Welcome to the first in a series of posts where I will be looking at money savings tips and ideas for families.

Many families have been feeling the ‘pinch’ lately and especially post-Christmas. I am often asked for ideas and tips on how families can save money so I thought that I would research a few different options to share with readers.

How many of you shop at discount stores such as Home Bargains or B & M ? These stores can be great places to pick up branded items for less or even big brand toys and gifts. Why pay more if you don’t have to?

As much as I think these stores are great for picking up bargains, it can be difficult to shop in these places with children. Although Home Bargains do home delivery now, they do not seem to deliver the range of products online that they do in store. Currently B & M don’t offer online shopping at all and I personally think they are missing a trick.

More and more mums are opting for online shopping these days for convenience and with so many companies offering free delivery or delivery at a price that might be cheaper than fuel plus parking charges, why wouldn’t you go for this?

When I started researching online discount retailers I came across Approved Food . Approved Food is the largest online retailer of short dated and residual stock food and drinks. They aim to be more than just an online retailer, they want to be as synonymous to online grocery as Google is to search and Facebook is to social networking. A big ask but they are well on their way.

The majority of their stock is short-dated or past its best before date – that way they are able to buy in large quantities and pass considerable savings on to their customers.Starting off as market traders in Hull and Doncaster, Dan Cluderay and his wife Nichola progressed into food wholesale, supplying other market traders. From wholesale they moved into a number of retail outlets that supplied both the public and wholesale trade and finally Approved Food was born in 2009.

At Approved Food they only trade in products that have a ‘Best Before’ date which is quite literally the manufacturers estimate that the premium quality of its product may start to deteriorate. They do not sell chilled or frozen“Use By”products. See their best before page for more information.

Approved Food claim that they can save you more than 70% off your weekly grocery shop. They sell many major brands and anything ‘de-Identified’ is normally from one of the major supermarkets.

Approved Food can offer fantastic value that no supermarket can ever compete with. Your order is packed and delivered to your door. How easy is that? See their delivery page for more information.

Approved Food is a unique online food and drinks retailer visited by thousands of savvy  shoppers and bargain hunters across the UK every day. Approved Food is not just about selling food and drink. They talk to customers about current food topics, listen to their feedback about issues and communicate back to them through high quality editorial, blogs, daily website edits and email updates.

Approved Food is wholly interactive and ‘truly engaging’. Customers can share their choices and ideas with the world via social network pages like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram or Google+, or to direct via the website.

APPROVED FOOD’S GOLDEN RULES
1.  We are very particular about what we buy and the prices we sell these goods at.
2.  Our priority is to make sure nothing we sell has any adverse quality-related problems.
3.  The price on every product relates to the date and we will never pull the wool over your eyes.
4.  Everything we buy is genuine value for money.

They are a family business with family values!

We have been ‘road testing’ Approved Food to see what their service is like from order to delivery and we can report only good things. The ordering process was easy, and although the website is in need of an update, it was fairly easy to navigate and select the items I wanted. If you have a thought of the things you are looking for the search bar is easy to use and brings results up for you to select from.

You can even pay via paypal if you wish.

The order arrived very quickly and was well packed and labelled with their logo – see below.

You can see below the items I purchased and I can report I saved a whopping £24.07 on the RRP of these items. Now that is a good bargain.

As you can see there are some big brand names and everyday items. Why would you pay more for these anywhere else or go out to get them when they can be delivered to your door! No hassle, no traffic, no fuel costs, no parking charges, no fighting your way around the shops, no unhappy children – just top quality products at low prices.

So, if you are looking to save money on big brand items and have money spare to put towards other things then you really should give Approved Food a try. The staff are very helpful and the business is family-orientated so you will be buying from like-minded people.

Keep up-to-date with all their offers on twitter and click here to set up your account and give them a go.