As the credit crunch bites, many of us are being more cautious with our spending. However with ever increasing food prices, it seems an ever-increasing challenge to manage the food bill. 

From September 07 to September 08, food prices increased 10.8 percent – the highest annual price increase since 1990. So to help you out, here’s some top tips to save at the supermarket.

1.    Home brands
Buy budget brands. Often the quality is just as good and if you consistently choose the homebrand/no name brand the savings will soon stack up. Here are a couple of examples to see what savings can be made. A Budget brand can of baked beans costs around $0.60, while named brand baked beans are $1.30 a can and a 2L signature range milk costs $3.69 compared to 2L name brand milk at $4.49.

2.    Grow your own
Join the gardening revolution and save! Vegetable gardening has taken off the past few years as more people realise the cost saving benefits of growing your own vegetables. A punnet of 8 broccoli seedlings costs between $2-$4 dollars so you can see how the savings soon start to stack up. Plus if you grow your own plants from seeds you’ll save even more as a packet of seeds costs around $2 for 100 seeds.

For inspiration, sign up to the Get Growing with NZ Gardener newsletter at www.nzgardener.co.nz where you’ll get tips on growing vegetables, pest control plus a weekly giveaway.

nzPicking fresh from your garden guarantees the best levels of nutrients from your vegetables too since you know they are fresh and not been sitting in storage before reaching the supermarket shelf.

3.    Stock up
Supermarkets often have what’s called “lost leaders” – very cheap advertised specials that draw people into the store, and to hopefully get them to buy other products once they are in the store.

Take advantage of the cheap specials and stock up for weeks to come. However, only do this with items you use often. There is no point buying five cans of cheap peaches if you only eat them a few times a year. 

4.    Plan well
Write up a weekly meal plan and a shopping list so when you come to cook dinner you have all the ingredients you need. A big budget blower is running back and forth to the supermarket as most people end up buying extras they didn’t plan for.

5.    Make it stretch
Use half the amount of meat and add lentils, canned beans or chickpeas to meals to reduce the cost. Lentils, canned beans (eg kidney beans, cannellini beans etc) or chickpeas are a great source of protein, carbohydrate and fibre while being low in fat. They are also much cheaper than meat, so experiment with using them in meals.

Kidney beans are good in mince, whilst chickpeas are nice with chicken or lamb.  Check out some vegetarian cookbooks for inspiration.

These tips will help keep the coins in your purse rather than the supermarket till – leaving you more money for paying off those debts or putting into savings.
 
Nicola Graham
www.eatwellnz.com

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