Savvy Shopper Saves £1000s On Shopping & Spends Only £100 a Month
- Wassila Zitouni, 25, feeds herself and her partner for just £100 a month
- Wassila buys yellow sticker food and uses Olio and Too Good To Go for bargains
- Some of her best bargains include a bag of food worth £79 for just £3.09 and a Pizza Express meal worth £54.90 for £4.99
- Wassila says: “Over the past 10 years I’ve probably saved thousands on my food shops!”
The food shop is an expensive and stressful task for most families in the cost of living crisis.
But one savvy shopper has revealed how she’s saved thousands over years of careful shopping - and how you can do it too.
Wassila Zitouni, 25, from Preston, has discount shopping down to a fine art.
Wassila, who works in offender management, sources free or discounted food using apps, and knows how to find the best yellow sticker bargains at her local supermarkets.
Wassila told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: "I have always been a savvy shopper and always look for the best bargains.
"I believe in getting your value for money and not having to pay over the top for items.
"Why pay £2.50 for a jar of curry sauce in one shop when you can pay £1 for the same product in another?
"I am always on the lookout for bargains, yellow stickers and freebies. I also find it enjoyable shopping around and finding the best deals out there.
"I don’t think you should pay a lot to eat nice food.
"There’s a lot of foods and brands that I wouldn’t usually buy unless they were reduced to a yellow sticker.
"Another thing for me is branded food - I find that this is a huge placebo and we are tricked into thinking many branded foods taste way better than your low cost, supermarket own brands.
"When I was younger, I would only eat Heinz baked beans - now, I will only eat Tesco baked beans as I find they taste much nicer.
"As you may have seen in some food factory documentaries, some products of supermarket own brand and high-end brand are made in the same factory, and are likely to be the exact same product, but with a different label and price.
"I also grew up in a working-class family where scrimping and saving here and there meant we could have nicer things like better holidays and presents.
"My mum would always shop around and I didn’t care for the yellow stickers. I remember once she picked up a pack of pancakes for 1p!
"I first started to appreciate the yellow stickers when I went to university, and discovered that I had very little money to live on.
"My final years at university were the first two particularly bad years of COVID, so I was furloughed very little on hospitality agency work but still had student halls rent to pay.
“That’s when I really started to shop around for reduced food.
"I have found that since moving in with my partner, we budgeted around £200 a month for food.
"However, with my savvy shopping I have managed to lower this to £100 a month and the leftover money has been used towards other things since moving house.
"We have moved to a house with a huge garden so we needed to buy lots of gardening equipment.
"The money left over from the food shop budget has gone towards that each month.
"In June, I only spent £75 on yellow stickers and Too Good To Go bags to feed two of us!”
Wassila is also passionate about saving food from going to waste.
"We also live in a world where there is so much food surplus and waste, which in this day and age is shocking as we see so many more food banks and families struggling,” she adds.
"Saving food from going in the bin is very important to me.
"It is estimated that around 10.7 million tonnes of food are thrown away each year in the UK.
"This is mainly down to people not being educated properly on use by and best before dates, but also, I believe there are not strict enough rules for supermarkets to deal with food surplus.
"Many times, have I walked past supermarkets in a busy city centre at night with bin bags of food waiting to be collected by the bin men to either be thrown away or made into animal feed.
"If you have patience, can plan well and know where to look for bargains and yellow stickers you can save a lot of money and food waste.”
Wassila doesn’t just save money on buying food - she also stores it in a savvy way to make it last as long as possible.
"Make food last longer by freezing it,” she recommends. “You can freeze pretty much anything!
"If you are unsure, look at the packaging information or search online for health and safety food rules.
"Portion control is really important too. I mostly only buy yellow stickers and have also recently been using Olio and Too Good To Go - these are hidden gems of apps that lots of people don’t know about.
"Further to the freezing, if you know how to cook, then you will be fine with storing as much as you can in your freezers.
"My number one tip for maximising freezer space and stocking up on yellow stickered food is packaging - get rid of the original packaging.
"Food packaging is my number one enemy. The amount of packaging that food comes in is ridiculous.
"My tip for this is empty your items into clear freezer or sandwich bags. These are great for seeing exactly what is in your freezer, and seeing how much of that product you have left.
"If you’re not the greatest cook and rely on cooking instructions, you can write on the clear bag.
"For example ‘Chicken kiev, 25-30 mins 180 degrees’.
"I have two freezers full of so much different food and it’s exciting picking something out for tea!”
Wassila says her methods save her money and time, and by getting to know the timings of the supermarkets near her, she has the best chance of grabbing yellow sticker bargains.
"In my house, I am the main food shopper as my partner doesn’t like to go into busy supermarkets as it stresses him out,” she explains.
"I always learn which shops near me have the best bargains, and what time they reduce.
"Different shops have different rules on their reductions, so it’s good to get an idea of what’s available to you.
"I also find that shopping via yellow stickers is better because I save a lot of money and can then buy normal things that aren’t usually reduced such as condiments, spices and so on.
“I’d advise people not to be put off by a use by date or best before date.
"Use by dates are there for your health and safety. If you buy something with a use by date such as a packet of fresh chicken, put this straight in the freezer.
"When you come to use it, defrost and cook within the same day.
"Best before dates are for flavour and texture of the foods. It’s always about the quality of the food.
"Bread can last longer if you put it in the fridge. Same with eggs - even though we buy them not in the fridge at the supermarkets.
"Get visiting your local stores at different times and find out what the best reductions are.”
Wassila recommends taking yellow sticker prices with a pinch of salt and thinking before buying.
"Also, just because it’s reduced does not mean it’s a bargain,” she explains.
"With food prices going up in recent years, we are now paying over the top for food.
