I invested in the largest chest freezer I could find at the time :) MIL would have fit in it, (if she bent her knees, LOL) and then I did bulk shopping every two weeks. Cooked in bulk, and froze it. It meant I could take advantage of huge special offers, I shopped at cheap Butchers on Market day, took advantage of seasonal vegetables, reduced stuff in supermarkets, etc. I once managed to make a months worth of real homemade tomato soup, for about 39p per quite large bowl, which actually only lasted about two weeks because it was so nice (no one in my family likes tomato soup ...so it was bit of a risk! ) I sat down, once a week, with all my recipe books, and went through them all, creating menus for two weeks ahead, then wrote my list, and got only those ingredients. It was hard work and I could only organise myself like this in the evenings, once the kids were in bed. However, it saved an absolute fortune. I filled the family up first, with homemade soup, some warm crusty bread, and then the main meal, which didn't require as much main meal. It's all cheats really, and the bulk cooking and freezing saves you time in the long term, especially if you're too knackered one evening. Just drag dinner out of the freezer, it's one you prepared earlier (3 months ago!). It also works well if you have unexpected guests, like uninvited bloody in laws, like I did. I cooked everything from scratch. No additives, etc. No weird ingredients, e.g. high salt, saturated fat, that kind of shit. I always knew EXACTLY what my family was eating. It's hard work, really hard work, but persevere, and it becomes easier, honestly. I did the shopping on a Friday and spent Saturday cooking. As I built up the contents of the freezer, I had to shop less, cook less, and only needed to do a "topping up" session occasionally. The menus were so varied, we rarely ate the same thing twice a month. As I say, very hard work initially, but SO worth it xx