Could YOU survive off food from the budget aisle for a week? Woman buys only 'yellow sticker' supermarket items and saves £37... but admits it can't be done long-term 

• Mieka Smiles from Middlesbrough, Teesside, hits the cheap aisle
• Dines on cheap food for a week, from ready meals to home made dinners 
• Saves £37 with bargains from Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons

By Mieka Smiles For Mailonline

Published: 09:06 EST, 23 November 2015 | Updated: 10:52 EST, 23 November 2015

The rise and rise of budget supermarkets prove that food shoppers are savvier than ever. 

One money saving tip is getting to the bargain aisle come nightfall, snapping up cheap food with up to 75 per cent off the usual price.

Mieka Smiles from Middlesbrough, Teesside, attempts to survive on the budget aisle for FEMAIL. 

By shopping after 7pm, she makes a saving of £37 for a week's worth of food, totting up bargains from Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons.

Thrifty: Mieka Smiles, 34, who lives in Middlesbrough, Teesside, spent a week surviving on the budget aisle

Rock bottom prices: By shopping after 7pm Mieka found that prices of perishables were slashed by up to 75%

But while Mieka admits it's the best she's eaten in years, for a fraction of the price, living on the budget aisle isn't sustainable in the long term. 

Here is how she got on. 

Sunday

I'm in the game.

I dare not risk leaving my first ever 'yellow sticker' shop until the last minute, knowing that I need to stock up for my first day tomorrow.

Even though Morrisons doesn't shut until 4pm, I venture out at 2pm and pray that the staff have been out with their reduction guns.

Cheap and cheerful: Mieke found that lurking by the bargain shelf was Oliver-Twist-esque

This meal of Irish sirloin steak with miniature roast potatoes and courgette spaghetti cost Mieka £2.39 

Thankfully as soon as I walk in my anxiety about going without food subsides, with a rack of discounted goods at the ready.

I bag some 35p branded bagels, a big bag of finger rolls (both suitable for freezing) and cakes. It's not a diet.

And, just as the fish counter lady starts to slash the prices, I spot the hoverers.

Without fanfare one woman and her trolley practically clear the fridge and move on. 

Boring but filling and cheap: Cheese and salad rolls with spiralised courgettes made for a simple lunch 

Goan spiced chicken and lentil soup  (left) and ham and pineapple pizza with salad and coleslaw (right)

Monday

The first pitfall: I don't fancy cheese on bagel for breakfast.

The ability to have what you want at any given time is gone and I start my day off feeling depressed at the seven days ahead.

Forward thinking is also vital with 'out-of-dates' in such close range.

After bringing home my booty yesterday I loaded up the freezer with the bread and salmon and take them out to defrost for a gourmet-looking lunch.

It's the healthiest I've eaten in weeks (years).

Dinner is equally impressive, using yet more salad and coleslaw along with my bargain pizza.

It's time to stock up for tomorrow - but it's only really a piece of meat I'm after as Chris, helpfully, spotted some 15p yellow sticker potatoes at the Tesco garage.

It feels weird heading to Tesco for one thing, and lurking by the bargain shelf is Oliver-Twist-esque.

There are others too, raking through the array of odds and sods - and it's still four hours before closing.

I pray no-one sees me.

There's no team spirit.

I grab a piece of sirloin steak thrown into the mix at £2.10 and skulk off.

 Minted baby potatoes, peas with grated cheddar and cracked black pepper made for a quick 70p lunch 

New Zealand lamb leg steak with butternut squash and courgette spaghetti proved to Mieka that she could eat well even when on a budget

Tuesday

Another cheese-topped brekkie - this time on a couple of finger rolls which just looks strange.

I put my other pack of salmon flakes into the fridge to defrost in readiness to top yet another bagel (bored of them too) and past-their-best salad leaves.

My night-time forage is rapidly approaching and I need to have a good stock up.

I am forever changed. I am ecstatic. And when I get home with my Tesco haul I even ring my mum.

For £1.49 I have literally bagged myself enough food to easily feed a family of four a day - with leftovers.

I stood alongside two or three kinsmen three hours before closing.

'We know your type,' thinks the young lad who dumps down 'luxury' packs of ribs and lamb steaks. Had been £6 and £4 respectively - marked down to 66p and 44p. 

Me and a bloke share them between us. Both items freezable. Absolute score.

I stock up on fruit and veg - and when I find a pack of butternut squash 'spaghetti' with two days to go on the 'use by' I start talking to myself: 'Ha!'. 

