Win at Life
#5 Food Shopping (& longer term wins)
8 min read
1. Plan your meals.
(This won’t come as a surprise as our #1)
Brainstorm
with the family and come up with a list of 30 meals you ALL will eat.
This means that you all go off with the internet, The Vault, the cookbooks etc, and choose as many things as you like individually.
Find the ones that coincide.
(i.e. read out your list and ask the others to shout if they absolutely won’t eat that suggestion.)
What you’re left with can be the basis of your meals for the month.
Obviously the healthier the better, but you’ve got to start somewhere.
That’s not to say you can’t swap things out, or allow for change – but having a solid shopping list means you can set up regular online shops in a fraction of the time.
You can search for the best value for each ingredient and take advantage of offers – without the unnecessary ingredients or wasted food that can cost hundreds over the month.
2. Shop online
You still get all the deals, but none of the impulse purchases, even factoring in delivery charges.
If you can be flexible with times, you can get free or cheaper delivery.
3. Cook double and freeze half.
It tends to cost much less than twice the price of ingredients to cook double the food – by bulking more of the less expensive ingredients.
Invest in some excellent freezer bags – I love the vacuum pack machine too – it extends the life of vegetables in the fridge by at least a week, and we have a freezer full of healthy, home-made easy-cook ready meals!
4. Plan packed lunches for everyone.
Even if you are working from home, having lunches portioned will save the trip to Tesco for a meal deal (and whatever else you might spot, that you hadn’t planned to buy).
We are great at doing this for children – for ourselves… not so much. And of course, reheated leftovers is another way to stretch the food budget.
5. Fridge Gravel.
We set aside a day a week to use up the bits and pieces we haven’t used. Soup is an amazing use of lonely carrots and peppers and goes a very long way – practically making something out of nothing.
While a lovely full fridge is a beautiful thing, so is a completely empty one because you’ve used every last thing.
6. Go down a price point.
Premium, ‘Taste the Difference’ and ‘The Finest’ premium products are often just fancier packaging.
Try taste-testing the next brand down against (or own brand/value) and work out what you really won’t miss.
There really are massive yearly savings to be made there.
7. Shop in Season.
Check out our seasonal food guide to find out what is in abundance, because it will be typically MUCH cheaper to buy.
When you notice produce prices fluctuating throughout the year, this is one of the main reasons (although since Brexit we’ve got a whole raft of other reasons too now). Sigh.
Is there a farm shop, or a market near you for vegetables?
You usually save between 30-50% on better quality, local food.
8. Go Veggie.
…for at least a couple of meals a week (of course we’d say that, right?) but it really does save you money, and the planet too.
9. ‘Can’t be arsed’ meals.
Have some super simple store cupboard recipes – handy for when you really can’t face cooking.
For me, it’s a tin of five beans in a quick tomato sauce with some meat-free sausages baked in the oven – 15 minutes tops.
Much quicker than waiting for a Deliveroo and around a tenth of the price!
10. Fill up the car.
While running a fuller car may be arguably
(and it definitely not a clearly won debate) a little more per tank – if when you stop at the garage you ‘pick up a few bits’ each time you put twenty quids worth in – it’s definitely going to add up.
Running it with the red light on draws sediment up into your tank, which is a very expensive fix, and also puts you at risk of a penalty notice if you do run out.
Definitely not a money-saving tactic.
Ideally, use a ‘Pay at the Pump’ (you can Google where your nearest is) so you don’t even have to waft past the newly baked croissants in the shop.
Also finding out where your cheapest fuel station is will definitely put money back in your purse. If you can join something like Costco – they tend to have the cheapest prices in the area.
11. Look in the bin.
If you’re throwing away the same things regularly – they definitely get scrubbed from the shopping list. Sounds obvious, but when you start paying attention, you might be surprised at what gets scraped away.
12. Snack better.
Grab yourself some little Tupperware boxes. The pound shops have perfectly serviceable sets.
Have a flick through some of our snack ideas in The Vault.
When you add up just how much snacks cost (and how little actual food you get from them) it can be quite a shock.
Often, it’s the extras we’d rather not have eaten; like biscuits, sweets crisps and drinks that can send overall food bills into the stratosphere.
13. Be a cheap date.
Wait, what now??
