Three Ways To Cut Your Food Bill

As food prices continue to soar, Malcolm Wheatley gives us three more ways to keep our food bills under control.

It's almost a year since I wrote about the tactics my own family pursues to keep down food bills.  

At the time, I was one of the first to point to rising food bills as a threat to the family budget.  But it struck a chord.  Not only did friends and fellow Fools in our local village community comment favourably on my prescience (hello Brian!), but a national newspaper -- ahem -- "borrowed" from the feature here on The Fool.

These days, no one can escape noticing the steep rises we're all paying for basic foodstuffs.  According to the Daily Mail's cost of living index, a basket of basic foods that cost £41.34 in May 2007 costs £49.24 now -- a rise of 19.1%.  Ouch!  Butter has risen by 60%, bread by 20%, cheese by 25%, and rice by 60%,  And, of course, all those other household bills haven't been standing still, either.

But for our family, the measures that I wrote about a year ago have made a difference.  Last year, we were able -- just -- to keep up the rate at which we squirrel away money into our ISAs and SIPPs, and even put a little money aside for a well-deserved holiday.  Yay!  (No, not our usual camping-in-France holiday -- a two-week trip to Hong Kong this Easter, paid for, very Foolishly, with several years' carefully saved-up Airmiles. 

But this year, as food costs continue to spiral, keeping control of our food bills is going to be tougher.  Much tougher.  So what are we doing about it?  Before I describe three new ways I've found to save on food bills, let's quickly catch-up on how last year's tactics went.

First, deep discounter Lidl obligingly opened a store nearby.  I pass it twice a day, and no longer have to make a special journey to either Aldi or Lidl.  It's made a huge difference -- even my wife says so! 

These days the only things we buy from our local Somerfield are date-expired `reduced for quick sale' items.  And we've definitely benefited from eating the seasons and free food from Nature's larder -- sometimes together. 

Growing our own is a `could do better', though.  We've got the land -- it's the time we lack.  Still, every space inch of greenhouse is used, we've got the orchard, and most years we get a reasonable crop of beans, beetroot, and courgettes.  And we've definitely exploited the `slow cooker' characteristics of our Rayburn stove to turn some very inexpensive cuts of meat into melt-in-the-mouth tender dishes.

Finally, our Hong Kong holiday convinced me more than ever of the merits of Asian cuisine -- even taking into accounts the 60% increase in the cost of rice. I've bought three books on vegetarian Indian cuisine from our local charity shops, and I'm experimenting.  So far, the good news is that I haven't found much by way of ingredients that I can't source locally -- although I've found that I do have to plan ahead.

So with food costs still rocketing, what new initiatives are we trying?

1.Waste not, want not

Reducing food waste is a big priority.  According to the government's Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), UK households throw away 6.7 million tonnes of food every year.  Some of it is made up of things like peelings, cores and bones, but the majority, say WRAP, is -- or was -- perfectly good food.  And throwing it out costs the average home over £420 a year, rising to £610 for a family with children.

The causes are various.  Simply cooking or preparing too much, and throwing away the surplus, is a prime cause.  So is having to throw out fruit and vegetables because they've `gone off'.  As is not eating food before it goes past its use-by date.

WRAP's website devoted to this food waste campaign -- Lovefoodhatewaste.com -- contains lots of handy tips for reducing such waste.  Official guidance on the difference between 'use by' dates and `best before' dates for example. How much food does your household needlessly throw away just because it's past its `best before' date, for instance?  (Hint: `Best before' means exactly that -- not 'throw out after'.)

2. A blast from the past

I've always been interested in old, traditional recipes.  Just last week, rather than throw out two pints of milk that were `on the turn', I slung in a handful of rice, some sugar, and a twist of nutmeg to make a delicious old-fashioned rice pudding.

For 25 years, our copy of Farmhouse Cookery: recipes from the country kitchen has provided 400 pages of enjoyable (and usually inexpensive) recipe suggestions.  Spotting a copy in a charity shop on sale at £1.99 the other day, I couldn't resist buying it for my daughter.  (Originally published by Reader's Digest, it's available secondhand from Amazon sellers.)

These days, I'm combing it even more diligently.  And I've added another couple of gems: two old 1940s-era cookbooks, sourced from another charity shop for 5 pence each. 

Simply put, old recipe books hail from a time when lifestyles were less lavish, every penny mattered, and the frugal cook aimed to stretch scarce ingredients and tight budgets as far as possible.  (Gosh!  Just like today, I hear you say!)  I think I'll pass on the calves' feet and fried tripe -- but many others look very interesting, and seem rarely found in modern books.

In fact, it seems there's quite a retro-fashion for old-time cooking, with experts pointing out that Britons were healthier and lighter when recipes were dictated by ration books rather than TV chefs.  Amazon, for example, lists several recently published titles on the theme of wartime and ration-book cookery.  So if 5 pence charity shop titles don't appeal, click here for some more modern alternatives! 

3. Lose a pound, gain a pound

Speaking of rationing, in the last few weeks, I've had several people suggest I've lost weight and am looking slimmer.  (Honest!)  And it's true, although the demise of the recently-acquired digital scales prevents me from sharing the precise figure.

I'm not going to bang on about this.  But I think there's little doubt that a little basic moderation, plus portion control, has had an impact.  And the logic can't be denied: food that isn't eaten doesn't have to be bought.  Especially if it's cakes, biscuits and other fatty and/or sugary snacks. For years, experts have extolled the health and fitness benefits of dieting -- now maybe it's time to point out the financial benefits, too.

If this is a notion that appeals, check out The Fool's Weight Control discussion board -- not as well-used as in former times, an influx of fresh faces could be just what it needs!

More: Fight Back Against Rising Food Prices