Your family could save over £60 a month whilst doing your bit for the environment, by eating more of the food you buy. Sounds simple? It is, below are our tips to get you started.
You can also:
- Get #FreezerSavvy by using your freezer to help save food and money.
- Find out how to reduce your bread waste on our #Useyourloaf web page.
- Learn some basic hints and tricks to use at school or at work with our #Backtosavvy tips.
Plan like a pro
Planning your meals is one of the easiest ways to keep good food from going to waste. Get the whole family involved.
You could put a chalkboard in the kitchen to write up a meal plan. Make it fun by getting the whole family to write down meals that they would like to eat before planning out the week.
Remember to include a to use up what you have in your fridge and cupboards and create a meal with that food. Also remember to keep a day free if you fancy a takeaway or a night out.
You haven’t written a meal plan before? No problem!
Use our handy meal planner to keep you and your family in delicious dinners throughout the week. Remember to look for common ingredients across recipes, so you don’t buy too much.
Store it right
Storing food correctly is one of the best ways to reduce food waste. It will help it last longer and taste better.
Not sure where to store your bread or your beans? These are our top tips:
- Keep cool, dark and dry – bread, onions, potatoes, mushrooms (keep onions separate from other food)
- Keep in the fridge – vegetables, fruit, eggs, leftover meals, dairy, meat, gravy
- Use your freezer – it’s like a pause button for everything from slices of bread to cartons of milk and much more
Still not sure how to store something? Check out this A-Z of food storage on the Love Food Hate Waste website..
Love your leftovers
Turning leftover meals into a delicious new meal or a tasty snack is one of the best ways to help tackle food waste.
Make sure to cool leftovers as quickly as possible. Then store them in the fridge or freezer (if saving for a later date). Eat them within two days if stored in the fridge (one for rice) and reheat until piping hot.
If eating the same meal two days in a row isn’t for you, try one of our cheffy tips to reimagine your leftover food into a brand-new meal:
- Leftovers from a Sunday roast? Create a bubble and squeak brunch or add them to a curry
- Cooked too much rice? Fry it with some leftover vegetables, some soy sauce and an egg or two, heat thoroughly and you’ve got egg fried rice.
- Overdone it on the pasta? You can’t go far wrong with a delicious mac n cheese.
You can find links to the recipes below:
Five Food Savvy Facts
- The average family throws away eight whole meals a week. That's over £60 a month!
- Greenhouse gases associated with food waste in the UK are the equivalent of those produced by 10 million cars. Brum brum!
- 20 million slices of bread are wasted in the UK every day? Ah crumbs!
- The best toasties are made with slightly stale bread with cheese and pickle in. No? What’s your favourite toastie? Tell us on the Wychavon Facebook page, @Wychavon on Twitter or @wychavondc on Instagram.
- Only half of people know that our fridges should be below 5°c. It’s time for them to chill out!
