The Weekly Shop

I might be a bit odd, but I actually enjoy grocery shopping. Personally, I think it's the thought of eating all that food that excites me the most.

Doing your weekly shop needn't be an arduous task. With a little planning, you'll not only save yourself time and money, you'll also reduce the amount of food wasted and remove the daily stress of what to cook each night.

So here are some of my ideas to make the most out of your grocery shopping.

1. Start the night before with a fridge clean. Remove anything dead, dying or inedible from your fridge. Also use this time to do a little stocktake of what you have available in both your fridge, freezer and pantry.

2. Write a meal plan. I created a little document (shown below), which I printed off, and I write down all my meals for the week. On the back I have a shopping list (also shown below) to write down all the ingredients I need. Grab your cookbooks, jump online and write down some meal ideas. I plan 6 meals a week with Fridays being 'No Fuss Friday' where we eat something quick and easy. Allow yourself 30 minutes of planning. Concentrate first on your main meals, then work out your side dishes later.

3. Go shopping. Find a day that suits you and make that your shopping day. I make Wednesdays our shopping day since I only have one child to cart around with me. I break my shopping trip into three parts with the whole process taking 2 hours. This gives me a great chance to hang out with my little boy as well as get him excited about all the healthy food we've just bought (pictured below).

4. Now put your goodies away. Taking the time to wash, prep and put your groceries away properly is another great way to reduce your food wastage. Give all your fresh produce a good rinse and where you can, cut any fruits or vegetables into ready to eat pieces. Celery gets washed and chopped into snack size sticks, watermelon gets cut into snack size triangles and the strawberries get a wash, leaves plucked and placed in a container all ready to be eaten when hunger strikes. (An extra tip: I store any open packs of crackers and corn chips in the fridge. It will keep them fresher for much longer). In the end, my fridge looks something like this:

You can't see my top shelf and my vegie crisper is getting a wash, but that's mostly it. And yes, I label my containers. I have a labelmaker and I'm not afraid to use it.
FYI, the pull out containers on the top shelf there contain my condiments in one and spreads in the other. I got them from Howard's Storage World, but have seen them at Big W for a little cheaper. 

If you've got a handy tip when doing the groceries, please let us know!