Only buying what you physically need to eat, as well as planning your meals, will have a huge impact not only on saving money but saving waste. Spend less, waste less – good for you, your purse and the planet.
Think about all the energy, fuel and resources it takes to produce, process, package, transport, store and present food. When we throw it away, we’re not only wasting the food, but all the energy that’s gone into making and selling it.
Food that’s thrown away and ends up in landfill breaks down and releases methane, a greenhouse gas that’s twenty five times more potent than CO2.
We’ve all been food shopping without a plan in mind and randomly bought stuff that we haven’t ended up using, or that we have ended up using but has led us to overeat. 108kg of food per person is thrown away in the UK each year, that’s equivalent to 50 Chihuahuas or 80 human brains! And there are millions of us in the UK. We throw away 20 million slices of bread a day alone 🙁
The Nuush plan also gives you loads of delicious and easy vegetarian meal options (as well as meat and fish ones) and that’s a fab way of saving money and eating healthily.
Lastly, our plans follow the seasons. Eating seasonally and locally is a good money-saving and planet saving strategy.
Here are 14 money saving tips that will aslo help save the planet
- Buy the basic things at a low-cost supermarket. Stuff like plain/Greek yoghurt, cheese, tinned fish, tomato purée, vegetables, beans and pulses, nuts and seeds are all great from shops like Aldi and Lidl.
- Or, if possible, buy veg and fruit from a greengrocer or market. In the summer you might be able to grow some of your own veggies.
- Buy meat from a butcher, where you can get the exact amount you need.
- If you are using the Nuush plan, as soon as you get your weekly plan make your choices and write them down. Write a shopping list and stick to it.
- If you are using our plans cook only as much as your portion sizes state rather than following recipe amounts and it leading to waste or overeating. So..
- …follow your portion sizes – stated in the log in area in your Nuush account or if you’re not part of Nuush simply eat only as much as you need to feel comfortably full – learn from that and only cook that much next time. Check out our Handy Portion Guide.
- Avoid snacking. It’s extra food that you just don’t need to buy or eat.
- Choose largely vegetarian meals. Work towards reducing meat/poultry intake to once or twice a week and buy local produce. Support your local/UK farmers by buying their meat, poultry and other foods such as seasonal veg or UK flour.
- On our plans? Tell Sally if you have leftover food/ingredients and she will advise how to use them and stay on-plan. sally@nuush.co.uk
- Avoid takeaway food and ready meals as much as poss as they are overpackaged and often over-processed and all too often wasted.
- Carry out a kitchen inventory! Use up all the stuff that’s lurking 🙂
- Made too much food? Give it to someone who finds it more difficult to cook for themselves.
- Get some hens. They’ll eat up lots of leftovers AND provide you with eggs.
- Make your own bread – you’re far less likely to see it as a disposable item.
