![\"Jo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/featured-image-4161.jpg\")
\n\t\tYellow sticker foods give Jo a way to stay eating healthily (Picture: The Food Foundation)<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tYellow sticker foods give Jo a way to stay eating healthily (Picture: The Food Foundation)<\/p>\n
The cost of living<\/a> crisis can be felt in every aspect of life \u2013 from the soaring price of concert tickets<\/a> to prices at the till of your local supermarket<\/a>.<\/p>\n But one woman has found a clever way to keep her food budget low.<\/p>\n \u2018I have a \u00a340 weekly budget for my food. I go to various supermarkets along my high street and I look for those yellow stickers \u2013 they\u2019re a lifeline,\u2019Jo McLoughlin tells Metro.<\/p>\n Jo, also known as Yellow Sticker Girl, grew up in Cornwall<\/a> but moved to London<\/a> seven years ago.<\/p>\n There, she noticed supermarket prices were much higher than those back home \u2013 and they have only increased since.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\tSign up for all of the latest stories\t\t\t<\/p>\n Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates<\/a> newsletter or get Breaking News<\/a> alerts the moment it happens. <\/p>\n Not wanting to sacrifice her health<\/a>, Jo started scouring the reduced section for fresh produce. Soon, she was turning to yellow stickers for everything.<\/p>\n \t\t \u2018With the cost of living and the massive upping of food prices, buying yellow sticker foods is a necessity to ensure that I get healthy, nutritional food into my diet,\u2019 Jo says.<\/p>\n To stick to her strict weekly budget, Jo sets aside a \u2018pot\u2019 each month and only uses a specific card when buying food.<\/p>\n The bargain-hunter, who shops only for herself, said she is \u2018constantly planning\u2019 around whatever deals she can get her hands on.<\/p>\n \u2018If a product which is normally high value, for example chicken, is on a remarkably reduced offer, I might buy a few packets, separate them and freeze them, helping me for the week after,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n \u2018Some weeks I do a bulk buy, which can last me over a week and a half. Other times I\u2019ll go to the shops every day of the week to see how I can create healthy meals.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m always really pleased to see a yellow sticker on soft fruit \u2013 raspberries and strawberries are especially rare.\u2019<\/p>\n \t\t Going from supermarket to supermarket, including M&S and Waitrose, has enabled Jo to keep her shopping bill down. But more recently, her bargain-hunting has gone digital.<\/p>\n She says: \u2018Through [the app] Too Good to Go, I got a delivery of yellow sticker foods. It had a purchase price of \u00a36.66, and upon getting it home I tallied up the original prices. I had saved around \u00a330.<\/p>\n \u2018There were groceries I could freeze and make juices from, and plenty I could batch cook.<\/p>\n \u2018I can use yellow sticker foods pretty much straight away. It\u2019s within my affordable budget, and also it makes me feel good that I\u2019m buying food that would otherwise go to waste.\u2019<\/p>\n Jo became a member of The Food Foundation\u2019s<\/a> Ambassador Programme in April 2025 and has been campaigning for food equality since.<\/p>\n She even took a photo poem about her experience<\/a> to Parliament<\/a> last month, and displayed it to MPs.<\/p>\n \t\t She is clear that the issue is much broader than her own dependence on yellow stickers to maintain a healthy diet \u2013 and says people shouldn\u2019t have to depend on discounts to access the food they need.<\/p>\n \u2018The lowest fifth percentile of earners have to spend 85% of their disposable income on their food shopping to be able to afford healthy products,\u2019 she explains, referencing The Food Foundation\u2019s Broken Plate Report<\/a>, released this year.<\/p>\n This figure is up from 70% in 2024, showing that a healthy lifestyle is growing less achievable for the poorest families.<\/p>\n \u2018There\u2019s a lot of blame on lower-income individuals for buying less healthy or sugary foods, but that\u2019s shockingly the only food group that has got cheaper in the past year.\u2019<\/p>\n In fact, the report shows that healthier foods are nearly twice as expensive per calorie than foods that are high in sugar, fat and salt.<\/p>\n Fast food outlets make up a quarter of places to buy food in England, increasing to a third in the country\u2019s most deprived areas.<\/p>\n \t\t Despite the positive impact yellow stickers have had on her life, Jo hopes that one day people won\u2019t need them.<\/p>\n \u2018My poem highlights to governments that yellow stickers are a visual representation of what\u2019s happening,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n \u2018Why are these healthy food products having to be reduced at the end of the day for people to be able to buy them, when actually they could have been better priced, and then we wouldn\u2019t be in this situation?\u2019<\/p>\n As things stand, however, Jo encourages everyone to look in the yellow sticker bays at their local supermarket.<\/p>\n \u2018Check the end gondolas weekly for specific rotations of healthy food. Pre-plan and take shopping lists before you go and use methods like freezing and bulk cooking to make healthy food stretch.<\/p>\n \u2018And importantly, don\u2019t be ashamed to buy yellow sticker products. There\u2019s so much healthy food waiting to be bought.\u2019<\/p>\n Arrow Arrow Arrow![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/yellow-sticker-1-abed-e1785409171194.jpg\")
\n\t\tThis is the first photo in Jo\u2019s visual poem (Picture: Jo McLoughlin)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/yellow-sticker-2-2ef6-e1785409237813.jpg\")
\n\t\tShe wanted to show how the rest of the supermarket is void of hope through the lack of colour, except for the foods with yellow stickers (Picture: Jo McLoughlin)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/parliament-Jo-McLoughlin-c012.jpg\")
\n\t\tJo says it was a chance to show policymakers what so many peoples\u2019 lived epxerience is (Picture: The Food Foundation)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/yellow-sticker-3-9c0d-e1785409286382.jpg\")
\n\t\tThe lowest fifth percentile of earners have to spend 85% of disposable income on food shopping, a new report finds (Picture: Jo McLoughlin)<\/p>\n
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