A MUM-OF-THREE has been trolled for her massive sandwich sale haul, but revealed that she doesn’t care what people have to say, as she is using them for her staggering amount of weekly packed lunches.
Facebook user Steph Jensen recently took to the social media group Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK group, to share her bargain sandwich haul.
She posted a picture of her cut-price sandwiches to the private group, which has a whopping 2.1million members.
The busy mum shared her post just four days ago and revealed that she uses the free app Olio, to get her hands on the Tesco sandwiches.
Olio is a mobile app for food-sharing, aiming to reduce food waste.
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It does this by connecting those with surplus food to those who need or wish to consume such food.
Steph explained that she collected the sandwiches from an Olio volunteer in Plymouth and while she normally gets just three or four sandwiches, this time she managed to get 44 sandwiches - plus bread and bread rolls too.
And the best part about Steph’s haul - she got everything totally free.
She said: “If you haven't heard of Olio, it's a fab app for saving food from waste.
“I've just collected this haul of sandwiches from a nearby Olio volunteer who rescued this from Tesco!
“This is unusual, I normally get 3 or 4 packs!
“We're a family of 5 and I make packed lunches every day so 25 a week (hubby has a double pack so actually 30).
“You can freeze sandwiches except salad ones so these will all be decanted and frozen into tupperware boxes (same flavours in each box) and I can just grab a set for everyone each night, pop in lunchbox and leave in fridge to defrost ready for the morning.”
Steph shared an image of her haul Tesco food haul - containing eight bread rolls, a Hovis loaf of bread and a pack of brioche rolls.
She also got three sub rolls and a whopping 44 sandwiches.
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Steph’s post has clearly shocked many, and has amassed 5.8k likes and 856 comments.
Her sandwich haul was met with mixed opinions - while some thought her haul was great, others thought that it was unfair that she was given so many.
One person said: “Well done you for making the most of food that would have certainly finished up in the bin. I hope your post shows others what can be achieved with certain foods that would have been thrown away.”
Another added: “Brilliant haul! And will save a few pennies and effort in packed lunches! It’s what this page is all about after all.”
A third commented: “Didn’t know you could freeze sarnies good tip!” to which Steph replied “oh yes, absolutely fine to freeze! Google it! Just leave out any salad so the bread doesn't go soggy! Who likes salad anyway lol.
“I take them out the freezer the night before and leave in fridge, then they're out at room temperature in the morning in their bags and are ready to eat by 12!”
However, one user noted: “This is the main reason why I gave up on the Olio app. Instead of sharing around all the food the people near me would just give it all to the first person that asked.
“In my opinion that's completely wrong, I know it's about stopping food waste not saving money but it should be shared equally.”
After receiving an array of abusive messages from Facebook users, Steph then confirmed: “This was a one off as apparently the Tesco is near the Uni and all students are away so no one is buying sandwiches, hence why so much waste.
“There were 6 binbags collected by the Olio volunteer. It was all free!
“Items have to be collected by the use by date to comply with Olio rules and food hygiene regs.
“If I hadn't taken this amount, it was going in the bin.
“All sandwiches freeze fine apart from salad. I've removed the salad from some of the sandwiches, then frozen, and we will have the rest for lunch today and tomorrow.
“I totally understand some people will look at this and think it's unfair, but that's just because you're not familiar with the app.
“The purpose of it is to stop waste, not distribute to the homeless charities.
“I regularly pass things on to charity so I have no issue with keeping the items my family will make use of.
“I'm really glad this post is able to educate people on how to stop waste, which was my aim.”
