Sunday 6 January 2013

Approved Foods

  



One company that has saved me lots of money over the last couple of years is Approved Foods, it's one email that I really don't mind popping into my Inbox.

They sell foods that are nearing or just past their Best Before dates, foods that companies have simply changed the wrapping, logo or recipe of and they want to jettison all old stock to make way for the new and just lots of other foods that they have managed to buy in bulk at knockdown prices. They sell Christmas chocolate at Easter, remember HERE when we were chomping our through delicious chocolate santas in April, they had cost us something ridiculous like 10 or 20p each and contained the same amount of chocolate as a medium sized block of Cadb*rys!!

You can buy good basic foodstuffs too, there are so many of us in the Frugal Blogosphere that have cupboards and cupboards full of such as Cous Cous bought at ridiculously low prices....and it's dried .... it does not go off if you keep it dry!! This covers so many of the items they sell and that's what savvy Bloggers are snapping up.

Click the link on my sidebar to take you straight to the site I will be leaving it up all this year, as any referrals I make to Approved Foods will result in my getting an amount off my subsequent orders, and once you have ordered you too can benefit from this scheme and do the same on your Blog, or on Facebook or Twitter, which ever you use (if you use all three you could be quids in).

Usually there is even free delivery for your first order as long as it is over £30, and that's not a lot of money for filling up your store cupboard with things that can be used over the next few months.

 
 
Two of my favourite purchases off them (and co-incidentally Lovely Hubby's absolute favourites too) are the dried Soup Mix which at just 25p a bag makes us lots of tasty and nutritious soup at an average cost of less 10p a bowl (that is including the price of the fresh veggies and stock powder added to the mix), and the large catering sized bags of Scone Mix, a brilliant time saving and tasty treat, that Lovely Hubby adores, and when the date is seriously past (like by a year or so) I simply add a bit of baking powder to the mix to guarantee a good rise and I make up the whole bag and freeze the scones ready for baking a few at a time when the oven is on for something else.  See THIS POST for some wonderfully scone pictures and more information.
 
 
 
Today's big bargain is 500g boxes of Cornflakes for just 30p (yes you read that right 30p).  I guess they won't last long at that price though :-)  We don't eat cornflakes so I won't be dashing over to make an order just yet.
 
 
I also have a little pot of Paypal money (currently at about £50) in case I want to make an Approved Foods order later in the year, once I have room in my cupboards, as it is so simple to pay for your order this way.  This will supplement my £2 Coin Challenge money.  At the end of the year I will add up our total expenditure on food for the year so I can see how well (or badly) we have done..
 
So why not pop over there and see what foodie bargains you might be able to get, things change on a daily, and sometimes hourly, basis.  Click on the link on my sidebar to get there fast.
 
Sue xx

30 comments:

  1. Hi, Ive been an avid reader here for a long time but dont think Ive ever commented..... I to use approved foods and have never been dissapointed with the quality of goods ordered, at times it has saved our bacon when we had had no money but a storecupboard filled with spicy couscous lol.... even though I make my own pizza dough, back last year on approved foods page they had a HUGE catering pack of pizza dough mix which made something daft like 72 pizza by just adding water....... and at just 1.99 I thought what did I have to loose.... it was brilliant.... you just have to remember not to get to carried away with the bargains and still only really buy what you need and will use :) x

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  2. I must have missed the pizza dough - what a bargain, make just one pizza from it and you are in profit, 71 free pizzas bases to follow!!

    Love your nickname by the way 'Marmite Toasty' - brilliant, I'm guessing you love Marmite!! :-)

    Sue xx

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  3. :) yep love marmite with a passion lol.......I use to blog but have not for such a long time...... life sort of caught up with me and major computer problems and the more I left it the harder is has been to get back, but I really feel the pull to get back to blogging.... and blogging around others blogs..... x

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  4. I kept reading about how good approved foods are, so i popped on their website just after Christmas, and I can't wait to place my first order!
    It will have to wait a couple more weeks though till I've saved for it :(
    I hope they have scone mixture and pizza dough mix when I get on there then lol.

    Your scones look delicious Sue, and I shall be copying your idea by making it up and freezing as you did :)
    Have a lovely day. x

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    1. If you go on to the site via my link and place your first order, I will get a referral fee and be forever in your debt :-)

      Sue xx

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  5. Did my first order last week and can't wait for it to arrive! I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to start using them.
    Anyway now I'm in and that grocery budget is going down lol!

