A savvy mum’s haul of yellow sticker bargains enables her to feed her family of five with an array of gourmet meals for a week, for just £50.
Lindsey Bebbington-Colbourne, a Newtoft police officer, stocks her five household freezers with everything from pork and lamb slashed from £5 to around £1, to whole chickens and fish reduced from £6 to £3.50.
The 47-year-old, her three children and husband Mick, 58, eat like kings on a pauper’s budget, due to her impressive bargain hunting.
Bebbington-Colbourne lives with policeman-turned courier, Mick, their children Toby, 14, and Poppi, 12, and her 19-year-old daughter Elise, from her first marriage.
The mum-of-three said growing up poor taught her to be a bargain hunter. Receiving free school meals as a child in Manchester, alongside her twin sister, Adele, 47, a social worker, being thrifty was essential to get by.
Fending for herself after leaving home, joining the army and being posted to Lincolnshire, before switching to the police, she honed her savvy shopping habits.
Knowing what it was like to go hungry as a child, she was determined her kids wouldn’t have the same experience.
“ I’ve got five freezers and 11 slow cookers at home, so I can cook and freeze as I go along without wasting anything,” she said.
She laughed that maybe she had gone to the other extreme.
“But I spend under £200 a month on food for the five of us – and my freezers are always jam-packed, so I'm clearly getting something right.”
Money had been tight in the council house in which Lindsey grew up, with her mum, siblings and stepdad all having been in low-paid jobs.
But her upbringing helped shaped her attitude to money, teaching her thrifty habits that benefit her family today.
She focused on picking up as many yellow-sticker items as possible in a big monthly shop, which she tops up with smaller shops once a week.
“I look for reductions of 30-50 per cent at least. I often spend £100 on yellow sticker stuff for the month – but that food has been drastically reduced, so would cost an awful lot more full price.
“I’ll also spend £20 a week on basics like bread, milk and yoghurts for the fridge. I don’t spend more than £200 a month on food and that feeds a family of five,” she said.
As well as feeding her own family on a shoestring, she also gave a lot of food away, in a bid to help local families who were struggling.
She frequented Lidl, Tesco and her local Co-op, but said she had also found “great deals” in ASDA, Aldi, Morrisons and even pricier Waitrose - looking out for the most heavily-reduced items.
Her array of freezers helped her to save, allowing her to stock meat, vegetables and fruit.
“I get a lot of berries and strawberries which my kids love. I freeze them and they'll defrost and eat them or have them in smoothies.”
She also has shelves in the garage of her semi-detached four-bedroom house, where she stockpiles reduced items year-round, such as breakfast cereals, kitchen rolls, tins and cupboard staples like rice and pasta.
While she said people had made jokes about her shopping habits, she said lots of people turned to her in lockdown when they ran out of things - and she was happy to help.
Bebbington-Colbourne was also well-prepared when it came to ways to cook her abundance of food - with 11 slow cookers to choose from.
She would frequently whip up a casserole, chilli or a curry, and would then store away the extra in the freezer for a rainy day.
Saving money and keeping a healthy bank balance are essential for Lindsey's peace of mind, after growing up with so little.
She said: “I like knowing I've got a healthy bank balance.
“I'm prepared for emergencies and have a £500 or so buffer in my bank, so I know it's there if the kids need or want something.
The mum and policewoman was encouraging others to have a go at bargain shopping.
“It's wonderful knowing you can make these massive savings,” she enthused.
“In the online groups I'm in there are people who have been really struggling as the pandemic has affected their work, so it's great to share tips on how to find bargains.
“I'm proud of the way I keep the family bills down. It’s a real skill to be able to shop in this way.”
