“My favourite food-saving tip is to freeze any ripe bananas that we’re
not likely to eat in time. Peel and freeze them, then later use them in
smoothies, or defrosted in a bowl to use in my favourite banana loaf recipe.
I’ve even started freezing left over egg yolks after making home-made
meringues.”
Marlene, Northampton
“Instead of buying ready-to-make Mexican meal kits such as fajitas, buy
the parts separately. You’ll only need to buy the wraps and then you can
make the salsa and spice mix from what you already have at home. Buying the
ingredients separately means that they’ll spread much further and you can
use the spices time and time again.”
Jennifer, Manchester
“I always find it hard to save, but decided two months ago to start
saving all my coins from my wallet every day, apart from £1 and £2 coins.
I’ve already started to see the jar mounting up. This money would have
usually been spent on food for work but I make sure I cook too much food the
night before so I’ve got enough for lunch the next day.”
Stephen, Teversal
“I save all my old washing tablet tubs, large milk cartons and old
plastic buckets over the winter time to plant vegetables in for the summer,
instead of buying expensive planting tubs from gardening centres.”
C. Kinson, Ellesmere Port
“Freezing is a excellent way to avoid any food waste. If it’s more
cost-effective to buy a bumper pack of peppers – but I know I won’t use them
all in time – I chop some up on the day of purchase and freeze them. When I
next need a pepper for a stew or a spaghetti bolognese, I just whip one out
of the freezer. I also put dregs of wine into ice cube trays in the freezer,
these are excellent to add flavour to stews and casseroles.”
Joanna, Wiral
“Use open fire or solid fuel central heating – I’ve had it for years and
won’t change. Rethink food and leftovers, plan your menu. Dig up your garden
to plant a vegetable plot. Get a dog, we did, a rescue one and he is great,
long walks do a lot for the mind and body! We live in the centre of a town
yet have a peaceful, lovely life by the sea. We are struggling financially
and have often thought of giving up the house but we need to hang in there
for the family.”
Julia, Exmouth
“We don’t buy any pre-packaged food or ready meals, every thing we eat is
made from scratch. If we have a roast whatever meat or bones is left is
turned into soup. We have recently taken over an allotment so that will be
producing all our vegetables for free later this year. The fastest
money-saving tip we use is that all our change gets put into a tub and
banked at the end of the month. Every month when we go shopping we over buy
things we use regularly so after a couple of months we can cut our monthly
shop in half. Also batch cooking saves you a lot of money, and is even
better if you have a freezer to keep it in. A big pot of chilli can feed a
family of six for about £5.”
Ewan, Airdire
“Buy a 500kg packet of rice instead of the boil-in-bag packs, it’s easy
to cook and costs less.”
Sandra, Merseyside
“Something I was told to do was put £1 in a pink piggy bank every day. At
the end of the month, empty it out and put half of it into a savings account
and spend the other half on yourself. It takes about six months, but then
it starts attracting money to you – not millions, but every little helps.”
Denise, Stanford-le-Hope
“I have certain budgets for household items such as soap powder and
toilet roll. So when the supermarkets have offers on these items I really
stock up, sometimes buying enough to last for six months. I find this gives
me enough time (and enough toilet rolls) to keep me going until the next
offer that is, of course, within my budget.”
Joanna, Wiral
“Plan all your meals for the week before you do your weekly shop. Have
meals sorted so that nothing is wasted, for example, buy extra mince, cook
it up and use two thirds for a lasagne or shepard’s pie to freeze until
later in the week. Use the remaining third for spaghetti bolognese, and buy
just enough vegetables for the week. I prefer going to my very well priced
grocer as vegetables always used to go off in my house, but not anymore!”
Sian, Willesden
“When you make a pot of tea, fill a flask so that you can have another
cup later without having to boil the kettle again”
Terry, Wolverhampton
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