On a shopping drive to save money

[cjt110]

Realised in the last month (from online banking only) that we have spent £257 on shopping for me, DH and DS (21m). Last night did a meal planner and a pretend shop and realised we can eat well, planned for £150 a month saving us over £100.

I have said to DH I want to run down whats in the cupboards as we seem to be collecting more food that gets left there. How do you best run this down?

[HairsprayQueen]

You've answered your own question I think- meal planning!

Look at what you have already and build the meals of the week around it and only buy what you need to complete the meal (and the everyday stuff).

I get twitchy if I have too full cupboards so I often use stuff in other things ie. I had a can of ratatouille for some reason so added it to some (veggie) mince and made a nice pasta sauce, mushroom soup might be a casserole sauce etc

[cjt110]

I need to raid the cupboards tonight I think. We seem to have loads of ryvita and random bits.

[concertplayer]

A friend of mine goes to her local supermarket at 4.30/5 pm and returns with eg
meat/fish reduced to 75p , bread 10p. This all goes in the freezer.
Meal planning is a great idea. Mumsnet has these on the relevant pages
What I find that costs is not the meals themselves but all the extras.
Condiments, oil, etc