SAVVY mum Shelley Ward has saved thousands of pounds a year thanks to several smart moves.
The 41-year-old from Manchester has even turned a regular hobby into a money-saver in a bid to boost her bank account.
The green-fingered mother-of-one, who lives with daughter Elisha, 22, started growing her own vegetables three years ago when she was struggling to make ends meet, and hasn’t looked back since.
Shelley told The Sun: “I now grow a lot of my own food. I fill about 50% of my garden with seeds and vegetables.
“I think this will save me more than €600 per year.”
It was Shelley’s mother who planted the seed in her mind to take up this hobby.
“Mom is a wonderful gardener,” Shelley said. “Because I had very little money at the time, I thought: I would give vegetables a try.”
According to the gardener, it is easy to get started.
“All you need is some seeds and a place to grow them,” Shelley said.
“I got some boxes from eBay, known as ‘pallet collars’, for £12 and used them to make raised beds. My mother then helped me with pots and compost.”
From humble beginnings, Shelley now grows fourteen different vegetables every year.
“I go for things like tomatoes and potatoes, which are very useful in the kitchen,” she said
“But zucchini and cucumbers are definitely my favorite. They are easy to grow and you always have too many to eat, which means you can give items as gifts to friends and family.”
Shelley estimates she saves around £50 a week on her food bill in the summer.
“Being vegan, I usually just buy beans, legumes and rice to go with my home-grown vegetables,” she said.
“My daughter is a great cook, so I usually leave the recipes to her. She loves herbs and spices, so I planted a lot more this year.”
The tricky part, according to Shelley, is managing many different plants, because they all need specific conditions to thrive.
“As a beginner, I recommend starting small with your favorite vegetables and building up from there once you get the hang of it,” she said.
“I usually focus on fast-growing, high-yield staples that don’t take up too much space.”
According to Shelley, she spends about an hour a day gardening in early spring.
This includes preparing beds, reading books, planning the layout, sowing and maintaining lots of seedlings.
“It may seem like a lot, but I find it therapeutic,” she said.
“If you’re looking for something that’s less maintenance, you can opt for just herbs and potatoes, which don’t need much more than a little watering.”
If you’re keen to follow in Shelley’s footsteps, she recommends investing in essentials such as a compost bin, a rain barrel and a heated grow kit with a UV light source.
“You can then use lots of things you already have – such as toilet roll tubes that work well as seed pots, along with old tires or plastic containers,” she said.
“With just a small effort I was able to achieve enormous savings. This has made a big difference to the household finances.”
Shelley Ward
“Check prices to get a good deal on seeds, and don’t be afraid to ask around. People on allotments are often willing to exchange seeds and young plants.”
Shelley believes that making mistakes is all part of the learning process.
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes over the years,” she said. “I once planted purple broccoli, but didn’t realize I needed to protect the plants from pests – and thus created a huge caterpillar farm.
“Within a week they ate almost everything down to the stem.”
Life has been hard at times for Shelley, and there are times when she has very little money.
That was a real incentive for her to save money wherever she could.
“I moved to Manchester in 2020 after a traumatic experience left me with complex post-traumatic stress disorder,” says Shelley.
“Just when I was feeling better, I was fired. Since this was during the lockdown, it became very difficult. And with my daughter in college, I found myself unemployed and alone.”
Fortunately, things started to improve for Shelley after she started therapy, as this led to her getting out into nature a lot more. This was also the point when she started gardening.
“Since I had very little money, I wanted to try vegetarian,” she said. “Things just grew from there.”
Top tips for growing your own vegetables
EVERYONE can get started growing their own vegetables, and it costs from just €1.
GRASS ROOTS Culinary herbs are a good start for anyone just starting to grow.
You can get a starter pack from just €10 and before you know it you will have mint, chives, parsley, thyme and basil.
KEEN BEANS Hardy broad beans can be sown early in the year and later added to tasty stews or rice dishes.
Buy a packet of seeds for just €1, pot them up and put them in your greenhouse or store them indoors on your windowsill.
