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A woman who discovered she was spending more than £100 a week on food has explained how she managed to slash that bill.

The Full Article can be read at the Mirror Newspaper here.

Melita Latham found a way to overcome her fear of the kitchen - and as a result is not only eating better food, but spending more quality time with her partner and helping the environment too.

A woman who discovered she was spending more than £100 a week on food has explained how she managed to slash that bill.

Melita Latham found a way to overcome her fear of the kitchen - and as a result is not only eating better food, but spending more quality time with her partner and helping the environment too.

“Growing up, my mum would always do the cooking but unfortunately I didn’t inherit her culinary skills, so when I moved out I quickly fell into the habit of buying pricey convenience food that was ready made or which I could just throw in the microwave," the 34-year old explained.

And her habit of buying prepared food only got worse when she moved in with her partner Mark two years ago, who also didn't cook.

"When I met Mark, we fell into a routine of ordering the same non-adventurous food from the same takeaways and restaurants – but it was never nutritious and wouldn’t fill us up, so we’d snack throughout the day too."

 

 

Then one day Melita added up just how much she was spending.

“It finally dawned on me just how much money Mark and I were spending every month on food – and actually how much of it was going to waste," she said.

“Because we’d nip to the shops every day, we’d buy more than what we needed and in bigger quantities than necessary, and we’d often end up throwing a lot of it away which was really wasteful."

Adding it all up, Melita worked out she was spending an incredible £118.40 a week on food - despite not eating breakfast most days.

Things had to change, there was just one problem - she still didn't know how to cook.

“I’d always been a bit scared of the kitchen and I just thought because I’d had so many bad experiences, everything I would make would turn out terribly," she said.

But a post on social media was about to change all that - after Melita discovered there were companies that give you step-by-step instructions along with all the spices you need and a shopping list of what to buy.

And by combining Spicentice- the firm she chose - meal kits with fresh, ingredients from the local supermarket, Melita managed to save £32.58 in three days compared with what she had been spending.

And the meal-specific shopping lists that came with the kits meant she could also cut down on waste.

“One of the best things about cooking with Spicentice kits is that they include a full ingredients list on the back of each, so you know exactly how much of everything you need to buy and there’s rarely any waste at all," Melita said.

And that wasn't the only benefit the Essex resident found.

“It’s also much quicker to prepare the ingredients and cook a full meal for us both than it would be to order food and wait for it to be delivered, so we haven’t sacrificed anything timewise either,” Melita said.

Melita, who runs the travel accessories business melitalathamlondon.com, also found it helped with her relationship.

“Mark and I get so excited for dinner now, which is something I never thought would happen," she said.

"We text each other throughout the day to decide which kit we’re going to use and who’s going to pick up the ingredients.

“Normally every evening we’d just order a takeaway, do our separate things until it arrived, then sit on the sofa and eat whilst watching TV – again, not talking.

“Now, we spend quality time with each other nearly every night, whenever we’re cooking.”

Melita's £118.40 weekly food bill

Day 1:

• Breakfast - Cup of tea
• Lunch - £3 - Vegetarian Sushi x 2, Mr Kipling Cherry Bakewell
• Dinner - £25 - Chinese Takeaway

Day 2:

• Breakfast - Cup of tea
• Lunch - £1.70 - Supermarket bought cheese and onion sandwich, Beef crisps
• Dinner - £3 - Sausage and microwave mash with onion gravy

Day 3:

• Breakfast - Cup of tea
• Lunch - £2.70 - Vegetarian Sushi x 2, Beef crisps
• Dinner - £5 - Supermarket bought Spinach & Ricotta Tortellini

Day 4:

• Breakfast - Cup of tea
• Lunch - £3.50 - Crisps, chocolate bar and a bag of mini eggs
• Dinner - £7.80 - Chicken Kiev, Salad, Potato Wedges

Day 5:

• Breakfast - £8 - Full English
• Lunch - £0
• Dinner - £25 - Takeaway pizza, cheesy garlic bread and mozzarella sticks

Day 6:

• Breakfast - Cup of tea
• Lunch - £3.70 - Cheese and tomato Pasta pot, cheese crisps and Kinder Bueno Chocolate Bar
• Dinner - £5 - Takeaway burger and chips

Day 7:

• Breakfast - Cup of tea
• Lunch - £3 - Sausage and cheese baguette
• Dinner - £18 - Chicken pasta and Garlic Bread, Chocolate Pudding in restaurant