Sensible shopping could save Brits £218m a week

Britons throw out six per cent of their food shopping after failing to consume items before their sell-by date, finds new research from Abbey Banking. Approximately £218 million worth of food is trashed across British households every week, that's over £800 million a month, as shoppers misjudge the amount they will consume.

Accurate supermarket shopping would not only help to save the nation over £800 million a month but it would also help the environment too. Indeed Abbey Banking estimates that British shoppers could reduce the amount of plastic shopping bags used each year by around one billion.

The average UK home throws out an average of £5.10 worth of out of date groceries every week and young shoppers are the worst culprits, discarding 10 per cent of their groceries, worth an average £7.31.

Steve Shore, Director of Abbey Banking, commented: "Despite our best intentions, it's often difficult to estimate food consumption - but doing so helps prevent waste both in terms of food and money. Saving an extra few pounds on the weekly shop can go a long way, especially when people are already feeling stretched. If you put that away in a high interest account, such as Abbey's 8% in credit account, you could put it towards something else."

The North East of England is the most wasteful region in the UK - throwing away food worth an average £6.40 ever week, or around seven per cent of their weekly shopping basket.

Weekly versus daily shopping trends

Daily shoppers who shop meal-to-meal discard an average eight per cent of the food they buy - this compares to the six per cent thrown away by weekly shoppers.

In an average week, those who shop daily or as and when required throw away an average of £6.41 in groceries (compared to £5.37 for weekly shoppers).

For those looking to make the most of their money, Abbey has two competitive current accounts. The first, which is designed for people who tend to have in-credit balances in their account, offers 8 per cent for the first year to switchers, reverting to 2.5 per cent thereafter. The other, designed for people who tend to be in overdraft, offers switchers 12 months interest free on their overdraft, reverting to one of the lowest advance overdraft rates on the market of 12.9 per cent. The only conditions on both accounts are that you use it as your main account and pay in at least £1,000 a month.