Beat the Credit Crunch

Published September 2008

A series of articles written to give practical advice for saving money and preventing unnecessary food wastage. That's extra money in the bank to spend on other things.

Although the Consumer Price Index (CPI)  in the UK states that the cost of food has gone up 9.5% in the past year, according to some sources, a basket of basic food items has increased by a whopping 21%.  This together with doom and gloom stories of impending recession, probable job losses and possible bank, mortgage or credit card interest rate rises, makes now a good time to re-think the way we conduct our finances.

Some aspects will be difficult or impossible to control: there's not much most of us can do about interest rates -   but  the way we shop for and use food is probably the easiest place to start making money-saving adjustments to help beat the credit crunch and our bank balances. For instance, 6.7 million tonnes of edible food is thrown away each year in the UK according to government statistics. In the average household, this wastage is due to two main factors:-

1.  Items past their sell-by dates   2.  Too much food being bought in one go

Cutting your Food Shopping Bill

Many of us now do the majority of our shopping at supermarkets and although it  usually means paying lower prices, there are a few pitfalls associated with supermarket shopping which actually contributes towards higher food bills and food wastage. However, with little effort, the drawbacks can easily be overcome.      

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BOGOFs  (Buy One get one free)

BOGOFs are a fantastic idea however, in order to make the best of them, they must be approached in a “clinical” manner. There’s no point getting double the amount of anything  if you end up throwing half of it away because you didn’t have time to eat it.

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Money-Saving Foods

There are many ways to save money on your food bill without resorting to living on bread and water. We give you lots of hints and tips which will enable you to prepare meals which are both delicious and nutritious and which are suitable for anyone whether on a budget or just trying to cut down from students to pensioners and everyone in between.

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Credit Crunch Recipes

We've put together a selection of  recipes from this site which will help you beat the credit crunch. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to find lots more similar recipes throughout the site which will enable you to save money on your food shopping bill whilst still being able to prepare delicious, exciting and nutritious recipes for yourself, your family and your friends.

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