Stretch your budget
Plan your weekly meals/Ingredients
Planning your meals in advance not only helps you out during the weekly shop, but also means you’ll be wasting less food and less pennies as you’ll only buy exactly what you need. Try this practical meal planner for fun family friendly recipes before you head out to the supermarket.
Bulk buy core ingredients
If you’re making a real effort to reduce your costs, start off with a big shop and stock up on basic ingredients that can be used for a whole host of different family recipes. Then create an essential weekly shopping list which you can stick to, and supplement this with weekly essential extras for certain meals or for a special family occasion.,Check ‘best before’ dates
No matter what size family you have, bulk buying is also an effective way of saving money. The best foods to buy in bulk are those with long best by dates, if they’re buy on get one free or three for two, you can save money by buying more than you need and making them last longer. Why not bulk buy food that you can freeze too like meat and fish? Buying reduced fruit and vegetables is also a great money saving tip especially when you can substitute ingredients in recipes.
Buy quality, not premium
From stretching the potential of your ingredients, to bulk buying and planning your meals, you can shop with confidence knowing you won’t be wasting a penny. Try something new, whether it’s buying Tesco’s recently launched ‘Imperfectly Perfect’ fruit and veg range, avoiding premium supermarket own-brands as they usually cost more than branded products and keep your eye on best by, sell by and use by dates!,
Please mummy?!
Sometimes we don’t have the luxury of shopping in peace and it can be tough when trying to do the weekly shop. Making your kids happy is always the top priority, if they’re happy then so are we! Children have the gift of ‘pester power’ which most of us find difficult to resist. To help you out, we’ve suggested some handy techniques to squash your kids desire for unnecessary treats like Disney princess plasters costing three times more than a standard pack!
Treat first, shopping second
Start the shop off by asking the littles one to pick an item of their choice, whether it’s a healthy (ish!) snack or perhaps a fun toy to occupy them on the way round in order to avoid the temptation of all the pricey treats around the shop. Or why not encourage them to take their pocket money with them so that they can choose their own treats whilst also learning the value of money.
Get them involved!
Another way to get the kids involved is by asking them to find the fruit and veg too, whether it’s a red pepper or a green apple it’s a fun way for the younger ones to learn. For the older children they can help by looking after the shopping list and ticking off the items as they go along – great for reading and writing too. ,
Love Food Hate Waste
Don’t forget there’s also many simple ways you can save money by using practical and effective tricks at home once the shop is complete. The campaign ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ has the sole aim of helping families save money whilst also saving the planet! How good is that!
As the end of the week approaches, we all look inside the fridge and see leftovers, a stray tomato and a couple of eggs and cheese? Instead of letting your food go out-of-date, why not pick a day of the week and challenge yourself to make something new from the ingredients left in your cupboards? Love Food Hate Waste has created a handy recipe making tool which allows you to create a recipe by inputting the ingredients you have to hand. Feeling more prepared to tackle the weekly shop? With a small amount of preparation, and tips to keep the kids happy you can prevent wasting those all-important pennies.
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