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Food prices are on the increase. The cost of fuel is rising. Salaries stay fixed. The headlines keep reminding us of the difficult times we are in and the challenging ones ahead. So what can we do to try to control spiralling food costs in the home?
Here are my top six tips to keep your food purse strings under control. PLAN: Plan your meals for the week. The main spending waste with food is people buying food which they do not use and end up throwing away. In the UK this accounts for a massive third of the food we buy. Planning allows you to build a shopping list which is likely to be used up by the time you come to your next shopping trip. If you know you will be out one evening and have a working lunch meeting on a particular day there is no need to buy food to cover those meals. Reducing food waste means you will not “double spend” in order to replace food which has been thrown away. Knowing how to read food labels will help you to understand what should be kept and what needs to be thrown away. Here’s a quick guide: | Sell by: | This is an indication for stores as to when they should remove a product from the shelf. You can still eat foods after the sell by date. | | Best Before: | Best Before is an indication of quality rather than food safety. You can eat foods after the Best Before date but they will not always be in tip top condition. The only exception to this is eggs. NEVER eat eggs after the Best Before date. | | Use by: | Never use foods after the Use by date. Check the label for storage instructions, and check to see if it can be frozen and eaten at a later date. The label will tell you how long it can be frozen for, so make sure you note the date you popped it into the freezer. |
You can get more information from the Love Food Hate Waste website. Planning also means having staples available in the store cupboard for those last minute meals or unforeseen emergencies. I always keep a selection of rice, pasta, tinned tomatoes herbs and flour in the cupboard. FREEZE: Having planned the shopping for the week, you’re suddenly invited to dinner. Instead of letting that beautiful steak go to waste, pop it in the freezer. Freezing will lengthen the life of some food products for up to 4 months. Be careful though as not all products are suitable for home freezing. Check the label on packets carefully. Meat generally freezes well, but be sure to place in the freezer as soon as possible after you get home from your shopping trip. Vegetables are perfect for freezing. As well as keeping for several months, vegetables which are bought frozen tend to be packed and frozen within only a few hours of being picked. As vegetables start to deteriorate as soon as they are picked, the freezing process ensures that they retain all their nutritious value and great vibrant colours. My freezer standards are: Butter (just in case I run out and haven’t been to the shops), peas, sweetcorn and various cuts of meat. USE LEFTOVERS: If you’ve just made Spaghetti Bolognese, why not use the leftovers to make a lasagne. Don’t have any white sauce? Just pop into the store cupboard for some flour, defrost the emergency butter from the freezer and add a splash of milk to make your own béchamel sauce… oh and add that leftover piece of cheese. Clever use of leftovers, which can be factored into your food planning, is where your culinary skills come into their own. There really shouldn’t be a need to throw anything away, unless it is unsafe to eat. The left over chicken can be made into a salad, and the carcass used to make a stock (which you can freeze!) along with those vegetables you didn’t get round to using. You get the idea… HOMEMADE vs. READY MADE: I’m a picky eater. Not because of the types of food I eat, but because I like to know what I’m eating. What has gone into a particular dish and where has it come from. Because of this, and also because I love cooking, I tend to prefer homemade to ready made. In some, not all, circumstances this can also be more cost effective. For example, making your own Yorkshire Puddings for the Sunday roast will be cheaper than buying ready made, and will taste so much better. Homemade sandwiches (especially if using up leftovers) will be cheaper than shop bought, and will be exactly to your taste. For those starting out with the homemade craze a fun starting place is bread. With rising wheat prices shop bought bread is becoming more expensive, and the quality isn’t always comparable to a homemade loaf. Plus you don’t get the wafts of tasty baking meandering throughout the house (hungry yet?) Making a standard wholemeal loaf at home can cost you as little as 30 pence. Try finding a loaf as tasty and cheap in your local shop. And stored properly, homemade bread will last just as long – if you haven’t gobbled it up that is. The big benefit of homemade versus ready made is that you get to do it your way. Like your tomato sauce with a hint of chilli or a deep punch of basil, then you can make it happen. With homemade you’re in control. BUY LOCAL: I will always favour a local butcher, who has a good knowledge of where his meat has come from and the conditions in which it was raised, to anonymous supermarket meat. But it can come out as more expensive. It is worth shopping around and not rely on the convenience of the supermarkets. Planning should help with this. I use a box scheme for buying my weekly vegetables. For £8 a week I get 6 organic eggs, a pint of milk and a box of vegetables delivered to my door - and all from within 15 miles of my town. It is a bit like Ready, Steady, Cook as you never know what will be in the box, but you can count on staples of potatoes, tomatoes and onions. It is also a great way of getting vegetables you didn’t know about, or wouldn’t have bought browsing the supermarket aisles. There are also a variety of similar schemes for meat. You can find your local box scheme here. Many places now have farmers’ markets, a great way to speak directly with the producers and learn about the food you are buying. Local also usually means less packaging and a lower carbon footprint, as well as supporting traditional producers who are at risk of being driven out of the marketplace; leading to the loss of some of our great food products. GROW YOUR OWN: The ultimate grail in controlling food costs is to produce your own. And this doesn’t have to mean buying a smallholding. Some foods are very simple to grow and can fit into whatever space you have available. How about cut and come again salads on your window sill? A few pots of herbs in the kitchen? Or if you have a bit of outside space: Potatoes grow well in those black plastic bins, or tomatoes in a grow bag. If you are impatient, or just unsure on how to start of the growing process, you can buy most produce as young plants – all the hard work of starting off the seeds has been done for you, all you need to do is replant and look after them. You can buy most vegetable and fruit plants online. This is a great way of getting children involved. It’s fun, a little messy, and helps to understand where the food they are eating comes from. Feeling very adventurous? Get your own chickens! These tips won’t suit everyone. But even if you pick one or two, you’ll be on the way to saving a few food pounds and pennies. |
