Ammi
19-12-2013, 03:11 PM
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02769/food-coupon_2769159b.jpg
A teenager collected hundreds of supermarket coupons to buy £600 worth of shopping for 4p so he could give the food to families.
Jordon Cox, 16, scoured endless websites and magazines and gathered hundreds of coupons for dozens of products.
After spending hours each day searching the internet for coupons, he managed to collect 470, which he took to his local supermarket, and filled three trolleys with food and household items.
The bill came to £572.16, but once the coupons were factored in the bill was reduced to just 4p - a saving of 99.81 per cent.
The teenager, of Brentwood in Essex, donated all his food to the charity Doorstep which gives food to disadvantaged families
He said: "I read an article that said a thousandth of the UK population are unable to eat this Christmas because they don't have any money.
"I decided wanted to help as many people as I can, and to also show that it's possible to shop very cheaply, if you know how.
"It's not an exact science, so you can never really work out ahead of time how much the total is going to be. I was stunned when it came up as just 4p."
He started his Christmas shopping project on December 1 and scoured hundreds of in-store magazines and websites for money off and cash back coupons.
His shop, at Tesco Brent Cross, ended with an hour stop at the checkout to unload his items which included 200 packets of biscuits and 60 packs of butter.
He said: "The lady at the checkout had worked at Tesco for 19 years, and she said she'd never seen anything like it before. I had a big crowd. I felt like a celebrity.
"My heart was pounding and the adrenaline was pumping when we got to the till. So much could have gone wrong.
"I could have left some coupons at home, or not read the terms and conditions properly. Some of them might have expired too."
He began his obsession with coupons last year after his parents split up and his mother Debbie Cox, 52, struggled to cope on her NHS admin assistant salary.
The teenager, who is studying a B-tec in business and enterprise, has complete control over his mum's weekly shop, and plans all their meals in advance.He estimates to have saved more than £2,000 this year alone and has a huge stockpile of hundreds of items at home.
He added: "Supermarkets rarely give out coupons for their own-brand items, so it can be quite difficult to get meat and vegetables for a discount.
"But sometimes you can, and the huge amount of money we save on toiletries, snacks and dry goods means mum can splash out on meat - as long as it's on an offer.
"It's taken a bit of learning, but now I've managed to get our weekly shop down from £60 to £10 on a bad week.
"Sometimes we've even managed to get it for free. We do have to plan our lives around what's on offer though.
"The Christmas shop was definitely the best experience of my life. I feel so pleased that I could help so many people."
Ms Cox said: "It's pretty amazing really, I'm so proud of my boy. The families he helped were all so grateful and happy.
"He's a real whizz when it comes to saving, and I'm glad he turned his talents to helping as many people as possible."
Vicky Fox, who works at Doorstep, said families who he had helped out were overwhelmed by the donation. She said: "I'd call his gift a great and generous act of a young man and what he did made a real difference.
"He's made a really difference to families who work with us to survive on extremely low incomes and do need the help.
"He made such a different to people living on the breadline."
Jordon's coupon collecting attracted the attention of American couponers, who invited him to a saving conference in Orlando, Florida. But he even managed to make a saving and he negotiated a week-long stay in a five-star hotel for a tenth of the listed price.
He said: "Not many people my age are concerned with their parents' money.
"But after seeing the smile it put on my mum's face the first time I saved on the shopping, I thought it was something too good to give up.
"It's my hobby and I love it. I only spend about 30 minutes every day looking for vouchers and coupons, but it pays dividends.
"I still get pocket money, which I'm saving up for something special."
The teenager is planning on launching his own coupon-hunting website CouponShop.co.uk next year to help other save big on their shopping.
He bought:
* 20 packs of frozen Yorkshire puddings
* 20 jam roly polys
* 80 packs of butter
* 23 packs of Quorn mince
* Four Gressingham poussin.
* 40 black puddings
* 200 packets of biscuits
* 23 blocks of hard cheese
* 20 pots of Yeo Valley organic yoghurt
* 19 bottles of fruit juice.
* 10 boxes of Paxo stuffing
* 40 bottles of Anchor whipped cream
* 15 bags of frozen Brussels sprouts
* 4 packs of After Eight mints
* 15 Covent Garden Soups.
