How do we food shop once every 2 weeks?

[Heyaa]

And stick to it? Food is one of our biggest expenses. rather than buying rice in bulk which is relatively cheap anyway?? 🙄I was thinking how else to stretch our money further. we’ve first gone to see about using up the bits we have and buying a few bits that we need to go with it, we’ve saved money this week doing that, then were going to aim for a shop once every 2 weeks, but first need some idea to attempt it. Was thinking long life milk to save us going for top ups

A decent sized freezer is key. Most milk will keep over a week and then you can freeze the extra you need.

Frozen veg is nutritious and cheap.

Get a second hand bread machine from eBay or GumtreeUK and make your own fresh bread. It’s actually cheaper as well as nicer and the machine will quickly pay for itself.

I shop every 8-10 days. We eat fresh food at beginning of week and frozen later on. I freeze milk, bread, batch cook and freeze, mash potatoes and freeze.
To make sure I've got enough meals I meal plan every meal and have a list of them on the freezer which I cross of as we go along to make sure we use the fresh foods first.

I’m not sure I can be bothered to make my own bread and it is cheap anyway. We already meal plan but always run out of stuff every week

I would alternate a big shop and a perishable essentials shop, so milk, bread (unless willing to freeze), and any fruit or veg that won't last more than a week. You will still need the same amount of food so I'd only see savings on bulk buying.

If you shop online, check the unit price. On Ocado I sort by Price per unit (low to high). It's surprising how sometimes the bigger packs are not the lowest - but then it may change and next month they are cheaper. Special offers obviously make a difference too. I buy very few brands rather than own brand. That saves a bit too.

If you don’t want to freeze milk, try the filtered version - stays fresh for 7 days after opening, and ‘use by’ is generally dated 3-4 weeks from purchase. Per litre, it costs more than standard non-filtered, but less than long life.

Cooking once and eating twice, freeze the other portion. This reduces oven usage and cooking preparation time. Bean chilli con carne, spaghetti bolognaise, lasagna, chicken casseroles are all classic dishes you can cook the first week and then freeze and eat the second week.

Store cupboard dishes, so finding dishes that you like that are easy to cook from store cupboard items and items that are kept in the freezer - for example pasta, pesto with green beans and bacon. https://www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/collection/easy-storecupboard-recipes/. google for ideas

I always stock up on tuna tinned and anchovies, as I have a couple of dishes I make using these two fish.

Making your own bread, buying yeast and flour, salt and sugar. Either get a cheap bread machine on Facebook market place or use a dough hook on a food mixer. Bread is such an expensive pop to the shops mid week.

Tinned fruit for the end of the second week, apples keep better than most other fruit.

Get a milk man, they will often deliver bread, cheese and other bits you may run out of and although slightly more expensive its cheaper than going to the shops. The apps mean you pay for the items before they are delivered.

We cook once and eat an average of three times, but there are only two of us. I only freeze if I make enough for more than three nights in a row, or if we have something else planned, or if I need to cook again a day early as there is no time the next day. It makes meal planning easier to only cook two or three times a week.

Our main fruits at the moment are frozen blueberries, bananas (freeze for smoothies when overripe), pineapple (fresh and tinned) and strawberries. Only strawberries need eating within a few days so we could make it work for two weeks. Vegetables, I would need to buy mushrooms every week.

Dinner tonight could have easily been made after not shopping for a fortnight. Lamb I got out of the freezer last night, and I also used onions, garlic, carrots, beetroot, and tinned tomatoes.