Thrifty mum shows how to feed a family for a week for £50 without even having to write a list – it takes seconds
AS prices are skyrocketing, one cash-savvy mum has revealed an easy hack that could help you slash your grocery shop bill to just £50 a week.
Thrifty mum-of-one Lauren took to TikTok to explain how fellow shoppers can make their weekly visit to the supermarkets cheaper – and it’s all thanks to a new app.
”As we all know, food shopping has become extortionate – like, the prices of food are outrageous and people are trying to make money stretch.”
According to the money-smart mum, there’s a super simple way to help you save cash – and what’s more, the ”life hack” also means you won’t have to come up with a meal plan either.
The solution – using Chat GPT.
This powerful Artificial Intelligence can assist you in various tasks, from writing essays to even helping with job applications – and turns out, shoppers can also use the tool when they’re buying groceries.
Demonstrating how the app worked, Lauren showed she had asked the tool to ”give a meal plan for five days with £50 budget in Aldi”.
The AI tool, which was launched in 2022, then presented the mother purse-friendly dishes that focused ”on affordability, simplicity, and balanced nutrition”.
The meals, she shared the screenshot in the video, were also spread across the day, with breakfast, lunch, dinner and healthy snack options.
For instance, for Day 1, the app suggested the mum to buy cheap ingredients for a hearty porridge topped with banana and honey, and the total of this came to £2.50 for all the ingredients.
For her next meal, lunch, Lauren could be preparing a delicious tuna mayo sandwich with cucumber – which should come up to around £4 and should last the mum and her family for five days.
Other dishes Chat GPT had come up with included one of the nation’s favourites – spag bol that should cost her just £6 – as well as Aldi’s digestive biscuits to munch on throughout the day.
Although some people claimed they’d been given the same meals every day, Lauren showed that the popular AI tool had come with a great variety of meals.
Other breakfast options were toast with peanut butter and apple slices (£4.50 to last the week) and scrambled eggs.
Lunches were either leftovers from the previous day or something new, and dinners were also just as exciting, with Lauren potentially cooking a delicious chicken and vegetable stir-fry.
How to cut the cost of your grocery shop
SAVING on your shop can make a big difference to your wallet. Here are some tips from comparison site Money.co.uk about how you can cut the cost of your shopping bills:
- 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
Raving about the savvy hack, the mum said: ”It gives you the price of everything, it gives you the breakdown of what you can eat.
”Just type in what your budget is and how much you want to spend in Aldi or whatever supermarket you want to go to.
”Not only that but it comes up with a shopping list of all the things that you need – breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, extras – and it will give you all of the information.
”You don’t have to write out your shopping list anymore.”
She went on: ”Don’t know how more people don’t know about this but there you go – that is your sign to download Chat GPT to do your food shopping.”