Food wastage

Government researchers revealed that we throw away a whopping 3m tonnes of wasted food each year - around a third of what we buy. The average annual food bill for a UK household is £5000 per year, so the wastage is over £1500. Reduce your own wastage and save money in the process by doing the following. Check your fridge and cupboards before going shopping and make a list, so you don't overbuy; Be inventive and use up what's in the fridge before it goes off - dig out your recipe books or check out free recipe sites such as the BBC's; Cook meals in bulk to use up fresh ingredients, and freeze it in portions for an easy dinner at a later date; Make vegetables slightly past their best into soup, and over-ripe fruits into smoothies. Making your own fruit and vegetable purees for babies is cheaper and healthier than buying jars. Be aware that 'best before' is not 'use by' - eating after 'best before' date only means that the food will not be at its premium quality. Halving your wastage in these ways will save the typical household £750 over a year.

Cookthink is a new site that enables you to enter ingredients that you have in your cupboard and it returns recipes that you can make with them. Rather than letting food items go off because you can't think how to incorporate them, use this site.

Let's say it's been a week or two since you last shopped, and all your left with is oranges, parsnips, some open coconut milk, a piece of frozen fish, a couple of onions, and a Pot Noodle. You can't think what to make so plump for the Pot Noodle and go supermarket shopping the next day - throwing out some mouldy oranges, parsnips and coconut milk a few days later. Hold on! Go on Cookthink, type parsnips then click the plus sign then oranges, then the other ingredients and finally 'cookthink it!'. Parsnip and orange puree? Panroasted fish with coconut mashed (parsnip mash)?

Budget and Shopping List

Set a budget and stick to it. Write a shopping list to assist you with food wastage reduction above and to keep you from staying from budget.

Ready Meals

Ditch the ready meals. Ready meals may be convenient, but preparing your own food saves money. Use your local library to find scores of books dedicated to cooking proper meals in minutes, and borrow them for free.

Special Offers

Fixture Ferrets searches seven leading supermarket chains to find special offers and low prices. Mad About Bargains lists supermarket special offers at nine store groups.

Own-brand

Consider own-brand goods. You can buy a tin of Asda own-brand baked beans for 14p and a loaf bread at Asda, Tesco or Sainsbury's for 19p. If you drop a brand level across your whole shopping basket (e.g. from finest to mainstream brand or from mainstream brand to supermrket own) you will save around 30%.

No frills / basics

Even cheaper than own brand. Some no frills versions of products should be avoided, such as fruit cordials where the price is kept extra low by reducing the fruit content (sometimes to 5% from the usual 40% or similar). Others, such as smoked salmon trimmings, are simply cosmetically less appealing but otherwise the same product (as smoked salmon in this example). Just establish where the savings have been made in getting the price for each basics item so low, then judge accordingly.

Low-cost supermarkets

Shop at Aldi, Lidl or Netto - they all keep shop overheads to a minimum to keep prices lower than the other leading chains. Initially aiming for the budget market in the UK, Aldi repositioned and began to target middle-class shoppers with changes to their range: the result has been a great success and Aldi are doubling their UK presence. For you this means products such as smoked salmon and quality wines at very low prices.

5-a-day Fruit

Fruit is well known to good for you. 5 portions of fruit or veg a day are recommended for your physical and mental health. So what is a fruit portion considered to be?

1 apple, banana, pear, orange or other similar sized fruit

2 plums, satsumas, kiwi fruit or other similar sized fruit

1⁄2 a grapefruit

1 large slice of melon or fresh pineapple

1 heaped tablespoon of raisins or sultanas

3 dried apricots

1 cupful of grapes, cherries or berries

1 small glass (150ml) of pure fruit juice

So what we're interested in is how these measure up price wise against one another. Checking at Tesco (so that they are compared at the same consistent pricing 'level') - here's how they look (note there will be seasonal variations):

Apple: Golden Delicious: 16p (other apples more)

Banana: 14p

Orange: 23p

2 plums: 40p

2 kiwis: 40p

1/2 a grapefruit: 10p

Large slice of Melon: Honeydew: 25p (others more)

Large slice of Pineapple: 35p

1 heaped spoonful of raisins: 8p

3 dried apricots: 6p

1 cup full of grapes: 40p

1 cup full of strawberries: 50p

1 cup full of raspberries: 60p

1 small glass 150ml pure squeezed organge juice: 20p

So, a daily 5-portion fruit diet of orange juice, grapefruit, Golden Delicious, dried apricots and a banana would come in at 66p. Meanwhile, a 5-a-day comprising orange juice, grapes, plums, strawberries and kiwis would come in at £1.90 - 3 times the cost. Over a year, the first diet would work out at £241, whilst the second would be £694 - a massive saving of £453 per person just through careful fruit selection. As a rule of thumb when shopping, look for fruit portions that work out at 30p or less: eat healthily for less.

