Buy whole spices not ground.

When I got here I had very little stuff with me. I bought some ground black pepper—OMG how insipid! Same with ground cinnamon.

So buy and store whole spices, grind just before use where needed—cinnamon is usually added as whole 75mm sticks.

—Don’t forget to look at the ends to make sure you don’t buy useless cassia! Cinnamon stick ends show lots of thin leaves (bark actually) rolled together. Cassia the ends look like the letter ‘C.’ Don’t buy cassia, buy real cinnamon.

How to grind spices before use?

Nutmegs can be ground on a microplane or dedicated nutmeg scraper. Cinnamon can be ground the same way. You need something finer than the normal coarse grinder you use to grate cheese etc.

Most of the rest are best ground in a machine—a coffee grinder works well. I got an excellent spice grinder with my Kenwood Chef stand mixer.

Fenugreek is a very hard spice—I would just leave it out as it doesn’t provide much flavor anyway.

Here is some info on buying, storing and grinding spices:
https://www.spicejungle.com/the-jungle/grinding-your-own-spices

Proper parmesan is worth the effort to grate it or buy a machine that does it!

I have recently tasted some Australian parmesan that was not half bad, not that I would use it!

BTW, instead of grating get a potato peeler and peel of thin slices, MUCH easier! Can always chop the long slivers with a knife, but I don’t bother with that. I use the same technique with rockhard butter straight out the fridge, works wonderful, the slivers melt on toast or spread easily on bread!