Love a List Challenge hub
Over the next four weeks, your challenge is to use a meal plan and shop to a list to reduce food waste and save money.
Before you start
To get the most out of the challenge, get prepared before you start.
Schedule in time
Create a calendar reminder once a week to plan your meals and write a shopping list.
Choose what you’d like to plan
It’s up to you and your schedule.
You could start with just planning a few dinners and a leftovers night. Or you could plan meals for all seven days of the week.
Choose how you’ll plan
Use a meal plan and list that works for you. You can use your phone, an app, a whiteboard or a piece of paper stuck on the fridge. To get you started we have a few options in our challenge resources.
Get everyone involved
Get the whole house on board. Create a list of everyone’s favourite meals. This can be useful when you need meal ideas.
Step 1: Meal plan
Check what you have
Take note of what you have in your pantry, fridge and freezer.
Add meals to your plan
Plan meals from what you have. Add other meals from your family favourites and recipe books or websites. Plus, you can add a leftovers or freezer night.
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Save more money
- Check what’s in season and plan meals around these ingredients. Seasonal product is often more affordable, available and fresh. Check this guide for seasonal produce.
- Plan meals around your store’s specials. You can usually find a digital catalogue on your store’s website.
- Plan one or two vegetarian nights. Meat is more expensive compared to lentils, beans or other alternatives.
- Search online for recipes with five or less ingredients. This can help make meals more affordable and reduce the volume of ingredients you need to buy.
Save more time
- Have a ‘plan B’ in case you need to adapt your meal plan once in-store. The best ‘plan B’ meal is one that can be made with food you already have.
- Schedule themed nights like Pasta Tuesdays or Slow Cooker Sundays.
- Keep meals in your freezer. You can do this by doubling up meals and freezing half for later or simply freezing leftovers. This is great if you want to schedule a freezer night/ leftover night and have a night free from cooking.
- If your plans often change during the week, allow for a flexi-night in your meal plan so you can cook that meal later.
- Plan to your schedule, if you’ve got a busy day coming up, plan a quick and easy meal for example a 15-minute meal or make it a leftovers night.
- Take ideas from ready-made meal plans. Some good places to start are Taste.com.au and Goodfood.
Waste less food
- Plan to eat meals that involve ingredients with short shelf life earlier in the week, such as fish.
- Plan to use the whole ingredient. If a recipe calls for half a tub of sour cream, plan a meal the following night that uses up the other half.
- Label and keep track of what meals are in your freezer. You can even add a label of the date of when you plan to eat them.
Step 2: Shop to a list
Write your list
Add what you need to buy from your meal plan and any other staples that need to be restocked.
At the store ‘love’ your list
Stick to your list, buying only the items you have planned for.
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Save more money
- Where possible, buy only the portion of fresh produce you need. Pre-packaged fresh produce means you are more likely to buy more than what you need.
- Only buy the 2-for-1 sale if you plan to use or freeze the ingredient. If it goes to waste, you’re not saving money.
- When shopping look at the shelves above and below eye level. These items are often more affordable.
- Shop on a full stomach (it’ll help you stick to buying only what you need).
- Grow your own herbs. You'll always have herbs on hand and save by not buying expensive supermarket herbs.
- Try online shopping or ‘click and collect’ services. This can help you stick to your list. Some stores offer the option to sort by unit price.
Save more time
- Keep a shopping list on the fridge to add staples that need restocking throughout the week.
Waste less food
- Check the use by date. If it’s hard to see, write it larger with a marker so you can see the date clearly when you open the fridge. This will help avoid items going off before you get to use them, such as meat or dairy.
- Add the amount of the ingredient you need to your list. Check the recipe or try this portion planner.
- If you can’t find a meat item at your store in the right date range, freeze it when you get home or shuffle your meal plan to eat it first.
- If you buy a larger portion of meat than what you need, freeze what you don’t use and plan to use it for a future meal.
- Once home store it right. Read the label for storage directions or look at our storage guide.
Step 3: Eat what you’ve bought
Eat your meals as planned
Keep your plan visible so you can follow it throughout the week. You could stick it to your fridge or schedule reminders in your calendar. Remember to save any leftovers for lunch or freeze them for another meal.
At the end of the week
Check what’s left and plan to use it up in next week’s meal plan.
Repeat steps 1–3 each week.