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    1. Good for you, it really is brilliant for all those storecupboard staples (and chocolate santas......pulls happy, happy face)

      Sue xx

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  6. Great post which I'm sure will help at lot of people and hopefully earn you a bit of extra AP spends. I have never bought anything from them yet as we are lucky enough to have one of these "shops" just a couple of miles away. It just happens to be on the school run so my DIL calls regularly and keeps me up to date with the bargains, I must have spent hundreds of pounds there over the years so goodness knows how much I have saved. Just waiting for the shops to clear out the christmassy stuff :-)

    Karen x

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    1. We used to have the 'shop' version near us when we lived in Cumbria, it was always exciting to pop in and see the latest bargains. It was only a small place run by a lovely guy but he worked his socks off and provided employment for a couple of young folk in the town who manned the shop while he was out and about getting new stock everyday.

      Sue xx

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  7. Oh yes, the Great Approved Food CousCous mountain...I'm very familar with that concept! mentioned them a number of times on my blog but never thought of putting the referral link in!

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    1. Haha....I think we nearly ALL have a Cous Cous mountain.

      Sue xx

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  8. I haven't made an order from there yet, but if I do, I shall use your link :)

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  9. Just back from church, where I have been telling all my mates over coffee afterwards about how good AF is. Heartily endorse your recommendation!

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    1. I've never been let down by them, the one time something broke in transit they immediately refunded my money, no questions asked.

      Good service should always be publicised in my opinion.

      Sue xx

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  10. Thank you for reminding me about Approved foods - forgot all about it! I have placed an order (through your link) and according to the blurb saved myself £82.28! and that was very carefully only ordering the things we normally use but with a few treats that I will have to ration out - thanks again for the post.

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    1. It is amazing to see how much you have saved from the RRP's isn't it, even allowing for the usual postage amounts the savings are massive.

      I like now how they have a sliding scale so you can see how much you can fit in to the lowest postal charge and if you slip into a higher band can delete a couple of items to get the weight back down - good stuff.

      Thanks for using the link.

      Sue xx

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  11. Brilliant Sue, thank you for the info will be checking that out too. Trying to get into good habbits now that I am a student!

    Take care
    Sarah x

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    1. Nice to hear from you Sarah, love to George, they have doggie treats sometimes too, keep yours eyes open for them!

      Sue xx

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  12. I wish we had something similar here in my part of the US. I'm envious of the great deals you can get. :-)

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    1. We are very lucky compared to some countries aren't we.

      Sue xx

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  13. I'll be trying this, not heard of them before. We don't really believe in sell by dates in this house, we use our nose!

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    1. I think the nose, the eyes and the tip of the tongue are the best indicators ever for food safety, although at the moment I keep losing my sense of smell so I keep thrusting things under poor Lovely Hubby's nose, he doesn't mind.....when he's expecting it, it comes as a shock if he's not :-)

      Sue xx

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  14. I use approved food too and have never been disappointed. The last order also contained someone elses goodies. I contacted them to come and take the stuff away, gave them a list of everything. They wrote back and said to keep everything and apologised for the inconvenience.....I am lucky enough to have access to a factory shop, grocery and freezer produce. Needless to say my grown up children benefit from my frugal shopping which helps their household budget.

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    1. I once placed an entire order that was delivered to someone else in error, I got my money refunded and they got to keep my bargains for free, lucky them!!

      Sue xx

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  15. I put my first order in next week. Should have let you know :)

    We spent just over £30 on bread mix, gravy granules and cereal pots.

    Should arrive tomorrow, very excited.

    Sft x

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    1. I always love it when an order arrives and have been known to grab my camera....for obvious Blogging reasons!

      The good thing about the orders too, especially if you're thinking of moving house like us, is that everything comes in collapsable cardboard boxes that are the perfect size for packing books in, and these smaller boxes come inside one large strong cardboard box that holds all your future smaller boxes safely until you need them :-)

      Sue xx

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  16. I got my first order on Friday. I was hugely excited especially when I saw I'd saved £89.63!!! But yeah, must remember it's only a bargain if you normally use it.

    How do you get the linky thing on your blog for other people to click? I used Frugaldom's link so hope she gets the credit

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    1. Oh yes, definitel;y only order foods that are going to be of use to you and will be eaten before they are too ridiculously out of date!! And try and be firm with yourself over treats, only a couple of dozen chocolate santas for instance...lol.

      To get the link go on the Approved Food site and log in, click on 'My Account' and then 'Friend Recommendations', then click on 'Social Friends' if you scroll down there will be a 'unique to you' url that you can paste onto your blog. I lifted the Approved foods image from Google Images and added it also as a picture link.

      Sue xx

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  17. Brilliant! Will try that, thanks :-)

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