Saving money doesn't have to mean abandoning everything you currently enjoy in your life. Rather than banning yourself from ever eating out again, think about how you can minimize your spending by switching up your food shopping and cooking routines.
It is more than possible to cut your monthly food bill by £200. Here, we have shared our six expert meal planning tips to help you reduce your food budget and stop overspending – and no, it doesn't involve living off beans on toast and supermarket-brand cornflakes.
Planning your weekly meals takes mental effort, but spending just 10 minutes of your Saturday creating a meal plan will make a big difference when it comes to helping you buy only what you need.
Check what you already have in the kitchen, then base your plan around those items. Create a shopping list and stick to it. That way, you won't end up buying duplicates, and you will avoid having to make extra trips to the shop (where you will inevitably get sucked into buying more than you need).
Another really simple way to save money on your meals is to build your dishes on affordable ingredients like wholemeal pasta, brown rice, potatoes, oats and frozen veggies – which, in some cases, can actually be better for you than fresh veg.
The great thing about these items is that they store well and are nice and versatile, so they can be used in multiple recipes. All filling and nutritious meals consist of a few simple basics: seasonal vegetables, a versatile carb (like wholemeal pasta) and a protein source. Using low-cost ingredients as a base also makes it easier to stretch your more expensive ingredients further.
Batch cooking might sound like something only your gym-obsessed friend would bother with, but it is well worth doing for its money-saving benefits alone. It is easy and takes just an hour or two to prepare big quantities of healthy, delicious meals like soups, stews, curries and pasta sauces. You can then freeze individual portions, so you’ve always got something ready on those busy days that would otherwise result in a £25+ takeaway order.
You can also bulk-buy and batch-cook meats like ground beef and chicken when they are on sale. You are freezing them anyway, so there is no rush to eat them before their use-by date.
If you’ve still got a bit of snobbery around using own-label products, it is time to abandon it now. Supermarket own-label products usually match or even outperform branded items for quality, with a trading standards study finding no nutritional differences between the two, and 50% of people even preferring the value products offered by supermarkets like Asda and Sainsbury's.
If you have a brand you absolutely swear by for your morning cup of tea or your tomato sauce, fine. But don't knock the supermarket own brands for things like stock cubes, cereal, cheese, healthy food items and pantry goods. Test cheaper alternatives for items you buy often and stick with them if you like them (or can't tell the difference!).
Most supermarkets nowadays offer loyalty cards, like the Tesco ClubCard and the Sainsbury's Nectar Card, that give you discounts or vouchers just for being a member.
You don't have to pay for one of these cards, so it is well worth ordering one and using it every time you shop. You will often find that the member pricing for your favourite products is quite a bit cheaper than the regular price, so you will be able to save on food costs with no extra effort.
There is no better feeling than being able to use your leftovers for lunch the next day. So, rather than throwing them away or eating until you are absolutely stuffed, save them for another meal and reduce how much you are buying for each individual meal. This will also prevent you from buying food on the go, which is one of the most common ways to waste your money.
A simple hack here is to buy a pack of wraps (preferably wholemeal), so you can reheat things like curries, stews and stir fries and enjoy them in a wrap for your lunch. If you get into the habit of cooking slightly more than you will need for dinner, you will have balanced meals already prepped for the following day, so you will rarely have to buy your lunches again.
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