I don’t know about you guys, but our weekly food bills have been going up and up over this last year. We do eat well, but it’s getting a bit crazy and so I’ve decided to try and do something about it.
Firstly, I’ve decided to move to fortnightly shopping. This should reduce the overall amount of food that we buy, as well as the “incidental” stuff that I tend to add to each shop.
Secondly, a stock-take.
We have two freezers which are pretty full – one holds meat and fish, and the other prepared foods and vegetables.
We also have an almost full pantry, (affectionately known here as The Panty) with stocks of olive oil, flour, tinned goods, potatoes, sauces and dried food like rice and pasta. Looking through what we’ve got stored makes me realise that I need to get much better at using what we already have.
Starting from this week I’m going to meal plan based on what we’ve got stored, and try and use that. It may mean dinners that are a little different to what we’d normally have (that means trying that tuna, pea and lemon pasta bake, Hugh!) but a bit of imagination goes a long way.
It should mean that any supplemental shops are small, for things like fresh milk, yoghurt and fruit, and all of that can be picked up easily from our local community store. I bake bread each week already: I’ll probably just need to do so a bit more frequently. I don’t think that either of us will have a problem with that.
Our last shop was on Friday and I’ve not planned another for the next two weeks, so wish me luck!
Bring on the lentil bakes!
Ravencroft Skye 
I see a bit of a mirror image of Mary Ann here!!!
R
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Haha! I have NO IDEA what you mean 😋
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It does take a shift in perspective, that’s for sure! It won’t take long to get used to it, though. Especially during the winter months.
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Thank you. I’ll give it my best shot 😎
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We try to occasionally do a week where we eat down the pantry. We call it “eating out” week (“we are eating out this week”), kind of as a joke because most people would use that to mean they were eating at restaurants all week, and this is quite the opposite. 🙂
With the price increases, I am trying to do it one week a month this winter.
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Excellent idea
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I used to buy a lot of stuff in bulk through a group who put a combined order into Suma every 2 months. Then found I was using food that was almost or actually out of date. I now reckon I need enough for 6 weeks max in case I am snowed in and / or am ill. And like you my food bills have gone up just when I have had some unusual large expenses like replacing the car so I have started shopping in Aldi for basics and eating more vegetarian and Vegan dishes. Good luck with your plans.
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Thank you. And good luck to you with eating more veggie dishes. They can be delicious!
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Good Luck! We have found that shopping fortnightly or monthly is the best way to keep the pantry stock turning over and to save money. We shop online now and have the groceries delivered to a nearby point. Shopping fortnightly means we order large amounts of a few staples then we make do with what we have until the next shop. We have been doing it for decades now (the online shop bit is new) and it has kept our food bill low, but we need to address the rising costs too. I’m not sure what else we can do without really.
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That sounds good. We’re a few weeks into this now and it seems to be working well. We’ve had to do an interim shop for a few fresh bits, but I’m getting much better at making meals from what we’ve got. 💪🏻❤️
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You will do really well,, you have a good planning mind and you are motivated.
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