Grocery hack: How Aussie nurse saves hundreds at the supermarket

Bailie Stirling is saving $50 per week on her grocery shop with this simple change. (Source: Supplied/Getty)

A Melbourne nurse is saving $50 per week on groceries by buying “ugly” fruit and vegetables.

Bailie Stirling said she first started looking for ways to save after she purchased a home with her fiance towards the end of 2021.

She came across imperfect fruit and vegetable delivery boxes, where companies sell produce that would otherwise be rejected by supermarkets for being the wrong shape, size or for other cosmetic reasons.

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“I’ve found it’s been an awesome way to save some money but also keep vegetables that would have otherwise gone to waste,” Bailie told Yahoo Finance.

Bailie gets a 10-kilogram box of fruit and vegetables each week from Farmers Pick, which costs $49 each.

“I easily save $50 and I still have heaps of leftovers. When I cook a meal, I then have my lunch, my fiance’s lunch and my housemate’s lunch. So we’re not really buying food out and it’s helping that way as well,” she said.

Here's what the "ugly" fruit and vegetables can look like. (Source: Farmers Pick/Facebook)

Bailie said she went to the supermarket once a fortnight and spent about $150 on extra groceries for her household of three - or about $75 per week.

And it’s not the only swap Baile has made to save some extra cash.

Solar, chickens and other savings tips

Bailie has been able to more than halve her household’s electricity bills by switching to solar.

“It cost us $6,000 but our electricity bills have gone from $300 a quarter to anything from $75. So we’ve over halved our bill,” she said.

Bailie has also switched over all her appliances to energy-saving modes. She said she did her washing on sunny days to make sure she wasn’t using anything from the grid.

“I’ve also got the chickens in my backyard as well … they keep all the scraps, so any leftovers, any vegetables that are leftovers or the tops or stalks go in there,” she said.

“In my community we trade off eggs and someone will give us an orange from their tree in their backyard. One of my friends does a lot of baking so we will trade eggs for bread.

“It’s turned into a nice little community [with] everyone trying to get more green and trying to save money in this really hard time.”

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