Planning a week of meals without wasting food

Here is a straightforward look at this topic for HubCage.

Planning meals for a week takes about twenty minutes once it is a routine. Begin with what is already in the fridge and cupboards, choose four or five dinners that use those ingredients first, and leave one evening for leftovers and one for something spontaneous. Write the shopping list in the order of your local shop and buy only what the plan needs.

The real savings come from overlapping ingredients: half a bunch of herbs for one recipe and the rest for another, one roast that becomes two lunches. After a month compare the receipts with the month before. Most households throw away far less and spend a little less, which is what makes the habit easy to keep going through busier weeks.