A student has reduced the price of her food shopping from £100 down to £18 by using smartphone apps which have helped her find bargains. Mia Munro has managed to save £82 by shopping through Too Good To Go and Olio - apps set up to reduce costs as well as food waste.
The savvy 20-year-old says she first began looking for bargains around four years ago at the age of when she obtained an NUS Apprentice Card and got access to various discounts at a variety of stores. But Mia has found her passion for travelling is difficult to fund as a student and therefore needs to save money in other areas, such as on food shopping.
Mia said: "I first started getting into bargain hunting when I was around 16 and I received my first wage. As an apprentice, I bought an NUS Apprentice Card which allowed me to get discounts on loads of stores. This is when I began deal hunting in earnest.
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"I would find codes I could apply on top of sale items, or codes that gave me free delivery. More recently I’ve been traveling a lot more - as a student, this can be a challenge, but by bargain hunting, I’ve also managed to do that on a budget and have gone on three trips so far this year.
"In preparation for my next trip, I decided to get a Too Good To Go bag every day, Monday to Friday, and see how many meals I could make out of the supplies I picked up. Combined with using food and ingredients in my freezer, I’ve reduced my usual spend of £100 over two weeks to just £18.
"The first bag I got was from my local café, and I got three Rocky Road cakes worth £9 for just £3.09. These were good as snacks and desserts over the two weeks - they were large enough that I could cut them up.
"I then went to Starbucks, and I got four items for £3.59 - I worked out that I saved just over £13 overall. In the bag there was a No Meatball Marinara Wrap, usually £5, a S’mores Muffin - usually £2.65 - an Iced Raspberry Swirl, usually £3, and a Banoffee Mini Loaf Cake which is usually £2.75. I took the wrap out for lunch and divided up the desserts over the course of the fortnight.
"Another bag I picked up was groceries from GoPuff - I got my biggest haul yet with bananas which would usually be £1.54, a Muller Corner yogurt originally priced at 98p, two packs of six medium free-range eggs usually £1.15 each, an organic blue top and green top milk usually £1.32 and £1.69 respectively, a cinnamon swirl which would have been 70p, a six-pack of white baps originally priced at £1.42 and a ciabatta roll which was 40p - but I got the whole lot for £4 and saved £6.35.
"In Pret A Manger, I got two meals worth £6.95 each - the prosciutto macaroni and cheese, and the kale and cauliflower mac and cheese - for just £4, so I saved almost £10 and got some easy meals to take out with me.
"My final haul was more groceries from Budgens. I picked up four Yeo Valley Yogurts, originally worth £2.15 each, so that’s £8.60 total, two Activia yogurts worth £2.58, blueberries which were £2.25, a tropical fruits box which was £2 and some tomato and basil soup which was £2.25. However, I got the whole lot for just £3.50 and saved just under £15.
"Overall I saved around £36 on this haul and I was able to make plenty of meals using these bags and my existing supplies. For example, I had plenty of fruit for snacks, a number of desserts, some soup for lunch with the ciabatta, pre-made meals from Pret and Starbucks, some milk for breakfast cereals, eggs for omelettes, baps for sandwiches and so on.
"In my city, I’m lucky that lots of supermarkets and stores are offering bags almost every single day so I can really make the most of this and also know that I’m contributing to the reduction of food waste.
"My biggest tip for budding bargain hunters is to use a Supermarket Price Comparison tool. I often make a shopping list of the things I need, and go to one, two, or sometimes even three stores so I can get each item at its cheapest price. Or if I only go to the one store, I will often swap out things I wanted for an item that’s similar but cheaper or on offer."
Mia has shared her tips to save money on LatestDeals.co.uk. Tom Church, the website's co-founder, said: "Wow, I’m jealous of the huge range of Too Good To Go bags in Mia’s area - I have nowhere near as many where I live."
He added: "She’s certainly done well to reduce her grocery spend by £80 and make use of these bags, plus her existing food supplies, to get creative and make some bargain-friendly meals."
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