FOOD ON A BUDGET: Approved Food: The Ultimate Answer For Feeding Your Household On A Budget?

We all know that the UK is currently still suffering from a recession. Surviving on a small income has become more and more difficult, and for many people, feeding themselves and their families is an everyday part of that struggle. But, it does not have to be.

For the first part of my FOOD ON A BUDGET series of Posts, I am going to share with you my household's secret Weapon: Approved Food.

People often ask me when they visit me how it is that my food cupboards are so very full, when I am living off of government-funded Benefits (unfortunately, due to disability). I answer by telling them about this brilliant website that I have discovered where I can literally get hundreds of pounds worth of food (RRP) for the price of a shop at the usual super markets.

My largest saving to date was an order that cost me £41.21 but had an recommended retail price value of £153.44!

UPDATE: Since the original post I have now made an even bigger saving of £319.87 of shopping for only £57.45!

UPDATE: Since the original post I have found several more tips and important things you need to know! :-)

"How is this possible?" I hear you ask. It is really quite simple, actually. Approved Food is the only website of its kind in the UK and provides long-lasting products at a reduced price due to their Best Before dates having been passed, or close to being passed.

It is actually a little known fact that there is a huge difference between a "Best Before" and a "Use By", and that Best Before foods can last weeks, months or even years after the date has passed, so there is no danger what so ever in your purchase. You can find out more about this, including words from experts in the field on their website's dedicated section.

Here is a brief promotional video advertising the service.

Hints and tips to get the best possible deals:

• Take advantage of the "TODAY ONLY" "24 HOURS ONLY" and "WEEKEND ONLY" deals
  These deals are only available - as the title suggests - for the day that they are listed, or only for the weekend, but rather interestingly, the price sticks in your Shopping Basket, so even if the product is still available weeks later and is listed at a more expensive price, as long as you do not make any changes to the product in your Shopping Basket, the price will stay as it was when you added it, and not change. This is a fantastic little fault in their system, and I take advantage of it as often as I can! It should be noted, however, that you cannot alter the Quantity of any of the items you have added after those offers have drawn to a close, or the price will update to the current listed price instead of the 'Today Only' (etc).
• Subscribe to updates
  Every time that you do a search on the website there is an option to add that search to your 'Bargain Alerts', which will send you email notifications when products matching your criteria are found. This can be very useful to help grab bargains that are relevant to you personally, as-and-when, rather than casually browsing and hardly ever finding what you truly want or need. You can view and edit or un-subscribe (etc) to any of your criteria from My Account: Bargain Alerts.
• Grab it whilst you can!
  Due to the nature of how the company works, Approved Food receive new stock and provide us with new deals all the time and there are probably thousands of people ordering every day, so the best deals go fast!
• Keep an eye on Biggest Savings
  There is a section of the website that lists products that have the highest percentage decrease in price from their RRP. In fact, sometimes they even include "Penny Deals" of products that will literally only cost you a single penny! Visit the Biggest Savings section for details.
• Don't ignore the 'De Identified'
  The website contains a large selection of what is called "De-Identified" products, which are products who's labels have been removed but are often big-name products such as Cadburys, Walkers, Marks & Spencer, etc. These De-Identified products are the cheapest on the website and well worth every penny! You can put "De Identified" into your search to see the full range, and remember that you can also set up a Bargain Alert for it.
• Get delivery discounts
  Scattered around the website are various "Delivery Discounts" which, should you order the product that contains that description, will give you a discount on your shipping cost. This is very useful, especially if you are already interested in the product that has the shipping discount. I have a Bargain Alert set up for "Delivery Discounts", and there is also a category dedicated to it, although sometimes it is not very up-to-date.
• Get the most from your shipping cost
  The biggest cost can often be the shipping, which is calculated based on the weight of your order total, so keep an eye on your Shopping Basket as it will tell you how much more weight you can fit into your order before the price goes up, so you can get more "bang for your buck" as they say.
• UPDATE: Re-order your prior Orders!
  Interestingly enough and quite by-accident, I used the 'Add All Items To Shopping Basket' button to the top-right hand side of the list of items when I was viewing an Order that I had already placed. I then visited my Shopping Basket, ready to empty it due to the mistake, only to find that, rather brilliantly, it had added all the items to my Shopping Basket at the discount prices that I got them for at the time of my prior Order. So, all the 'Today Only', 'Weekend Deal', 'Special Offer', etc prices are now applicable in my current Shopping Basket as they were before. A packet of Mars Funsize which has a current listing on the website of £2, for instance, I have in my Shopping Basket as two for £1, which is the price that I got it for in my last Order. You can of course delete anything that you do not want to order again, and all the tips listed under "Take Advantage of TODAY ONLY and WEEKEND ONLY deals" still apply.

Things to remember:

• UPDATE: This is very important: Once you are registered and have a Shopping Basket of items, if you do not make the purchase and you go away for a few hours, days etc it will log you out automatically from the website. When you return, make sure that the first thing that you do is log in. There is a problem with their system (that they are aware of because I have spoken with them about this) that means that if you are not logged in and you add things to your Shopping Basket and then log in afterwards, the existing Shopping Basket from your last login will be replaced! So, any 'TODAY ONLY' or special offers, etc, will all be lost and you will have to start again! So, get into the habit of logging in every time that you visit the website, before you start browsing.
• Always contact Customer Services if you have a problem. They are super helpful and if you have a product that has been damaged or does not taste right, etc, they will refund you for those products. I even had an entire order lost in the mail at one point (a long story) and they gave me a full refund, and sent a replacement order! How fantastic is that? You can use their online contact details, or you can call them and speak to someone which is also very efficient and pleasant.
• Shop with other people! The cost of shipping on this website can be a bit hefty, as as aforementioned it is calculated on a weight basis. So, if you know other people that you trust enough, why not make an order together, and have them collect their shopping from your home when it arrives, and give you the cash for their part of the order, and half the cost of the shipping? This will save both households quite-a-bit on the shipping cost.
• Approved Food will always list the Best Before Date on the website listings.
• There are also household products, gifts, etc, available that have no "Best Before" but might be "out of season" (Christmas items in March, for instance) so grab a bargain before the appropriate season comes around.

Please be kind! Use my referral link if you found this article useful, so that I can get £5 off of my next order when you make your first :-) 

Another kindness, which I do myself as often as I can, is to order more than I need, or some products that I do not even need but imagine that others would need (baby food, for instance), and give some to my local Food Bank, for those that are hungry and in need of help. Your local Tesco are likely to do a collection, and you can also find your local Food Bank using this website.

God Bless you all, and I hope that this makes your tummies all very happy.

More updates soon!

:-)