Good food does not have to cost more

Ask most parents what gets in the way of feeding their family well and money comes up quickly. It is a fair concern, especially with the weekly shop feeling heavier than it used to. But in general practice and community health work, we see families who eat well on a tight budget every week, and they tend to share the same handful of habits. They plan before they shop, they cook once and eat twice, and they build meals around vegetables that are in season and staples that keep in the cupboard.

None of this requires a grand overhaul. Small, repeatable changes usually beat heroic one-off efforts, and they are far easier to keep going during a busy term-time week.

Plan the week before you shop

Planning is where the real savings live. Write down five or six dinners for the week rather than seven, and leave a night free for leftovers or a simple fallback such as beans on toast or an omelette. Then build your shopping list from those meals, not from what catches your eye in the aisles.

• Check what you already have in the freezer, fridge and cupboard before you write anything down.
• Group your list by meal so you are not buying three tubs of cream cheese for three different recipes.
• Choose meals that share ingredients: a bag of carrots can go into a stew, a soup and a traybake.
• Keep one or two "no-thinking" meals in the house for the days that go sideways.
• Shop after you have eaten, and if you can, without hungry children in tow.

A list stuck to the fridge door also means anyone else in the household can start dinner, which is worth more than it sounds on a Thursday evening.

Buy with the seasons and use the freezer

Seasonal vegetables are cheaper because they are plentiful, and they usually taste better too. In winter, look for carrots, leeks, swede, cabbage, kale and squash. In summer, courgettes, tomatoes, runner beans and salad leaves come down in price. Loose vegetables are often better value than pre-prepared ones, and a bag of "wonky" or imperfect veg is a sensible buy if you are cooking it anyway.

Frozen vegetables deserve a proper place in the trolley. Frozen peas, sweetcorn, spinach and mixed vegetables cost a fraction of fresh, keep for months, and hold on to their nutrients well. Frozen fruit works the same way in porridge and smoothies. Tinned tomatoes, tinned beans, chickpeas and lentils are inexpensive, count towards your fruit and veg, and can carry a meal on their own.

Two more habits help: buy own-brand staples such as oats, rice, pasta and tinned goods, which are usually near-identical to branded versions, and check the reduced section for meat, bread and dairy that can go straight into the freezer that day.

Make leftovers do a second job

Cooking a little more than you need is one of the cheapest ways to eat well. A large pot of lentil bolognese becomes pasta on Monday and a baked potato filling on Wednesday. A roast chicken can give you a Sunday dinner, sandwiches on Monday, and a stock from the carcass for a soup or risotto.

• Cool leftovers quickly, store them in the fridge within two hours, and eat within two days, or freeze them.
• Freeze in single portions so nothing is wasted when plans change.
• Label and date containers — a mystery tub rarely gets eaten.
• Keep odds and ends of vegetables in a bag in the freezer for soup or stock.
• Turn stale bread into breadcrumbs, croutons or a bread-and-butter bake.

Batch cooking on a Sunday, even for an hour, takes the pressure off the whole week and removes the temptation of a takeaway on the way home.

Build meals around affordable protein and filling staples

Protein does not have to mean a large portion of meat. Eggs, tinned beans, lentils, chickpeas, frozen fish fingers or fillets, tinned tuna, milk, cheese and plain yoghurt are all good value. Stretching mince with grated carrot, lentils or a tin of beans gives you more portions without losing flavour. Combining plant proteins such as beans or lentils with a source of vitamin C, like tinned tomatoes, peppers or a squeeze of lemon, helps the body absorb the iron they contain.

Fill plates with a starchy staple that keeps everyone going: potatoes, rice, pasta, couscous, oats or wholemeal bread. Porridge with milk and frozen berries is one of the cheapest and most filling breakfasts you can serve. Wholemeal versions of bread, pasta and rice cost about the same as white and give more fibre, which many families in the UK do not get enough of.

Get everyone involved

Children are far more likely to eat something they helped choose or make. Let them pick the vegetables for a traybake, stir the porridge, or choose between two planned dinners. A small amount of involvement reduces the standoff at the table and builds skills they will use for life.

Keep a few simple rules in mind across the week: aim for a range of colours, include a portion of vegetables or salad with most meals, and remember that frozen, tinned and dried all count. Children aged one to four should take a daily vitamin D supplement, and everyone else should consider one in the autumn and winter months.

The families who manage this best are not the ones with the biggest food budget. They are the ones who plan a little, cook a little extra, and keep the cupboard stocked with things that can always become a meal. Start with one change this week and build from there.