Four ways to lower your food bill as price of supermarket staples soars by 8%
FAMILIES will want to know these four ways of lowering your food bill as the price of supermarket staples soars by 8%.
Brits are being clobbered with eye-watering hikes to bills from energy to fuel to food as a cost of living crisis cripples families' finances.
The price of doing the supermarket shop soared by 8% over the year, figures from the BBC show.
In a basket of 15 staple items including pasta, tinned tomatoes, fish fingers, carrots, jam and cheese, these items cost £1.32 more compared to 12 months ago.
Retail research firm Assosia tracked prices at big supermarkets like Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco, which included "value" ranges.
The price of spaghetti went up on average by 21p from 51p to 72p, while tinned tomatoes rose 10p from 35p to 45p.
The overall cost of the basket of items rose from £15.84 to £17.16.
A rise in food prices has mainly been fuelled by soaring inflation.
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Katar revealed that grocery inflation hit 3.5% in December, adding £15 on to the bill of the average shopper.
While Tesco's boss warned that the worst of soaring prices is yet to come.
Companies have already warned shoppers of higher prices, including Cobra beer, wine and more.
Rising inflation could push food prices up by £180 a year.
How to cut your shopping bill
As prices soar, here's how to lower the cost of your weekly shop.
Healthy Start vouchers
Parents and mums-to-be can make the most of the Healthy Start scheme.
You can claim money to put towards milk, vegetables and other fridge essentials.
The cut off date is March 10, so that leaves families with just weeks to go until they face missing out on the help worth £442
You have to be receiving Child Tax Credit, Income Support, Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Pension Credit, or Universal Credit to be eligible though.
Household Support Fund
Families can get up to hundreds of pounds in vouchers for food under the £500million Household Support Fund.
Under the scheme, Brits can apply to their local council for free cash and vouchers to cover the cost of their food, energy, clothing bills and more.
What you can get depends on what help your local council is offering and your personal situation.
Families in Manchester can get up to £100 in free cash while Spelthorne council is offering up to £80 to residents in the Surrey district.
Hunt for yellow sticker food
When food is nearing its use by date, supermarkets often slash prices to shift stock.
These discounted goods usually have yellow stickers on them so you can spot them easily - and know what you're saving.
Sometimes you can get up to 75% off - a big saving on your weekly shop.
Use food waste apps
Families can waste hundreds of pounds per year chucking away food that has been left too long in the fridge.
But there's apps you can use to avoid this happening.
For example, Kitche keeps track of the food you bought at the supermarket and lets you know when items are getting close to their sell by date - which stops you wasting cash on food.
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While the Too Good To Go means you can buy food and treats from shops including Morrisons, Greggs and Pret at a big discount.
That's because this excess food was only going to be thrown away by big shops.
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