21 ways to cut your food bills
...and beat £86 a year increase
Shoppers could soon find food prices hard to swallow after crops suffered the double blow of freezing winter and summer heatwave.
The price of meat, veg and dairy products has rocketed and experts believe the hikes could add almost £86 to a typical annual grocery bill.
But here Kate Hardcastle, retail expert for ITV show Eat, Shop, Save, reveals how savvy shoppers can save even more than that and still eat well...
1 The freezer is your friend
Freezer food is not always associated with healthy eating but you can pick up some of the best, and most convenient, bargains.
Frozen fish is just as fresh, if not fresher than fish on the fish counter, some of which has been frozen previously. The frozen fish is also often much cheaper.
People assume frozen food isn’t as nutritious, which doesn’t make any sense – food is picked for freezing straightaway, whereas fresh food can be in transit days before it gets to its destination.
Frozen things like garlic, ginger and chopped onions are often much cheaper than the fresh variety. STOCK UP Freezer
2 Bulk out meals
Things like chickpeas and lentils are cheap and great sources of protein and fibre. Mixed in with meat dishes and soups, they can make your ingredients go so much further.
3 Stock up on store cupboard staples
If you buy items like rice, pasta and chickpeas every week, these are things you should buy in bulk. If you look at the small print on labels, they will tell you price per kilogram – and the big bags always work out much cheaper.
These items don’t go off overnight and if you have them in your store cupboard you will have something you can make a healthy meal with if money is tight.
4 Buy loose items rather than packaged
When we buy packaged, we are paying for the convenience, so it’s worth spending an extra couple of seconds buying loose – you’ll save money and often waste, too.
5 Avoid pre-prepared fruit and vegetables
Pre-prepared items are a luxury few can afford. Ready-chopped fresh veg is much more expensive because not only are you paying for the veg, you are paying for someone’s time in preparing them.
6 Meat-free Monday
Having a meat-free day a week can save money. You can make delicious and nutritious veggie meals to feed the family for a fraction of the cost of a meat meal.
7 Buy own brands
Own brands can save you a fortune. Premium tea, for example, can be 20 times more expensive.
8 Avoid the top-up shop
People think they are being very virtuous by doing their big shop at a budget store like Aldi or Lidl but then they do top-up shops during the week at a more expensive shop, which blows any savings.
9 Is that offer really too good to be true?
Supermarkets love yellow labels and end-of-aisle offers to tempt us. Buyone-get-one-free offers might sound like a bargain but compare them to similar products to see if you really are getting value.
10 Cook in batches
If you cook in bulk it makes ingredients go further and having dishes in the freezer can help at the end of the month when cash is tight.
11 Make a list
Plan your weekly meals, write a list of what you need and stick to it. Then you won’t be tempted by offers and deals, or buy random items you don’t really need.
12 Don’t splurge on payday
We find people can be thrifty for three weeks of the month but then the week after payday they go mad, treating themselves to luxuries they don’t need.
13 Don’t shop when hungry
Shopping for food when hungry can be dangerous as you can be tempted to throw things into the trolley that you don’t need.
14 Be wary shopping online
Supermarkets use algorithms to track your online shopping habits so alternatives and items you might not necessarily want pop up on your screen and tempt you.
15 Don’t waste food
In the show, we met a family who were throwing away £20-£30 of food each week. That is some families’ entire shopping budget.
The majority of what people throw away is fruit and veg and these are some of the easiest ingredients to save – you can make fruit smoothies and freeze them, make fruit salads for the kids’ packed lunches, use veg to bulk out other dishes and freeze them in batches.
16 Shop with a calculator
Most of us have calculators on our phones. Add up items as you put them in your trolley to make sure you don’t let the costs run away.
17 Ditch takeaways
Buying a takeaway coffee every day at work can cost you £3 a time. That adds up to £15 a week. You can buy a coffee capsule and make a drink at home for 17p a time. The same thing goes for packaged sandwiches.
18 Use leftovers
Leftover meals often get thrown away, when they could easily be stored in tupperware for the next day’s lunch. If you’ve cooked a roast chicken, use the carcass and any scraps of meat to make a tasty chicken and vegetable soup.
19 Look around you
Supermarkets often place the most expensive products at eye level. You can often get similar items for much less if you look up and down at the shelves above and below you.
20 Whoopsies
Supermarkets often reduce the price of fresh produce at the end of the day when it is about to go out of date. Check what time your local store fills up its “whoopsie” aisle. You can often pick up fish and meat bargains to freeze for another day.
21 Shop around
Often, local markets, butchers and greengrocers can be cheaper than the supermarkets. If you have the time, it is worth shopping around.
You can also sometimes save by buying non-food items like binliners and cleaning products in a discount store rather than in the supermarket.