The eat-me-first box does most of the work
If you adopt one thing from this entire piece, make it this. Take a shallow open container, put it at eye level on the middle shelf, and label it. Anything opened, anything with two days left, half an onion, the last of the roast chicken, the yoghurts nobody chose — it all goes in there. When you plan dinner, that box is the first place you look, and often the only place you need to.
The reason it works is not tidiness but visibility. Food is rarely wasted deliberately; it is wasted because it sat behind a large jar until it was too late. Anything you cannot see, you do not cook. Clear containers, shallow rather than deep, and a habit of never stacking things two rows back will do more for your grocery bill than any budgeting spreadsheet.
Store produce the way it wants to be stored
A few small choices buy days. Keep soft herbs upright in a glass with a little water, loosely covered, and they will last well over a week instead of turning to slime by Wednesday. Do not wash berries until you eat them; moisture is what makes them mould. Leafy greens keep far better with a dry piece of kitchen paper in the bag to absorb condensation. Open bags of salad, once opened, live in the eat-me-first box on principle.
