5,4,3,2,1.... SAVE!

Can the trending way to shop slash your weekly food costs? Julie Cook puts it to the test

- JULIE COOK

Five, four, three, two, one. No, it’s not the old disco song. It’s the new method for your food shop sweeping social media. The method is this: you buy five sets of veg, four of fruit, three protein, two grain and one ‘sweet treat’. Mums on social media are raving about it claiming that it can slash your food shop bill in half or even more.

The idea is that you buy things in this ratio and make your own healthy foods rather than opting for pricier ready meals, snacks and frozen foods.

My weekly shop is easily £120 a week for a family of four - sometimes more - so I’m intrigued to see if this 5,4,3,2,1 method for a week of evening meals saves me any cash. Here’s how I got on...

DAY ONE

Breakfast would often be cereal or an egg but today it is toast only. ‘Bread is all I have in,’ I say. My two kids, aged 16 and 11, eat lunch at school so when they came home I serve them a cottage pie with half the minced beef, one onion, two chopped carrots, some of the potatoes to make mash and some tomato puree I had in the cupboard. The meal goes down a treat and they ask for more. Even my husband, Cornel, loves it. Afterwards, the kids usually want something sweet but I explain about the 5,4,3,2,1 method and how sweet treats are rationed this week to just one pack of 6 mousses.

‘How about fruit?’ I ask, presenting them some grapes and chopped strawberries. My son Alex, 16, loves fruit so he is happy but my daughter Adriana, 11, has a sweet tooth. ‘Can’t I have a mousse?’ she says. ‘When they’re gone, they’re gone,’ I reply.