I’m raising two kids on a budget… easy hack saves me £60 a month in seconds but there’s a major drawback

A MUM-of-two has revealed how she saves £60 a month using an easy hack – but there’s a major drawback.

With the cost-of-living crisis driving up food prices, Brits have been looking for new ways to save money on their weekly shop.

Zoe Jutsum, 33, has managed to save between £10 and £15 a week by using the Too Good to Go app.

The handy app allows you to find local shops and restaurants selling surplus food at a hefty discount.

But there’s a catch as you have no idea what you’re going to get.

Speaking to BristolLive, savvy mum Zoe said she I started getting Too Good To Go bags a few months ago.

She said: “A friend had had a few and I wanted to see what it was like. At first, I used it as a treat and got bakery-themed bags which usually had lots of doughnuts or tasty bread.

“But then we started trying supermarket bags to see if we could try and save on our weekly shop.”

Zoe soon started experimenting with different offers from a range of supermarkets.

She said: “We started using Morrisons and found that although it was good quality still, it tended to be a lot of green veg. We then started trying the Aldi bags, which are definitely my favourite, and the variety you get in them is insane.”

“You usually get a good variety of meat, bread and veg, and we saved lots of money by not needing to buy meat or anything like that on our usual shop.

“For example, we recently had an Aldi bag for £3.30 and that had three or four lots of meat plus lots of fruits and veggies, bread and cakes which I anticipated totalled over £20!”

However, the bags can sometimes feel like a bit of a lucky dip.

But Zoe stressed that doesn’t have to be a bad thing, adding: “At the end of the day, you’re helping shops with them not throwing out waste – you can’t choose what this is and you’ve just got to accept it.

“Sometimes we get too much fresh food like salads and we often share this with our friends.

“My husband is known as the vegetarian Santa to one friend because he delivers so much salad to them!”

Zoe’s advice for first-time users of the app is to be quick as she noted that the most popular bags sell out “super fast”.

She said that Aldi on a Saturday is “probably our best day”.

Around the world, one third of all food produced goes to waste. 

In the UK alone, 9.5 million tonnes of food is wasted annually.

Co-founder of Latest Deals Tom Church said: “Two things I love – avoiding food waste and saving money on shopping – go hand in hand with the amazing Too Good To Go app. I’ve long been a fan, and Zoe is using it perfectly.

“To get the best deals yourself, do as Zoe says and get to know the best days and shops to get the bags that suit your needs.

“Other ways to save money at the supermarket include using new customer discount codes for online grocery shopping. 

“Iceland has a discount code, for example, giving you £10 off a £45 spend right now.”

“You could end up making significant savings yourself!”