* 10 bags of Florette Salad
* 36 packs of Cauldron tofu, vegetarian sausages and falafel
* Crumble mix
* Haribo sweets
A teenager collected hundreds of supermarket coupons to buy £600 worth of shopping for 4p so he could give the food to families.
Jordon Cox, 16, scoured endless websites and magazines and gathered hundreds of coupons for dozens of products.
After spending hours each day searching the internet for coupons, he managed to collect 470, which he took to his local supermarket, and filled three trolleys with food and household items.
The bill came to £572.16, but once the coupons were factored in the bill was reduced to just 4p - a saving of 99.81 per cent.
The teenager, of Brentwood in Essex, donated all his food to the charity Doorstep which gives food to disadvantaged families
He said: "I read an article that said a thousandth of the UK population are unable to eat this Christmas because they don't have any money.
"I decided wanted to help as many people as I can, and to also show that it's possible to shop very cheaply, if you know how.
"It's not an exact science, so you can never really work out ahead of time how much the total is going to be. I was stunned when it came up as just 4p."
He started his Christmas shopping project on December 1 and scoured hundreds of in-store magazines and websites for money off and cash back coupons.
His shop, at Tesco Brent Cross, ended with an hour stop at the checkout to unload his items which included 200 packets of biscuits and 60 packs of butter.
He said: "The lady at the checkout had worked at Tesco for 19 years, and she said she'd never seen anything like it before. I had a big crowd. I felt like a celebrity.
"My heart was pounding and the adrenaline was pumping when we got to the till. So much could have gone wrong.
"I could have left some coupons at home, or not read the terms and conditions properly. Some of them might have expired too."
He began his obsession with coupons last year after his parents split up and his mother Debbie Cox, 52, struggled to cope on her NHS admin assistant salary.
The teenager, who is studying a B-tec in business and enterprise, has complete control over his mum's weekly shop, and plans all their meals in advance.He estimates to have saved more than £2,000 this year alone and has a huge stockpile of hundreds of items at home.
He added: "Supermarkets rarely give out coupons for their own-brand items, so it can be quite difficult to get meat and vegetables for a discount.
"But sometimes you can, and the huge amount of money we save on toiletries, snacks and dry goods means mum can splash out on meat - as long as it's on an offer.
"It's taken a bit of learning, but now I've managed to get our weekly shop down from £60 to £10 on a bad week.
"Sometimes we've even managed to get it for free. We do have to plan our lives around what's on offer though.
"The Christmas shop was definitely the best experience of my life. I feel so pleased that I could help so many people."
Ms Cox said: "It's pretty amazing really, I'm so proud of my boy. The families he helped were all so grateful and happy.
"He's a real whizz when it comes to saving, and I'm glad he turned his talents to helping as many people as possible."
Vicky Fox, who works at Doorstep, said families who he had helped out were overwhelmed by the donation. She said: "I'd call his gift a great and generous act of a young man and what he did made a real difference.
"He's made a really difference to families who work with us to survive on extremely low incomes and do need the help.
"He made such a different to people living on the breadline."
Jordon's coupon collecting attracted the attention of American couponers, who invited him to a saving conference in Orlando, Florida. But he even managed to make a saving and he negotiated a week-long stay in a five-star hotel for a tenth of the listed price.
He said: "Not many people my age are concerned with their parents' money.
"But after seeing the smile it put on my mum's face the first time I saved on the shopping, I thought it was something too good to give up.
"It's my hobby and I love it. I only spend about 30 minutes every day looking for vouchers and coupons, but it pays dividends.
"I still get pocket money, which I'm saving up for something special."
The teenager is planning on launching his own coupon-hunting website CouponShop.co.uk next year to help other save big on their shopping.
He bought:
* 20 packs of frozen Yorkshire puddings
* 20 jam roly polys
* 80 packs of butter
* 23 packs of Quorn mince
* Four Gressingham poussin.
* 40 black puddings
* 200 packets of biscuits
* 23 blocks of hard cheese
* 20 pots of Yeo Valley organic yoghurt
* 19 bottles of fruit juice.
* 10 boxes of Paxo stuffing
* 40 bottles of Anchor whipped cream
* 15 bags of frozen Brussels sprouts
* 4 packs of After Eight mints
* 15 Covent Garden Soups.
* 10 bags of Florette Salad
* 36 packs of Cauldron tofu, vegetarian sausages and falafel
* Crumble mix
* Haribo sweets