Shopping and planning meals

Food is one of the larger household expenditures and the one where behaviour changes produce the fastest saving.

The plan

Which need not be elaborate.

Deciding roughly what will be eaten across a week, before shopping, addresses most of the problem.

Not a rigid schedule — a list of meals that can be made in any order, which allows for how the week actually goes.

The key step: check what is already in the house first, and build the plan around using it.

Most households buy things they already have because nobody looked.

The list

What makes it effective.

Organised by the layout of the shop, which reduces both time and the incidental purchases that occur while walking back for something forgotten.

Written from the plan rather than from memory.

Including the quantities, which prevents both over-buying and returning for more.

And adhered to, which is where most of the saving is.

Research on shopping behaviour consistently finds that unplanned purchases are a substantial proportion of supermarket spending, and that a list reduces them.

The environment

Which is designed to increase spending.

Staples placed at the back so the whole shop is walked.

High-margin items at eye level.

Promotions at the ends of aisles, which are the most valuable positions and which are not necessarily the best value.

Larger trolleys, which correlate with larger purchases.

None of this is sinister and all of it is deliberate, and shopping with a list, having eaten, is the practical response.

Where the savings actually are

Unit price rather than pack price, which is displayed on shelf labels and which frequently shows that the larger pack is not cheaper.

Own-brand products, which for many staples are produced in the same facilities as branded equivalents.

The difference is worth testing rather than assuming.

Loose rather than packaged produce, which is generally cheaper and allows buying the quantity actually needed.

Seasonal produce, which is cheaper and better.

Reduced items, where the plan can accommodate them and where they will actually be used or frozen.

Cheaper cuts of meat, which suit slow cooking and cost substantially less.

Pulses and grains, which are among the cheapest sources of nutrition available.

Shopping less frequently, since each visit generates incidental purchases.

Where the waste is

Household food waste studies consistently identify the same items.

Bread, salad, fresh produce, dairy and prepared foods.

Which are the items bought optimistically and used less than intended.

The responses: buy less of them more often; freeze bread; store produce correctly, as discussed elsewhere on this site; and plan a meal that uses whatever is approaching its limit.

A defined shelf for things that need using, checked before cooking anything, addresses a substantial proportion.

The realistic plan

Where elaborate systems fail.

Planning every meal for a week generally collapses by Wednesday.

What works is planning four or five, leaving two or three flexible, and having components in the freezer for the evenings when nothing goes to plan.

A short list of dishes that can be made from store cupboard ingredients alone is the practical insurance against the takeaway that a difficult evening otherwise produces.

Prices and comparison

Worth noting.

Prices for identical items vary substantially between retailers, and several comparison tools exist.

Loyalty pricing has become significant in several markets, with substantial differences between member and non-member prices, which is worth being aware of.

And discount retailers are genuinely cheaper for staples, with a narrower range, which for many households makes a split shop the economical approach.

The habit that matters most

If only one thing changes.

Check what is in the house, write a list, and buy what is on it.

This single practice addresses most of the overspending and most of the waste simultaneously, and it takes ten minutes a week.

Storing what you bring home

The last step of shopping, and the one that determines how much of it gets eaten.

Put the new items behind the existing ones, which is the single practice that stops food expiring at the back.

Portion and freeze anything bought in quantity, on the day, rather than intending to.

Separate anything that ripens quickly from things that ripen it — apples and bananas produce ethylene, which accelerates everything stored nearby.

Refrigerate what belongs in the refrigerator and keep out what does not, since tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic and unripe fruit are all worse for being chilled.

And put the things that need using soonest where they will be seen, since visibility determines what gets cooked.