How To Save Money On Food

A great method is to budget. It's so easy for money to 'disappear' on food you don't need or can't use before it goes bad.

If you do nothing else, try keeping a record of what you spend on food for a week. You'll be gobsmacked at how much each little spend adds up.

Once you know what you're spending, you're ready to save money on food shopping. Set yourself a budget, you could even keep the cash separately, and watch what you spend like a hawk.

To make it easier, plan your weekly menus in advance, including breakfast, packed lunches, evening meals and snacks. Shop only for the items you need to prepare those meals. That is the best way to spend less on food, but here are some other useful tips to help you save lots more.

SAVE MONEY ON FOOD: PREVENT WASTE

• Drop the guesswork and measure or weigh portions so that you don't cook too much.
• Practise the art of stretching food. If, despite your careful measuring, you end up with leftovers, recycle them into another meal. Use canned or dried pulses to extend meat dishes. Add more vegetables, canned tomatoes, passata, a mashed potato topping. Even a small amount of a dish can form the basis of another meal - make leftover pasta sauce into a soup, use scraps of cooked chicken or meat in sandwiches or salads, freeze single portions of dishes to use at a later date.
• Make your own lunch to take to work. Most households have the ingredients for a simple sandwhich in the fridge, yet many people buy a sandwich instead - result, the food at home goes to waste, so not only do you spend on buying a sandwich, you spend on wasted ingredients as well. If you love your lunchtime takeaway sandwich, make it a once-a-week treat.
• Use portion control to make sure you're serving the healthy amounts of food and not providing more than is needed.
• Don't leave fresh foods to wither in the fridge. If you buy more than you can use, or your plans change after you've shopped, put fresh meats and fish in the freezer (check packaging to ensure they haven't been frozen before). If that's not possible, cook fresh foods like chicken or salmon - they will last for a few more days in the fridge once cooked, or can be cooked, then frozen.
• Take a list whenever you go shopping. Wise up on how to save money on groceries before your next shop.
• Bought too much fruit and veg? Store fruit in the fridge to stop it from ripening too fast (not bananas though, they turn black). Prepare and blanch fresh veg, then freeze. Snip fresh herbs and put them in ice cube moulds to freeze. Make a batch of soup with potatoes and onions that are starting to sprout, add any other vegetables that you have. Soup keeps well in the fridge, or you can freeze it in portion sizes.
• Save carcasses from poultry for making stock. Freeze until you have time to prepare, the frozen carcass can go straight into the stock pot without thawing. Use veg trimmings in the same way, or compost them.
• Keep an eye on Use By dates, and move food to the front of the fridge so you use it in time. That said, don't throw stuff out just because it's gone over it's Use By date. Use common sense instead.

  Some items, like fish and shellfish, don't store well and should be used as fresh as possible. Never take chances with these. Others, like yogurt, spreads for bread etc keep beyond their very conservative dates - use your eyes and nose if you're uncertain.

  The same goes for foods in bottles or jars, which will often keep for much longer once opened, as long as they're refrigerated, than the directions suggest. You can also freeze stuff before it gets too old, rather than keep it hanging around it the fridge.

SAVE MONEY ON FOOD: FOLLOW THE SEASONS

• Food gets cheaper when it's plentiful, so it makes total sense to eat food when it's in season, rather than buying forced or imported foods at the wrong time of year for them to have grown naturally.
• Visit farmer's markets, get to know about seasonal fruits and vegetables and gather recipes for making the most of them.
• Grow some of your own salads and veg. You don't need acres of ground, a sunny windowsill is space enough for a supply of salad leaves and some fresh herbs. If you've more space, consider tomatoes in grow-bags, a big pot of potatoes, a few bean plants...most veg grow easily, and don't need a lot of attention apart from watering.
• Shop at markets. If you like organic food but can't afford to have everything organic, buy one or two staple items at a time.

SAVE MONEY ON FOOD: GET FREE OR VERY CHEAP FOOD

• Supermarket shopping on a Sunday evening can be rewarding, as products that didn't sell on the weekend are marked down. Shop after 5pm any day is the time to get the marked-down goods that can't be displayed the next day.
• Greengrocery stores sometimes offload almost-overripe produce. If you pick up a box of tomatoes or peppers very cheaply, roast them in the oven and freeze or puree for a pasta sauce, freeze until needed.
• Always carry a plastic bag or box on a walk, and pick blackberries and other wild produce in season.
• In summer through to autumn, look out for roadside stalls of produce on country walks, often sold very cheaply or even given away.

There are so many ways to save money on food.