A mum claims to spend only £7.50 on her weekly food shop and says people need to drop the "stigma" towards canned fruit and veg.
Alison Preest, 49, cooks meals for as little as 75p for her family thanks to tips, tricks, and hacks which she shares on her YouTube channel. It comes after nationwide shortages of fruit and veg such as tomatoes and cucumbers have been reported across the UK due to bad weather in Europe and Africa.
However, the mum-of-one from Lydney, Gloucestershire, said her family aren't missing out on their nutrition due to tinned goods.
She said: "There is definitely a stigma surrounding buying tinned vegetables as it is seen as poor. As someone who is living on benefits myself, I never understood the reason behind the ignorance of not purchasing tinned foods.
"It is all just the same just way cheaper. It is a mentality thing, people do not want to be seen eating tinned or frozen veg.
“People are made to believe that you are not getting the goods and the nutrients in tinned veg.”
Some of her favourite deals include 22p tinned carrots from Lidl and 37p canned potatoes from Asda. One of the best dishes she makes is vegetable and chicken casserole which features three portions of veg - equating to 95p per serving.
One of Alison's useful tricks include using the water from the tins as stock to help add flavour and save cash on utilities. She said tinned tomatoes work very well with mixing alongside other foods to create complete meals such as bolognaise.
She added: "Using the natural syrup from tinned fruit makes for a great topping on any pudding.”
Thanks to her tips, her weekly shopping costs just £7.50 - while the average family spends £114, reportedly.
She said: "Tinned vegetables are low cost and high nutrition. Tinned and frozen vegetables most of the time are in stock.
“I am not against fresh vegetables but tinned vegetables keep way longer and are far easier to store whilst taking years to go off. Anything can be cheap if you take an extra five minutes to look for it including vegetables even with the high demand for them at the moment.
“Once you start looking for deals and finding great things on the cheap, it becomes far easier with time."
Alison receives benefits, but still cooks a variety of meals using tinned vegetables and frozen goods, she said.
“Chicken casserole using chicken thighs, tin of carrots, tin of tomatoes, chicken stock cube and seasoning is £1 per serving. It's £4 for the whole thing and serves a whole family."
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