A SAVVY SHOPPER cleared all her debts and saved £22,000 with four easy tricks – here’s how she did it.
Following the Christmas period and as we continue through the cost of living crisis, many of us might be struggling with debts and wanting to cut back.
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Leia Winch, 38, from Telford, has saved thousands of pounds and shares her money successes on her Instagram page, leiasbargains.
Since slashing her food and living costs, Leia has managed to pay off her £8,000 debts, and is now hoping to buy her first home with the money she’s saved.
She has spent the past five years picking up by doing four simple tricks – yellow sticker bargains, using cashback apps, couponing, and doing surveys in order to save money.
Leia said: “I went through a long phase of living beyond my means, and ended up maxing out my credit card, and found myself constantly stuck in my overdraft.
“I ended up taking out a £4,000 loan to try to pay off the debts but carried on living and spending the same way so just ended up being in more debt with a loan that needed paying off.
Make use of yellow sticker items
One trick Leia used to cut costs when shopping is to focus on yellow sticker items, which are products that have been discounted.
Stores will often reduce the price of food nearing its use by date to shift stock and avoid food wastage.
The food is still good to eat, and in some cases you can freeze what you buy so it will last that bit longer too.
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The Sun recently wrote about a woman who shared her Asda shop which contained only yellow sticker items.
And now Leia has been doing the same: “In 2017, I decided to try to turn my life around, and began shopping exclusively for yellow sticker items.
“I cut my monthly costs massively and managed to clear my debts incredibly quickly.
Leia said her and her partner focus on the items that were on offer in supermarkets.
She said: “After clearing my debts, I carried on buying yellow sticker items, and carried on with the cash back apps and surveys in order to save money to buy my first home.”
The careers adviser spends less than £150 a month on food for herself and partner, Greg, 29, averaging at a cost of around £2 each per day.
She added: “Greg and I are both big meat eaters, so I always love finding meats in the reduced section.
“After Christmas is always a great time to grab some bargains, as I’ve just managed to snag a few beef joints for 80 pence each, and ten sausages for just 23 pence.
“I tend to freeze the meat if I bulk buy, or I’ll batch cook meals packing them full of reduced vegetables like 10 pence bags of potatoes and carrots.
“One of my favourite meals to make is cottage pie, which usually costs less than £2 for four portions altogether.
“I also love buying double cream, and use it to make butter, I recently managed to get four pots for 40 pence which will last me a while.
Take advantage of couponing
Another trick Leia suggests is using coupons when shopping.
Most supermarkets have their own loyalty schemes which allows shoppers to collect points which can then be transferred into coupons or vouchers.
Leia said: “Greg and I actually managed to get our weekly shop from Sainsbury’s for just £3.58 reduced from £48.58, as we used some of the points we’d saved up and converted them to vouchers and got a lot of reduced foods including meats, ready meals, and vegetables.
Another tip the smart shopper offered was using different stores for different deals.
Leia said: “I try to shop around at different shops as each one always has different deals, even the more expensive places like the Co-Op and M&S.
“I treated myself to a cake from M&S for £4.05 down from £15, and at the Co-Op I managed to do a small shop for £4.28 instead of £22.40.
Using apps, joining Facebook groups and picking up supermarket magazines are some of the ways you can find some good coupons.
For example, Tesco’s magazine, which is free, often has coupons advertised inside.
But one tip is to hold onto those coupons and wait for those items to be reduced in price as they’re often more expensive if they’ve been recently advertised in the latest magazine.
You can also download a number of shopping apps onto her phone, which all list coupons, vouchers and money off you can use at big supermarkets.
Shopmium, GreenJinn, Smash and Checkout Smart are examples of a few apps you can use.
Cashback apps
For her third trick, Leia makes use of cashback sites.
These offers give you money back on your shopping, but they require you to spend the cash first.
You then get reimbursed, whether it’s a set amount or a certain percentage off your shopping.
Apps like TopCashback can get you money back on your purchases.
The site, similar to rival Quidco, pays when you go through its website to spend with retailers or providers.
Once you’ve downloaded the app, just log in and check whether the shop you are planning to buy from is offering cashback.
Then click through from the link on the cashback website and fill your basket as normal.
Surveys – get hundreds of pounds for taking part
Finally, Leia said she takes part in online surveys which she then gets paid for.
The length and amount of cash she gets for each survey can vary.
But typically, they take between five to 10 minutes, and pay outs are usually 25p – 40p.
Though you may get lucky and get paid more.
You’ll need to shop around to find the right survey site for you – some will pay you right away while others will pay you once you’ve collect a certain amount or completed a certain number of surveys.
Survey site ylive-community.com (formerly PopulusLive) can pay out £1 to £4 per survey.
While Swagbucks.com is a popular site where your survey points earn you gift cards.
One smart saver managed to save £400 just by taking part in quick surveys.
Leia said: “With the cashback apps and survey sites, I tend to get a lot of free items, like four bottles of shampoo from Boots, or big bags of dog food which I gave to friends and family.
“I’ve also managed to get four free jars of coffee, which actually costs £5.50 per tin in store.”
Leia’s family and friends love her bargain hunting and are always eager to find out the latest deals she’s spotted.
Leia adds: “I love sharing all my freebies with my family, and they always reach out to see where I’ve got my latest bits and pieces from.
“I joke that Greg is now my apprentice, as he’s just as eager to find yellow sticker and reduced items each time we go out shopping.”
You don’t have to sacrifice your lifestyle
Leia hasn’t had to sacrifice her lifestyle, but has instead found alternative ways to do things, including using Meerkat 2for1 offers for cinema trips, and survey sites for takeaway vouchers.
She said: “Everyone is really supportive of our frugal lifestyle.”
With the money she’s set aside from saving on her weekly shops, Leia is now hoping to become a homeowner for the first time.
She continued: “Greg and I currently live in a flat we pay rent for, but after saving up £22,000 we’re hoping to buy it.
“I’m aiming to be mortgage free by retirement age, as well as having a hefty sum of more savings to be comfortable for retirement as I don’t think a state pension will cover it anymore.
“I really think yellow sticker shopping and using cashback apps are the way to go in order to save money.”
More ways to get help with debt
If you’re looking to tackle your debt, there is help you can get to meet your repayments and shrink the pile.
Here’s our top tips for getting yourself out of the red.
Tell your lender
Falling behind on your repayments can feel scary – but it’s important to face up to what you owe and tell your lender as soon as possible.
Ask for an affordable repayment plan – if your lender agrees, it could give you more time to pay off your debts.
Understand what you owe
Work out exactly what you owe in order to get a handle on how much you need to pay back.
You should calculate a budget based on all your outgoings and how much cash you have left over to meet your repayments.
Prioritise your debts and pay off the most serious ones – the ones which could see you lose your home or pay sky high interest rates, for example – if you don’t have enough cash to cover everything you owe.
Your rent, mortgage, council tax and energy bills should be paid first because the consequences can be more serious if you don’t cough up.
Pay off more than the minimum
For those who have more than one credit card debt, try to pay off more than the minimum repayment amount each month and you will pay off your debt quicker.
You should prioritise paying off the most expensive loan – which is the one with the highest interest rate.
This will help you save money on costly interest repayments.
Get advice
If you’re struggling to pay your debts month after month, it’s important you get advice as soon as possible before they build up even further.
You can contact National Debtline on 0808 808 4000, StepChange can be reached on 0800 138 1111, while Citizens Advice is also available on 0808 800 9060.
Whatever you do, it’s important to not bury your head in the sand as it’ll only make the problem worse.
We’ve also rounded up popular ways to clear debt.
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Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing [email protected]
