Saving on groceries and being sustainable? That's Too Good To Go! But we are not the only fans. Some groceries sell out in as little as two minutes. Saskia found out how to increase your chances. Good news: there is a tactic to get your hands on those lovely fruit and vegetable boxes more often! She shares her experience.
How does Too Good To Go work?
In the Netherlands, an estimated a quarter of all food wasted. This happens all along the chain: at producers, during transport, in supermarkets, restaurants and in your home. Too Good To Go is an app that helps you prevent food waste. Download it for free and it gives you a great weapon in the fight against food waste. With the Too Good To Go app in hand, you can save food from supermarkets, restaurants, hotels and other catering establishments. They post food and drinks on it that they want to get rid of (in package form) and you can save it for a small amount. So in the app, you don't buy individual products like in an online supermarket, but complete boxes, meals or large quantities. Think of a bread box, a cake box, a fruit & vegetable box, a magic box or fifty chocolate bars. As a consumer, you buy a meal or box of your choice in the TGTG app that you can pick up a day later. What exactly you get is always a surprise. That s part of the game!
This is a bread box that we scored for 2.99 euros at Albert Heijn.
Sustainable grocery shopping with Too Good To Go app
By shopping via the app from Too Good To Go, you avoid food ending up in the rubbish bin and often it's also good for your wallet. For example, I regularly buy a well-stocked organic fruit and vegetable box from Ekoplaza. For 2.99 euros, I get a box full that we as a family can eat from for at least a week. See for yourself! A box full of organic fruit and vegetables including two heads of lettuce, a leek, two peppers, three tomatoes, apples, a pear, avocado, quite a few parsnips, spring onions and a romanesco.
Here's how to increase your chances at Too Good To Go
Wherever you live: there are always certain groceries and meals that sell out at a whooping pace. In my area, it is especially the fruit & vegetable boxes and bread boxes from the big supermarkets that are in high demand. Sometimes these are even sold out within two minutes (of publication). How do people manage to get in between these? That was a big mystery to me in the beginning. Is it luck? Partly, is my conclusion. Because there is also a fairly simple strategy to increase your chances of saving these sought-after groceries and meals. And I'm sharing that strategy with you now.
Too Good To Go: set the alarm
What you need to know: popular groceries from supermarkets are offered daily at the same time via the app. This is automated. So find out what that fixed time is. At our supermarket, it's the same time every day during the week, on weekends the times are different. Why is this important info? (Most) ads come online 15 minutes after the pick-up time has ended. So: groceries that can be picked up until 7pm (see app pick-up time), so usually come online 15 minutes later, at 7.15pm, for the next day. So you can set an alarm clock for this, so you do get there on time. Still no luck? In that case, I have another tip! Then check what time the groceries were sold out. The app also shows this. For instance, I discovered that Lidl's fruit and vegetable boxes on weekdays were always sold out at 7.17pm. By setting my alarm clock at 7pm (and continuing to refresh), I found out that these boxes are offered at 7.15pm on weekdays every day. Thanks to this trick, I now manage to save Lidl's bountiful fruit & vegetable box via Too Good To Go more often.
A wonderful organic vegetable box from Lidl for less than three euros, courtesy of TGTG!
Here's how to save your favourite groceries from now on
In the beginning, it can be quite overwhelming to choose the right groceries among all the offerings. I live near Amsterdam, so there is a lot of choice. But the supermarkets around the corner just don't participate again (too bad). So how do you choose? For our shopping challenge did some preliminary research. We then tried several boxes and discovered that a Magic Box is very nice - but not ideal - for us. It contained many luxury products and ready-made meals, while we are more looking for daily groceries like vegetables, fruit and bread. For this reason, we only buy the fruit and vegetable boxes through supermarkets. If you are in doubt, my tip is to ask around. There is bound to be an experienced Too Good To Go user who knows exactly where to go in your area for the best and tastiest things.
Can I even make it to save food?
When I share my rescues on Instagram, I regularly get asked if it's not unfair that I save these boxes since there are people who might need it more than me. Good question! I wondered the same thing when I started working on it. And so I contacted Too Good To Go myself. They indicate that there is so much food waste in the Netherlands, even so much that the food banks cannot handle it. Many supermarkets already donate to Food Banks and local charities such as community centres, and even then keep food left over which they offer through Too Good To Go or with discounted stickers. So if you really want to be sure, check with the supermarket in question. Ultimately, the supermarkets themselves decide what they offer and not Too Good To Go. Furthermore, Too Good To Go advises to be careful when shopping via the app if you have little to spend. You obviously don't know in advance what the offer is, how big it is and how long it has a shelf life.
And are you going to try Too Good To Go?
You need a bit of luck with your shopping trophy. Do groceries disappoint once? Then don't rule out a supermarket permanently or stop using the app straight away. The offer changes daily. In the end, it's all about saving food and contributing to less waste. Perhaps the supermarket or restaurant owner was short on food once. Too bad for you maybe, but better for him/her and the world right? Maybe next time you'll have better luck! Since scoring vegetable boxes, we have been much more creative in the kitchen. We all discover new recipes with the aim of saving vegetables from the bin and padding our savings account. See more about this handy app.
More shopping tips from thegreenlist.nl
- More budget shopping tips and food saving: my experience with Foodello.
- In that context, see also: tips for cheap and sustainable grocery shopping.
- Curious about your food footprint? This is a list of free tests you can take to scrutinise your lifestyle.
- Waste less? Which fruit and vegetables do you keep in the fridge and which do you not?
Photo credits: thegreenlist.nl.
