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Date Published : Friday, July 25, 2008
With figures from the UN's World Food Programme showing international food prices up 54 per cent in a year, not to mention rising fuel costs and high interest rates, many Australians are looking to protect their bank accounts by cutting their grocery bills.
At the most basic level, this could involve changing your shopping habits to ensure each dollar goes as far as possible.
News service Agence France-Presse recently issued a series of tips for controlling supermarket spending - and shopping from a list was top of the pile.
Other recommendations included avoiding name brand items, buying seasonal fruit and veg and only buying enough food for meals.
Not shopping on an empty stomach and ditching the car for public transport can also save some dollars, it said.
Many other Australians are saving money - and indeed making a few bucks - by growing their own food at home.
The Murray family told the site they save "about 40 to 50 bucks a week" since adding a chook pen, vegetable patch and water tank to their home.
Having the chickens also lets the family generate some extra money by selling eggs for "about $4 a dozen".
"You can't really bank savings but you can use that money in other areas like health insurance, which costs about the $50 a week we save on food," Mark Murray said.
Overall, high food prices seem to have fuelled a renaissance in the Australian veggie patch, with Michael Byrnes of Eden Gardens saying sales of herb, fruit and vegetable seedlings had increased by 50 per cent in a year, the Sunday Telegraph states.
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