The savvy shopper: How Heather saved £1,400 on a year’s shopping
Over the last year, Heather LeMond has saved more than £1,400 thanks to ‘reduced’ labels. Here we uncover her brilliant tips and tricks on saving £££ on food, toiletries and clothes…
As I bustled through the door, my arms weighed down with shopping bags, I beamed at my husband, Dov. ‘Marks & Spencer’s ready meal for tea?’ I asked, pulling out the plastic containers.
Dov laughed, as he inspected the items carefully.
‘Let me guess? Yep, there it is. The reduced sticker.’
I laughed along. My delights over deals had become a bit of a joke between us. But without that yellow sticker, we’d never be able to afford food from such an upmarket supermarket.
My love of a bargain is a new thing. This time last year, I’d never have dreamed of getting food in the clearance aisle. In fact, many a time I’ve actively snubbed a cut-price piece of chicken or pack of pork for a fresher item.
I laugh when I look back now – why on earth would I have paid more for the same item?
When Dov, now 53, and I had our first baby, Ari, in 2016, I decided not to go back to my job as an administrative assistant at a building society and to focus on being a fulltime mum.
Relying on just Dov’s wage in financial services would make things a bit tighter but after looking at the numbers, we thought we could make it work. And it did – while we just had Ari, now five.
But as he grew up and we had River, two, gradually our expenses grew. I’d always thought I’d been quite good with money, keeping an eye on our bank balance and what we spent on our weekly shop. Yet, that didn’t seem to be good enough. By the end of each month, we were struggling to make ends meet.
Now the nursery fees for two wouldn’t make sense for me to go back to work. So with no option of increasing the money coming in, I focused on reducing the money going out.
I started looking at influencers who were good at sharing cost-cutting tips and tricks – and one stood out. ‘Can I have Holly Smith’s book for Christmas?’ I asked Dov in December last year. ‘It’s called Money Saving Book.’
As I read through the various chapters, I couldn’t quite believe just how many hints and hacks she had – and how simple they all were to do.
Our biggest expense, after the mortgage and bills, was food, so that was the first thing I changed.
I quickly realised I’d been going wrong for years, doing a single weekly shop in one supermarket. Following the book’s advice, I started shopping around for the best place to buy certain items.
We already had an Amazon Prime membership for the television and music, but with