It’s no secret that I don’t like shopping which is the main driver for me reducing my shops to the absolute minimum. But, what I’m hearing a lot of at the moment is that you want to avoid the shops:

• So that you don’t have to queue
• Because you’ve got to somehow juggle shopping with childcare arrangements
• Because it’s really difficult to get a delivery slot so you need to make sure you’ve got everything when you do find that pot of gold, or
• Because someone is doing your shopping for you and you can’t keep asking them to pick up things you forgot.

Meal planning is the answer! But if that feels like too much to take on at the moment, at the very least, making a list of meals you might like to cook over the next week or so would be a good place to start. From this, you can make a shopping list of ingredients you need and how much of them you need.

Now go and check what’s on your list that you’ve already got enough of and cross it off. Then, check in your fridge, freezer, store cupboard and around your house for anything you’re running low on and add it to the list.