I was watching this (while I waited for my leftover mashed spuds to cool so I could put them over the meat mix from the freezer for tomorrow night's cottage pie - did a big batch of meat a few weeks ago so no room in freezer for the spud on top!!).

It was interesting, but preaching to the converted in me. And probably the same for most grapes I reckon.

When I was in college, I lived away from home for the middle 2 years which was interesting. I was lucky living in a proper student village (over here at the time it was mainly 8 students sharing a 4 bed house kinda scene but the Village was finished as we moved in!!). Of the 5 girls, there was a good mix of abilities inthe kitchen - 1 girl lived on curry sauce and waffles, 3 of them would do reasonable dinners but with a certain amount of processed food (pepper sauce was a regular packet!!) and my cupboard in the kitchen was full of jars of spices, herbs and things like cornflour for sauces from scratch (I KNEW I was leaving home, couldn't wait to go, so spent the previous summer adding something to Mum's trolley every week that would last and packets of sauces would definitely have been noticed!!).

But in the chat over coffee breaks at work, or among friends, I get the impression that convenience food is the main staple for a lot of people nowadays and no one knows how to use leftovers. I can't make fishcakes, but always use mash leftovers for fried spuds at the weekend or as pie toppings.

I am intending though to make greater use of the local greengrocer (one local one is about half the price of the supermarket, unfortunately the one that's near the butcher is about the same as the supermarket so it means a lot of trekking at the weekend) and of the local butchers - I am getting better at that but it is a work in progress.

But a draft menu (with at least 2 days based on storecupboard/freezer dinners, hence allowing changes to be made) and a list made out before the weekly shop is a must for us. And I tend to have a very well stocked storecupboard so the weeks that are really mad and I don't get to do any proper shop, I can usually manage until about Thursday before needing a takeaway!!

(I am also guilty on BOGOF's, but only on things I actually use (mainly the non-perishables), although some weeks we do buy too much fruit, but we try to waste as little as possible).