Meal planning and grocery stocktake tools?

[LifeOffGrid]

I read with envy when people comment about the seemingly low price of groceries in America. Here in Australia, I find that groceries take up a very large proportion of the budget.

Can anyone suggest software or other tools to easily plan weekly meals, and keep a stock take of the available grocery inventory? I find that we waste too much fresh food, often purchasing it and then seeking to ration it, which rather than prolonging the duration of consumption, simply results in the food going bad in the refrigerator. Perhaps I'm sounding petty, but if I can save $60 each week on ensuring that food is appropriately used, that's a $3k bonus. :)

[Hannah]

Have you ever check out the blog http://goodcheapeats.com, she's pretty into freezer cooking, and will frequently do pantry challenges, where she inventories her whole pantry and then buys no new food for a few weeks or a month.

I think she also allows you to subscribe to her meal plans, and she sells a meal planning system, but I haven't purchased either, so I don't know about those products, just that I love the blog.

[chemgeek]

Don't know if you have Apple products, but I like this app.

http://www.mealboard.com/index.html

[swick]

Here is the link to an old post I wrote about Plan to Eat...I love it, still use it, and they just added a new feature that allows you to keep track and plan food you have batched cook that is frozen for future meals.

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/fire-drill!-skip-this-week%27s-grocery-shop/msg35756/#msg35756

Definitely worth checking out. It has a planning section, shopping list, inventory and all work together. My favorite part of it though, is there is a button that allows me to import blog recipes really quick and easy. I foodgawk a lot, this makes it possible.

[Dicey]

Not very elegant, but I just keep a list on my phone. It's a pre-loaded app called "Memo" or "Notes". I list everything that I normally buy with the price I usually pay for easy inventory and price comparison. Before shopping, I just insert an "X" before anything I need. Not fancy, but very effective.

It took me a while to get what "stocktake" meant, until I remembered this:

[theadvicist]

The only way I've found to avoid throwing stuff out is to not do a 'big shop' and just buy stuff almost daily. That also prevents the 'rationing' problem, because you know you're eating it today.

But, it only really works if you have easy access to shops, and lots of free time.

I use a free app called Shop Shop to keep shopping lists. I have one for each store I visit, and when I see something is low I add it to the list. I don't track what I have in stock though.

[Simple Abundant Living]

Commenting to follow this thread.  I am trying to go through my pantry and fridge and come up with a better way to not waste food.  I do buy in bulk (large family) and am trying to prepare a one-year food storage in case of emergency.  The tough part is rotating things so that they don't go bad before they are used.