With soaring food prices, high petrol costs and huge mortgages, it's getting more and more difficult to eat a healthy balanced diet. Meat is pricing itself off the dinner table, while fresh fruit has become a luxury. The drought has reduced the supply of grain, forcing up the prices of bread, cereals, pasta and many other supermarket items based on flour. This is set to last for another year at least.

The solution is to start planning meals. Cooking at home is much healthier than fast food less grease, less salt, more veggies. However it does take a little planning and some basic cooking skills. Here's how. Firstly on a piece of paper write down your dinners for the week ahead (or at least the next three nights). Match home meals with nights when you're in.

Next use the tricks from our grandmothers for long slow cooking to make use of those cheaper cuts: Scotch broth, minestrone, osso buco, pot roast, lamb shanks, beef olives, pork and cabbage. Though tougher, cheaper cuts of meat are generally tastier than the more expensive cuts. That's why slow cooking is great, it really develops the flavour and makes the meat tender.

Meat and chicken are generally the most expensive items on your weekly food bill but are important for iron (for healthy blood) and zinc (immune system). Extend your meat by spreading it over rice or pasta a little Bolognaise can go a long way and mix in some high-protein legumes by adding kidney beans to Mexican mince and a can of chick peas to casseroles, or cooking up a hearty chicken and lentil soup.

I'm always looking for ways to cut out how much I waste. Do you realise that Australians throw out up to 25 per cent of their food? That's a lot of wasted food and a lot of wasted money. So try to buy only what you need.

Finally use your freezer as much as you can. Freezing is the most nutritious way to store food. Freeze bread until you need it. Freeze soup, stews and curries in single-serve plastic containers so you have quick meals ready to heat.

*Catherine Saxelby is a nutritionist and author of Nutrition for Life. Get more healthy eating tips at her site at www.foodwatch.com.au