Food shopping on-line & discount codes

On-line grocery shopping can prevent the kind of impulse buying that supermarkets tempt you with at every isle end. You can also pay less for your usual contents by using Mysupermarket which compares the prices at the four main online supermarkets: Ocado, Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s - just input your usual shopping trolley contents into the calculator. Whatsmore it's usually possible to get free delivery and more thanks to discount codes. In addition you can see exactly what you have in your larder and fridge whilst you shop, preventing waste purchases. For all these reasons, on-line grocery shoppers report a 25% reduction in their bills. Not only will you personally save petrol costs in not making round trips, but as one delivery van can deliver to 50 households, there is a saving to the environment from on-line grocery shopping, in 50 people not using their cars. Taking it further, if everyone did their supermarket shopping on-line, there would be signifcantly less road congestion and just a few giant warehouses rather than acres and acres of supermarket outlets that could be given over to the housing shortage. When you do your first on-line shop, it is fairly laborious and can take a good hour. Next time round though, everything you ordered has been saved, meaning you can either pick off your own list or simply repeat the whole order in a couple of clicks. This means the whole process can be done in a matter of minutes, freeing you up time that you would have otherwise had to spend getting to and getting round the supermarket.

Some tips: choose a delivery time earlier in the week for cheaper delivery; and note that a discount code of, say, £10 off £50 is applied at checkout BEFORE discounts from BOGOFs and multi-buys are applied (so that works in your favour) and BEFORE delivery charges are taken into account (so you can't rely on that to bump you up over £50) - your final bill incorporating all is calculated at delivery.

We recommend using Tesco for on-line shopping. Mysupermarket reveals Tesco to be cheapest for the typical weekly shop, Tesco offer the most generous discount codes, and Tesco have the furthest reaching geographical delivery. So, below are all the current Tesco discount codes. Delivery is around £5 so you can get typically free delivery AND make a saving too. There always a handful of codes available, meaning you should get a discount EVERY time you do your on-line shop. Once you have used a code once it cannot be used again. This table is updated monthly.

For each person over 18 in your household (partner, older children etc) set up a separate Tesco grocery account. Go through Topcashback and you get £5 for each account set up with Tesco for home groceries delivery (each person can set up a Topcashback account for free - see our Cashback page for more details - type Tesco into the Search on Topcashback). Each code below can only be used by one person once, so if you have two or more accounts for your household you can take advantage of the most generous codes more than once.

Local market

Use your local market stall. As well as helping local producers, lower overheads typically mean lower prices than supermarkets, but not always. Do your comparisons then buy the bargains.

Meat

Meat is expensive. Even the 'no frills' offerings are costly, when compared to meatless meals. Go vegetarian from time to time.

Try Me for Free or Money Back Guarantee products

Some products in your supermarket will be on Try Me Free or Money Back Guarantee promotions: take advantage. Buy the product, consume, say you're not satisfied, get the money back - usually by cheque, postal order or cash, usually within 28 days, sometimes including a postage refund. The terms and conditions of the promotion are always printed on the packaging, but usually involve sending them the original receipt together with a brief statement of what you disliked about the product. They are restricted to one per household and by expiry date. See the second post on this thread on MoneySavingExpert for the latest promotions out there currently - the thread is kept up to date, so no need to go blindly hunting around the supermarket.

Don't shop when hungry, don't shop when hungover

If you shop when you're hungry you may find yourself loading up instant gratification foods such as fresh bakery cakes, spit-roast chicken and till-side chocolate, rather than the cheaper fresh fruit and vegetable based diet that you intended. Equally if you shop when you're hungover your body will be craving the likes of bacon, crisps and sugary drinks. So go to the supermarket after a meal and on a weekday, or better still shop on-line.

Eat The Seasons

Use the Eat The Seasons website which tells you what vegetables, fruit, meat and fish are currently in season, how to cook them and what to put them with. Produce is generally cheaper when it is in season than when more difficultly sourced, and cooking with fresh produce is cheaper than buying ready prepared. Local famers' market stalls typically only sell in season produce and often cheaper than supermarkets.

Free Tesco goody bags

Every month or so Tesco pharmacies have goody bags to give away - for example the Health & Wellbeing Goody Bag contained samples of Ocean Spray High Juice, Fisherman's Friends, Sugarfree Mentos, Disney Vitamin C Tigger Gummies, Spiced Chai, a box of 10 Decaff Yorkshire teabags, a pack of 14 Wrigley's Orbit sugarfree gum, a small organic Fruitus fruit/cereal bar, a bar of Panda Liquorice, a pack of Hall's Soothers, a Colgate toothbrush and some coupons. You just have to ask for it - it generally won't be offered or on display - and sometimes they insist upon a pharmacy purchase to be eligible for one - if so buy something that you need or will use. To locate your nearest Tesco store that has a Pharmacy go here.

