How to save money on your food budget

As food inflation begins to bite, we’ve seen a steady increase every month on the amount of money that people are spending on food. 

Your food shopping is one of the biggest costs you have to budget for. By looking for ways to save money, you may find increased food costs easier to deal with.

If you’re trying to pay off debt or have a limited income, you may be considering cutting your food costs down by a drastic amount. Please don’t do this. Your wellbeing always come first, and that includes being able to eat healthy and filling meals.

By giving these easy tips a go, you might find it easier to keep your weekly food shopping on track…

1. Regularly check what food you have in stock

The best way to save money on food is to base your meals around what you have already. It can help you spend less on food shopping, because you’ll only buy the items you need.

Take note of any tinned foods you have, as well as any dried foods such as rice and pasta. It also helps to know what seasoning and sauces you already have. Keep your cupboards tidy so you can see what you have in stock quicker. Don’t forget to check your freezer as well.

2. Cook everything from scratch to make food cheap

Do you sometimes pop to the supermarket to pick up an emergency ready meal? Do you find yourself tempted by a cheeky takeaway more often than you’d like? You probably don’t need us to tell you that this can cost quite a bit over time.

If you spent just £15 on a takeaway once a fortnight that’s a whopping £390 a year you could be saving instead. That could be money you set aside for an emergency.

There are several great benefits to learning how to cook staple meals from scratch. Not only is it often cheaper to cook your meals yourself, you’ll also get bigger portions for less money. You can then freeze these extra portions to eat another time.

Our pal Rickey Willis a.k.a money blogger Skint Dad got fed up of wasting money on takeaways, and set himself a ‘fakeaway challenge’ by cooking the meal himself. Give it a go. You might surprise yourself with your culinary skills!

3. Reduce your meat consumption

Lots of people are reducing how much meat they eat because of the health and environmental benefits, but it’s a great idea for your wallet too.

Popular meats such as chicken breast and lean mince can be expensive, so there’s significant savings to make by at least having a ‘Meat free Monday’.

Here’s some tips to get you started:

  • Ease yourself in by replacing the mince in bolognese or chilli con carne with frozen veggie mince or onions and peppers
  • Make stir fry with heaps of veggies instead of chicken
  • Try cooking curries using filling pulses such as lentils, or using potatoes instead of meat

A 500g packet of mince can be as much as £4 at the supermarket, but a few potatoes and a bag of lentils could be half the price.

4. Make a meal plan

Planning every meal sounds like a chore, but it’s a 15-minute job once a week, and it’s been shown to save money. Just follow these steps:

  • Decide what meals you’d like to cook
  • Make a list of the ingredients you’ll need
  • Check your store cupboard to see if you already have some ingredients (this will help avoid building up unused basics)
  • Shop for the ingredients you need
  • Batch cook what you can (freeze what you’d like to use later in the week)
  • Stick to the plan

This handy beginner’s guide to meal planning is a great place to give yourself a kick-start. There’s also Supercook, a fantastic online recipe database that tracks down recipes for you based on what you’ve got in the cupboard.

5. Use supermarket coupons

As part of your meal planning each week, check to see if there are any coupons available which you can print off at home or use on your phone to get discounts on your ingredients:

6. Stock up on cheap food basics

You’ll be amazed at what you can save on bulk buys and by picking up discount store basics:

  • Stock up on spices and dried herbs in the world foods aisle as they’re often better value for money
  • Store cupboard favourites such as rice can be bought in large 10kg bags for as little as £10, compared to 1kg bags for £2-£4
  • Chopped tomatoes can be as much as £1 per can at some supermarkets, but are as little as 25p in some discount stores.

Stock up on these cheap, everyday essentials.

7. Hit the reduced section

Everyone loves a cheeky discount don’t they? Don’t be afraid of checking out the reduced section and stocking up on useful items that are going out of date. You’ll sometimes find ‘dry goods’ with damaged packaging have discounts too – although these are often hidden away in a different area of the supermarket.

A few tips on visiting the reduced section to get cheap food:

  • Research what times of day your local supermarket stocks up the reduced section
  • Remember that there could be multiple reduced sections in a supermarket, for example on the fresh produce, chilled, and ‘stock cupboard’ aisles
  • It’s only a bargain if you’re going to use it, so don’t impulse buy items that you don’t really need
  • Only buy vegetables that you’ll use within the next two days, otherwise, you’ll end up with food wastage
  • Freeze meat or fish as soon as you get home, and include it in your next weekly meal plan

8. Downshift your brands

If you’re trying to budget then you’ve probably already moved to a more better value supermarket, but if none are available locally try the MSE downshift challenge.

The concept is simple: it’s about dropping down one ‘brand level’ on a product, testing it, and if you can’t taste the difference – buying that in the future.

Can you really tell the difference between the branded dried spaghetti and the value one? Cheap food doesn’t mean losing out on taste!

Recipe resources

Need some inspiration to get you started? Find some recipes to suit your needs:

1. Big family to feed? Try Eat not spend – this blog will help you make family-sized meals for £1 per portion
2. Nervous in the kitchen? Hop over to £1 meals – top chef Miguel Barclay shares simple, £1 meals with handy YouTube videos to follow
3. Want to eat less meat? Try recipes from Cooking on a bootstrap – Jack Monroe has a library of cheap meal ideas with lots of veggie and vegan options
4. Feeling adventurous? Frugal Feeding is a super stylish food blog from Bristol with some gorgeous and modern dishes to try at home on a budget

We want to hear about your experiences! What food budgeting tips would you share? Comment below or tweet the MoneyAware team.

Looking for more thrifty food ideas?

We’ve got lots of great tips and hints for saving money on meals, including:

Posted by in Saving money

25 Mar 2019
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