"When it’s reduced to a yellow sticker, it’s closer to what we used to normally pay a few years go.
"Some supermarkets are great at reducing and some aren’t.
"Iceland is 50%. Tesco reduce multiple times a day, knocking a bit more off every few hours.
"Some of my best yellow stickers have been reduced three or four times. Just because it’s reduced on the first sticker, doesn’t mean it’s a good deal.
"I am seeing more and more often prices not being reduced enough to make me want to buy them.
"For example, a family size lasagne £6.50 down to £5 at 4pm. That is not a good deal. This will most likely be reduced to even further within the next hour or so.
"Some of my best bargains have been 10p at 6pm.
"I find that my best shops such as Heron Foods reduce as they open, so I grab my yellow stickers on my way into work and store them in the fridge.
"Dinner time, or tea time as us Northerners say, or close to shop closing time can be the best time for reduced food, as shops need to sell as much as possible. Sundays and before bank holidays are great too.”
Wassila also recommends using apps to get great bargains on food and help the planet by avoiding food waste.
"Too Good to Go is a great concept that allows you to rescue surprise 'magic bags' from participating stores, restaurants and cafes,” she explains.
"It’s a total surprise what you get, but it’s worth seeing what’s available in your area.
"Cities are the best for this as there’s usually lots of restaurants that take part. But, there’s always the risk of getting foods you don’t like.
"I once paid £3.09 for a surprise bag from Morrisons and this was a full, bursting carrier bag full of spring onions and kale. What was I meant to do with that?
"Luckily, I had a work colleague that loves her greens and veggies so I gave them to her.
"Olio is an app that I have started to use these last few weeks which allows you to pick up surplus, unsold food from certain supermarkets.
"You get to keep 10% of your choice, and then you take photographs and list the other 90% for people to come and pick up from your house.
"This is great concept and I have found that this works really well for me, as you get choice in what you would like to keep.
"Any use by dated food that isn’t collected that same night at a cut off choice of your time - for example, I let people come and pick up from me until 10pm at night, left on the doorstep in a cool bag - you get to keep.
"Anything best before you can list for a few days.
"I picked up a Boots collection recently and there were about 30 sandwiches.
"I thought to myself, 'How am I going to get rid of all these within the next three hours?’
"You’d be very surprised at who else is on the app. As soon as I listed them, I had a lovely lady come and pick up within 20 minutes, who said she shares them with all the elderly people on her street as they love and appreciate them. I thought this was amazing!
"There’s always a good feeling in sharing with people who may be in need, and also knowing you’re doing your bit for the planet by saving food waste.
"Some of the biggest names on Olio are Iceland and Tesco.
"One of my best Too Good To Go supermarket magic bags was £79 worth of fresh pizza, ready meals, meat and sweet treats for just a mere £3.09.
"And one of my best restaurant surprise bags was from Pizza Express.
"I was attending a concert and noticed there was a bag round the corner from the gig venue that was available to pick up just before my train home.
"I paid £4.99 for two freshly cooked lasagnes, two portions of doughballs and two portions of halloumi sticks.
“If I was to sit in and order that as a meal that would have cost me £54.90. I saved this from going to waste and this was a lovely meal for my partner and I the next day.
"One of my best Olio collections recently had 55 items, so I got to keep five items of my choice.
"I chose two pizzas, a trifle, some mixed loose pastries and Mr Kipling Viennese whirls. And then, some yoghurts, milk and fresh noodles weren’t collected so I got to keep those too!”
Wassila recommends chatting to supermarket staff, as you may be able to get extra discounts.
"My motto in life is 'If you don’t ask, you don’t get!’” she adds.
"If you see something that has today’s date on and hasn’t been reduced, don’t be afraid to ask at the till for them to reduce it.
"They will at least reduce it by 50%!
“Also, get rid of the packaging and put everything in sandwich bags - you’ll get way more in your freezer!
"Shop around and get to know what times your local stores reduce. You’ll come to have your favourite shops that do the best reductions every day.
"Sharing is caring - if you get something in a Too Good To Go bag you don’t like, offer to neighbours, family, friends and work colleagues.
"There will always be someone who will like what you don’t!
"If you pick up some yellow stickers in store, and then you see a member of staff, don’t be afraid to ask them to reduce again.
"Be kind to staff, too - there is nothing worse when staff are reducing and people are crowding around them like a pack of hungry animals trying to get the bargains.
"Be patient and nice and the staff will most likely offer you the best reduced items.
“Also, know when to stop! Buying yellow stickers can be addictive and you have to know when enough is enough or if you need to take a break.
"I have two freezers full to the brim, so I set myself the challenge of not buying any yellow stickers or Too Good To Go bags for the entirety of August.
"It has been difficult, but it’s been worth it. There was temptation many times to buy some really good yellow stickers, but I adopted the look don’t touch approach and it's worked.
"I have now managed to empty a full freezer this month, and it’s been fun finding things that I didn’t even know I had.
"I love coming home and taking pictures of my bags and working out how much I saved!
“We spend maximum £100 a month to feed two adults.
“On average a meal for the two of us can cost as little as £1!
“Over the past 10 years I’ve probably saved thousands on my food shops!”
Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, comments: “Wassila is definitely a champion when it comes to saving money on food!
“She’s got budgeting down to a fine art, and it’s really impressive to see how much care and thought she puts into her food shop.
“By getting to know your local supermarket’s reduction times, and using apps like Olio and Too Good To Go, anyone can massively slash their food bills.
"Another shopping tip is to use voucher codes such as for Morrisons to save money. You can often get £20 off your first online shop.
“Her saving story is really inspirational for anyone struggling to afford to feed their family right now."
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- "I’ve cut my food bill down from £100 to £45 a week - here’s how I did it"
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