IT can be easy to end up with a huge bill after a trip to the supermarket, but one savvy shopper has revealed how her weekly grocery shop is costs just £20 for two people.
Cerys Phillips, a 20-year-old supermarket assistant from Leeds, reduced her shop from £90, and now snaps up meals for less than £1 a head.
Cerys shares her discount groceries on Instagram @GrilledSheeze, and told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk about her savvy tricks.
She said: “I usually find myself getting bargains from Morrisons but on my days off I love searching around all the supermarkets in town to find the best yellow sticker deals.
“Recently I picked up a TooGoodToGo vegan box which cost me just £10.
“I got apples, oranges, kiwi fruits, pears, a melon, peaches, plums, blueberries, grapes, tomatoes, cucumber, aubergine, broccoli, leeks, pak choi, spring onions, potatoes, soya milk, flour and more!
FABULOUS BINGO: WIN A SHARE OF £250K
“As a general rule of thumb I go to a supermarket at either around 7.30pm or an hour before closing time, you learn which stores will put out their reduced bits at certain times.
“When in a supermarket you’ll usually be able to find a specific reduced area, usually the chilled items will be at the bottom of a fridge and the ambient item will be on the end of an aisle, they’re great at marking them with red ‘reduced’ signs and once you’ve got a knack for finding them you’ll start seeing them from across the store!
“I also buy bags of reduced foods from ‘TooGoodToGo’ and collect freebies from ‘Olio’.
“Throughout my life I can’t even begin to imagine the amount I’ve saved overall just by yellow sticker finds.
“My weekly supermarket receipts have gone from being £90+ for two people down to around £20!
“Some dinners work out to being less than £1 per head, I could never go back to paying full price now.”
Cerys said she never has food waste if she can help it.
Extra veggies go into curries, pies and stews, anything she can freeze will go into the freezer and any items she receives that she cannot use she passes on to friends and family members.
She added: “Every night I’m able to prepare meals with discounted foods.
“I usually base my dinner plans around whatever amazing bargains I’ve found that day, as long as I keep stocked up on essentials like rice I’m usually able to live off bargains alone (this even includes snacks and desserts).
“In a recent shop I picked up a pack of six meat-free sausages, Indian inspired veggiebabs, houmous and no chicken garlic and herb kievs, all for 30% off. I also got some bread reduced from £1.70 to 85p and a Wicked Kitchen hot burrito down to £1.42 from £3.30.
“As a vegan I was particularly excited to find a stack of Galaxy vegan chocolate reduced from £3 to 75p!
“I have also been able to pick up plant-based no-pepperoni pizza for 25p reduced from £2.50 and no moo-zarella sticks for £1.75 instead of £2.20.
“On other occasions I have picked up vegan burgers for 15p instead of £1.50, ice cream cones reduced to 30p from £2 and vanilla ice cream for 8p instead of 80p! Simply by browsing the reduced aisles at the right times and using apps like Olio and TooGoodToGo can result in some massive gold mines.
Throughout my life I can’t even begin to imagine the amount I’ve saved overall just by yellow sticker finds.
Cerys Phillips
“I have been able to make a number of decent meals from my discounted bargains.
“For example I prepared vegan mushroom and leek pasta bake for £1.80 instead of £6 and the veggies – petits pois, garden peas and edamame beans – to go with it were 25p instead of £2.50.
“I had vegan cottage pie with meatless farm mince for 50p instead of £3 recently, where the frozen chips I put with it were just 8p instead of £2.
“I also got the carrots, potatoes and broccoli totally free thanks to Olio.
“One evening I made a Chinese fakeaway with salt and pepper chicken using Co-op chick’n’ pieces reduced to 88p from £1.75.
“I picked up some Taste & Glory beef pieces for £1.20 instead of £2 from Tesco and made it crispy chilli ‘beef’, and I got spring onions and peppers for free from Olio.
“Desserts at a discount are also on the menu. I got Bosh vegan lemon cake for £1 reduced from £3.50 and I put it with the 8p ice cream I picked up from Morrisons!
“For those wanting to find more discounted groceries I’d recommend not being scared to ask your local shops when they put their yellow stickers out and don’t be disheartened if you go one day and find nothing, it’s definitely a game of luck but more times than not it’ll pay off and when it does you’ll feel so good.
“Also check as many shops as possible.”
We shared how a woman’s savvy shopping means she buys £300 worth of Tesco food for just £40 every week.
For more food tips, this budget chef revealed how to slash your weekly food shop to £1 per meal by making these simple swaps.
And this student shared exactly how she lived on just £5 for five days – here’s how you can too.
