Fight food waste - shop little and often

With shopping, as with most things, stick to the motto 'little and often' and you wont go far wrong, says Charlie Cottrell

Like a lot of folk, my day is anything but routine. I frequently work late, do most of my socialising on the hoof and am more likely to spend my lunchtimes going to the post office or wrangling with the bank than actually eating. If I did one big food shop I can almost guarantee I'd end up throwing most of the fresh stuff away or be forced to eat wilted, nutrition depleted vegetables rather than suffer the food-guilt of chucking them out and ordering a takeaway.

Shopping as and when I need it doesn't just keep me from trashing half of the contents of my fridge. It also helps me break out of the work-commute-sleep cycle.

Going out to buy food stops me spending all day at my desk, it means I've gotten to know my local shopkeepers and it keeps me interested in what I'm cooking. I rarely chuck out food because I rarely have anything perishable in the house. Best of all not binning food means I'm not binning my hard earned cash.

Freezer fanatic Hannah Williams will tell you that a big shop and a lot of planning is the best way to avoid food waste but I think my way is simpler, fresher and both environmentally and wallet friendly.

To see who's right we've each kept a diary for a week to measure what we bought and more importantly what we binned.

Monday

Getting back late from a weekend away meant there was no milk in the house so it was dry cornflakes for breakfast but after a lunchtime trip to the supermarket I'm stocked up for the next few days.

I know Hannah expects my daily shops to mean a lot of environmentally unfriendly plastic bags but I've found a nifty nylon shopper that folds up into itself like a cagoule so I'm feeling extra smug.

Tuesday

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are covered by yesterday's shop. I've got a friend staying so I pick up some crumpets for breakfast tomorrow.

Wednesday

Popped to the market to pick up a courgette which I cook with quinoa and toasted pine nuts for lunch. Arranged an impromptu dinner with friends, so no need to shop for supper.

What Charlie bought

• Pint of skimmed milk
• 1 packet of quinoa
• 1 bag brown rice
• 1 packet of pine nuts
• 1 punnet blueberries
• 3 pears
• 3 courgettes
• 1 head of broccoli
• 1 small white cabbage
• 1 packet of baby sweetcorn
• 2 trout fillets
• 2 salmon fillets
• 1 tin tuna
• 6 crumpets
• 6 hot cross buns
• 1 small loaf
• Mixed antipasto

Thursday

End up going out after work to a gig. Grab dinner out for the second night running but at least there's no need to worry about food going to waste at home.

Friday

Out for lunch with work. It's a massive one so I only fancy something light for supper. I pick up some vegetables and fish from the supermarket on the way home.

Saturday

Friends come over for breakfast, I buy some hot cross buns and a loaf of fresh bread to have with soup that I make with the spare veg I bought yesterday evening. Dinner is a cheeky curry from my local takeaway.

Sunday

Crumpets (a bit on the stale side) for breakfast. Lunch of rice with antipasto picked up after a wander through the farmer's market. Out for dinner on a date. Fwit fwoo.

Round up

Money spent: £24.67 and £30 eating out
Time spent shopping: 1 hour 35 mins
Packaging: 1 carrier bag, packed helpfully by checkout assistant before I could produce the nifty nylon. Thanks to Wandsworth Council, most of the rest went for recycling.
Food binned: 2 crumpets, 2 hot cross buns.

The lack of bin-feed generated by my 'little and often' approach has reassured me that, for my lifestyle, this is the best way to avoid domestic food waste.

But keeping a close eye on the edibles I throw away did turn up one surprise and that was the amount of food I waste when eating out. Having no control over portion sizes meant I left on average half of the food I was served and with five of my meals coming from restaurants, cafés or the faithful takeaway, that was the equivalent of an extra day's food.

Maybe the catering industry needs to keep a waste diary too.

Try these inspired recipes to transform your leftovers

What do you do with your leftovers? Let us know in the comments below.