There are only two of us and we both work relatively long hours. I often work from home and so can sometimes get something started earlier in the day, but not always. These days accomodating some medical dietary needs, eating healthy and saving time come out a bit ahead of saving money, but that wasn't always the case and saving money is still important--we do stick to a budget, it is just more generous than it was previously. At different points different priorities have tweaked what we do, but I always start with a menu plan and then make a shopping list from that. We we first started this, my OH found it difficult to know how economical a meal was, so we roughly costed things out for a few years and it is now second nature to him to eye up a recipe. We also keep a running stock of staples like vinegars, flours, tinned tomatoes, tinned beans etc. and I keep a list in the kitchen for when those need replenishing.

I do have a list of our main meals. There are probably about 40-50. Some require more time or pertain to a particular season and others are marked with a star to indicate they will produce a 'double cook' by which I mean we cook once and eat it for two days (not always consecutively).  I also have a selection of 'quicker' meals and very economical meals, depending on what is needed most at the moment. The weekly menu plan is usually pretty flexible although I will make sure there are either enough double cooks or quick meals to deal with nights we're both late getting home and I usually either try to make something that takes longer or a new recipe on a Saturday which keeps it from feeling too bleak when we have lots of late nights and 2-3 'double cook meals' filling the rest of the week.

I often fill in part of the menu plan for the following week when I start one for the current week as I know there will be something excess/leftover, something ready in the garden, or something we fancy, but I'll also look at what is on Aldi Super 6 and think about what is in season and therefore cheaper as a starting point.  We eat very little meat, but when we did I would factor in meat offers. One key thing is that I always check our schedules for the week before I start. There are frequently nights where one or the other of us eats at work, so whoever is home has free choice for something--sometimes it is a 'treat' type food, other times something knocking about in the fridge that needs using or something from the freezer that was leftover in a single portion. We shop weekly and start at Aldi and then head to Tesco for things we can't get at Aldi.  We have a monthly shopping budget and I know approximately what we should spend on average each week. Some weeks cost more because we need, for example, a big bottle of olive oil and toilet roll etc. but I keep an eye on it and try to have cheaper weeks to balance it out.

We do have milk delivery and I try really hard to keep us out of the SM for top up shops.  My OH eats the same thing for breakfast every day and usually takes it to work, I eat a rotation of a few things but decide what I'm going to have before we shop and we both make lunches so I plan for those too.

We started this to save money--and it definitely saves money, even if I don't always choose the cheapest option--but it also saves us a lot of time and exhaustion in the evenings and means we eat significantly healthier.  I imagine if we didn't do this that we'd stop off and 'pick things up' at the SM when tired, which would involve a lot less veg. It would probably also increase from our 2 takeaways/year!

That said, I don't think there is 'one right way' I think it varies a lot by circumstances. If we lived nearer big supermarkets and had the time, I'd probably do a lot more yellow sticker based shopping which means a lot less pre-planning. Likewise if we grew more than the handful of veg we do now, I'd probably try to more flexibly account for what is in the garden. During the pandemic we had fortnightly deliveries to save spending too much on delivery charges. It definitely cost us a lot more than going to Aldi and we noticed a big savings when we went back to shopping in person.

MatyMoo

I cook just for me but I do a lot of batch cooking at weekends, things like curries, Spaghetti Bol Sauce, Stews, Casseroles, Chilli, mince are done on a rota basis. I always make enough for 6-8 and freezer in double portions as I’m happy to eat the same things two nights in a row. in the week I can defrost and then only need to heat and cook rice/pasta/potatoes.

Things work slightly different in summer when I prefer eating salads though!

Rosa_Damascena

I shop quite frequently these days on the way back from work - when I was at home I would make the effort and walk. I don't meal plan, but buy with value in mind and often YS items. The cost of my shopping has gone up a great deal - gone are the days of £10-15 pw - but I do also waste a lot of stuff I cannot freeze. Bagged salads always seem like a good idea when going for a few pence but never last long.

Siebrie

I buy the main ingredients once a week; I had it down to every 2 weeks, but dds grew up, and changed hobbies so I'm no longer next to Aldi every Thursday while dd2 is doing gymnastics.

I compiled a list of which items and how many of them we use a month. Before I go shopping, I check if we have at least that number in stock. If not, I buy. If I find it on sale, I buy more.

Husband cooks once a week (we eat twice), I cook once a week (we eat twice), dds (11 and 14) cook at the weekend, on Friday's it's takeaway. The takeaway started during covid/lockdown as a way to introduce dds to different cuisines when we couldn't travel there. We take turns, and McD counts as American , Ikea as Swedish. We are on the hunt for a nice pizzeria and a decent Chinese.

There are always (parts of) meals in the freezer, for instance pasta sauce is cooked in 3 liters, portioned and frozen.

My shopping list always includes carrots, cucumber, apples, grapes, tinned tomatoes in whatever incarnation, pasta, broccoli, leeks, potatoes. Rice and couscous gets bought in bulk. I try to spend not more than €2/kg on veg, €3/kg on fruit (or max €0.50/portion) (this boils down to buying in season, although at the moment 1 pineapple is cheaper than 8 apples )

florianatwobob

We’ve got 4 adults in our house. I tend to do ‘a big shop’ about once a month for meat & fish (mince, naked chicken, emergency fish fingers, pork slices etc),  frozen veggies, cereal and so in. 

Every 2-3 months or so for tinned stuff, I need to have a good stash of tinned tomatoes (they’re like a food security blanket for me)  baked beans, chickpeas and kidney beans. 

There’s normally a weekly top up for bread, milk and anything we’re unexpectedly short of/need fresh (like salad). 

I have no shopping loyalty so depending on what’s needed I’ll go with Ocado, Sainsbury’s or Iceland with a dash of M&S and Waitrose if I need convenience.