How often do you shop for food?
One of the biggest changes since I started my latest book and blog is how often I shop. There was a time when I used to try and get the weekly shop over in one go. Usually at the supermarket. Now I shop three or four times a week.
Admittedly I now have the luxury of small independent food shops just down the road but it’s not just that. Even though I made a list I realised just how much unnecessary food I was buying.
This was the typical senario. At the end of the week I’d make a list of the things I usually bought. I did a quick check to see what we needed in terms of staples but rarely checked things like spices and seasonings. I went to the supermarket and then decided on the basis of what I found there what we would eat and tried to remember what other ingredients I had at home.
My eye would also be caught by special offers, new lines and assorted other products I hadn’t tried and thought looked interesting and into the trolley they’d go. There were various ‘just in case’ purchases for if we needed a scratch meal. An extra loaf, for example or some salami. There were always several kinds of cheese.
Sometimes I’d get home and find I didn’t have a key ingredient to make the meal I’d planned so I had to pop out again. And usually picked up a few other things then too.
Result: the week invariably panned out in an unxpected way with us being out more than I had envisaged and I ended up having to chuck about a third of what I’d bought (the norm for the average UK household)
Now I’m a lot more rigorous about what I buy. Change number one is focussing on the next couple of days rather than the week ahead. Do we actually need to go to the shops at all or can we survive from what’s in the fridge, freezer or storecupboard? Almost always the answer is yes. Occasionally we might have run out of bread so one of us goes out and buys a loaf - and that’s it.
When I do shop I try and focus on a particular shop I like or a farmers' market. Again I try and focus on a short time span - 2-3 days. If we’re having friends round I try not to over-buy (that’s the hardest bit). If we’re not I try to force myself to be honest about how much we’ll actually eat, however tempting the produce looks. If it’s a supermarket trip I try to go out with a list and stick to it rigorously. The only impulse buys I allow myself are special offers on non-perishable goods like tea, coffee or cans of tuna.
I’m certainly not being smug about this strategy. It doesn’t always work - witness this blow-out a few weeks ago at a particularly tempting food shop I reported in my blog (a bit like a dieter having a binge). But I would say I’ve cut my food bills by at least 20%
What helps this whole enterprise is that we don’t have a freezer or - incredibly in the 21st century - a freezer compartment in the fridge of the flat we’re renting which means I can’t buy fresh produce that looks tempting and freeze it. Which is no bad thing. You somehow never get round to using it and a few months on it never looks quite so tempting. It - or something like it - will be there next time you shop, tell yourself. And it will.