With food costs on the rise and everyday essentials taking up an uncomfortable chunk of our budgets, we ask: how can you really save money on your weekly food shop?

According to the latest figures, we spend an average of 16% of our budget on food and non-alcoholic drinks. For the average UK household, that’s around £3,601 on groceries, and £1,744 on takeaways and eating out each year. That means we’re spending nearly £70 on our weekly food shop, and £31 on takeaways. Other figures have estimated a £643 rise in average grocery bills this year, with shoppers paying around £12 extra each week to buy the same food and groceries.

With inflation at a 40-year high leaving many of us seeing soaring gas and energy prices, while wages for the majority of workers are falling behind inflation, it’s no wonder more and more of us are looking for creative ways to save money.

But other than the obvious changes of cutting back on meals out, ditching the occasional coffee on your way to work, and switching down a brand on your favourite purchases, what can we do to save money on food shopping?

Keep track of what you have

Know what you have in your cupboards before you get started. How many times have we all accidentally bought yet another pack of lasagna sheets, pasta sauces, or our fave cupboard staples? By knowing what you have, you can minimise food waste and your weekly shopping spend. If you struggle to remember what you’ve got, apps like No Waste can help you to easily track your fridge, freezer, and food cupboards, helping you to create shopping lists and plan around the ingredients you've got.

Plan your meals before hitting the shops

We’ve all heard the advice: don’t go shopping on an empty stomach. But it’s not just our hunger that can lead us to over-spending - our lack of planning can lead to us buying an unbalanced basket, relying heavily on more expensive ingredients or ready-made options.

Planning your meals for the week ahead (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks) can help you to avoid the temptation of splurging on extra takeaways or meals out. It can also reduce the time and energy needed to think about what you’re going to cook - something that can lead many of us to feel demotivated at the end of a long, stressful day.  

Meal planning can also help us to pick more sensible meal options. Making a full-on roast may sound like a great idea when you’re shopping on a Monday, but when Sunday rolls around and you’re feeling the end of the weak dread, you might not have the energy to cook such a big

Hi friends! Happy Monday. I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend. Sorry I disappeared on you for Friday Faves. I rarely miss a Friday Faves post but I think all of the activity of the past month and a half finally caught up to me. The icing on the cake was that I went to get blood taken for InsideTracker and passed out afterwards.

I haven’t fainted in maybe 20 years – last time, I landed on my face and broke my nose – and it rattled me a bit. I lost my vision for a few minutes and felt absolutely horrible, and the experience messed with me for a couple of days. I’m thankful for a kind tech who kept me from falling, and gave me a Snicker’s bar afterwards, which helped a ton.

But now, I’m back at it, the Grinch agreed to let me decorate before Thanksgiving so I’m surrounded by twinkly lights and pine-y things, and ready to head into Thanksgiving week. What do you have planned? We’re doing the usual lunch/dinner at my uncle’s house and stopping by madre’s afterwards. SO ready for some family time, nana’s coconut cake (the best ever), and a short week for the girls at school.

For today’s post, I wanted to share some skincare gift ideas and under $100 fashion finds. The Black Friday holiday shopping frenzy has already begun, and I’m here.for.it. Cheers to getting holiday shopping done early! 

(throwing it back to last year’s gigantic real Christmas tree. I think we need to go for it again)

Here’s a little bit about how I’m navigating holiday shopping:

– I made a Google Doc checklist with everyone on our list, along with gift ideas for each person

– I ordered anything I could in advance, and if I’m waiting for a Black Friday deal, I have the link in the document ready to go. The good news is that so many retailers started their Black Friday promos early.

If you’re doing the same and want to add any ideas from my gift guides, you can copy and paste the text from my blog post directly into Google Docs. The link will still work, too.

This year’s gift guides so far:

Gift guide for holiday hostesses and under $50 faves

For the men

For her

For the kids

If you’re looking for some Skincare gifts and Fashion Finds under $100, I’m sharing the goods in today’s post!

Read more

Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Sliders

Take your Thanksgiving leftovers and combine them into the most tasty sliders! Turkey, stuffing, cheese and cranberry sauce in a mini sandwich baked in a poppy seed dressing…yummmmm!

