FOOD shopping can get ever trickier as costs spiral and Christmas looms.
However, for this savvy mum her handy trick has saved her more than a few quid on her weekly food shop.
The head of finance and busy mum urges all friends to use the app to save money and get good food[/caption]
Sarah Colley, 41, the head of finance for a menswear retailer, found the hack has helped her save £2,340 on food in only a year and a half, since lockdown was imposed.
The busy mum of one spoke to LatestDeals.co.uk, saying: “The money I have saved has helped to put towards a holiday fund when we can travel properly again.
As an accountant and a wife, she is only too aware of her spending, and is happy to save where she can at home.
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A colleague told her about the Too Good to Go app and Sarah hasn’t looked back since.
Sarah, from Scarborough said she was initially dubious of the app as there weren’t many businesses signed up to it but she bought her first ‘magic bag’ on the app in lockdown and ever since then has used it every single week.
On the app she can get boxes full of food worth £50 for only £3.09, less than a tenth of the RRP.
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Her first foray into the money-saving app, she bought from her local One Stop Store and got a bag full of random items, such as sandwiches, crisps, fruit, cakes all dated that day.
During lockdown Sarah started to rely on the magic bags once a week as she had to homeschool her son and then work in the evening.
She finished work at 9pm so could pick up the bags at 9.15pm for her husband’s lunches and easy meals for her son.
Sarah suffers from coeliac disease, an autoimmune disease which means she can’t eat gluten, so it can be a real mixed bag on what she can get on the app.
She said: “It started to become fun wondering what we would get in the bags.”
She admitted to feeling “ecstatic” when she got the food out as she hates wasting food.
However, she did admit that there is some risk as: “I have had bags that haven’t been worth the amount paid, then you get bags that are fabulous.”
She said that you have to take the bad bags with the good though as you can never know what you are going to get.
For one bag in particular, Sarah really got her moneys worth as they didn’t want to throw away any food.
Sarah nabbed; four packets of chicken slices for sandwiches, two pre-packed sandwiches, a pot of ready-made mashed potato, a pork pie, two chicken chow mein ready meals, three punnets of strawberries, a pack of six apples, a punnet of blueberries, two packs of butter brioche rolls, two packs of mince pies, a Cornish pastry, a pre-packed cottage pie, a bunch of celery, two packets of Mr Kipling’s fondant fancies, a pack of salad leaves, a pack of hot dog rolls, a pack of Warburton’s thins, a pack of mushrooms, a pack of egg custards, a pack of brioche burger buns and a pack of two red velvet cupcakes.
Her added hack to keeping the food longer is to freeze it and to check the app twice a day.
Her top tips for using the app are: “Once you have found a shop with good magic bags, save them as your favourite.
As a Yorkshire woman, Sarah said that cities have more choice and she uses the app even when visiting family in Leeds.
“Over lockdown, I was saving on average about £30 a week as I was using what I could from the magic bags and making meals plans from then and trying not to go to the supermarket, so over 18 months that would roughly be a saving of about £2,340.
She got her magic boxes from the real food junk project which had food that supermarkets had donated.
Another positive of using the app has meant she goes to the supermarket less often, saving her diesel as well as meaning she doesnt buy as many unnecessary things.
Sarah said: “In a time of rising costs, any help that people can get to save money is extremely helpful!”
As an accountant, the app makes total money sense to Sarah[/caption]
She can plenty of meals and treats for her son and husband[/caption]
As a coelic she is keen to get her fresh vegetables and fruit on the app[/caption]
She also got some high value items like fresh fish[/caption]
Sarah could nab ready meals and fresh fruit[/caption]
The busy mum loved that she could get her husband and son their lunches on the app[/caption]
Sarah’s discovery has saved her time and money[/caption]
For more money saving tips, check out our top tips to save on your food shop and cut back on kitchen waste
Or this failsafe money-saving tips to HALVE your grocery bill – avoid special offers, shop at 7pm & sign up to free food apps