Hear me out. Eating in restaurants is one of life’s joys, but the bills rarely are.
I’ve worked in restaurants and I’ve seen this close-up.
First of all, if you can go at lunchtime, it’s often the same food at a much lower price.
Also, it’s an obvious (but sometimes overlooked) idea, not to eat too close to the time that you visit a restaurant.
Sensible.
So when we get there, we are pretty ravenous.
You don’t really want food you’ve paid for back with the waiter – to be scraped away into the bin.
I don’t know how fancy you are – but we tend not to have a starter at home.
I can remember times that I’ve had one at a restaurant and it meant I was tragically too full to finish the main course.
Price comparisons can go out of the window once we are in front of a menu, especially a glass of wine in
If a slice of cheesecake is £5.95, say… that’s the price of a WHOLE cheesecake from the bakery.
Obviously, we would rather you didn’t have a whole cheesecake every time you go out to eat – but you pick up supermarket dessert slices or pots to have when you get home for a fraction of the cost.
Just by making those two changes you could almost half the price of your meal if you want to have the enjoyment of eating out, whilst sticking to a budget.
Also that glass of restaurant wine is about the same as a bottle of supermarket wine.
Why not save what you would have and have water in the restaurant, and share a glass or two of wine at home when you get back.
You’d save the price of a taxi, stay hydrated, make better choices and be hangover-free.
14. Batch prepare as well as cook.
Time is money and all that, but also having things ready to hand stops the
‘f*ck it, let’s just order a take away’,
scenario.
Use the food processor to get really organised and prep your onions, vegetables, and whatever else you’ll need during the week and portion them out.
You’ll buy back hours, but also extra money spent.
Check out our batch cooking guide in The Vault.
15. Don’t shop hungry (not even online)
You will make terrible choices and not stick to your list.
That’s all on that one.
16. Don’t let them bamboozle you.
“Best before” and “Display until” just refer to food quality, not food safety. Many foods, especially dry stuff and packets, tins, and bottles, taste great for ages after these dates so may be quite safe to keep out of the bin.
“Use by” is the important one for food safety on things that go off like meat, fish, and dairy.
Make sure you eat or freeze food before its use-by date.
17. Free and Supercheap food?
What’s the catch?
Well – there isn’t one, and lots of benefits.
Olio teams up other people’s unneeded food with neighbours who could use it.
If you do want a cheeky Costa meal (or even grocery shop) check out the Too Good To Go app (the savvy students’ secret weapon) where stores sell a bag of mystery groceries and treats for around £3 rather than £10.
Only worthwhile if you’d be passing anyway – or what you save in food you’d spend on fuel.
18. Rotate your stock.
Just as they do in the shops. Bring the older things to the front of the fridge or freezer, to make sure you don’t end up with a terrifying quivering courgette that has a life of its own, next time you come to clean the fridge. But more importantly to avoid waste and doubling up on food you already have.
19. Use it, or lose it.
All the bargains you stashed in the freezer, or the sensible bulk cooking all goes to waste if you don’t actually eat it.
Often it’s because we can’t remember when we froze it, or even what it is.
Use a sharpie to date your carefully frozen food, label and even give cooking tips, in case you forget.
20. Out and About
When we were working at a festival last summer – the main courses were £12 each and they weren’t very big at all (we had to buy two each to feel full).
Wow, right – that would have added up to a crazy amount for four people over the weekend.
Many of us are opting for UK self-catering breaks now.
If you do, consider taking an electric cool box if there is no fridge, and reheat things when you’re there.
You can save ridiculous amounts of money by having a day of cooking, freezing and taking your own. (I do this, and vacuum pack everything).
If you’re camping – the whole of the campsite will walk by just to sniff your delicious pre-prepared food.
(I ended up writing my Thai Curry recipe out for several people because of this.)
Have the promise of freezer Ice-creams when you get home for beautifully behaved day trips rather than pricey ice cream vans and cafes.
All these tiny swaps and savings add up to a hefty slice of monthly cash, and we haven’t even talked about vouchers, discount stores, and loyalty cards.
If you reframe your ‘getting organised time’ as actual paid work
(it is… you get money for doing it)
it can make it feel much sexier – and once you’re in the habit, you’ll never stop doing it.
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