Reduce your Food Bills
One of the knock on impacts of a problematic economy is that food prices seem to be rising. The cost of energy means that there is much more cost going into everything related to food - sourcing, picking, harvesting and packaging. With oil prices so high for instance the fuel that fishermen have to use to get that fish you are so fond of are going through the roof, and the prices are being passed on.
Also with many resources being dedicated to biofuel, wheat and other staple prices are going up and up, and again this means that everything on the shelf is going up in value.
Given this what can you do to ride out the high prices whilst still being able to feed yourself... how can you practically cut your food bill? Because the scary news is the average family is spending around £1,000 more per year on food than they were a year ago!
Well, shop around, and if you have several stores close to each other, actually consider hand-picking what you buy from each and pick the best deal from each. There are comparison sites online for UK supermarkets that tell you the price of goods in each of the main supermarkets, so you can save every penny possible by getting things where they are cheaper.
Another method is to buy food online, because research suggests this means you only get what you want and stops temptation buys or opportunist buys where you see something in the supermarket aisles and buy it on the spur of the moment - if you aren't in the aisles as you're shopping online then you can't do this and will only buy what it is that you need.
Also of course you could think about eating smaller portions, freezing leftovers, using more frozen foods which tend to be cheaper. People tend to have large wastage, so by trying to ensure that you manage your food resources well and throwing less away you could save a few hundred pounds a year that you were previously wasting.
Own brand rather than branded foods often taste the same or just as good, and will invariably offer a large saving. Don't be put off by words like 'basics' or 'nothing special' etc - these foods are still all perfectly edible and are often at around 30% - 40% reduced from the major brand items. Also remember to use incentive schemes and cards wherever possible, as these will save you money from time to time as the cost accrues.