"I've halved the cost of my weekly shop using one simple trick anyone can do”
- Tiffany Bott, 32, has three hungry sons at home - so was spending up to £200 a week on food
- By careful yellow sticker shopping, budgeting and meal planning, she’s slashed that to £80 to £100 a week
- Tiffany recommends checking out yellow sticker shelves, Too Good To Go and Olio for the best bargains
Many of us are struggling to keep down the costs of our weekly shop in the cost of living crisis.
But one savvy mum has revealed how she’s slashed the cost of her weekly shop by half - saving an incredible £100 a week.
Tiffany Bott, 32, a dinner lady and mum of three sons aged 7, 9 and 13 from Telford, Shropshire, is a devoted yellow sticker shopper and is always on the hunt for a great bargain.
"I decided to start doing yellow sticker shops because with the cost of living increasing so incredibly much I had to try and save as much money as possible especially being a mum to three growing boys,” Tiffany told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk.
"I manage to get such a huge variety of foods in my yellow sticker purchases, from fresh fruit and vegetables, to snacks, meats, ready meals, bread, pastries, deli items. The list really is endless!
"My latest shop should have come to £103.15 and it only cost me £38.46. It was so so worth it, I have been working out the best times to go to the supermarkets to find out exactly when the reduced comes out and Morrisons has definitely been the best.
"When I’m yellow sticker shopping I always check what items can be frozen.
"I must admit I do try and find anything that’s freezable because you know that will last a lot longer but I am happy to buy things that run out on that day too and I will cook it that same day and use it for lunches and dinners the next day to save it going to waste and then it gives us another cheap meal!
"I never waste anything that I buy that has a yellow sticker. I often bake too so I will bake a lot of things using the fresh fruit and vegetables I manage to get. This way I can make different snacks, cakes and breakfast bars for my children.
"Yellow sticker shopping has saved me an incredible amount of money because I can base dinners around what I’ve been lucky enough to buy at the supermarkets. Because of this, my food bill has decreased considerably.
"As a family of five we were spending around £150 to £200 a week on food shopping.
“Because I’m now super careful, I meal plan and am always on the hunt for my yellow stickers, I now only spend between £80 and £100 a week which has helped us so incredibly much!
"I would definitely recommend anyone to do yellow sticker shopping. It’s a great way to prevent food waste but not only that it’s a great way to ensure you’re keeping those extra pennies for yourself!
"I always find meal prepping in advance a great way to ensure that food is not wasted. I will often defrost any of my yellow sticker bargains at the weekend and batch cook for the week because anyone that has children knows weekdays can be absolutely crazy busy and cooking from scratch every night is near on impossible!
"That way, you can ensure you’re using everything you’ve bought and there is no wastage plus the children love helping me do lots of cooking and baking at the weekends.
"My tips for yellow sticker shopping would be to definitely have a browse around each supermarket that you have in close proximity to your home.
"You will quickly find a favourite (mine being Morrisons!) then you will quickly work out what time they start bringing out the reduced items, or you can be cheeky like myself and just ask a member of staff what time they put out their yellow sticker items.
“Don’t be ashamed - everyone needs to save money in this current climate!
"Another tip would be to check the reduced part of the fridges and shelves as soon as you get to your supermarket.
"I always make that my first stop so I can try and get my yellow sticker items first. I always check at the end of my shop too, as you never know if more may have come out during your browse around the shop.
"Also, always check the smaller stores like Express, Local, garages and so on. These smaller stores are often forgotten about and I’ve always been extremely lucky to get some lovely reduced items so it’s always worth popping in and having a browse if you have one close by to you!
"Finally, if you can, definitely get yourself a spare freezer. It really does make it so worth while. I was lucky enough to get a free one from a local giving away page on social media and that way I can keep more stored for my family and it’s a win win as I stopped that freezer going to landfill!
"I am very fond of Too Good To Go bags also. I have found Aldi to definitely be the best for these, it’s like a lucky bag but for adults.
"Once again, this is an amazing way to save food wastage and there’s many websites online you can pop in what ingredients you have and it gives you a recipe you can make. There’s always something you can make with this surplus food.
"There’s also another app which is called Olio where wonderful members from your local community will save food from going to waste and will collect it from local supermarkets.
“They then will distribute it on the app and anyone can go and collect it, this is another fabulous way to save food waste and to save money - plus, absolutely anyone is entitled to collect these items!
"Yellow sticker shopping has now become a part of my day to day life. If I can save money and feed my family lovely nutritious meals for a considerably lower amount than usual I absolutely will continue to do so and I would also encourage anyone and everyone to do the same!"
Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, comments: “Life is getting more expensive than ever, but Tiffany’s dedication to budgeting shows that you can save a huge amount of money by sticking to the same tricks every week.
“If you’re shopping online, always check for sales. For example, Asda has loads of items on sale at the moment, from nappies and crips to clothes and wine.”
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These sort of articles always make me laugh, click bait for sure. Ofc anyone who's ever been to a supermarket knows about reduced price items and also she managed to halve her bill because she was obviously spending too much on food as it was. Useless advice all round really.
I rarely visit supermarkets so no idea when the shops start to reduce their price. Good luck to her but she needs to review her meal plans if buying £200 per week.