Shopper cut food bill by £1,800 a year by ditching junk food, shopping online and meal planning
SAVVY shopper Kayleigh Murray and her fiancé save £1,800 a year on their food shop by ditching ready meals and shopping online.
Between them, Kayleigh, 24, and Perry Foster, 29, used to spend a whopping £220 each month on food – or an eye-watering £2,640 a year.
The couple have now slashed this down to just £67.31 a month, which takes their yearly total down to £807.72 – saving them £1,832.08 over 12 months.
Kayleigh and Perry, who live in Monmouthshire, Wales, started cutting back on their spending in October 2019 so they could save for their wedding.
They began by switching to online shopping to avoid pricey impulse purchases, as well as meal planning for the week.
By deciding what dinners they want in advance, Kayleigh and Perry save money on buying food that would otherwise go to waste.
Kayleigh and Perry's monthly shop
HERE'S what a typical monthly shopping list now looks like for Perry and Kayleigh.
- Hearty Food Co. Penne pasta 500g x 4 – £1.16
- Tesco mixed vegetables 1kg – £1.10
- Tesco straight to Wok medium egg noodles 300g x2 – £2
- Tesco closed cup mushrooms 300g x 2 – £1.90
- Tesco Welsh white potatoes 2.5kg – £1.50
- Tesco white toastie bread 800g x2 – £1.18
- Tesco Welsh jacket potatoes 700g x2 – 98p
- Tesco hunter’s chicken sauce 515g – 75p
- Boswell Farms thin cut steak x4 – £11.80
- Tesco dark Soy sauce 150ml – 65p
- Tesco creamy mushroom sauce 460g x2 – £1.50
- Tesco Spanish chicken sauce 500g – 75p
- Hearty Food Co. tomato and herb pasta sauce 440g x2 – 86p
- Tesco brown onions 1kg – 85p
- Hearty Food Co. spaghetti pasta 500g – 20p
- Hearty Food Co. four chicken and vegetable pies x2 – £2
- Stockwell & Co. soft spread 500g – 69p
- Hearty Food Co. pasta in tomato and onion sauce 110g x10 – £3.70
- Hearty Food. Co curry sauce x2 440g – 60p
- Hearty Food. Co sweet and sour sauce 440g -£1.60
- Grower Harvest long grain rice 1kg – 45p
- Woodside Farm pork sausages x2 – £2.40
- Creamfields mild white cheddar 400g – £1.79
- Hearty Food. Co 2 garlic baguettes x2 – £1.36
- Hearty Food. Co thin pepperoni pizza x4 – £2.68
- Hearty Food. Co thin cheese and tomato pizza x4 – £2.68
- Hearty Food Co. 15 Yorkshire puddings – 50p
- Tesco 15 eggs x2 – £2.38
- Butchers Choice chicken breast fillets 1kg x4 – £14
- Creamfields UHT semi skimmed milk 1L x6 – £3.30
Total = £67.31
The majority of their previous bill would go on junk food, including 12 bottles of Coca Cola a month and a variety pack of 30 crisps, plus single bags that they’d pick up in between weekly shops.
Kayleigh, who is also saving to buy a car, told The Sun: “Most of what we spent was on junk food.
“We were eating a lot of processed foods – pizzas, crisps, a load of rubbish.
“We would get bags of ready-made hot and spicy steaks from Iceland, eight in a bag for £2.
“Now we don’t buy crisps really and if we do, we buy a bag of 12 that lasts us a month. We don’t buy chocolate or fizzy pop anymore.”
Kayleigh now rigorously plans their meals for the week, including pasta bakes and BBQ chicken and chips for dinner, while sticking to cereal and toast for breakfast.
Kayleigh and Perry's meals for the month
HERE are just some of the meals Kayleigh and Perry make throughout the month.
Breakfast
Cereal, toast or scrambled egg on toast
Snacks
Apple, orange, banana or yoghurt
Tea
- Creamy mushroom chicken, mash and vegetables
- Tomato and onion pasta bake
- Thin cut steak, mushrooms and salt and pepper potato cubes
- Sweet and sour chicken and rice
- Chicken curry (rice or chips)
- Pizza and garlic bread
- Pie, mash and vegetables
- Beef and vegetables stir fry
- Chicken and vegetable soup
- BBQ chicken and chips
- Sausages and vegetables
- Sweet and sour chicken
- Pasta bake
- Creamy mushroom chicken and vegetable rice
- Chicken and vegetable stir fry
- Beef curry (rice or chips)
- Spanish chicken and egg fried rice
She shares her shopping lists on the to encourage others to meal prep.
Kayleigh also credits online shopping for stopping her being swayed by store offers.
She would be lured into picking up products that were on offer, but that she didn’t necessarily need – only to then find the same item cheaper in another supermarket.
In fact, just last year supermarkets were found to still be “misleading” customers by pushing up prices before launching an offer.
To make sure you’re getting the best value for money, always compare prices on sites like before handing over any cash.
It lets shoppers compare prices at Tesco, Asda, Ocado, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Iceland, Aldi and Lidl, to name a few.
Kayleigh said: “Doing our shopping online helps you save so much because when you go into store, we’d pick up any little thing that was on offer.
“Then we’d look at our bill and know we could get it cheaper elsewhere.
“It’s so easily done as you think ‘look that’s on offer’, but online we only look for the stuff we need.”
Kayleigh says she’s also saved money by swapping expensive brands for supermarket-own goods.
Previous research by MoneySuperMarket shows shoppers can save a staggering £1,500 by “downshifting” to own-brand products.
Here's how to cut the cost of your grocery shop
MONEY.CO.UK has shared some top tips with us to help you keep your supermarket spend down to a minimum.
- Write yourself a list – Only buy items that you need. If it isn’t on your list, don’t put it in the trolley
- Create a budget – Work out a weekly budget for your food shopping
- Never shop hungry – You are far more likely to buy more food if your tummy is rumbling
- Don’t buy pre-chopped veggies or fruit – The extra they’ll charge for chopping can be eye watering
- Use social media – Follow your favourite retailers to find out about the latest deals
- Be disloyal – You may want to go to different stores to find the best bargains
- Check the small print – It’s always worth checking the price per kg/lb/litre when comparing offers so you’re making a like for like decision as a bigger box won’t necessarily mean you get more
- Use your loyalty cards – Don’t be afraid to sign up to them all. They all work slightly differently – work out what bonus suits you better and remember to trade in your points for additional rewards
She said: “We’ve gone from using Dolmio sauces to supermarket-own brands.
“We also used to get four tins of Heinz beans for £2, but now we get eight tins from Tesco for £2.
“The same goes for toilet roll. We were buying expensive toilet roll and laundry stuff but now we use Tesco own, which costs £1.90 for four rolls instead of £2 for Andrex.”
Kayleigh’s food spend doesn’t take toiletries into account, of which she estimates they spend an extra £30 a month.
The couple also pick up fruit fresh for snacking during the day, and some vegetables that don’t keep for very long.
Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, said: “Being organised around food can feel tricky if you’re pressed for time.
“But as Kayleigh shows, making a few lists, recipes and meal plans can pay dividends when it comes to slashing the cost of your monthly shop.”
Kayleigh isn’t the only one embracing food organisation to save cash – this mum saves £100 a month by cooking a week’s worth of meals at once.
Meal-prepping also helped account manager Charlotte Deniz to loose six stone in 10 months.
First-time buyer Luke Beasley also used the money saving meals to help him raise the funds for a deposit on his first place.