Tips to save money on your food

Cracking Good Food, campaigns against food waste and supports communities to access healthy food. Here are some tips on how to make nutritious dishes while also saving money.

Save money on your food shop

• Make sure to check your cupboards, fridge, and freezer and eat before you go shopping so you don’t buy items you don’t need
• If you go grocery shopping in the evening, you can usually find lots of good options in the reduced section for a bargain price. Look for the yellow ‘Reduced’ stickers, particularly on long shelf-life cupboard products such as dried pasta, canned vegetables etc. that can be kept for when you need them
• Try own brands or value brands in supermarkets as these are normally cheaper and can be just as tasty
• Reduce your meat intake – veg is much quicker to cook and often costs less, so fill up on vegetables, pulses, and lentils. You’ll be helping the environment by reducing your meat consumption too because meat produces lots of CO2 emissions
• Grow your own fruit and veg if you can. Sometimes all you need is a jar and some water – spring onions will regrow if the bases are put in some water so you can use them all over again
• Try apps which show heavily reduced fresh, dry and cooked foods that you can collect in your local area. On ‘Olio,’ people can advertise food that they won’t be able to use so you can take it off their hands for free. on ‘Too Good To Go’, you can get surprise food bags from shops and restaurants for low prices – perfect for an affordable, mystery treat.

Save energy and money with your cooking appliances

• If you’ve got the oven on but it isn’t full, you could chop up and roast some spare vegetables to use for sandwiches or a side dish
• Batch cooking lunches or dinners for the week will help you use less energy, by cooking it all in one go, and because meal planning it will mean you are less likely to buy food you don’t need that might go to waste
• Make sure you leave leftovers or batch-cooked meals to cool before putting them in the fridge or freezer as this requires more energy
• You don’t need to buy Tupperware to store leftovers. You can re-use washed butter and ice cream tubs.
• When cooking on the hob, make sure the size of your pan matches the size of the ring, and use pan lids, so you’re not wasting energy
• Check out charity shops for pressure cookers which reduce cooking time
• Slow cookers are cheaper to run than ovens and use less electricity than conventional light bulbs
• When using a kettle, only boil as much water as you need. If you have excess hot water, use it for washing up or watering plants once cooled.

Check out Cracking Good Food’s ‘Power up the flavour’ leaflet which includes a meal plan costing between £45-60 a week to feed a family of four. The guide will help you batch cook dinners to reduce the amount of energy you use and save you money.

Power up the flavour - Cracking Good Food