We’re still saving money, why not join us?

Enough bread to fill a double decker bus is thrown out every day in Surrey, and this summer we will bin enough potatoes to fill six football pitches and enough salad to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool.

Are you shocked by these figures? Yes, so are we, which is why Surrey Mummy staff have decided to lead the way in the campaign to put an end to this obscene amount of waste.

The mind-boggling statistics have been released by Surrey County Council in an aim to encourage residents in the county to change their cooking and shopping habits.

It believes the campaign Love Food Surrey can save families up to £50 a month on their grocery bills as well as cut down on the amount of landfill needed for the waste and save taxpayers' money.

All that is needed is a few simple changes to shopping, cooking and food storage habits, so earlier this year, we took up the challenge. We recorded all the food we threw out over a one-month period and then followed the tips and advice on the Love Food Surrey website the following month to see how much difference these changes could make.

We thought £50 a month sounded ambitious at first, but once we started making a diary of what we threw away, we realised that we could easily save just over £10 a week by being a bit more careful and adopting some of the strategies like planning our shopping better, exercising portion control and using leftovers to make further meals.

Surrey Mummy founder Penny Bramsden threw out a staggering £45 worth of food in four weeks. She said: "I looked at the food I was throwing out and tried to work out why.

"As well as a lack of planning with the shopping, it was an issue of portion control, I was just cooking far too much every mealtime."

So, four months after the original experiment, has Penny continued to save money?

"Absolutely. It really has not been difficult to make the changes, it is just about awareness. The portion advice on the website has been a big help, I don't cook far too much any more.

"I also plan my meals before shopping now, so I don't find things in the fridge that have gone off or gone out of date because I have forgotton to use them.
"We also freeze a lot more. It would have never dawned on me before to freeze yoghurts instead of leaving them in the fridge to go out of date after buying too many on a multi-buy deal."

John Furey, Surrey County Council’s cabinet member for transport and environment, said: “It’s startling to discover exactly how much food is thrown in the bin.

“I know it may seem easier to simply throw away leftovers. To help out, our Love Food Surrey campaign is providing easy hints and tips, recipe ideas and shopping advice on how to waste less and slash shopping bills.”

In Surrey alone, more than 80,000 tonnes of food is thrown away each year which costs taxpayers £6.7 million to deal with.

For more information about Penny’s follow up read her full report. The Surrey Mummy website can be found at www.surreymummy.com.