Savvy shopper bags £30 of shopping for just £3 and this is her genius trick
- Bethany Stuart, 25, bagged £30 of Morrisons food for £3.09
- She used the Too Good To Go app to buy the “Magic Box” full of fruit and veg
- Bethany provides tips for saving money and food during lockdown
If food shopping is the most expensive part of your week, take a leaf out of this savvy shopper’s book, who managed to get an enormous box of food at 90% off.
Bethany Stuart, 25, a probate officer from Seaton Sluice, managed to get her hands on a Morrisons Magic box for just £3.09.
The boxes, which can be found on food waste app Too Good To Go, typically contain up to £30 worth of perfectly good food which would otherwise be thrown away, and are a fabulous way to get a load of shopping at a hugely reduced price.
Bethany told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: "I had seen a couple of Morrisons Magic Boxes advertised but I’ve had the Too Good To Go app for a long time and have never been able to get my hands on one.
“I finally got one and it was worth every penny! The magic box is on the Too Good To Go app which I downloaded on the App Store on my phone. You just have to keep checking the app and keep refreshing because they sell out extremely fast.
"But you basically find what is available to you locally and buy and pay on the app. Then go into the store at the designated times, usually the day after you purchase. You buy a day in advance. You then show your receipt on the app to the customer services desk and they will get it for you.
"I paid £3.09 and got loads of potatoes, seven large oranges, around 10 apples, 10 pears, 13 limes, a punnet of strawberries, a punnet of grapes, some corn on the cob, two bunches of spring onions, a cabbage, 12 peaches, some celery, and three cauliflowers.
"I don’t know what the normal retail price for all that would be but I would estimate at least £30. So I saved around 90%, or £27!
"I have also had another Magic Box since, which didn’t have as many vegetables in it, but was filled with six eggs, a cabbage, a bag of carrots, a bag of potatoes, a coffee and walnut cake, a pack of four wholemeal buns, two loaves of bread (one Morrisons and one Hovis), 24 circle crumpets (18 Warburtons, six Morrisons), four square ‘toaster crumpets’, four large garlic and coriander naan breads.”
As well as hunting down hugely reduced Morrisons boxes, Bethany has a whole host of other tricks up her sleeve to save money on food during the lockdown.
"My tips for buying food under lockdown would be not buying named brands and I buy a lot of reduced and yellow sticker items,” she adds.
"I then like to batch cook bolognese, chilli, lasagne, curry and things like that because they can be frozen and last longer that way. Then I’m paying less but not worrying about eating it immediately.
"I make food last under lockdown the same as I usually do. I spent the first 12 weeks of lockdown completely alone apart from going into work occasionally when I was collecting work to work from home, so it is cheaper to buy the bigger packs of reduced vegetables and batch cook then freeze individual portions in Tupperware.
“Then I could take it out of the freezer in advance and my tea would be sorted and would be basically free. Using the reduced items allowed me to be able to buy more expensive items like 5% mince and other meats.
"It saved me so much time because all I had to do was pull a meal out of the freezer the night before, then it took five minutes in the microwave.
“It was a lifesaver when I was working 12+ hour days and just couldn’t be bothered. It saved money because on those days it would’ve been easy to order takeaway if I didn’t have anything sorted.
"I think my tips would be definitely meal planning and preparation and if you’ve got something ready, even if you don’t fancy it - just eat that otherwise you mess up the rest of your week (or I do anyway!).”
Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, comments: “It can be hard to get your hands on a Morrisons Magic Box, but you’re pretty much guaranteed that if you do, they will be a fantastic deal!
“Keep your eyes peeled on the Too Good To Go app, and check out OLIO too - a great app dedicated to fighting food waste that gives you the opportunity to bag food for free.”
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