MUM-OF-TWO Sara Cook has slashed her grocery and energy bills by making the most of the garden and ditching the heating for cheaper gadgets.
It began when the 45-year-old chef had to give up her job in 2012 after being diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which causes chronic pain.
Now the thrifty mum and her two children, son Louis, 15, and daughter Kate, 13, get by with the £1,950 she receives each month, mostly from Personal Independence Payments and Universal Credit.
So many friends asked Sara, who lives near Preston, for money-saving tips that she decided to write a book about it.
And no wonder – she saves around £3,275 a year with her canny tips.
Sara told The Sun: "I've always been known as the budget queen. People come to me for money advice.
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"I’ve been nagged for years to write a budgeting book, and with the current economic crisis, I thought that people need help more than ever."
Her book, Surviving Being Skint, is packed full of the tips she has learnt along the way.
It might sound idyllic but for Sara it is a necessity.
Money is extra tight as she came out of her divorce three years ago with a £12,000 debt.
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Below she reveals her top budgeting tips.
Producing her own food – saves £360 a year
When Sara moved into her house in 2009, she planted a number of trees which are now producing fruit.
She has apples, pears, plums and mulberries, which she cooks up and uses throughout the year.
Growing her own allows her to dig up £300 in savings.
She also has two hens who save her shelling out £60 a year in eggs.
Sara said: "I look at growing veg as an investment. It costs a bit to start with, but gets cheaper every year.
"Perennial fruit and veg like some kale, strawberries and rhubarb come up year after year and take less work."
Shopping smart – saves £1,640
Sara shops around for the best deals on other food and gets a £2.50 bag from her local food larder three times a month which helps her cut £780 a year from her costs.
A food larder is different from a food bank.
Put simply, it’s where people can pick up surplus food for a cheaper price that might otherwise go to waste.
The money made goes back into the community, so it’s a “win, win”, according to Sara.
She also uses apps like Good to Go and Olio which keeps around £180 a year in her purse.
Too Good to Go connects customers with restaurants and stores that have surplus unsold food, while Olio is an app where households can give and accept free groceries.
She gets Kate’s favourite food, Greggs sausage rolls, from a Greggs outlet store, where they cost £1.55 for four compared with £1.15 for an individual pastry in the high street bakery.
That saves a meaty £160 a year.
Planning her meals also keeps a further £520 in the bank.
Sara said: “Writing menu plans may seem a bit boring, but spending 10 minutes a week saves you having to think about what to cook and stops you nipping to the shops – and picking up even more when you are there.
“You can save an awful lot of money.
“Start planning by checking what you already have that needs using up.”
Sara looks at the bottom shelf in supermarkets for cheaper brands, and buys yellow sticker reduced items and freezes them.
Using less energy – saves £1,205 a year on bills
Sara has cut her energy use in the past year, saving £1,205 by getting rid of her tumble dryer, turning everything off standby, washing on an eco-setting and turning her heating right down.
She uses a heated airer which she got for £40 from Facebook Marketplace instead of the pricey dryer.
Overall, the changes have reduced her annual electricity bill by £485 and the gas bill by £720.
Sara said: “My thermostat is set to 15.5 degrees so it only comes on when the house gets that cold.
“The rest of the time I use a plug-in blanket and layer my clothing.”
Sara reckons that by persuading her son Louis to shower only once a day, rather than twice, she’s saving 37p each time.
The energy still costs her more than it did, because of rising prices, but she’d be forking an extra £100 a month on top of that if she hadn't taken steps to use less.
Part of her energy saving also comes from changing the way she cooks.
She has bought a mini oven from Facebook marketplace for £20 and uses this, along with an air fryer and slow cooker, for turning her basics into hearty meals.
This saves her £100 a year.
Sara said: “I haven’t turned on my oven for years.”
Cutting food waste – saves £40 a year
Sara also uses every last scrap in order to reduce food waste.
She turns peelings into crisps in her air fryer or uses them to make useful vegetable stock.
She also turns apple peel into apple cider vinegar, saving £40 a year compared with buying it from a supermarket.
She even grows her own vegetables from leftovers, which is a great low-cost way to start growing your own.
Sara said: “If you put a slice of tomato in a small pot of soil, the seeds will sprout, or place the bottom of your lettuce in water – but not covered – and before you know it you'll have new leaves.
"You can grow garlic from existing bulbs and potatoes from spuds with 'eyes' growing out of them."
Making DIY cleaning products – saves £30
Sara makes her own washing powder and other cleaning products, saving around £30 a year.
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She puts citrus peel in a jar of vinegar. “After a few weeks, you’ll have a homemade degreasing cleanser,” she said.
For the washing powder, she uses a kilo of soap flakes, 500g soda crystals, 500g of borax substitute and 200g of bicarbonate of soda, using two tablespoons of the mixture per load.
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