A super-savvy mum was able to give up work by feeding her family road kill and massively reduced items in a bid to slash their monthly food bill.

When Laura Ansbro left her marketing job three years ago to become a full time mum to her three-year-old Wilf she had to adjust to the drop in income.

The 33-year-old put her head together with husband Max, 37, and devised a plan to dramatically cut their outgoings.

They decided that each night they would scour the reduced sections of the five supermarkets near their home in Salisbury, Wiltshire.

The move saw their monthly Waitrose bill drop from £280 to just £80.

Laura Ansbro and her husband have cut £200 from their monthly food bill

While the other parent puts their son to bed, one buys food which is 80% or 90% discounted, for as little as a few pennies per item.

The family scour reduced sections at least four to five times a week and buy all their fruit, veg, meat, fish and cheese from there.

Laura and Max, an engineer, also buy treats like crumpets and hot cross buns from reduced sections and forage in nearby fields for wild spinach and blackberries.

They also love to buy in bulk.

The couple can be seen regularly hauling an entire pig into their house, storing similarly bulky items in their three huge freezers. 

The pair have also cut their spending by recycling and repairing clothes, purging their home of pricey energy-zapping gadgets and picking up animals that have been killed on the road.

The thrifty means of shopping has allowed Laura to look after her son full time

Laura said: "Some weeks we don't have to buy anything as we have so much stashed away, so we just don't spend anything at all on food.

"Or others it might just be buying a few pints of milk.

''Some weeks, we can spend as little as £3 or £4, and that would just be on milk if we've run out and a few punnets of grapes, salad leaves and cherry tomatoes.

"Everything else we'll already have in the freezer or store cupboards.

''The cheapest week we have had was when we literally spent nothing. We had milk in the freezer and had just used everything we already had. Now that I'm making my own bread that also really helps to keep costs down."

The family fridge is stuffed full of bargains

The couple were not always so thrifty however.

"Before we started this lifestyle we would probably have splashed out on really nice cheeses or a lovely piece of steak every so often," Laura continued.

"These days I get my cheese from Lidl or Waitrose own brand if it's on offer.

''The best place that I've found for bargains is CO-OP convenience stores, their reduced sections are amazing. Luckily we have four of them near our house.

"I do have to say that there are a very few things that it isn't worth scrimping on, but Thai curry paste is one of them, the cheap ones are really flavourless so you just end up using more."

When the family do occasionally have to buy full priced goods they make sure to shop at cheaper supermarkets Aldi and Lidl.

Prawns, sweet potatoes and spring onions needn't break the bank

Laura added: "A recent shop which included a couple of pizzas, 40 eggs, 12 courgettes, three packs of fine beans, three packs of parsnips, three punnets of blueberries, 27 garlic bulbs, two bags of salad leaves, a tub of olives, a punnet of mushrooms, a pack of bacon, eight apples and six kiwi fruit....

"This should have been £50.24, but only cost £4.59.

''Our best bargain ever was the time we bought six whole chickens for 60p each. We had a roast, butchered a few into thighs and breasts and froze the rest.

"I've always loved cooking and I knew that I'd be able to reduce the money we were spending on food shopping bills, although I didn't realise by quite how much at that time.

"The funny thing is that now I wouldn't even buy half price stuff from the reduced sections now, we tend to want to go for 80-90% off these days."

Key to the Ansbros' frugal food shopping is the ability to freeze large amounts of otherwise perishable food.

Laura Ansbro exhibits some of the cheap salad and beef scooped from supermarkets' reduced sections

''Often there will be tonnes of mushrooms or tomatoes in the reduced aisle, all with huge reductions, sometimes 90%, so we buy tonnes and then freeze stuff or turn it into soup for the week," Laura said.

''It's really handy buying frozen pizzas that have been reduced too as they're in fine condition and can be 80% off.

"They make a super easy lunch for my son with just a handful of salad leaves to go with.

''No weekly shop is ever the same as it totally depends on what they've reduced that night.

"Having three freezers means we can take advantage of all the amazing discounts we come across.

"I also do a bit of foraging, for example wild spinach or blackberries. And this year I'm planning to pick nettles for salads and soups.

"I pick hawthornes and make a haw-sin sauce.

A selection of the bargain items the Ansbros have got their hands on

"Nettles are abundant in nature and totally free, plus they’re full of vitamins.

"It's wild garlic season at the moment, it's such a great feeling to come back from a walk with delicious ingredients for the whole week."

Even the couple's son is getting in on the action.

"Our son Wilf adores blackberries so we go for a wander to pick those with him almost every day in the summer to the nearby hedge rows, when they're in season," the mum continued.

"It's very cute he takes 'one for the tub and two for him'.

"I'll freeze them for later use in jams and puddings.

"I've recently even started making my own bread which saves us quite a bit a month too."

Vine tomatoes picked up from the reduced section are on the menu

The couple occasionally even spot a dead animal and after making sure that it's safe to eat, take it home for supper.

Laura's husband Max used to work as a game keeper and so is "well equipped to assess on sight if the meat is safe" to take home and butcher.

She said: "It's usually animals that we find on the roads after they've been run over, we've had deer, pheasant, and pigeons in the past.

"I've made some lovely things with road kill deer in the past, lasagna, steak, curry

''We've also eaten pheasant and pigeons that we've found at the side of the road.''

Cut price mushrooms are a favourite

Non-foody ways in which the family save money include recycling and repairing clothes rather than buying new ones.

They have chosen not to have a television, have hardly any technology and only buy second hand furniture.

"Our laptop is over ten years old and we never buy anything new. We're both on the cheapest mobile contracts possible," Laura admitted.

The couple are now in the process of converting an old van so that they can have cheaper holidays.

Laura has started an Instagram account that she hopes will inspire others

A typical three days in the Ansbro house can be made up of the following dishes.


Breakfast: home made toast

Lunch: pizza, 90% off from reduced

Dinner: chicken and veg (both 85% reduced) stir fry

Pudding: Ice cream made with reduced cream and milk


Breakfast: homemade fruit compote, reduced fruit and yogurt (usually full price)

Lunch: homemade soup (from reduced veg)

Dinner: midweek chicken roast with lots of veg, all from the reduced section

Pudding: homemade sourdough pancakes (made with reduced eggs) with caramelised reduced section apples


Breakfast: reduced crumpets

Lunch: salad leaves, avocado, tomatoes, goats cheese, olives and bread, all reduced by at least 70%

Dinner: pasta with reduced prawns and smoked salmon, cream and reduced sugar snap peas

Pudding: bread and butter pudding made with reduced brioche or even doughnuts, and reduced eggs and milk