bag of groceries
bag of groceries

This Simple Food Trick Will Save You £720 A Year

Three in four Brits are worried about the cost of their shopping.

The price of food has rocketed up by 17.4% in the year leading up to June 2023.

This increase has caused anxiety among shoppers, with three in four Brits saying they’re worried about the cost of their supermarket shop.

Luckily, there are plenty of ways to try and cut down your shopping bill. Yes, you can scour the aisles in the evening looking for yellow sticker bargains, but you’ll be met with an onslaught of bargain-loving people fighting you for the reduced carrots.

A major contributor to how much you spend on your food shopping is waste.

The average household throws away 1.96kg of food every single day. Yep, every. single. day. But, how much is that exactly? It adds up to around £720 a year. That’s nearly £1000 thrown straight in the bin.

bags of waste on street

How to save £720 a year on your shopping

Many of us use ‘best before dates’ as an indicator to throw stuff out. But, a lot of the time, these items can still be safe to consume. Not forgetting to mention that the UK throws away an average of 9.5 million tonnes of food waste a year, contributing to the production of harmful greenhouse gases. AKA: global warming.

Managing your waste is super important for saving yourself some cash and helping to save the planet, too.

How can you do that? Freeze your food.

Freezing ingredients and produce can extend their shelf life, meaning you won’t have to fork out extra money each food shop. Need bananas? Check your freezer. Out of bread? There’s a loaf in the freezer.

Here are our tips for freezing food to make it last.

Carrots, broccoli & mushrooms

Many vegetables can be frozen for differing lengths of time, but due to their high water content, carrots, mushrooms, and broccoli can be kept frozen for eight to twelve months.

Pop your veggies into a freezer bag or plastic container to store them safely.

Cheese

grating cheese over wooden chopping board

Cheese is becoming unnecessarily expensive (the best things in life often are). This is especially true for grated cheese. Blocks of cheese tend to be cheaper than grated, so buy a block and grate it yourself.

You can then put the cheese in a freezer bag or zip-lock bag, freezing it for anywhere between six and nine months. Cheese toasties on demand.

Potatoes

Everyone’s fave veggie. Potatoes, both cooked or uncooked, can be frozen for ten to twelve months.

If you’re cooking the potatoes first, ensure they’ve cooled down completely before freezing. When ready to use, you can cook mashed or roast potatoes straight from frozen, but whole potatoes will need thawing before using.

Tomatoes

You can freeze tomatoes but it’s best if they’re chopped or turned into liquid first.

You can do this by chopping or pureeing your tomatoes in the blender or food processor, then placing into a container, sealing it before putting in your freezer. This will last around six months.

Milk

Not many people are aware of this, but milk can be frozen. Instead of leaving it to go curdled and sour, freeze your milk before it goes bad.

However, when frozen, milk can expand slightly, so freeze it in a plastic container to allow for room to expand.

Bananas

Bananas are notorious for turning brown within minutes of coming home with them. A simple way to combat this is to peel off their skin, slice them into even chunks and freezing them in an airtight container or bag. They’ll keep for around six months.

Pro tip: you can make a really easy and delicious one ingredient banana ice cream.

Just freeze a banana overnight and blend in a food processor or blender. Keep blitzing past the crumbly stage and eventually you’ll have a creamy banana ice cream that’s healthy, too! Once turned into ice cream, you can store in the freezer as usual.

Bread

You either eat a whole loaf in one go or don’t touch it for weeks.

To keep your bread lasting longer, separate a loaf into slices, wrapping in cling film and freezing. You can freeze the whole loaf in one, but the slices may stick together.

Frozen bread has a shelf life of four to six months.

Cooked pasta

Surprising to some, cooked pasta can be frozen, and still taste just as good afterwards.

When cooking pasta to freeze, let it cool properly and drizzle it with olive oil to keep it from sticking together whilst huddled up in the freezer. The pasta can then last up to three months in the freezer.

Need containers to store your frozen food? We recommend this set of 8 clip lock containers from Dunelm, only £14.

Use our Student Beans student discount at Dunelm for 10% off when you spend £40 or more.