SALAD SAVINGS Microgreens are the early shoots of larger crops and can bulk up salads and add flavor.
To save even more money, you can use washed-out yogurt pots to plant in and place on your windowsill.
In a few weeks you should be able to cut off the green sprouts and add them to dishes.
SPICY AND EASY Peppers can be grown all year round, although it is suggested that the earlier you sow them, the hotter they are.
Place your seeds in seed compost in a small pot and place them on a sunny windowsill.
You can also cover it with a plastic bag tied to the bottom of the pot with an elastic band to increase humidity and give them the best chance.
Shelley is now in her first year studying horticulture online: the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) Level 2.
Growing her own food is just one of the many methods the savvy mom uses to save money.
“I also taught myself how to make chutney,” she said. “I often give jars as gifts to friends. This saves me the cost of buying presents. I think this will save me about €200 per year.”
Shelley’s tips to boost your bank balance
Another hack that Shelley swears by is using Topcashback before purchasing anything online.
This is one of the top cashback sites where you can earn money just by shopping at retailers through their website.
The process is simple. Once you’ve found a deal on something you want, you can contact cashback sites to see if they have an offer.
If you find one, click through to your chosen merchant and the kickback will usually be deposited into your account within 30 days.
Shelley said: “I love voucher sites and discount sites, but Topcashback is my favorite because there are so many stores on the site.
“One of the ‘biggest’ amounts I got was £50 cashback from a big shopping trip at Sephora.
I spent almost £500 on a lot of things including a Dyson hairdryer and toiletries.”
At Christmas she earned around £29 cashback from Superdrug after spending around £150 on presents.
Shelley added: “Overall I think I made around £200 from Topcashback last year.”
The smart mother tends to plow her earnings back into the garden.
“I’ve just bought a £200 ‘hot compost’ bin,” she said.
“This in turn saves me up to £200 on the cost of buying compost. Not only does it save me money, but it also means I am gardening in a more sustainable way.”
How can I save on my supermarket shopping?
There are plenty of ways to save money at your grocery store.
You can look for yellow or red stickers on products, which indicate when they are discounted.
If the food is fresh, eat it quickly or freeze it for another time.
Making a list should also save you money because you’ll be less likely to make hasty purchases when you go to the grocery store.
Choosing your own brand can be an easy way to save hundreds of dollars a year on your food bill, too.
This means ditching the ‘best’ or ‘luxury’ products and instead opting for ‘own’ or value-for-money lines.
Many supermarkets have shaky fruit and vegetable programs where you can get cheap prices if they are misshapen or imperfect.
For example, Lidl runs its Waste Not scheme, offering 5kg boxes of fruit and vegetables for just £1.50.
If you’re on a low income and a parent, you could potentially get up to £442 a year in Healthy Start vouchers, which you can also use at the supermarket.
In addition, many municipalities offer supermarket vouchers as part of the Household Support Fund.
When Shelley needs to buy food, she always shops online.
“That way I don’t get tempted by extra stuff,” she says.
“I also do a price comparison between different stores to make sure I’m paying the lowest possible price for my basket of goods.”
Not only is Shelley an expert in the garden, she’s also a bit of a DIY pro.
“I’ve taught myself a whole set of skills so that I can save costs by not having to hire professionals,” she says.
“I cleared a load of concrete from my garden last year with a ‘concrete breaker’, which was scary but fun.
“My advice to others is not to be afraid to learn a new skill.
“I’m definitely a ‘jack of all trades, master of none.’ But I like the challenge – and the money it saves me.”
Shelley estimates that doing chores herself will have saved her more than £1,000 by 2023.
Additionally, she has learned how to perform her own beauty treatments.
“I dye my own hair and do my own nails,” she said.
“This is another good way to reduce expenses and probably saved me £100 last year.”
All told, Shelley thinks that by combining a whole host of clever hacks – growing her own vegetables, making her own gifts, checking cashback, getting the lowest price on her groceries, doing her own chores and performing her own beauty treatments – she’s got it saved a whopping £3,000 last year.
She added: “With just a little effort I have been able to make huge savings. This has made a big difference to the household finances.”