Food related actions
Activities done to save money in the last 6 months
Done more often
Similar to previous waves, the most likely money saving activities were buying ‘reduced to clear’ food items, cooking more food than needed to freeze for later, and bulking out meals with cheaper ingredients. The proportion doing each of these more often in the last 6 months was similar to W20.
The slight increases (although not statistically significant) reported in W20 across almost all the activities have remained this wave.
| Action | W21 | W20 | W19 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bought ‘reduced to clear’ food items | 32% | 32% | 30% |
| Cooked more food than you need to freeze and eat later | 29% | 29% | 25% |
| Bulked out meals with cheaper ingredients | 23% | 23% | 20% |
| Skipped meals or reduced size of meal | 22% | 20% | 19% |
| Used the ‘sniff test’ when deciding if food is safe to eat | 21% | 22% | 19% |
| Reheated food more than once | 18% | 18% | 16% |
| Bought fresh produce or foods | 25% | 29% | 21% |
| Bought meat | 17% | 16% | 13% |
| Bought snacks | 16% | 17% | 12% |
| Bought fish | 15% | 16% | 12% |
| Ordered takeaway (collected or delivered) | 11% | 12% | 10% |
| Eaten out | 9% | 10% | 7% |
| Cooked or prepared food from scratch | 35% | 35% | 33% |
| Bought ready made meals | 17% | 15% | 15% |
Done less often
Around 1 in 7 bought ‘reduced to clear’ food items less often in the last six months. This has increased from W20. Similar to W20, around 1 in 10 had done most of the other activities less often in the last 6 months to save money.
| Action | W21 | W20 | W19 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bought ‘reduced to clear’ food items | 14% | 11% | 10% |
| Reheated food more than once | 12% | 10% | 10% |
| Bulked out meals with cheaper ingredients | 11% | 12% | 11% |
| Cooked more food than you need to freeze and eat later | 11% | 10% | 11% |
| Skipped meals or reduced size of meal | 10% | 11% | 8% |
| Used the ‘sniff test’ when deciding if food is safe to eat | 9% | 10% | 9% |