Money-Saving Mum Shares Top 10 Tips For Saving £3000 A Year

7 December 2021 at 10:00 am

Emily, mum of 3, shares her tricks for saving £1000s each year
She shops at multiple stores to compare prices and get the best bargains
To avoid food waste she does ‘shelf cooking weeks’ where she only uses what’s available
She shares her top 10 tips to save money in multiple areas of life, from cooking to beauty

Living a budget-friendly lifestyle can be difficult, especially with the cost of living going up. However, one budget-savvy mum of three has proven that it’s possible to make consistent savings in all areas of life, from grocery shopping to getting your hair done.

Emily Harris, from Pembrokeshire, Wales who is a mum of three children aged 9, 5 & 11 months, told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: ‘I practice a lot of money saving hacks and I have saved a lot along the way. My eldest two children love to bargain shop with me and I'm hoping as they get older it will make them money-wise when it comes to finances.

‘When I go food shopping I always go to 3 main stores - Tesco, Aldi & Home Bargains. This is so I can keep my grocery bill low as I check for the best prices. I usually buy reduced meat if it’s needed, reduced bread and then generic brands for the majority of my items - tinned tomatoes, yoghurt, butter, chocolate goodies for my children and so on. I also buy the wonky range in Aldi for my vegetables as I get more for my money.

‘My best bargains are usually the reduced meat in Tesco on a Sunday and the freebies on the cashback apps that I use. I typically go to the shops straight from the school run and I try to go once a fortnight to keep costs low, alongside making a meal plan.

‘Before I start to shop I always go to the 3 reduced sections in Tesco to see if there is anything on my list there, then to Aldi for the main bits and then Home Bargains for my branded items that I like. In my opinion these three stores have the best deals where I live.

‘I save around £250 a month, or £3000 a year, by shopping the way I do. It’s sometimes more when I really want to challenge myself with what I call ‘shelf cooking weeks’. This involves only making meals with what I have available and making everything stretch.

‘For example one week when I did a shelf cooking week, I made tuna pasta which lasted my daughter three days for packed lunch. I also made snacks of four mangos and 12 boiled eggs. Then I used potatoes, carrots and smoked sausage to create baby food which lasted for two dinners. When I have this type of thing in my fridge, my kids will grab this before anything else which I love - and the best part is there’s no waste.

‘With any leftover food I usually freeze it or my partner and I will have it for lunch the next day - it's never wasted. Plus, I have made a folder of all the cheap meals we love so I never go off track.’

Groceries aren’t the only area where Emily makes impressive savings. She regularly shares her money-saving tricks on Instagram as emiilys_simple_life, and her top ten tips are below:

‘Take out your money for food shopping from the bank and leave your card at home. This means you won’t be over-spending as your budget is in front of you in physical cash. No excuses to buy items you don’t need!
‘Don’t get your nails professionally done. I paint mine myself. There’s no need to spend money you could be saving on luxuries like this if you want to accumulate savings or you have a financial goal in mind.
‘Avoid food waste by regularly having ‘shelf cooking weeks’. Make a note of all the items you already have at home and make a meal plan using them all. That way you will avoid throwing expired food away that could easily have gone into a recipe if you’d done a little planning.
‘Sell your unwanted items. It’s easy to hold onto things and convince yourself you’ll find a use for them, but if there’s just clutter everywhere at home it’s better to get rid. Fortunately there is a great marketplace for secondhand items on Marketplace, Vinted, eBay and more.
‘Make your own baby food. This can easily be done by blending a portion of the meals you are already making for other family members. It’s much cheaper than buying jars or pre-packaged meals, and it’s much better for your baby, too.

‘Dye your own hair. I stock up on the hair dye that I use when it’s on special offer in-store. It’s easy to spend much more than you have to if you’re in the habit of going to your hairdresser every four to six weeks. You’ll be surprised how much you end up saving.
‘Get a SIM-Only contract. Instead of paying inflated prices for a device and a monthly plan for texts, minutes and data, ditch the cost of your handset and find the best value rolling month contract. You can cancel it at any time if you find a better deal!
‘Learn to cut hair. We all emerged from the first lockdown with dodgy haircuts, but you don’t need a pandemic to save money on the hairdresser. If you learn to cut your family’s hair, the one-off cost will pay for itself over time as you can avoid the professional fees every six weeks.

‘Wax yourself. If you are used to going to the beauty salon, change this habit by buying wax strips in a Boots, Superdrug or supermarket and doing it at home. There are loads of decent kits out there and YouTube videos can help you complete a professional-looking job.
‘Take snacks in the car. If you’ve got kids who seem to constantly moan they’re hungry in the car, keep some options in your vehicle. This means you can put a stop to the emergency breaks at petrol stations or services to spend on additional food.’

Tom Church, Co-Founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, said: ‘Emily has got life sorted when it comes to saving money. By paying attention to all the areas where it’s easy to spend money needlessly, she is no doubt making savings every single day - nice one!’

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