Savvy Scots are UK's smartest food spenders

28th March 2014

Savvy Scots are UK’s smartest food spenders.

· Scotland’s adults have reduced annual spend on food by 16 per cent.

· One in three eating less takeaways

· Scots spend £232 less than rest of UK on fast food

Scots are the smartest spenders when it comes to managing their household food budgets according to results of the new 2014 VoucherCodes.co.uk’s Food Spend Study. The report into how much British adults are spending on groceries, takeaways and meals out reveals Scotland’s residents have successfully reduced their annual spend on food by a massive 16 per cent over the past year compared with just 10 per cent managed by the rest of the UK.

Slicing their annual food budget from £4,359 to £3,680 over the past 12 months, Scots are making the biggest savings by cutting back on takeaways – saving waistlines as well as wallets. In fact, one in three Scots (34 per cent) are consciously eating fewer takeaways – cutting their combined eating out and takeaway splurge from £129 to £89 a month. Currently, Scotland’s residents are spending 29 per cent of their total food budget on fast food – £232 less than the typical Brit does each year. In addition Scots have reduced the number of meals out they have by 30 per cent.

Aberdeen’s residents are now the biggest home-chefs in Scotland, refusing to sacrifice home-cooked family meals in favour of a smaller grocery outlay. Each adult in the city spends £3,021.72 on grocery shopping each year – 27 per cent more than last year’s home-cooking capital, Edinburgh, are spending and 16 per cent higher than the Scottish national average.

Glasgow rises in the ranks as Scotland’s takeaway capital – consuming 12 extra takeaways per year than those in Aberdeen. Nationally Scots make their way through an average of 70 takeaways a year with Indian food taking poll position as Scotland’s favourite takeaway. Chinese comes in a close second with the British classic fish and chips taking third place.

Scotland’s top ten favourite takeaways:

1. Indian food

2. Chinese food

3. Fish and chips

4. Pizza

5. Fried chicken

6. Thai food

7. Burger

8. Kebab

9. Italian food

10. Vietnamese food

Anita Naik, consumer editor of VoucherCodes.co.uk comments: “While it is nice to treat yourself to the occasional takeaway, there’s no denying that cooking from scratch at home is far easier on the wallet. Although it is cheaper to cook for yourself, Scotland’s adults are still spending more than the rest of the UK on groceries.

“By checking online voucher sites for discounts Scots will find some great opportunities to reduce their spend at the supermarket – especially if they don’t shop for their groceries online at the moment. Most retailers offer discount codes for up to £20 off your first online shop. There are also a wealth of discounts available online for the nation’s favourite restaurants and takeaways, so it’s possible to have that takeaway treat and still save money.”

IMAGE
Meat feast parmo, Pizza in the box, Fish and chips, Döner kebab
From Wikipedia under Creative Commons Licence - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/