Laura has explained exactly how she spends as little as £40 a month on groceries
An NHS worker who has been hunting out yellow sticker bargains in shops for the last 14 years says the hack has saved her £29,000. Laura Gaga, from west London, treats food shopping like a treasure hunt, scouring the shelves for yellow-sticker bargains and using local sharing apps to find free food.
She says it helps her live on around £40 a month on groceries, and have enough for regular holidays abroad. Laura, 45, began yellow-sticker shopping 14 years ago. Instead of planning meals and buying ingredients to match, Laura, who posts online as @reduction_raider1, shops according to what’s been marked down.
She said: “I’ll go to the yellow sticker shelves, see what’s there and then make food based on that. I also get food from friends who know I shop this way. One with an allotment recently gave me loads of vegetables, so I got experimental. I made pumpkin overnight oats and beetroot crisps. Shopping like this has completely changed my relationship with food.”
She added: “In one month when I tracked my spending, it came to £43. When I track it, I’m even more mindful, so I spend less.”
That shift has also shaped her diet. “ I’ve been vegan for seven years now,” she says. “A lot of that came from yellow sticker shopping because I started eating less meat. Meat tends to go first in the reduced aisles, so if I couldn’t get it cheap, I wouldn’t buy it. Eventually, I just stopped eating it altogether.”
Laura now makes most of her meals from scratch and takes packed lunches into work. “I’m a big fan of leftovers,” she says. “I’ll do a big cook and then eat from that pot through the week. I try to be healthy and aware of what I eat. I freeze a lot of food and use things like vegan protein powder or tofu to make sure I’m getting everything I need.”
Laura shops every two or three days, depending on what she already has at home. “I check local sharing app Olio daily,” she says.
“Before I go out, I look through my cupboards to see what I’ve got and what I can make. Then I’ll go to my favourite supermarkets, depending on when I know their final reductions are. But really, I’ll check anywhere – service stations, coffee shops, even WHSmith. You never know where you’ll find a reduced sticker.”
Alcohol is sometimes provided at huge discounts, and she loves it when she can pick up reduced-cost tofu and tempeh. “Sometimes you get lucky and come across something you’ve had your eye on. I once found a bottle of gin reduced by 90 per cent. That doesn’t happen often, but it’s great when it does. I also love finding reduced cat food for my cat, Tigger.”
But it’s not just about saving money for Laura. She sees it as a lifestyle that encourages creativity, community and sustainability. “People sometimes think shopping like this is about going without,” she says. “But actually, it’s the opposite. You spend less, buy less, and end up with more.”
In October, Laura and her friend Natalie opened a zero-waste refill shop in Hillingdon. “At Refill Your Cup you can buy as much or as little as you want. It reduces food waste and single-use plastics and lets people buy exactly what they need.”
And when she’s not running the shop or searching for bargains, Laura’s often off travelling – most recently to Thailand. “That’s what I save for,” she adds. “By spending less on food, I can do more. Shopping like this has given me freedom.”
How to be a yellow-sticker saver, from Laura Gaga:
1 – Know the timing. Supermarkets usually reduce prices at certain times each day. Late afternoon or early evening is common, though it varies by store. Ask staff when reductions typically happen.
2- Know the difference between ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates. “Best before doesn’t mean the food’s unsafe, it’s just about quality. And if something’s on its use-by date, cook or freeze it that day,” Laura says.
3- Plan for storage. Many yellow sticker items are close to their use-by date. Freeze what you can and plan meals around what can’t be frozen. Keep space in your freezer for these finds.
4- Shop with flexibility. Go in with an open mind. You might not find what you expect, but you can plan meals around what’s reduced. You don’t have to stick to recipes – learn how to substitute.
5- Never go shopping without checking your cupboards first. You can save money by working around what you already have in your pantry.
