How you can save up to £720 a year with clever freezer hack

HOUSEHOLDS can save up to £720 a year on their food bills with one simple trick.

The average household chucks out £60 worth of food every month – and with inflation set to hit double figures next month it’s important to cut back on waste.

2

Sainsbury’s is urging shoppers to freeze their fresh produce to help cut down on food waste and slash people’s annual food bills.

In response to these findings, Sainsbury’s has launched a campaign to show people how they can save up to £720 a year just by using their freezer.

The supermarket has explained in detail how you can freeze leftover cheese, meat, fruit, vegetables, dairy and even cupboard goods like herbs and half eaten tinned food.

For example, grated cheese can be stored in the freezer and added to food as your please.

Most fresh fruit and vegetables can be cut up and stored in plastic bags or containers to be used at a later date.

We’ve listed the tips below, so check if you can save £720 a year on your food bills.

Customers should also be aware that the way in which they store food in their freezer can have a drastic affect on their energy bills.

Keeping your freezer three quarters full can also help reduce your energy bills by reducing your energy consumption.

2

Sainsbury’s tips follow it popup freezer concept launch, dubbed “Sainsfreeze”, outside Boxpark in Shoreditch to show people how much fresh food they can freeze.

The concept store was open to the public on September 27 and 28.

And now Sainsbury’s has also released a full list of the innovative ways in which you can store most types of fresh food in your freezer to cut waste.

Ruth Cranston, Director of Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability at Sainsbury’s said: “We launched Sainsfreeze, to help customers try and combat food waste and learn handy hints and top tips along the way.

“Innovative freezing not only allows us to save food we would otherwise have thrown away, but also to buy reduced priced food close to its use-by date, saving even more money on the weekly grocery bill.”

The major supermarket teamed up with the food waste charity WRAP, and discovered that 35% of Britons want to know how they can throw away less food.

A further 58% of Brits are on the hunt to look for new ways to cut costs.

The fresh food you can put in the freezer

Dairy

Once grated, cheese can be stored in the freezer and easily added on top of dishes. Store in a reusable freezer bag or reusable container.

Sainsbury’s said instead of letting leftover yoghurt go to waste, just pour onto a baking tray with non-stick baking paper on, scatter some leftover fruit across it and you’ve got yoghurt bark to snack on.

Once frozen, the bark can be broken into large pieces and stored in reusable freezer bags.

And many people don’t realise that you can freeze raw eggs, by just cracking them individually into resealable containers.

If you’re going to need just the yolks or whites for a particular recipe you can freeze the two separately.

Fruit

Sainsbury’s said when a whole fruit is larger than the portion you’re wanting to eat, freezing is a great way to reduce waste and save the rest for later.

For example, chop up a pineapple into bite-sized chunks and freeze portions in reusable containers or reusable freezer bags.

Any kind of berry can be popped in the freezer, for easy adding into smoothies, cakes or crumbles.

Store them in reusable freezer bags or reusable containers.

And instead of letting leftover grapes go bad, freeze them to turn them into healthy alternatives to hard boiled sweets by eating them straight out of the freezer.

Store snack-sized portions in reusable freezer bags or stacked in reusable containers.

Vegetables

Sainsbury’s said slice a variety of peppers up and freeze them in reusable freezer bags – when making a stir fry or fajitas you can toss a mixture straight into the pan.

Instead of letting fresh herbs go bad and throwing them away, chop them up and add them into an ice cube tray with some olive oil.

This way, you’ll be able to easily add them into any future dishes you’re making.

You can also grate leftover courgette to be added into omelettes, savoury muffins and much more.

Just grate it up and pop it in a reusable freezer bag or reusable container.

Meat and Fish

When freezing meat, most people just throw it straight in the freezer in the packaging it came in.

However, if frozen flat it can be stored in a much more space-savvy way, allowing you to pack much more into your freezer.

If your salmon is getting close to its use by date, chop larger salmon pieces into smaller portions and store in reusable freezer bags.

And before freezing chicken, dice it up and pop it in a reusable freezer bag – that way you’ll save time when it comes to cooking.

Cupboard items

As long as they are dried properly, tinned chickpeas can be portioned out and frozen in reusable freezer bags for easy adding to curries, stews or defrosted and blitzed up to make hummus.

And if a recipe only requires half a can of coconut milk, the rest can be decanted into ice cube trays for easy adding into future curries or soups.

Bakery

Sainsbury’s said that not many people realise that you can freeze croissants after baking.

Simply chop them up, and pop them in reusable freezer bags to be used in future bread and butter pudding recipes.

Bread also freezes well. Separate out bread slices and pop two slices in a reusable freezer bag.

This way, all the slices won’t get stuck together, and you can defrost the perfect amount to make a sandwich.

We’ve also listed 12 tips to cut grocery bills and it could save you £3,800 a year

We’ve also revealed when to visit the stores to grab yellow sticker bargains.

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk