If you do a weekly shop

[juneonthemoon]

Are you still managing or finding that use by dates have got shorter I can't work out how I used to be able to do a whole online shop which lasted a week. Could be that the Ds's eat more now (teenagers) but I think as well that use by dates have got much shorter. Shopping twice a week is too expensive. Any tips for making my shopping last a week rather than a few days?

Use the things that have a longer shelf life last, so onions, carrots swede.

Use things that are more delicate, spinach etc, first.

Or write a list of you have to shop again and stick to the list.

I always have to check dates on meat/ fish when they arrive and more often than not freeze stuff that I want to use later in the week.

I've tried writing a list and I do think I need to improve meal planning, but I think the use by dates have got shorter. I need to use the freezer more. And maybe think of more store cupboard stuff like pasta. It feels like it takes a lot more organisation than it used to for some reason.

Use the things that have a longer shelf life last, so onions, carrots swede

Thanks yes I may look at having things like jacket potato or a home made soup later in the week

I agree, use by dates do seem to be shorter. I always meal plan, use the things that go off first, plus freeze the meat or fish if I am not going to use it within a couple of days.

I think with the use by dates being less it's much harder to meal plan than it used to be as you don't know till it arrives. Maybe I'll go back to shopping 'in person' but that's time consuming. Or try a different online delivery I wonder if some are better than others.

I add a note on some items, asking for a long shelf date.

That's what I do too, and I cook earlier in the week so stuff is used up by batch cooking and freezing

I use asda and find their dates are good

Meal plan.

For some meals, make a big batch and freeze. For instance, a chili could be eaten with rice, over a jacket potato, with brown rice and quinoa, wedges, turned into a hash, in a wrap (different meals with one base to add variety).

For fresh meals, work out what you need and when. Purchase accounting for the dates.

Towards the end of the week make a veggie stew/soup/one pot/veggie shepherd's pie/curry/pasta sauce - whatever to use up anything that may be on the turn to stop waste.

When I cook meals, I do it by use by date. Fresh fish, seafood and more delicate veg is used first.

Things like beef stew with root veg is cooked last.

Assuming you work week days and have weekends off, I would order shop to come Saturday morning, make a meal plan, anything that doesn't come or has a short date, freeze if possible eg. Mince and use if not eg. Salad, then pick up a small shop if necessary.

I find Lorna feed your family for £20 a week has great advice on freezing, batch cooking, etc. her recipes usually have swaps for the ingredients if you don't have things in, and alternative cooking methods eg. Hob or microwave, slow cooker or hob, air fryer or oven etc. she has lots of recipes for all those odd bits you end up with, and I think she does a big shop once a month, so makes very efficient use of the freezer, store cupboard etc.

I do a big monthly shop now, and pick up little bits as and when we need them, eg, milk, salad and bread.

yes. I’ve bought a couple of things recently without checking the ubd and found when I got home they only had a day or two left. More fool me. Will make sure I check now.

We use tesco delivery saver plan and get two deliveries £40-£50 a week. It also gives us more flexibility - if teen goes out dh and I will sometimes be lazy and have a soup and sandwich for dinner instead and the meal planned the next day. We find it also reduces our food wastage.

I'm in Australia and have been having a similar issue. Due to having a smallish freezer i have to watch what i order and separate packs of meats etc. I'd usually put in the fridge and then do that when i have time but have had to throw chicken out a few times as the use by date was passed within a day or 2

I stopped getting Sainsbury’s delivery online as I found their dates so super short I almost felt they were off loading their short life products onto me.

Yes you need to plan what days to have stuff around the dates. Eat shorter date stuff earlier and either freeze stuff that won’t last or cook it and then refrigerate.

Thanks so much for all the replies here, really helpful. I'm going to try ASDA or Tesco and try planning it a bit more carefully and think up stuff for the last few days of the week which has a long shelf life.

I think use by dates have got shorted and also noticed now quite a lot of fruit and veg no longer has a best before date - I know the supermarkets argue it's to reduce waste but I think they are using it as an excuse to foist less fresh stuff on to us. We're not precious about best before dates in our house or even use by on certain things, but feel like quite a lot of the 'fresh' fruit and veg on my weekly Ocado is nowhere near as fresh as it should be.

The way we plan is shop delivered Sat, and do our meal plan to use fresh salad/veg by Tues dinner, and more based around frozen veg Wed - Fri. Eg any meals based on stir fry, or say with salad as a side we have at the weekend or Mon.

I’ve found Morrisons online really bad for use by dates.. especially with meat. Sometimes expiring on the next day. I think they try to get rid of the things with short dates that no-one will buy in store.

I often freeze meat as it arrives with a shorter date than I need. We use a lot of frozen veg so that's less of an issue too

Ocado has long dates on most things. It's picked straight from the warehouse, so doesn't have that middle point of being on a shelf for a while. Also minimal substitutions (as you're not at the mercy of other shoppers who might pip your order picker to things).

I've had this issue a huge amount with sainsburys in the past couple of months.
Ocado sent me a 25% off voucher so used that this week - so much better!

If I have ordered a whole chicken, for example, on a Wed to eat on Sun, I will always ask in the note for at least that date. This is Waitrose though, don' t know if you can do that elsewhere. Anything that is short date gets frozen.