Sometimes we overlook the simple things when it comes to saving money.

A member of our favourite web-based money-saving organisation www.simplesavings.com.au reports she is saving around $30 a month on food since she cut back drastically on the amount of food she is throwing out and wasting.

Her account is a great reminder that sometimes cost savings can be made with the simplest of strategies that are right under our nose.

Things like turning out lights when you leave a room; wearing more clothes when you are cold instead of turning up the artificial heat; turning the stove off a few minutes early to allow food to finish cooking with the residual heat; turning off all appliances at the wall before going to bed so that no ‘standby’ power is being used; and of course monitoring how much food you are simply throwing out because it has spoiled.

The Simple Savings member writes: “I was horrified to learn recently that a quarter of the food thrown out by Australian households alone could feed the Third World for a year.

“My first thought was 'I couldn't possibly be part of the problem!'. After all, I'm always complaining about food prices and refusing to buy anything I regard as overpriced.

“However, just to be sure, I grabbed a tin from the recycling bin and labelled it 'The Penalty Tin'. From then on, whenever I threw out an item of food, I would put its monetary value into the tin. For example, throwing out half a bottle of expired cream meant I had to put $0.65c in the tin. A litre of milk which was a week past its 'use-by' date resulted in a further $1.25 being put in the tin.

“This new habit averaged out at about $1.20 per day and within a fortnight I had deposited nearly $17. If I carried on this way, within a year I would have thrown away $438 of uneaten food!

“I was astounded and realised that I was literally throwing my money away. What right did I have to complain about food prices when my bad habits were in part contributing to the bigger global problem?

“The Penalty Tin has become a permanent fixture in my home and after three months I have reduced my wastage to an average of 20c per day. Because I'm not wasting as much food, I no longer need to buy as much either. Savings all round!”

The team at Work ‘n’ Care would hazard a guess that most people would be throwing out a lot more food than this woman was, so a review of what ends up in the compost seems a very smart idea.

And don’t forget that many staples can be broken down into smaller portions while still fresh and then frozen, to be defrosted when needed.

Milk is a great example. You can freeze it in a glass jar or plastic tub and thaw it as required. Bread can be frozen in snap-lock plastic bags a few slices at a time. Dinner leftovers (even if they are not a meal size) can also be frozen in snap-lock plastic bags and combined after a few weeks to make a delicious hearty soup with the addition of just a bit of stock. Sour cream is just amazing frozen with the addition of a few spoons of brown sugar as it makes a divine creamy ice-cream – so much nicer than finding a half-used tub of sour cream gone mouldy in the back of the fridge!