How to save BIG on your grocery shopping.... | The Diary of a Frugal Family

Let me just say straight away that this isn’t a review. Or rather it is a review but one that I’m writing because I placed an order myself with Approved Food and I was so impressed with what I got for my money that I wanted to share it with you guys too. Some of the links I’ve included are affiliate links though which means that if you do buy something, you’ll pay exactly the same but I might also get something too. Thanks. 😉

I’m not sure if you’ve heard of Approved Food before so before I go any further, I’ll tell you a little bit about them and why they can save you so much money on your shopping. Basically, they’re a retailer (the largest online retailer actually) who sell mostly stock that’s short-dated or past its best before date. Because of that they can buy goods in large quantities and pass the often huge savings on to us.

They only sell goods that are past their ‘Best Before Date’ and not the ‘Use By Date’ so they’re still perfectly fine to eat, drink or use. You can read more about the difference in these two dates here if you want some more information but rest assured, it’s all good!

I’ve ordered from them a few times now and never had any problems with using the site although you do have to have a good look around the site to get all of the good deals – they have such a wide and varied range of stuff that it’s so easy to miss the good deals. I always start in the ‘Popular Products’ and the ‘Latest Products’ sections before looking around the rest of the sections. Usually the tinned goods section is my favourite stop as they have amazing deals on things like tinned tomatoes and tinned veg – I use a lot of chickpeas and last time I placed an order I think I got about 20 tins as they were something like 5 tins for a pound.

I wanted to place an order so I could give you an idea of what you can get for your money but I will admit that this order is more of a snacky/drinky/stuff for camping kind of an order as I wanted to stock up on supplies for our two planned camping trips. I still think it gives you a great idea though as you can see just how cheap some of the food was that I ordered.

This little lot came to £29.90 without delivery (I had a free delivery code) and amounted to a total saving on my shopping of £39.07 which is a huge 57%.

1) Batchelors Super Noodles BBQ Beef Flavour 100g = 3 x £0.40

2) Don Mario Chopped Tomatoes In Tomato Juice 400g = 3 x £0.33

3) Homepride Hunters Chicken Sauce 500g = £0.99

4) TODAY ONLY M and Ms Crispy 36g = 6 x £0.17

5) Diet Coke Glass Bottle 330ml = 3 x £0.33

6) Kelloggs Squares Chocolatey 4 Bars x 26g = 2 x £0.50

7) Kelloggs All Bran 45g = 6 x £0.17

8) Butterkist Limited Edition Gingerbread Flavour Popcorn 150g = 3 x £0.33

9) Hot Hands 2 Hand Warmers = 2 x £0.49

10) Foxs Marvellous Biscuit Selection 400g =£1.49

11) Approved Food Mexican Box = £4.99

12) Love Potion Paint and Taste Wild Passion Fruit 145g 3 x £0.17

13) Power Plast Mosquito Repellent and Relief Spray Pens = 2 x £0.99

14) Sharwoods Chinese Curry Cooking Sauce 425g = 2 x £0.75

15) Perfectly Good 8 Plain Poppadoms = £0.49

16) Bisto For Chicken Gravy Granules 170g = 2 x£0.50

17) Oxo 12 Ham Stock Cube = £0.99

18) Jammie Dodgers 140g = 3 x 0.33

19) McVities Jaffa Cakes 12 Pack = £0.59

20) Kelloggs Special K Red Berries Cereal Bar 21.5g = 6 x £0.17

21) Fruit Bowl Blackcurrant Flakes 5 x 20g = 2 x £0.75

22) Cake Angels Mini Marshmallows 150g = 2 x £0.50

23) Ryvita Fruit Crunch Currants Seeds and Oats Crispbread 30g Snack Size = 4 x £0.25

24) Bedford Corned Beef 340g = £1.49

25) Kizandy Mints Lucky Dip 10.5g = £0.25

FInd out why this week's shopping should have cost £68.97 but only cost £29.90. No coupons, no shopping around, no hassle.

I love that when I sign on to my Approved Food account to place this order account I get a friendly little message from them:

Good news! Since you joined we estimate you have saved £123 on goods! You’ve saved the equivalent of 12 x Cinema Tickets estimated at £10.00 each.

That’s a good little saving there isn’t it? Although to be fair, I’d rather not go to the pictures at all than pay £10 a ticket. 😉

Oh, and for the eagle eyed among you, yes, there are 3 tubs of passion fruit body paint included in my order. I thought it was squeezy jam type stuff which would go lovely on waffles – turns out it’s not but I’m sure it’ll still go nicely with waffles for breakfast! 😉

If you do decide to order through Approved Food then I’d love to hear about your experience so please do come back and let me know.

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