For four years now I’ve been playing around with turkey sandwiches and I’ve for sure figured out a few leftover turkey recipes you need to try. For example, have you had a delicious roll with cream cheese, poppy seed dressing, mozzarella or havarti cheese (ohhhh or muenster!) with a nice slice of turkey? Easy and so delicious. 

But this is not about that sandwich. This is about the idea I’ve been playing with year after year and finally I just went all in and added every main ingredient, turkey, stuffing, a killer honey mustard sauce, cranberry sauce and especially melty cheese. And THEN!!!! Cover the whole thing in a butter poppy seed dressing and bake it all in the oven. 

This is the ultimate leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Sliders recipe!  

Crisp baby spinach, spring mix lettuces, tart apples, sweet raisins, crunchy almonds, and the ultimate honey cider salad dressing are combined to create a fantastic Spinach Apple Salad.

I made this salad three times within a month the first time I made it. And in the years since then, this salad has made frequent appearances in my home.

Spinach Apple Salad

The Honey Cider Dressing is wonderfully tangy and sweet and the combination of those flavors with the rest of the Spinach Apple Salad immediately made this one of my all-time favorite salads.

And that says something because this parsley salad with oranges and the apple walnut salad with blueberries are big favorites too. There’s just something unforgettable about a fresh salad filled with fruits and tossed in a tangy sweet dressing.

I was determined to serve this with my Thanksgiving dinner a few years ago. So, I played with several different ways to make the salad in advance and still keep the apples fresh.

(Like most people I know, making as many of the Thanksgiving dishes as possible in advance keeps me the happiest!)

Everything I tried initially, changed the flavor of the salad too much. Fortunately, apple cider vinegar did the trick and after 36 hours in the fridge, the salad still had apples that were crisp, white, and tasting like fresh apples.

Honey Apple Cider Vine

Stress presents itself in many forms. Learn how to spot and address it from every angle

If someone is drowning, it’s well understood that people don’t necessarily thrash – survival instinct kicks in, and they can look calm to an untrained eye. Yet, when we’re metaphorically drowning in life, we forget to apply that principle.

If we could learn to spot subtle signs of drowning in stress, we could really change our relationship with it, and how we can be there to help each other.

I actually have a story which really epitomises this secret stress bubbling away. I was halfway through a six-week hike, when a friendly man approached me with some almonds. Despite his kind intent, I shut down. I was weary, my body was tired, and I was on the verge of quitting. Feeling out of sorts, in unfamiliar surroundings, I became hyper-vigilant.

I remember watching him take my hand and turn it around. I froze as he put nuts into it. My heart pounded. I threw the almonds to the ground and cried. Feeling incapacitated, already stressed, in open land with little way to get help if I needed to, my body only registered a threat.

While we’re familiar with the terms fight and flight – the response when faced with danger, preparing you for action – there are actually five ‘fs’: fight, flight, freeze, flop, and fawn. What happened to me, in this instance, was a mix of freeze and flop.

So, how can you identify and address each ‘F’?

Fight

In fight mode, you’re tackling things head-on. Full of adrenaline, your thoughts take a back seat as your heart rate increases, pumping blood throughout your body. You might take more risks, like running into a road to save a child. This can feel primal. Be aware of what’s happening in your body, and remember to take a breath. It will be important for you to take time out after a period of stress to let your body settle and recover.

Flight

Problems don’t feel like challenges to be tackled, but obstacles to be avoided. You feel vulnerable, tight in your chest and gut, and instinctively want to avoid, run away, or retreat. You might be very aware of the exit signs in an enclosed space, and may even figure out your escape routes in advance. If your pattern is to flee, place your feet on the ground and breathe deeply and slowly. Stick with your discomfort, and allow it to pass. This will give you time to explore your options. What do you need to make this situation less stressful?

Freeze

You’re like a rabbit in headlights, and your feet feel stuck to the ground. This can happen when escape isn’t possible, because running may lead to a chase, or fighting back invites more attacks. In this state, it is difficult to make any decisions, and sometimes you can’t ask for help because you don’t know what to ask for. It can also feel like all your senses are blocked, and all your energy is locked inside your body with no way out. If this happens to you, let the blankness in for a while; let it be and don’t try to change it. Paradoxically, this will make it pass. This can be helpful if you’re performing on stage, and your mind goes blank.

Flop

You might faint, feel dizzy, or dissociate – disconnecting from your thoughts, feelings, or sense of self to cope with the stress. This can be short-lived or last a long time.