Free food found in the wild

Know what's out there and when, and go harvest. April to June: nettles (for nettle soup, nettle stew); May to July: hogweed (for hogweed risotto) and elderflowers (for elderflower cordial); July to October: blackberries (pick the fat, black, shiny ones - for blackberry pies and puds, or with yoghurt and cereal); October to December: rosehips (for rosehip cordial). Want more? Richard Mabey's Food For Free book gives much greater insight into foraging for food - find it on Amazon currently.

Grow Your Own

Use your garden and/or install a greenhouse to cultivate your own vegetables and fruit. The UK climate is suitable for growing potatoes, artichokes, carrots, parsnips, peas, cabbages, runner beans, broad beans, tomatoes, chillies, beetroot, radishes, onions, asparagus, turnips, leeks, radishes, courgettes, mangetout, pumpkins and squashes. Fruits that grow well here include apples, strawberries, rasberries, blackcurrants, pears, gooseberries, and redcurrants. If you can put in the the time then you'll save money year on year by growing your own - and as an additional bonus it will give you a freshness of taste that is quite different to supermarket sourced produce.

But which of these are easy to grow and require little labour? On the veg front, mangetout and radishes are fast and easy. Runner beans are straight forward too - just stick a few canes in the ground and tie them into a wigwam and watch the plants grow up to 8 feet high, with both flowers and beans - one for the kids to enjoy, and little for you to do. If you like courgettes, grow one plant in a big pot. This will be the single most rewarding plant in terms of yield. Easy to grow and look after, it will give you a least one new courgette every day - the more you pick, the more you'll get. On the fruit front, strawberries make a good beginner's plant - you can grow them in a hanging basket or dedicated multi-holed pots, Just be aware that anything grown in pots needs to be watered more often as it hasn't as much area to hold water as plants sown in the ground. If you're stuck with a shady spot, then both rasberries and rhubarb should grow well.

Here's how to get the kids involved in growing your own - grow the easiest stuff that has the greatest interest for them (from the Times):

Pumpkins: the best vegetable for children, as they produce big, brightly coloured fruits that can be used at Hallowe’en. A fail-safe method is to place the seeds between two or three layers of damp kitchen towel and fold over. Put the parcel in a plastic container and leave in the airing cupboard. The children can check every few days to see whether the seeds have sprouted. As soon as they have done so, plant them in small pots and put them on a windowsill to grow. Gradually harden off the seedlings by leaving them outside during the day to acclimatise, bringing them in at night. Plant them out when all danger of frost has passed. Water the plants liberally throughout the summer and, once a week, give them liquid tomato feed or homemade comfrey tea (made by steeping comfrey leaves in water – a stinky but effective tonic). As the pumpkins get bigger, get your children to choose one each and carve their initials into the skin. You could then have a competition to see whose pumpkin grows the biggest.

Potatoes: one of life’s great pleasures is the excitement of digging up potatoes – it’s like a lucky dip. Plant them now into a compost-rich soil, in trenches 4in deep, leaving 1ft between each plant. Cover with earth and continue to “earth up” as the plants get bigger (this means adding further soil around the stems to prevent tubers forming near the surface turning green and poisonous). Give them a good soaking every two weeks if the weather is dry, then harvest after the plant has flowered and is dying back.

Climbing french beans: the Jack and the Beanstalk associations make these a fun vegetable for children to try, and the seeds are large and tactile. Grow the plants up a tepee of bamboo poles to make a “tent”. French beans are quite tender, and shouldn’t be planted outside until the end of the month or early May – after the last frosts. Sow indoors or under glass now, or directly into the soil from the start of next month onwards. If sowing outside, erect a bamboo support and place the seeds 6in apart, directly below each cane. Water the plants liberally when the flowers are forming.

Strawberries: most children love eating fresh strawberries, and if you buy young plants now, they will fruit this season. Try growing them in pots in good multipurpose compost, positioning the pots in a sheltered, sunny spot. Strawberries hate being waterlogged, so make sure there is plenty of grit in the bottom of the pot to aid drainage, and raise the pot slightly off the ground. Don’t let the compost dry out in summer, however. After harvesting, use the runners – the shoots they put out – to make new plants. This can be done easily and quickly by pegging down new runners in fresh compost in another pot, where they will take root.

