5 ways to save money on food bills

The average family throws away £60 worth of good, edible food a month – the majority of it bread, fruit and vegetables. Think what you could do with the extra money… It’s enough to put down a deposit on a car, knock £500 of your mortgage or credit card bill or replace all your bedroom carpets.

Here’s a few ways to cut the waste and save some money on food

1. Eat your way to less waste by working your way through the north face of your freezer, defrosting and decluttering as you go. Once you can see what you’ve been hoarding, sign up to lovefoodhatewaste.com and install their app to help you stay on the straight and narrow.

2.Get the app: make use of technology – exploit the cashback or discount vouchers your online bank account offers you – Santander offers up to 15% cashback on their debit and credit cards and Lloyds offers similar savings on their Everydayoffers vouchers, which you simply download each month. Sign up to a cashback shopping service such as shopitize.com or Quidco.com. Some of them can be a bit of a faff to start with (scanning barcodes and receipts is not a job for someone on the school run) but think of it as free money and you’ll soon get the hang of it. Check out the Candis Cashback and Discount Voucher & Gift Card savings here.

3. If you’re forever throwing away food that’s past its sell by date, cut out the middle man and order from Approved Foods (approvedfoods.co.uk), a mail order company that specialises in food near the end of its best before dates. It’s all fine, you just have to eat it, rather than leave it in the cupboard till Christmas and then bin it. Customers report savings of up 75% on their food bills.

4. Trawl the web for deals – Martin Lewis’ moneysavingsupermarket.com is currently flagging up Laithwaite’s wine deal – you can buy 12 bottles of red wine for £66 (normally £91.88) including two crystal wine glasses and free delivery. No strings attached. Find out more here.

5. Shop on Sunday afternoons or last thing at night and make your way to the bargain bin or simply follow the shelf-stacker who’s armed with the orange markdown stickers.