Mums cut back on pricey food

Hard up mums are ditching takeaways and celeb cookbooks and are relying on leftovers to save money.

More than half the country admits it is now eating fewer takeaways whilst almost a third are resorting to being creative with leftovers.

Instead of buying cookbooks, families are downloading online recipes for free, and asking friends or relatives for food saving advice.

A spokeswoman for Mumsnet said: “Mothers hold the purse-strings to the weekly shop so are more aware than anyone else in the family about how to make the money go further.

“This can include banning the Friday night takeaway or cooking leftovers – something they may not have even considered during the boom times of the last few years.  But women are more than happy to both take advice from others and to pass it on, so the inventiveness of the British mum, wife or partner has never been stronger than during this crunch.”

The findings from Ask Jeeves discovered that though clever cooking was important to keeping costs down, women would rather being doing other things.

Women would rather spend their time reading a book or magazine, in second place came watching a film, followed by surfing the net in third.

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