Enjoy the good weather – and waste less food

Shropshire Council has some great tips from Love Food Hate Waste to help us make the most of any good weather, and save money by wasting less food:

The tips – which can be found online at www.lovefoodhatewaste.com, include:

• Reducing our food waste can help the average family save around £50 a month.  This could be put towards a family treat such as a summer day out, or even new items for the garden from family games to new barbecues.  At www.lovefoodhatewaste.com there is a huge range of tips and ideas from planning and shopping to storing and using our food to help us make the most of it.

• Why not have a go at planning weekly menus?  This can help take the effort out of thinking about what to cook each night, and then wondering if we have the right ingredients in to make it.

Planning your meals is one of the most effective ways you can cut wastage and food bills. Simple meal planning will also help with your weekly shop, taking the guess work away when you’re not sure if you already have certain ingredients ‘in stock’ already at home. Love Food Hate Waste has some great meal planner ideas and templates to help you get started.

• Make and enjoy a free lunch on a summer’s day spent with the family.  We can all save money by using up what’s already in our fridges, from last night’s leftovers to those foods nearing their ‘use by’ date.  Whether you’re off on a day-trip, or just spending the day out in the garden or at the local park, you might want to use up those good foods to make a whole host of lunches from simple salads and sarnies, to tortilla and cold pastas. Why not try some of the Great For Lunch recipe ideas at www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/recipes

John Hurst-Knight, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for waste, said:

“With budgets being tight for many households this summer, reducing food waste is a quick win to help us save money.  With food waste costing us £12 billion each year in the UK, we want to help the local community by offering a wealth of tips – and many of these will come in particularly handy as it warms up outside and we find ourselves wanting to spend less time in the kitchen and more time out enjoying any good weather.  Of course all of these great tips can be used and adapted all year-round, whatever the climate!”

For more recipes and great ideas to save money and reduce food waste, please visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com.