With the Telegraph reporting earlier this year that food prices had risen by 7.4% in the space of a year (adding £750 to the average annual household's outgoings), the price of food is just another line on the growing list of financial pressures in 2008.

For those with debt problems, the news is particularly difficult to stomach. With costs of living on the rise, most of us will be expecting to sacrifice some of our hard-earned disposable income to make room - and for those with very little of that, dealing with debt is a growing concern.

The good news is that there are things you can do to ease the pressure. Here are some practical tips for lowering your grocery costs that don't involve hunger strikes or taking up ‘freeganism'

It sounds like the kind of thing your parents would tell you as a teenager, but when it comes to food, never has a wiser word been spoken.

In a recent report, WRAP estimated that up to a third of food intended for human consumption ends up in the bin, at an annual cost of around £420 per adult.

Before you shop, plan exactly what you need, write a list, and stick to it. Easier said than done when you're faced with so many tempting offers, but that leads us onto the next point...

Walking into a supermarket can be a high-pressured experience. Supermarkets know every trick in the book - clever displays, ‘special offers' that save you a matter of pennies, and even wafting pleasant smells around to make you hungry are all designed to get you to empty your pockets.

Shopping online makes buying food and household goods an altogether more straightforward experience. It's much easier to stick to your essential shopping list when you can't hear a chirpy store announcer telling you to ‘BOGOF'!

Take advantage of offers - but be careful Special offers are great when they are genuine, but remember that stores still want a profit. Do the maths: many ‘Buy 2 for £x' offers in fact save you next to nothing and are designed to get you to buy more than you need.

The best offers are ‘Buy One Get One Free': you get double what you paid for, meaning some can be saved for later, and you can spend less next time.