Happy New Year!

Kicking off as I mean to go on, with a renewed focus on cooking and the food we choose to put into our bodies. 2025 wasn’t our best year for food waste. We moved house (and country!) from Bristol to Cardiff, leaving behind our beloved compost system, veggie patch, and chickens. Now, living so close to a big Sainsbury’s has led us into a “pop in and buy stuff every few days” mentality. It’s convenient, but it’s also a slippery slope into over-buying and food waste.

This morning, I thought we had nothing in. So, I decided to do a full food audit—freezer, cupboards, fridge. The result? I’ve shocked myself at how much food we actually have crammed into our kitchen.

A reality check

Across my freezer, cupboards and fridge (not including spices and seasonings) I found 86 items of food. What on earth!! Highlights included:

Freezer:

Venison – Leftover from Christmas, crying out for a stew or perhaps a curry.
13 beef and onion dumplings – Why 13? Who knows.
Halloween fish nuggets – A spooky surprise in January!
Korean rice cakes (tteokbokki) – Clearly bought during a Korean cooking phase which I’d love to get back into.
Three ice lollies – Looking a little smushed but I’m sure they taste fine.
Frozen bananas – Bunged in the freezer before we went away in September, but I’d forgotten they were there.
Coffee – Yes, coffee in the freezer. Past me had a plan, apparently.

Cupboards:

Pickled mussels – When did I buy these? And why?
Two tins of Portuguese sardines from a trip to Porto in 2024!
Banana custard – A nostalgic impulse purchase?
Sushi ginger and seaweed – Clearly I had sushi night ambitions which are yet to materialise!
Simply Cook kits galore – Rendang, Keralan curry, Beef Massaman and more… all waiting to be used.
Dan Dan seasoning – Bought in the sale section at Wai Yee Hong in Bristol a looong time ago but yet to be used.
FOUR types of rice – Brown, short grain white and black, and risotto, also white and black.

Fridge:

Crab meat x2 – Definitely needs using soon as they’ve been in there for a few months now.
Half a sweetheart cabbage – Hanging on for dear life.
Old celery – The eternal fridge dweller, bendy but fine for a stew or soffritto.

Turns out, we’re not short on food—we’re short on planning. And if you’re really nosy, check out the full list of everything I found.

A freezer full of packets and boxes of food.

Why do we over buy?

For me, it’s been a mix of convenience and changing habits. Moving to Cardiff and living so close to a big Sainsbury’s has made it far too easy to pop in “just for one thing” and come out with a basket full of extras. Gone are the days of our Bristol life with a compost system (see this article I wrote for BBC Good Food), veggie patch, and chickens—those old habits kept us mindful of waste. Our new house has a much smaller garden and our work life balance leaves less time to invest in growing our own and being close to nature.

With everything available all year round, it’s easy to fall into the trap of buying more than we need. I work across the road from a Waitrose AND Lidl and often find myself wandering the aisles on my lunch breaks. I nearly always buy a couple of items. Add in the psychological triggers like fear of running out of stuff and tempting deals and offers through supermarket loyalty schemes and suddenly the cupboards are overflowing.

Kitchen cupboard doors open showing boxes and packets full of food

My 2026 Challenge

I’m setting myself a goal: see how long we can go only buying fresh essentials while using up what we already have. This should save money, reduce waste, and force us to get creative in the kitchen. Ahead of Monday, I’ve already written our first meal plan (something I used to love to do and need to get back into) and am going to try really hard to stick to it:

An example meal plan from Gingey Bites food blog, using ingredients already in the house.

Some more meal ideas from my audit include:

Venison massaman curry – using the venison left from Christmas day and a Simply Cook spice kit.
Korean rice cakes (tteokbokki) – Rice cakes, chilli, soy and honey.
Chicken shawarma wraps – Chicken fillets + shawarma kit + wraps and pickled red cabbage.
Veggie dumpling soup – Dumplings, stock, carrots, cabbage, mushrooms.
Dan Dan noodles – Instant noodles + seasoning + crushed peanuts and spring onions.
Keralan curry – Simply Cook kit + coconut milk + lentils, peas and sweetcorn.

Final thoughts from me as we head into the new year…

This audit was a wake-up call. We don’t need more food—we need better habits. If you’re reading this, I challenge you to do your own kitchen audit. You might be surprised at what you find! I certainly was.

Tackling food waste and over buying in 2026

Happy New Year!