If you're trying to reduce your household costs, and you've read our 'Tightening the Purse Strings' articles, then you've probably already started to look at your grocery bills. In this article, we look at meal planning as a means to reduce your shopping bill.

A lot of people find that the key to cutting down food costs is to plan meals ahead of time. This way, when you go to the shops, you have a set list of what you need to buy, and this should help you avoid spending too much. The other benefit is that it helps to avoid wasting food. A third of the food bought in the UK is thrown away, according to www.lovefoodhatewaste.com, which is both a waste of money and an environmental problem.

I find that if I don't meal plan, I make more trips to the supermarket. And rather than simply going in and buying what I need for that evening's meal, I end up spending money on other things which really I don't need. The downside to meal planning is that occasionally I find that I just don't feel like eating what is written on the plan for that night. I get around this by making sure that I have some staples in the freezer and cupboard, so that there is always an alternative at hand.  I like to do a big shop at the start of the month to get my pantry and freezer stocked up with foods I know can be used to make a variety of meals. I can then do most of my shopping from my own stores, and just top up weekly with the fresh produce we need.

There are a number of ways that you could plan your meals, the key is to find the one which suits your family best. You could plan weekly, fortnightly or monthly – start by writing down a list of all the meals that you and your family like to eat, either divided by protein type (meat, poultry, fish, eggs, pulses) or by carb type (rice, pasta, potatoes, couscous, bread). When you are writing your meal plan, take into account the nights when people are working late, or when your children have after-school clubs. For instance, one of my sons plays football after school on Tuesday, so I always make sure that I plan a meal that I can either get ready in 15 minutes after he gets back, or something that can be cooking in the oven while I fetch him - he's always ravenous when he gets in!

Some people prefer to plan a fixed menu for each day - if this is your preferred method, then simply decide what foods you want to serve each day for lunch and dinner. Remember to plan for leftovers, so if you cook a roast on Sunday then you could use the leftover meat for a stirfry, pasta dish, sandwiches or a curry. It's a good idea to vary the carbs you serve with each meal, to stop people getting bored of pasta three nights in a row, for example. Depending on how often you shop for veg, you might want to plan to use fresh produce at the start of the week and then serve frozen vegetables with meals later on.

It's easy to fall into the trap of serving the same meals each week - many adults born in the 60's and 70's can remember eating stew every Wednesday without fail, or whatever their mother's set menu was. If you want to avoid this, one trick is to have a loose pattern for each day. For example, you could serve jacket potatoes on Thursday, but vary the toppings, or make Saturday night your home-made takeaway night and serve burgers one week, pizza the next.

One idea is to write a number of weekly meal plans, and put them on record cards, on the reverse write the shopping list that you need for those meals. Then each week you can select one card – your menu is already worked out for you, and your shopping list is half done as well!

One of the most extreme meal plans I saw, was a three month meal plan. With this method, the plan simply rotates every three months, so after the initial time taken to work out the meal plan, you need never work out a meal plan again! I can see the benefits if you really dislike meal planning, but I'm not sure it would be for me. If you do decide to plan monthly or three-monthly, it's a good idea to leave a few empty slots for trying out new recipes, the odd takeaway or evening out.

>If the whole process seems too daunting, then try making a note of your evening meal on your calendar for a month. At the end of the month, you'll get an idea of what meals your family likes. You can then use this as a basis for a meal plan and shopping lists - give it a try, and hopefully you'll quickly see the benefits.