Frequent shopping saves me money

ch3shirecat4

I do think sometimes when you do one big shop things do tend to get wasted but working full time I definitely do not have the time to go and pick bits up 3-4 times a week, but for someone thats retired i suppose its a good way to get you out the house 

Pollycat

The key to not wasting food is to meal plan, basing it on what's in your freezer, what's on offer at the supermarket and what's seasonal.
I have done meal plans for many years, partly to take advantage of family packs of mushrooms, peppers etc in a number of dishes.
I have Excel worksheets dating back to mid 2017 after deciding that was easier than a paper list. I can look back and see what we were eating this time last year, the year before etc.

How many people have dashed out to buy the limited tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber etc with no plan of what to do with them apart from 'they're in short supply so I'd better stock up'?
And how much of that panic buying will be in next week's rubbish bin?

I use tomatoes, lettuce & cucumber quite a lot as we sometimes have BLT paninis, pita bread with salad and wafer thin meat for lunch.
I have enough to do pita bread with salad & home made lamb kebab tonight and Greek salad to go with the home-made moussaka tomorrow. Today's lunch will be bacon and brie paninis as I don't have enough tomatoes to do BLT.

OH does a big shop for heavy items between 1 and 2 weeks.
I pop to the local Aldi once a fortnight to get specific things we like.
As I'm in town most days, I'll pop into Tesco Express to see if there are any YS items.
I will only buy other stuff from there if it's the same price as in Tesco Extra or if it's something we really need.

pumpkin89

Pollycat said:

The key to not wasting food is to meal plan, basing it on what's in your freezer, what's on offer at the supermarket and what's seasonal.

That's one way of doing it and works very well for some people.  An equally good alternative, at the other end of the organisation spectrum, is to develop your cooking knowledge/skills to be able to make a good meal out of whatever ingredients are on hand (like Ready Steady Cook).

I am always surprised by how inflexible people are with recipes - it's easy to swap one protein for another, add in extra vegetables that need using up, etc.

EasyToAssemble01

I shop almost daily at my local Morrisons. I find it can save me money  if I'm disciplined.

I tend to hit the yellow sticker fridge (as I've worked out the times it's stocked up), and will tend to build meals around the stuff I find there, and avoid buying random stuff I don't need. Doesn't always work of course (wouldn't you be tempted by an 80p trifle?).

Plus, now my freezer really needs a clearout, so I'm just paying full price atm, so I can make complete meals around what needs to be used.