An Irish mother of SAVVY told how she spends less than €50 a week on her shopping – with family dinners costing less than €5.
Andrena Brannigan is sharing her budgeting tips and tricks exclusively with the Irish Sun, revealing how you can cut costs on your groceries.
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The Dublin “Most days if I did, like a bolognese, I would bring it up and say this is amazing, I made this for just 5 euros or here is the recipe,” says mom.
She swears by buying her own brand products instead of brand names.
“If you just buy trial brands to take home, you save a fortune,” says Andrena.
“People pay three or four euros for cereal brands when Tesco has the same variety on their aisles for like 89 cents or 70 cents. I don’t understand why people are actually paying five euros for cereal.”
The supermarket shoppers’ first stop is a small aisle where food is marked as near-best before.
“If they haven’t done the expiration date, I’ll come back later that night or the next day,” she said. I always go straight to that first thing. “
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WEEKLY STORE BUDGET ONLY
Her recent Instagram post had her latest grocery shopping trip of 25 items costing €33, some of them meat, gluten-free and dairy-free products.
She said: “They had a small chicken for €1.80 so I grabbed two. That would make two dinners of curry or salad. Or I’ll keep some leftovers and make soup. ”
She usually relies on Tesco for her shopping and will head to Aldi if she needs something more from the gluten-free range.
Mom’s broadcast schedule of one of the club cards and recently joined the Tesco Christmas Saver club.
She said: “This year I got 70€ or 80€ for the voucher, so that’s my two, three week shopping time.”
FAMILY FOOD FOR €5
Savvy shopper, whose username is @ mumonabudget2021, also shows people how to make family dinners on a tight budget.
She explains: “If you like carbonara, you can buy Tesco’s brand mozzarella for just €0.79.
“If you buy Tesco’s own brand pasta, prices start around €0.49.
“Then if you add bacon, Tesco’s bacon will be around €1.00.
“Then the dice chicken, which I thought was €2.49, went up to €2.90.”
SEVEN MONEY SAVING TIPS
These seven tips will cut down on your family’s groceries:
- Make a shopping plan that fits your budget.
- Buy private brand products.
- Reuse any leftover vegetables and make a soup or stock.
- Buy items that are on sale by the day – and freeze them.
- Have a club card or whatever thrift club the supermarket may have.
- Buy any branded products (snacks, bassinet, choclate, toiletries, cleaning products, etc.) you might want at discount stores like Dealz or Euro shop.
- Shop around in different stores for certain products.
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https://www.thesun.ie/fabulous/8192810/mum-on-budget-make-family-dinners-five-euro/ I’m a frugal mom and this is how I cook dinner for my family for under €5