I come home and polish off another A-grade meal of sirloin, courgette pasta, the rest of my peppers and salad and 15p roast potatoes.

Wednesday

I am now sick of cheese on bread for breakfast.

Lunch is a very questionable cheese and salad bun. 

I've hit the bottom of the urban-food-foraging rollercoaster.

I head as late as I've dared to Home Of The Whoops, Asda full of anticipation.

But what a disaster. I desperately search the store - on the wrong side of town - with little luck.

I pick up a sad-looking croissant (I can't face a cheese on toast breakfast for the fourth morning in a row) and four buns that, at 59p, are a pretty rubbish 'Whoops' to be fair.

 Let down at Asda I head to our Tesco garage that had come up trumps with the 15p potatoes earlier in the week.

Kelly is there.

She'd been dubious of me since I swallowed my pride earlier in the week and asked what time they start to mark things down (7pm).

She has her trolley but is reducing stuff tantalisingly slowly, and I lurk and lap waiting for the pain au chocolat to have their sticker whacked in place.

But she knows my game and eyes me suspiciously.

I pick up a 30p stir fry and noodles for tomorrow's lunch.

'That'll be 40p,' says the shop assistant.

Oh God. Do I? Yes I do.

'It says 30p here.' 'So it does pet.' 

Finger licking good: 855g Tesco Finest Kansas BBQ Ribs was £6 but slashed down to 66p after 7pm

Pasta salad with parmesan and pine nuts is one of the cheap lunches Mieka has

Thursday

My croissant breakfast delights me and the stirfry with noodles - although a bit of an abnormal lunch choice - is tasty.

It had gone off yesterday but once shoved in the wok soon perked up.

Dinner time - although highly anticipated - was upsetting.

Eating ribs when not drunk is not quite the same and I kept focussing on the whole pre-cut-up thing just looking like a massive pig lung.

This coupled with the fact my accompanying salads taste so awful they have to be scraped into the bin.

So, with my store cupboard at near empty, I head back to Asda to give it one last chance. At 9pm no less.

I wish I hadn't - there is nothing even near suitable for tomorrow's lunch or dinner.

So it's back to the tiny Tesco garage on the corner in a desperate hunt for tomorrow's food.

I net two massive boxes of pain au chocolat which will see me through for breakfasts until Sunday and they are freezable too.

I choose a pasta salad for lunch with parmesan and pine nuts.

But dinner tomorrow is an issue. No meat to accompany my potatoes and peas.

So unless I can get an early morning bargains, my Friday night is going to be spent wandering the Co-Op.

Feta and char-grilled pepper and couscous salad makes a healthy lunch and costs just 75p

At £1.23, this salmon topped bagel with salad is another low fat lunch option which doesn't break the bank 

Friday

I cannot be bothered with going back out in drizzly weather at 8pm when I could be on the sofa drinking wine. Something else which sadly doesn't get yellow ticketed.

But least breakfast is divine; the Tesco pain au chocolat are delicious.

Lunch is okay - pine nut pasta salad - and dinner a bit of a happy accident.

I use the rest of my cheese and grate it over the potatoes and peas and pinch some cracked black pepper from the store cupboard.

I trod on to my husband's utter disbelief and give Sainsbury's a go.

It's not a 'big' Sainsbury's and so I prepare myself for the worst.

But thankfully, although none of it's really fresh stuff, I am happy for a bit of convenience and get soup, a ready meal and a treat for after.

For lunch Mieka feasted on Tesco Oriental BBQ Stir Fry, which cost just 30p 

Saturday

Breakfast lifts my mood - the decadent pain au chocolat but wine, toast and tea and are all just a day away.

Lunch isn't too bad - the Covent Garden soup. But it's a random coming together of flavours that I assume no-one else was willing to risk. It's okay though with yet another defrosted bun.

Dinner? The ready meal. It's pretty good and reflects my current level of enthusiasm.

I head back to the start - Morrisons.

But I'm an old hat now and know exactly what to buy to get me through the final day. 

Yellow stickers galore: Although Mieka admits she made huge savings during the experiment, she says she won't be living like this full time

Sunday

The final day, thank. God.

Back to the freezer for the last of the pain au chocolats, lunch is a ready made salad. Easy.

And dinner? I'd learnt that pizzas are quick, easy and often massively reduced, which, along with salad, is another thing that I will never buy full price again.

There have been lots of lessons learned but I'm glad it's over. Now, where's the wine?  

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