Lifeskills: Cooking Safely

Shopping for Food

How much money you have available to spend on food will be crucial. It is a good idea to work out a weekly budget that covers all your usual bills, while leaving enough set aside for groceries.

Whether the budget you have available is large or small, it won't be easy to control that budget unless you are quite disciplined about what you buy.

Many shops, especially the big supermarkets, are very good at encouraging people to spend money....

Tempting looking items may be placed in prominent places where they catch your eye. "Special offers" may look like a good deal until you think about the details. Some of the stuff that you really need may be several aisles away. What harm can it do to browse the other shelves as you go along?

The problem with this is that it's very easy to buy a lot of stuff you don't really need. That's a good way to end up with a bigger shopping bill than you can afford.

This is why it's worthwhile preparing a shopping list before you go out.

If you have a good idea what meals you are going to prepare then you will be able to work out what you need to buy to make them. You may need to check recipes and do a "stock take" of what's in your fridge and cupboards.

You might find it helpful to always have a shopping list on the go, writing down items as you remember them. If you use something up, and you want to replace it, write it down on the list straight away. If you have a noticeboard in the kitchen you could pin the list up there.

Use an old envelope or recycled paper to write the list on. You might find it helpful to divide the list up into a few different sections. These could correspond to different shops, or to different sections of a supermarket.

Try to discipline yourself not to buy anything that isn't on the list.

Keep the list until you get home and also keep your till receipts from your shopping. Usually these will list the items and how much each cost.

When you have finished shopping compare your receipts with the shopping list. Did you buy items that weren't on the list? Why?

Perhaps if you have bought extra stuff it was because you remembered that you needed an item when you saw it in the shop. You hadn't written it down on your list.

But if that wasn't the case did you maybe feel that you had to buy something when really it wasn't necessary?

If that is the case try to work out why: were you hungry when you were in the shop, did a "special offer" tempt you, had you seen an advertisement which made you curious to try out something new?

Work out how much these extra items are costing. If you are going over your budget regularly you may need to work out a way of resisting these "impulse buys".

It is easy to exceed your budget if you run out of several things at once. Don't blame yourself every time you go over your limit. You may find that if you overspend by a few pounds one week that is because you buy things you won't need again for a while. The following week you spend quite a lot less than your budget and it all balances out in the end.

But if you consistently go over the budget then there are only two things you can do:

• make a new budget (which may mean trying to get some extra income, or cutting down on some other spending), or
• change some of your shopping habits (so that you spend less).

• Greengrocers usually stock a good range of fruit and vegetables and often these are cheaper than supermarket produce. They are more likely to come from local suppliers too (many supermarket foods are flown in from all around the world).

• If you don't have a local greengrocer see if there is a fruit and veg stall on market days.

• Compare prices between shops, the market, and the supermarket. Bear in mind these may change quite often.

• If you have to use the supermarket do watch out for pre-packaged fruit and vegetables. These are wrapped up or sold in a bag and may be a lot more expensive than identical produce which you select for yourself and have weighed at the till. (Shops selling produce by weight must provide scales that you can use to compare the weights.)

• The same advice applies to meat, poultry, bread, and fish which may be available more cheaply, and fresher, from a small shop than from the supermarket.

• Packaged meat, fish, cheeses, and similar products are usually only available in a small range of sizes. If you only need 200g of cheese why end up buying 500g just because that is the smallest pack on the shelf? See if you can find a local shop like a deli where you can ask for the exact amount that you want.

• Health food shops may be worth investigating. However they are sometimes rather expensive and may charge premium prices for organic foods.

• The day of the week and the time of day may affect prices. A greengrocer that shuts at the weekend may reduce lots of its prices on a Friday afternoon to try and clear stock that won't last until the following week.

• Online shopping may be worth looking into. Usually there is a delivery charge and only the bigger shops tend to offer this service. However, their shopping websites can be a good way to find out prices without even needing to leave home. You could work out what the items on your shopping list would cost at your local supermarket, and write the figures down on your list, before you set out shopping.

• This is another good reason for keeping your till receipts for a week or two: they list the prices and you can compare these with what other shops are charging. But do bear in mind that all shops change their prices and something that has been on "special offer" may go back up in price after a week or two.

As a general rule, the fresher the food the healthier. The freshness of the food you use will depend on a number of things. For example:

• How often you can shop
• How long ago you purchased it
• How fresh the produce was when it reached the shop in the first place, and
• The conditions it is stored in.

Most packaged food items have a Best Before Date which gives an indication of how long the food will remain fresh (its "shelf life"). This could be a few days in the future or it could be several weeks away. The shelf life can be several months, a year, or longer for some products.

Consider how long food will last for before buying it. Sometimes you can save money by buying a larger quantity of a product. But if the product will only stay fresh for a short time that may be a false economy.

A big bag of rice might be quite a lot cheaper than two small bags. As long as you have a suitable container to keep the rice in, once it has been opened, the big bag is probably worth buying. The contents will still be useable months into the future. A multipack of yoghurt, for example, might be a false economy if you end up with unopened tubs that have already gone past their date.

Check the "best by" dates particularly carefully if the goods are on a special promotion or if they are selling unusually cheaply. Very cheap food that is stale may not be very good value for money compared to more expensive but fresher food. And some foods could make you unwell if you eat them after the recommended date.

How you store food will directly affect how long it stays fresh for. Many packaged food items will include storage instructions and will give guidance on how long it will last.

Some items will last longer if they are kept in an airtight container. Plastic containers and tins can be useful for this. Consider recycling things like coffee jars, margarine tubs, ice cream tubs, and biscuit tins. Once they have been thoroughly washed they can be used to keep other foods fresh.

If you have a freezer compartment in your fridge, or a separate freezer, this will increase the options available to you because frozen foods can be kept for many weeks. You could also cook more than you need and freeze the surplus.

• The more storage you have available, the more you are able to take advantage of special offers and "economies of scale" (where bigger packs cost less than several small ones would). You may be able to do one "big shop" every two weeks or so and just buy a few fresh things in the meantime. This could save you time and travel costs.
• Be very wary about buying "ready meals". They can be very convenient and quick to prepare but they tend to be rather expensive.
• Be wary about buying "ready meals". They can be very convenient and quick to prepare but they tend to be rather expensive.

• Wherever possible, store fresh goods somewhere cool where they are not exposed to direct sunlight. This is especially important with some vegetables like potatoes which can react to sunlight. (With potatoes a chemical called solanine can be produced which can make you unwell.)

• Some foods that are good for buying in bulk, which last quite a while, and which can be incorporated into many meals:
  • pasta
  • noodles
  • rice
  • pulses like cous cous and lentils
  • frozen vegetables

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