Diana Clement: The coolest idea to beat inflation

The trick is to buy in bulk when food is cheap and freeze leftover ingredients and meals before they go off. Photo / 123RF

As inflation bites, most New Zealanders are trying to save money at the supermarket. Your freezer is a perfect weapon for that. And it doesn't even need to be a large one.

I save hundreds of dollars each year by using the freezing section of my fridge-freezer as a tool in my quest to waste zero food. The money savings are really hitting home since inflation began to bite.

The trick is to buy in bulk when food is cheap, freeze leftover ingredients and meals before they go off, and ensure that I have a good stock of home-made and home-grown foods that would otherwise cost a fortune at the supermarket. I freeze my annual supply of pesto, made when my home-grown basil or mint is plentiful.

I attended a Love Food Hate Waste event last year, where among other clever tricks, the presenter pointed out that "sell-by dates" should be viewed as "freeze-by dates". Once in the freezer foods that could otherwise have gone off can be kept for months.

Depending on the amount of space in your freezer, you can also freeze dry goods that you might not get through before they go off - or get infested with the dreaded pantry moths. I do that with my chick-pea (gram) flour. You can do the same with nuts to stop them from going rancid.

Freeze anything and everything before it goes off. All too often we open something then waste half of it. It might be half a jar of pasta sauce, a few tortillas, or even wine, which can be frozen and later used for cooking. Cheese can be grated and frozen for pasta or toasties. Sour milk can be frozen and used in baking at a later date.

Ice cube containers are a godsend for saving for anything that comes out of jars and cans. Who hasn't opened a can of tomato paste for one spoonful, then the rest has gone off? I freeze the remainder in cubes. I do the same for coconut cream, and even aquafaba (chickpea liquid that can be used as a free egg substitute).

Freeze anything and everything before it goes off. Photo / 123RF

On the subject of free, home-grown fruit is great to freeze and use instead of bought. I scoop and freeze feijoa, which can be microwaved and eaten with muesli or porridge, or cooked into desserts. Likewise, I freeze excess lemons and limes when they're free and plentiful like now, for use throughout the year. Lemons and limes are expensive, as are fresh herbs such as kaffir, pandam and curry leaves that I buy fresh and freeze.

Vegetables that are turning can be chopped up, cooked into soups, curries, and stews, and frozen. I've come across a number of curry and pasta sauce recipes that use puréed onions and vegetables as their base.

Our supermarkets don't often have great mark-downs. When I do see an especially good bargain I buy in bulk. Sometimes that's 1kg of bacon for the family meat lover, which is split up into four portions frozen. If you're actually still buying butter at $7.99 a pack then look out for specials, chop it into smaller blocks and freeze.

Days before writing this article I spotted pies on super-duper special in the supermarket's deli. I added two six-packs to my trolley. The pies, which worked out at 50c each, were frozen that night and the pie lover in our house given instructions on how to heat them in the air fryer.

It's definitely worth Googling for more ideas. I found during the 2020 lockdown that avocados can be frozen, if you've bought more than you need. So too can grated courgette and many other foods commonly wasted.

The final trick is to make sure you cycle through all the food in your freezer. It's all too easy to push it to the back, never use it, and run out of space when you could be making savings. Planning meals from what's in the freezer is the way to make the entire scheme work.