Inflation is hitting everywhere now - and that includes the weekly food shop. One option is to rush to the budget supermarkets to save money. Another, more planet-frendly option, is to save money by going green in the kitchen. Not sure where to start? We’ll show you how.

basket on wooden table with reusable fabric bags and mason jars filled with ginger, walnuts and raisins. greenery and flowers on table

We all know the price of food is going up but did you know that in the UK we throw away around 9.5 million tonnes of edible food a year - or around £450 each household? With the average annual food bill rising by £533, according to Kantar, there’s clearly space here for some serious savings.

So how do we get smart about saving money in the kitchen?

Plan your meals and write a list

One of the best ways to cut down on your weekly food spend, is the simplest: plan your meals for the week and write a shopping list so that you know exactly what you need. According to a recent survey by Nectar card, shoppers who take a list spend on average £11 less than those who pick up what they fancy in the store. Or do your food shopping online where you can tot up what you’re spending as you go.

Writing a list also helps you work out what leftovers you can incorporate into your meals. That half-eaten jar of pesto in the fridge door might help inspire your next meal.

flowers and wooden table with blank paper and someone about to write something — *Writing a shopping list can lower food bills by 11%*

Cook from scratch and make a batch

You’ve had a busy day and cooking may be the last thing you want to do, but if you’re out to save money, cooking from scratch is cheaper than buying ready meals. Here’s a sample cost comparison: a Tesco ready made Spaghetti Carbonara costs £2.80 for one using low-price ingredients, versus Jamie Oliver’s Carbonara recipe which uses £2.55 worth of top-quality, organic ingredients.

So why not triple the recipe for any meal you’re making and freeze the leftovers? Then, next time you’re thinking about dinner, all you need to do is open the freezer to save your cash.

Buy in bulk

One simple rule of life is that it’s usually cheaper to buy in bulk. But that’s not how most people in the UK shop when they visit the supermarket. With inflation expected to rise further over the winter, why not lock in the current rice price by buying a 2.5/5kg bag to see you through the darker months?

For organic pantry staples at non-organic prices we love Dizzie*. They deliver all your organic pantry staples monthly in refillable pots, that they then pick up the next day. Thus also saving on the fuel costs of trips to the supermarket.

Visit your local market

Buying locally and seasonally can also save money. Try visiting your local street markets to pick up a punnet of strawberries for £1.50 versus £2.00 for a 400 gram punnet in the supermarket. You can also save money by shopping there later in the day, when the stall-holders want to go home - and are ready to off-load some of their produce at discount prices.

basket of flowers in front of organic plastic-free food stall — *Check your local street markets for cheaper fruit and veg*

Plan some meat free meals

A 2021 study by Oxford University found that adopting a vegetarian diet could slash your food bill by up to a third. Giving up meat is not for everyone as meat is a valuable source of protein in our diets, but simply planning some meat free meals can make a significant dent in your weekly food bill.

Conserve energy when you cook

Did you know that you can save money by cooking with your microwave? According to Energy Star, a US programme that rates the energy efficiency of household appliances, cooking small portions of food in a microwave can save around 80% of the energy that you’d have used by turning on the oven.

Pressure cookers are also a great way to cut down on energy. Pressure cookers use steam and a build up of pressure to cook food in up to 70% less time than conventional ovens. Plus you don’t have to stir the food while it’s cooking.

pot with coriander growing from it — *Grow your own herbs and regrow vegetables from food scraps for free food*

Grow your own herbs and vegetables

Buy a pot of basil or thyme and keep it on your windowsill to cut what you need, when you need it. You can also regrow vegetables like celery, spring onions, leeks, garlic and shallots from the stem. Simply take a small section of the base of the bulb, with the roots attached, and place it in a shallow dish of water. Pretty quickly, it will begin to regrow.

Lots of lettuces are cut and regrow, so you can pop them in shallow water and continue to harvest them. Before long, you’ll have a vegetable garden on your windowsill.

Make the most of the fridge and freezer

Most of our food waste comes from food that we’ve left in the fridge and forgotten about. So some simple fridge planning can help you remember what’s in there. Try setting aside a shelf on your fridge for leftovers and get in the habit of looking there first when you’re thinking about your next meal.

If you’re not in the mood for that meal then, use the freezer. Almost everything you eat can be frozen: milk, fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, cooked pasta. Think of it like a time machine. Not going to eat the left-over pasta in the next couple of days? Pop it in the freezer in a clearly-labelled container and bring it out the next week. Once again, try to keep the freezer organised so you can keep track of where things are.

Ditch the disposables

Why throw paper towels in the bin when you can reuse kitchen wipes? if you’re going for the max budget option, cut up worn out clothes to use as wipes. Or you can buy pretty reusable wipes from brands like Marley’s Monsters.

Swap cling film for plastic or glass tupperware containers, so that you can cut back on repeat buying. You can also repurpose large jam jars to make sure that you can see the left-overs you’re storing in the fridge.

Woman wiping the surface with a reusable kitchen towel — *Why pay for paper towels just to throw them away?*

Use your dishwasher

And now for the good news. Fully-loaded dishwashers are more energy efficient than hand-washing dishes. Because many of us splash the water around when washing dishes by hand, according to the consumer magazine, Which, a dishwasher can use 10 times the amount of water than using a dishwasher at 12 litres of water per cycle.

To save money, make sure you only run it when its full and, if you’re on a variable energy tariff which has cheaper electricity at night, turn it on when you go to bed. You can also save money with eco-brand SMOL* who sell concentrated dishwashing tablets and just won BBC Good Food Best Dishwasher Tablet 2021. At £4.60 (15p per wash) for 30 dishwasher tablets, they’re around 5-8p cheaper per capsule than most full-price branded items. [Use code GREENSALON4 for 25% of the first two packs of either laundry or dishwasher tabs (+ free trial pack)].

Become app savvy

There are some really useful apps out there to help you cut food costs. Olio is the food sharing app you need to know about. Got more than you can eat? You can share it on the app. Or running short of some ingredients, just jump on and see who’s sharing that day. The app has so far shared nearly 58 million portions of food.

Too Good to Go is another money-saving food app which links you with shops and cafes that have unsold food at the end of the day. Looking for a later Turkish dinner of lamb stew, rice and salad for £3.99? Just click on the app and see whether your local Turkish restaurant has a magic bag for that evening.

Getting fizzy with it

OK, so buying a soda stream is an initial outlay, but if you’re a fizzy water addict, it pays back in spades when a litre bottle of Evian fizzy water is £1.25 at Tesco.

Look on Ebay for a second hand soda stream and you’ll be able to pick one up for around £25, including canister. That’ll take you 20 bottles of fizzy water to pay back, and from then on you just need to refill the canisters (which last about 6-8 weeks) at about £10 a pop.

Check out our other money-saving eco tips on the Green Salon Journal!

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How to save money by going green in the kitchen.