Tomatoes: bush tomatoes, such as ‘Red Alert’, are ideal for growing with children. They are easier than the cordon types because they need no staking or tying in. Tomatoes can be raised in pots on a patio, or in a greenhouse, but make sure you buy the appropriate variety, as some of the indoor ones won’t do well outside. For outdoor tomatoes, sow seed indoors into 5in pots now. Indoor ones should have been put in earlier, but you could always cheat and buy young plants. Scatter the seeds thinly on the surface of damp compost and add a further ½in layer. Cover with clingfilm to conserve moisture and put the pots on a warm windowsill. Once the seeds have germinated, harden them off gradually before planting outside in a sheltered spot after the frosts, either into bigger pots or straight into the ground. When ripened, the bright-red, shiny tomatoes are magnets for little hands, and irresistibly sweet and tasty. 

Rear Your Own

Unless the deeds to your home contain a restrictive covenant or there is a local bylaw that forbids the keeping of animals, then you are free to to do so on your property. You don't need acres of land to rear animals for food. if you have a reasonable sized-garden here are the options:

Kune Kune pigs are a type of pig that suit gardens because of their small, plump stature, and start at £150 each from the British Kune Kune Pig Society. You'll need to create an enclosure and a shelter within the enclosure. A 6.5ft by 5ft arc from Bridgemere Pig Arcs starts at £270. You'll need a holding number (available free from the Rural Payments Agency on 08456037777) and you'll need to register the pigs with your local animal health office, plus any sales or movement must be reported. You'll need a breeding pair in order to recoup the initial outlay over the coming years, and make this a money-saving venture. But with the feed bills, vets bills and slaughterman bills (unless you do it yourself) it may be a struggle to make pigs pay.

Goats also need a holding number and registration, and female goats start at £250 from the British Goats Society. Male goats have too poweful a smell to make them a viable option for a garden, so any breeding would have to involve a local farmer. The advantage is that goats provide not only meat but milk too, plus selective grass-cutting and pruning. However, they require company (so at least two), a lot of feed (greens), a 45 sq ft pen, a concrete yard area and, ideally, access to woodland to forage. Like pigs, it will be a struggle to make them pay.

Chickens are a better option, at just 50p each to buy from the Battery Hen Welfare Trust. They will be happy on a lawn of around 20 feet square, in a group of two or more. They will need a coop and you may be wise to buy one with a fox-proof run, such as from Forsham Cottage Arks (£143) or Omlet (£360). They will feed on kitchen scraps as well as pellets and corn. A couple of chickens may produce 8 eggs a week between them, and you should be able to slaugher chickens yourself. A mixed sex group should produce chicks without intervention, further enhancing your return.

Ducks rival hens for egg production - so long as you like duck eggs. They too require some company to be happy, plus a duck house with a fox-proof run (£185 from P&T Poultry, tel 01597825809). Adult ducks cost around £8, ducklings half that. Waterfowl has details of local breeders. Both ducks and hens will remove pests from your garden such as slugs, as an added bonus.

The type of animals you can keep depends on the amount of land you have and outbuildings you have. This website will help you. Be aware though that it will be difficult to make animals pay.

Chickens are a relatively easy option, but the price of feed has trippled of late. Add to that the housing, fencing and vets costs and it is very difficult to produce eggs for less than buying them at the supermarket.

A single sheep will cost around £150. You'll need to aim for breeding and then take lambs for slaughtering. The abbatoir will charge around £10 per lamb to slaughter and a butcher will charge the same per animal to carve up the meat. Again, once vets costs are included and general care, it will be a struggle to bring the lamb in cheaper than the supermarket.

A cow will typically now cost £500-£1000, so again it will be hard to make it work financially without the economies of scale a farmer enjoys.

If you do have a large garden or some land, a greater economic return will come from planting an orchard: fruit trees and fruit bushes that you can harvest year after year with very little maintenance.

Dumpster Diving

Are you familiar with dumpster-diving? It's what Freegans do: 'recycling' food and other things from urban bins. Sound disgusting and illegal? Not necessarily.

Raiding supermarket bins is a legal grey area, but as far as is known no-one has been prosecuted for it, as mounting a case against someone for stealing rubbish to recycle waste would be difficult. The food in the bins is only destined for the tip. Nevertheless, supermarkets will not want you on their property out of hours so engaging in this pursuit is at your own risk.

Supermakets have to get rid of items that are beyond their 'display by' dates, or where packaging has been damaged. Usually staff are offered some at discount and charities also. The rest goes into the bins. Sainsburys compact their food before binning it and Tesco keep their bins locked, but other supermarkets have a lot of perfectly good food bagged up and avialable in their bins. The best is Marks and Spencer, where almost everything is packaged and the produce is of the highest standard. The time to visit is in the early hours of the morning as everything left at midnight with a 'display until' expiry of that day gets dumped.

The organisation Food Not Bombs recovers food that would otherwise go to waste in this way and serves warm meals on the streets to anyone who wants it.