A recent survey by Abbey has revealed what a wasteful nation we are when it comes to food - according to the results, more than £218 million worth of food is chucked away by us Brits every week. That amounts to well over £800 million a month. In the past 12 months, we’ve seen the price of food and fuel rise dramatically, with wholesale food prices soaring by a rate more than three times the rate of inflation; we quite literally can’t afford to throw away food at the rate we currently are.

Dave Phelps, 26, who has just moved into a house with his fiancée says that “the things we usually end up throwing away are things like eggs and fresh vegetables where perhaps the use by dates aren’t quite as clearly labelled as they are on other things.”

A report published in the Telegraph earlier this year shows that the price of vegetables in particular is rising; a 500g bag of parsnips that cost £1.76 at Asda at the end of last year were priced just 98p a year earlier, whilst in the space of a year, Tesco increased the price of 2.5kilos of Maris Piper potatoes from £1.78 to £2.18.

Keeping an eye on sell by dates is one area in which shoppers could see themselves saving, as well as planning ahead with shopping trips. Shopping online also helps you quantify purchases and means you are less susceptible to point of sale purchases and in-store special offers. By coinciding deliveries for when you get back from work, saves you the hassle and spending money on petrol/transport of travelling to the local supermarket yourself - complete the order during your lunchbreak or at home the night before.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 9:54 am and is filed under Budgeting, Savings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.