"I’ve cut my food bill down from £100 to £45 a week - here’s how I did it"
- Nicola Richardson, 37, has slashed her food bill in half
- Nicola swears by yellow sticker shopping, weighing ingredients and batch cooking in her slow cooker
- She feeds three people breakfast, lunch and dinner for £45 a week
The weekly food shop is an expensive task in the cost of living crisis - but one savvy mum has revealed how she’s slashed her food bill in half.
Nicola Richardson, who has two children and works full time in the education sector, says she’s cut her food bill in half using some simple and actionable tricks and tips.
Nicola, 37, from the North East, shares her top budget cooking tips on YouTube.
She swears by writing detailed shopping lists, weighing out ingredients, shopping for yellow sticker reduced goods and using apps to bag free food.
"Life is busy! I feed me and my two children on £45 a week,” Nicola told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk.
“At one point it was nearer £100 so I’ve pretty much cut our food bill in half.
"I plan all my meals every week, shopping from what I have in already.
"I write a list so that I don’t buy things I don’t need. This really helps with impulse shopping as well!"
“Buying cheaper cuts of meat and more vegetarian options automatically makes this cheaper.
"Weighing out ingredients so you don't use too much also helps.
"Look out for yellow stickers too; this means the food is reduced. Only buy it if you will actually use it though.
"Definitely meal plan and write a shopping list - planning on what you're eating and then writing a shopping list means you are less likely to impulse buy and buy things that you don't need which end up being thrown away.
"If you can manage to time this, yellow stickers can be a really good way of saving money on food.
"I also use a couple of apps, such as Olio, that give away free surplus food which has been very helpful, especially towards the end of the month when money is tight.”
As well as sticking to strict shopping lists, Nicola is also a big advocate of batch cooking when she gets her food shop home, which she says saves time and money.
“Batch cooking can save a lot of time, especially when work schedules and home life can be so busy,” she explains.
"It can also be a lot cheaper - things are often cheaper in bigger quantities so it makes more sense.
"Plus, I have a stash of homemade ready meals in the freezer so when I'm tired after a busy day, the meals are already there.
“One of my favourite things to use when batch cooking is my slow cooker.
"It means I can make bigger quantities, use cheaper cuts of meat where appropriate and it is so simple.
"I just add all the ingredients on the slow cooker and leave it to work its magic.
"One of my favourite recipes is goulash - I have a recipe for this on my blog.
“I like making chicken fajita wraps with rice in - people don’t realise you can freeze cooked rice!
"They take 30 seconds to heat up in the microwave and so are such a great thing to have in stock for tea time. You could do chilli and rice in them too.
"Bulk making these is a brilliant way to save money as well. You could do a vegetarian one and save even more.
"The £45 a week includes everything - breakfasts, lunches and dinner for the three of us.
“It takes a bit of balancing to get it to work some weeks!
"We tend to have similar things each week for ease more than anything; anything that makes a school night go easier is a good thing.
"With batch cooking, you do the effort once and then you have multiple meals done for you, rather than just one for that evening.
"Over time, if you are organised, it can save you so much time.”
Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, comments: “So many families dread the weekly trip to the supermarket considering how steep prices are at the moment.
“So I always love to hear from savvy parents like Nicola about the steps they’re taking to keep costs down.
“If you use some of Nicola’s tips here, like hunting for yellow sticker bargains, bagging free food thanks to certain apps and weighing out your ingredients, you’re sure to save a pretty penny on your food bill."
- Subscribe to Nicola's YouTube The Frugal Cottage
Binny61 I complete agree with you. It's madness to think that people don't know this. Not seen their parents, or parents parents do this.
I question the sense of some people.
Prices are creeping up - it all good saying batch cook but it’s not the easiest option for everyone . If you’re not working or your part time then it works for you to do this . Full time parents don’t have time
It's great if you have the time to shop around. Always look out for yellow labels and occasionally get bargains. Don't bother with Tesco's though as never bought anything there from the yellow stickers as overpriced even with the stickers. Did buy loads from Tesco though just before Christmas as stuff was half price. Still a bargain even though items were still overpriced before discounted
kloddy2001 My local Tesco store in Yeovil is hugely popular with huge footfall and therefore rarely does great reductions however I've been to other Tesco's where the reductions are much better I guess because there are less people to buy them. I think the best reductions I've had have been at Morrisons but don't go there that much.
Looking at the shopping list above it includes instant porridge but isn't that a very expensive way of buying porridge. I think one kilo bags of normal porridge are about 90p nowadays. I guess if you are taking one to work or school its a bit different but its normally a breakfast meal eaten at home.